Download Finite Verbs - Teaching English Today

VERB TENSES
DEVELOPED by SUE MCINTOSH
2015
Finite Verbs
A finite verb has:
a Subject: someone who is doing the action
I
He
Number: singular or plural
jump
jumps
Tense: past, present or future
Action or state of being
A finite verb can be a doing word/action
I work
A finite verb can be a state of being
I am happy.
A verb can often be two, three or four
words: The child had been having a great
day, when she arrived at my house.
Exercise 1
1. Say whether the following words are finite verbs
or not. If the verb is not finite, change it to finite.
1.1 Running down the street, collecting leaves.
1.2 She is a very animated person.
1.3 The rain trickles down the window pane.
1.4 How am I involved in the experience?
1.5 I staring open-mouthed; even today, I still don’t
know exactly how to describe the feeling
I had then.
Exercise 1: Points to note
A participial phrase (e.g. “ running down the
street”) needs an auxiliary verb and a subject to
make it finite.
Subject
Auxiliary/helping verb Participle
I
am
running
The infinitive to describe : has no subject , number
or tense.
Therefore it is not a finite verb. To make it finite,
you need to add a subject and other verbs (e.g. ‘I
can try’).
TABLE OF THE 12 TENSES
SIMPLE CONTINUOUS PERFECT
PRESENT
PERFECT CONTINUOUS
I work.
I am working. I have worked. I have been working.
PAST
I worked.
I was working. I had worked. I had been working.
FUTURE
I will work. I will be working. I will have
worked.
I will have
been
working.
Present simple
I know
First person
You know
Second person
She, he it knows
Third person
1. Habitual or routine actions. He plays rugby every week.
2. Permanent situations and facts. The earth is round.
3. Commentaries. Botha passes to Abdool, who scores a try.
4. Directions and instructions. First you turn to the right; then
you go left.
5. Newspaper headlines. Bus plunges off road.
6. Present stories. I look into the window and see a person with a knife.
Activity 1: Twenty Questions
Guess my profession. A philatelist.
Activity 2
Give directions from your school to your home
using the present simple tense.
Homework : Murphy Pg 2-3 Unit 1 Present
simple
Present continuous tense
I am working.
The verb to be+ present participle
1. To talk about an action that is in progress at the
time of speaking. Please be quiet. I am talking on the phone.
2. To talk about a temporary action that is not
necessarily in progress at the time of speaking. I
am reading a good novel at the moment.
3. To emphasize very frequent actions. She is always
cooking when I arrive.
Present continuous tense
4. Background events in a present tense story
So I’m standing
when a policeman
there chatting
comes in.
5. To describe developing situations. It’s getting
late.
6. To refer to regular action around a point of
time. He’s usually playing at this time.
Present continuous tense
RED LETTER VERBS: These are never used in the
continuous form
like
love
want
believe
hate
understand
hear
own
owe
seem
appear
wish
mean
remember
Activity 3
Mime an action.
Class guesses the
activity using present
continuous tense.
Are you building a square?
Homework Murphy Pg 4-9 Present continuous and present
simple.
The present perfect
Relates the past to the present.
I /he have/has worked in Africa.
1. Finished actions that happened
at an indefinite time. I have eaten snails.
2. Completed past actions that are unfinished. It has snowed
a lot today. (The snow has stopped, but it is still today.)
3. Something which began in the past , and is still true
now. We have lived in Durban for 5 years.
4. Past action with present results. Oh no, I have cut my finger.
Activity 4
Change the furniture: Send one learner outside
the classroom while you change the position
of an item of furniture. On his/her return, the
learner asks present perfect
questions. (Have you moved
the rubbish bin?)
U2 Song: I still haven’t found
what I’m looking for.
Homework: Murphy Pg 14-17
Present Perfect 1
Present perfect continuous
Past activities continuing into the present.
I have been dancing.
1. For an action which began in the past
and continues into the present, when we want to
say how long it has continued. I haven’t been sleeping
well for two weeks.
2.To describe a recently finished, uninterrupted
activity which has a present result. I’m tired because I
have been working hard all day.
Activity 5
People Bingo.
Find a person who has been:
a. On Facebook the longest_________
b. Reading a book for
more than two weeks___
a. At your school for more
than 5 years______
Homework : Murphy Pg 18-21
Present Perfect Continuous
The Past Tenses
2.1 The Past simple
An action completed in the past or within a specific
time.
1. For a past action when the time is given. I walked to
town yesterday.
2. When time is asked about. When did you go to the
movies?
3. When the action clearly took place at a definite
time. We sold our house a long time ago.
Activity 6
Interview Role play
One participant acts
as interviewer asking
present perfect and
past simple questions.
How long did you
work for Spur?
Have you ever written a newsletter?
Another learner answers the questions.
Homework : Murphy Pg 24-29 Present perfect and
past simple with “for” and “since”
2.2 The past continuous
Past tense of “be”+ present participle.
I was working.
1.For interrupted past actions. While I was talking on
the phone, the doorbell rang.
2. Gradual development
that took place in the past.
The tides were changing.
3. Descriptions.
The sun was shining.
Activity 7
Telling stories using
the past simple and
past continuous.
Tell the story of the boy
and girl in the picture using the
past simple or
past continuous tenses.
Homework:
Murphy Pg 10-13
Past Simple, Past Con
2.3 The past perfect
The past past tense.
I had worked.
Completely finished actions. After we had cleaned the
garage, he decided to rest.
When and after are often used to show that a past action
had completely finished before another action in the past
started.
Activity 8
The final situation: Look at the picture. Guess
how this situation happened using the past
perfect tense.
Homework: Murphy Pg 30-31 Past perfect
2.4 Past perfect continuous
Subject
had
been
verb+ing
I
had
been running,
so I was out of breath.
To talk about longer actions in the past that had
been going on continuously up to the past
moment we were thinking about. Before coming to the
meeting, he had been preparing his notes.
Past perfect stresses completed actions.
Past continuous stresses that action happened
around a time.
Homework : Murphy Pg 32-33 Past perfect
continuous
Modal verbs: will and can in the
past
Correct the errors in these sentences:
1. The young boy told Harold he will come back
in a week.
2. The king announced that he can become king
if he liked.
can* could
will* would
Revision exercise: Past tenses
Correct the verb tense errors. Name the correct tense.
Explain why you made the changes.
1. In class they were talking as if they knew
each other for a lifetime.
2. He was sixteen but he never kissed a girl
before.
3. They use to pick on Andrew who is the most
popular guy in town.
4. She liked him because she’s been around and
she knows that he is every girl’s dream guy.
5. That hitted her very hard.
The future tenses
The present simple The bus leaves in twenty minutes.
The present continuous I am meeting him for tennis
tomorrow.
Be going + the infinitive
It’s going to be sunny tomorrow.
are all forms used to
express the future.
3.1 Future simple
I
will/shall
verb
I
will
see
you later.
Shall is used for making suggestions More
formal.
Will shows stronger intention.
3.1 Future simple
1. Future facts and certainties. She will be 60 in June.
2. Promises.
I will see you at the movies.
3. Predictions.
It’ll clear up before tomorrow.
4. Assumptions/speculations.
They ’ll have to sell the car, I expect.
5. Spontaneous decisions.
I’ll get my wallet.
6. Threats.
You’d better leave or I’ll lose my temper.
Activity 9
If you were lost in the desert, what 5 items
would you take with you? Use all 6 future
tense verbs in a group discussion until you
come to consensus.
Song: That’ll be the day by Buddy Holly
Homework: Murphy Pg 38-43 Future
3.2 Future continuous
I
will be
waiting
for you.
1. To say that something will be in progress at a particular moment in
the future.
This time tomorrow, I will be in Berlin.
2. To predict the present.
Candy will probably be working now.
3. For polite enquiries
concerning other people’s
plans, but not to influence the
listener’s intentions.
Will you be coming to the baby shower?
4. To refer to future events that are fixed or decided. He will play the sonata
next week.
Activity 10
Role Play: In pairs, try to get out of a date with
someone you are really not interested in.
A: Can I see you on Friday?
B: No, I’ll be studying.
A:...
3.3 Future perfect
I
will have lived here for 3 years.
To say that something will have been done,
completed or achieved by a certain time in the
future.
The bricklayer says he will
have plastered the wall by
Friday.
Activity 11
A spy novelist writes 400 page books. She writes 10 pages a
day and takes no holidays.
Use the future perfect to answer the
following questions:
1. How many pages will
she have written after 10 days?
2. A month?
3. A year?
4. Ten years?
5. How many pages will she still have to
write after 39 days?
Sydney Sheldon, Frederick Forsyth
Homework: Murphy Pg 48-49 Will be doing/
Will have done
3.4 Future perfect continuous
I will have been living here for 3 years.
To say how long something will have continued by a
certain time.
By next year, I will have been studying for 8 years.
Activity 12
Murphy Pg