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Introduction to the verb forms of English


  <1> The note is mainly concerned with establishing
      how the different forms of English verbs are used to express the aspect
      ('simple', 'progressive', or 'perfect') of an action or event, and only
      secondarily with problems of tense or time (present, past, or future).
      Problems in learning the use of these forms may arise because either the
      student's native language does not make the same distinctions as English
      or, if and when it does, it makes the distinction in a different way.

  <2> The choice of verb form (simple, progressive, perfect) made by an English
      speaker depends on many factrors, and not on a rigid set of grammarical
      rules. Students may have learned not to say e.g. I have seen the film
      yesterday, following a 'rule' that we cannot make a specific reference to the
      time of a past event when we use the present perfect tense. But this is a
      negatibe way of looking at the problem: it gives no indication (except,
      perhaps, by implication) of what the use of the present perfect tense means
      to an English speaker, or of the considerations that determine the choice of
      the present perfect rather than, say, the past simple in situations where the
      use of eigher form seems theoretically possible.

  <3> The choice of one verb form rather than another may be determined by the
      nature of the action or event itself, and the circumstances in which it occurs:

      a I read all his books. (present simple)
      b I've read all his books.
      c When our visitor arrived, my wife make tea.
      d When our visitor arrived, my wife was making tea.

      Assuming 'he' is a writer (and not simply a friend with a large library),
      sentence a states that I read his books as they are published, and implies
      that 'he' is still an active writer whose books I shall continue to read if any
      more are published. Sentence b states that I have read all the books 'he' has
      written so far. 'He' may still be an active writer, but he may equally well
      have ceased writing (or may, indeed, be dead). In c, our visitor arrived and
      then my wife mede tea, whereas in d, tea-making was already in progress
      when our visitor arrived. In these examples, the 'meaning' of the situation
      determines our choice of verb form.

  <4> The choise may, however, depend entirely on the speaker's viewpoint. The
      speaker may wish to take a 'synoptic' view, a view of an action or series of
      actions as a whole, in which case he chooses the 'simple' verb form. In
      describing a scientific experiment, a demonstrator is more likely to take this
      view - he is interested in his acts, or in phenomena, as items in a chain of
      events:

          I place a bell jar over the candle, and after a few moments the
          water gradually rises.

      If the speaker is more concerned with drawing attantion to the fact that an
      activity is in progress and is in a state of incomletion, he chooses the
progressive verb form:

          I'm placing a bell jar over the candle. There! Can you sse what's
          happening? The water is gradually rising.

      In each case, the actions or phenomena are the same, but the speaker
      looks at them differently.

  <5> In other cases, the choice of verb form may be restricted by limitations in
      the meaning of the verb. A verb like contain, for example, refers to a state
      or condition, where an essential element in the meaning of the verb is that
      of duration or permanence. It is extreamely unlikely that a speaker would
      use such a verb in the progressive form:

          The book contains a lot of useles imformation.

      The three sets of notes that follow deal with each aspect in turn, (simple,
      progressive, perfect), discussing each in greater detail, and with further
      examples.

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