TENSES, CLAUSES AND SENTENCES

TENSES

In order to understand tenses or time references in clauses and sentences, you

will need to revise your understanding of verbs. Verbs are the action words in
sentences and clauses and describe what the subject is doing.

VERB TYPES
There are two types of verbs: main and auxiliary.

An auxiliary verb is a helping verb. They are used with main verbs to form a verb
group.

Examples: am, is, are, be, do, has, have, had, may, might, must, will, shall, etc.

VERB FORMS
Verbs can be regular and irregular and have the following forms:

root / base word walk learn be

infinitive to walk to learn to be
present tense walk/walks learn/learns am/is/are
present participle walking learning being
past tense walked learned was/were
past participle walked learnt been

Present participles state the continuous nature of the action and end in ING.
They follow the auxiliary verbs such as is, was, will be, had been to form new
tenses.
Examples:
- Nicole is playing.
- I ought to be reading.

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Past participles help to make the make the present perfect, past perfect and
future perfect tenses, and usually end in ED, D, EN, N, T. They follow verbs
such as has, had, have, was, were.
Examples:
- The Form III girls were given a detention.
- Julia had received a warning but ignored it.

VERB GROUPS (PART OF A CLAUSE OR SENTENCE):

finite and non-finite
Finite verbs
In order for a verb to be considered a finite verb it must have:
- Subject
- Number
- Tense

Examples of finite verbs:

- I walk in the mornings. (subject – I; number = 1; tense – present)
[finite verb - walk]
- Juliette and Rebecca row in a quad. (subject – Juliette and Rebecca;
number – 2; tense – present)
[finite verb – row]

A sentence comprises a subject and predicate. The predicate always contains the
finite verb group:

James runs. [James - subject; runs – predicate]

The finite verb group has only one word in this sentence – runs.

The following sentences do not contain finite verbs; the verb groups in bold type
are non-finite:
- Habit of appearing to stand on tip-toe, stretching the neck.
- So kitsch, frozen in time.

If a ‘finite verb group’ in a sentence consists of more than one verb word, then the
first verb is the finite verb. In the following sentences the verb group is printed
in italics and the finite verb is in bold:
- Magazine editors in 1955 were hit by the same problem.
- The jazz scene must have sounded to Parker like a musical hall of mirrors.

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 How many words in the 'finite
verb group'?

One More than one

The first word in the verb

group must be finite (if it
has a subject, number
and tense.):
That verb must be am/is/are/was/were
finite if it has a have/has/had
subject, number and
do/does/did
tense.
will/would/shall/should
can/could
may/might
must
ought(to

VERBALS (not verbs)

Verbals seem like verbs, but they act like something else in a sentence. There are
three types of verbals: gerunds, participles and infinitives.

Gerunds
A gerund is a present participle which is being used as a noun.

If you add ing to the end of a verb and use that word as a noun, it is called a
gerund.
- Acting is not as easy as it looks.
- Julia’s singing is beautiful.
- Running is a wonderful activity.

Participles
A participle is a present or a past participle which is being used as an adjective.

If you add ing to the end of a verb and use that word as an adjective, it is called a
participle.

- Acting lessons helped Emily land the lead role in the school play.
- The fallen leaves made a striking pattern.

Infinitives
An infinitive is a combination of the word to and the stem of a verb: to go, to
run, to walk, and so on.

Infinitives can act like nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.

- To act was her secret desire.

(infinitive as noun)

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 - It is her time to shine.
(infinitive as adjective: to shine modifies time)
- She sprinted the last 10 metres to secure the win.
(infinitive as adverb: to secure modifies sprinted)

MAJOR VERB TENSES

SIMPLE EXAMPLE MEANING OF SENTENCE
Simple present Amy walks. It is a fact that Amy
walks.
Simple past Amy walked. Amy walked at some point
in the past.
Simple future Amy will walk. In the future, Amy will go
Amy is going to walk. for a walk.
PERFECT EXAMPLE MEANING OF SENTENCE
Present perfect Amy has walked. Amy finished her walk.
Past perfect Amy had walked. In the past, Amy walked,
and then she stopped.
Future perfect Amy will have walked. In the future, Amy will
Amy is going to have stop walking before
walked (three kilometres something else happens.
before the end of the
week).
CONTINUOUS EXAMPLE MEANING OF SENTENCE
Present continuous Amy is walking. Amy is in the middle of a
walk.
Past continuous Amy was walking. At some point in the past,
Amy was in the middle of
a walk, but we do not
know when she stopped of
if she did.
Future continuous Amy will be walking. Amy will walk in the
Amy is going to be future – and walk and
walking. walk. Who knows when it
will end?
PERFECT CONTINUOUS EXAMPLE MEANING OF SENTENCE
Present perfect Amy has been walking. Amy started walking
continuous sometime in the past, and
she is still walking. (She
may stop now, or she may
keep walking.)
Past perfect continuous Amy had been walking. At some point in the past,
Amy started walking and
did so for a while, but
now her walk is over.
Future perfect continuous Amy will have been Amy will walk until a
walking. specific point in the
Amy is going to have been future, and then she will
walking (for three hours stop.
by the time she reaches
the shops).
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PHRASES AND CLAUSES
Phrases and clauses are the building blocks of sentences. Sentences comprise of a
subject and predicate.

- My sister went to the movies.

Subject: My sister
Predicate: went to the movies

PHRASES
Phrases are groups of words that act as a part of speech but cannot stand alone as
a sentence. The words in a phrase act together so that the phrase itself functions
as a single part of speech. They do not contain all the parts of a sentence.

For example: phrases can function as nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs. If you
understand how different types of phrases function, you can avoid misplacing them
or leaving them dangling in sentences. A textual editing error is called a
misrelated participle or dangling participle.

- It may only tell who is involved: The tall boy in the band
- It may only tell what happened: Playing the guitar
- It may tell any part of a thought: At the party

CLAUSES
Clauses are groups of words that have a subject and a predicate. There are two
types of clauses – independent clauses and subordinate clauses.

Independent clauses express a complete thought and can stand alone as a

sentence.

Subordinate clauses can act as parts of speech but depend on the rest of the
sentence to express a complete thought.

SENTENCE CLASSIFICATION
A sentence expresses a complete thought and contains a subject (a noun or
pronoun) and a predicate (a verb or verb phrase). Once can classify sentences
based on arrangement of clauses or by the structure of the clauses themselves.

1. Classification by arrangement: Loose and Periodic Sentences

Loose Sentences: The main clause is at the beginning of the sentence. Its purpose
is to provide the main idea immediately and then to follow with details.

- I went to the movies yesterday, bought candy, and shopped at Mr Price.

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Periodic Sentences: The main clause is at the end of the sentence. Its purpose is
to build suspense.

- In the dead of night, desperate for food, not caring about danger, Valjean
smashed the window of the baker’s shop.

2. Classification by clausal structure: Simple, Compound, Complex and

Compound-Complex. These four different types use clauses in varying
degrees of complexity.

a. Simple Sentences: consists of one main clause – one complete thought.

- My father was not a man to leave his attitude in doubt.

b. Compound Sentences: contains two main clauses joined by a co-ordinating

conjunction, a semi-colon, or a relative pronoun.

Co-ordinating conjunctions – For, And, Neither… Nor, But, Or, Yet and So
= FANBOYS

- She stood up and cleared away the breakfast dishes.

c. Complex Sentences: consists of a main clause and one or more sub-

ordinating conjunctions.

Sub-ordinating conjunctions – all conjunctions excluding FANBOYS

- In the afternoons, when I had caught up with my work, I ran errands.

d. Compound-Complex Sentences: contain more than one clause and at least

one sub-ordinate clause.

- Janice scooped a spoonful of tea into the pot and put it on the stove to
warm, then took two cups down from the shelf.