Download 33A Verbs–¶ errs (941)

ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
Directions:
The writer of the following meaningful paragraph has made a number of verb errors. Find and correct any
verb errors you may find.
―Can an old picture mean anything?‖
An object that is important to me is an old picture that I took with my aunt ten years ago
before she dead. When I was a kid I usually went to her house every weakend. It’s because my
parents had to go to work and no one could take care me. One day my mother told me that I
have to stay home with my sister and I am not going to my aunt home because she just die last
night. And I remember that I had cried the hold day because I can find where my aunt was. I
kept asking my parents where did my aunt go because I don’t understand what it mean ―die.‖
After a couple weeks my mother handed a picture to me that I took with my aunt and let me to
keep it for memory. And when I grown up I understood what it mean ―dead‖ and I found that
not even gold or diamond is valuable sometime an very simple object or piece of junk can be
more valuable and memory than anything else. For instance, the old picture that I had probably
to most people mean junk but to me is valuable and memory it’s because my aunt had no longer
live in the world.
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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
The verb phrase
A verb can be one word, or it can have two or more related parts. In a sentence, a verb alone, or a verb and
its related parts, is called a verb phrase.
Look at the sentences below and underline the verb phrases (all the words you think are verbs, or parts of
verbs).
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
She goes to work.
She doesn’t go to work on Tuesdays.
Does she go to work on the weekends?
She is going to work today.
She is going to go to work tomorrow.
She has gone to work three times this week.
She has been going to work for a long time.
She should go to work every day.
She has to go to work to pay the bills
She should have been able to go to work yesterday, in spite of the rain.
Types of verbs
Verbs can be divided into main verbs and helping (or auxiliary) verbs. The main verb is the heart of a
sentence; it is also the heart of the verb phrase, that is, the most important part. The main verb expresses the
action (or the state of being) of the subject of the sentence. Look at the sentences above, and circle the main
verb in each.
In sentence 1 above, there is only one verb, the main verb. But in sentence 2 -10, there are other verbs, helping
verbs, that add special grammatical meaning to the main verb. Look again at sentences 2-10 above and circle
each helping verb.
Types of helping verbs
There are two basic types of helping verbs:
1. be, have, & do
Look at the following sentences and decide if be is a main verb or a helping verb:
a. I am a student.
b. He is washing the dishes.
c. She was beautiful.
d. The Lord of the Rings was written by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Look at the following sentences and decide if have is a main verb or a helping verb:
e. She had a good time.
f. The dog has eaten everything.
g. He has a Mercedes Benz and a BMW.
h. I realized that I hadn’t finished my homework.
Look at the following sentences and decide if do is a main verb or a helping verb.
i. She is doing her exercises.
j. I do not like rainy days.
k. They do nothing on the weekends.
l. Did you finish your homework?
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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
Question: When be, do, and have are used as helping verbs, what form of the main verb is used
after each one? When they are used as main verbs, what does each one mean?
2.
verbs other than be, do & have
Here is a list of some other helping verbs in English. All of them show what a speaker, or writer, thinks or
feels about what s/he is saying.
A
can
could
may
might
must
shall
should
would
will
ought to
B
be going to
have to
used to
be supposed to
be able to
be allowed to
be about to
had better
have got to
would rather
Note two things about this list. First, all of the words in column A have only one word, while the words in
column B have more than one word. But the words in column B are still considered a single helping verb.
Second, you may notice that some of the words the two columns have similar meanings. Can you match the
verbs in the two columns that express similar meanings?
Verb Forms
All verbs come in exactly five forms, except the verb be. Be is the only English verb with more than five forms.
Look at the chart below showing some common English verb in their five forms.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
base form
walk
open
study
say
think
run
cut
eat
write
break
3rd person singular
walks
opens
studies
says
thinks
runs
cuts
eats
writes
breaks
past tense
walked
opened
studied
said
thought
ran
cut
ate
wrote
broke
progressive (-ing) form
walking
opening
studying
saying
thinking
running
cutting
eating
writing
breaking
past participle
walked
opened
studied
said
thought
run
cut
eaten
written
broken
Questions:
 Look at verbs 1-3, walk, open, and study. Which two forms look exactly the same?
 Look at verbs 4-7, say, think run, and cut. Which two forms of these verbs look exactly the same? How are
these verbs different than 1-3?
 Look at verbs 8-10, eat, write, and break. Do any of these forms look the same? Are these verbs more similar
to verbs 1-3 or to verbs 4-7? Why?
 Which two of these verbs can never be used with helping verb? Which two of them must occur with helping
verbs in order to function as verbs? Which one of them can have helping verbs but doesn’t have to?
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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
Directions:
Each of the following sentences has an error in verb form. Find out what is wrong with each, and correct the
error. Be sure that you can explain why it is wrong.
1. My friend, Lin, who took ESL 122 with me last semester, going back to Taiwan this summer.
2. Luis has visit Los Angeles many times.
3. Jack been studying Japanese for two years.
4. Judy had to went back to her family’s home in Hangzhou immediately.
5. After class, Minh will working at the library.
6. Last year, Anahit was able to visited Yerevan.
7. They will not are able to teach their children to speak Shan.
8. We didn’t had any problems when we went through customs.
9. Carol doesn’t likes her neighbors.
10. I have been learned a lot since I came to the U.S.
11. He couldn’t forgot Morocco after that vacation.
12. I felt sad because we had to back home.
Directions:
The following paragraph has seven errors in verb forms. Find and correct these errors.
When I first came here two years ago, my sister grabbed me by the hand and took me to my first
English school. She was pushed me almost all the way to school because I didn’t wanted to study English. She
finally got me there, and she paid for all the first courses. Now when I see my sister, I just say, ―Thanks you!‖
because she could woke me up about the importance of learning English. English is the most important language
in the world because the U.S. is one of the biggest countries in the world. However, English shouldn’t the only
important language to learn. For me, when I can speaking English fluently, I will trying to learn another
language, too.
Directions:
The following paragraph has seven errors in verb forms. Find and correct these errors.
Oscar de la Renta is one famous person from the Dominican Republic. He is an internationally
recognized fashion designer. He left his country to go to France to study fashion design. He made a name for
himself, but he continued to live in France. A lot of people like his style. I think that if he were live in his country,
the Dominican Republic, he could established a great design institute there, and he could to select the best
students to work with him. He should to do this in his own country. However, he taking our designers to France to
work with him. Personally, I know one case of a young designer. De la Renta convinced him to go to France. He
is more famous now than he was in my country, and he is very rich, too. He didn’t returned to his country. I can
understand how he might adapted to a new lifestyle and feel better outside his own country.
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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
Verb tenses
When we use the term verb tense, we are actually referring to two related ideas. One idea is basic time, which
in English refers to past time, present time, and future time. When we write a paragraph, we often focus on one
basic time, or time frame. The second idea has to do with special meanings that we add to the verb to show
time relationships. For example, we may wish to on two actions that happen at the same time, we may want to
show that one action is completed before another action, or we may choose to show that an action was in
progress for a period of time before and during a point in time. Match these special meanings with the verb
form we use to express this meaning:
meaning
form
1.
2.
3.
4.
a.
b.
c.
d.
completed before
happening at the same time
happening before and during
no special meaning
simple
progressive
perfect
perfect progressive
The combination of basic time and the four kinds of special meaning give English its 12 verb tenses. Fill out the
chart below, using the verb study.
aspect
basic time
simple
progressive
perfect
perfect progressive
past time
present time
future time
Verb tense usage
Each of these verb tenses also has specific ways in which it is used. For example in present time, here are some
common uses of each of the tenses:
 simple present: used to express facts or habitual, repeated actions; sometimes can be used to express future
events (either events on a schedule or in a time clause)
 present progressive: actions happening now (at this moment, this week, this month, this semester, etc.);
sometimes used to express planned events in the near future
 present perfect: show a relationship between the past and now—an action or stated that has continued from
the past to the present, or an action that has been repeated before now, or something that has been
experienced before now.
 present perfect progressive: used for an action in progress for a period of time before now and still is in
progress; an action in progress recently or lately.
Verbs in past time and future time are used in similar ways to present time. For example, progressive is used in
very similar ways in past, present, and future time.
Very often we can recognize the meaning the verb should have by other words in the sentence. For example,
habits or repeated events are often signaled through frequency words like usually, often, always, on Tuesdays, or
whenever I feel like it. Similarly, common signals for actions that take place over a period of time are time
phrases with for or since. These time signals, which are all adverbs, are very helpful in figuring out the verb
tense that should be used.
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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
Stative or nonprogressive verbs
Not all verbs in English are active, showing some kind of change. Consider the following lists of verbs. How are
the verbs in column B different from those in column A?
A
watch
listen
play
write
go
stay
open
ride
B
see
hear
know
understand
like
feel
want
have
In formal written English, progressive verb tenses are used for verbs that express some kind of conscious activity.
You can not use progressive with verbs that are not active. For example, stative verbs express:
a. senses (feel, see, hear…)
b. feelings (love, hate, need, appreciate…)
c. possession or relation (be, have, seem, belong…)
d. thoughts (believe, know, understand, mean, remember…)
Some verbs seem very similar in meaning, but they are used differently because one is active and the other is
stative. Consider, for example, verbs listen and hear. Listening is considered an action because you think about
how you want to hear something, so you take an action to hear it. Hearing something is not an action. Even when
you don’t want something to enter your ears, you might still hear it. Hearing is a sense.
English also has a number of verbs that can be active or stative, depending on how they are used.
active
form
think about
I’m thinking about you.
think
I think that’s true. (opinion)
see
I’m seeing them today (to meet)
see
I see people running outside.
smell
I’m smelling the fish to find out if it’s fresh.
(by choice)
smell
The fish smells bad.
taste
I’m tasting the tea. (by choice)
taste
The tea tastes good.
be
I’m being silly (temporary)
be
I am silly. (permanent)
feel
I’m feeling the cloth. (to touch)
feel
I feel hot. (sense)
have
I’m having a party. (action)
have
I have two brothers. (possession)
Directions: Look at the following sentences. If you think the sentence is correct, write a check (). If you think the
sentence is not correct, write an  and correct the sentence.
1. Charles was watching television in the living room.
2. We were seeing terrible things then.
3. She was smelling the flowers and picking them.
4. The sea was smelling so fresh.
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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
5. They were hating everyone who was looking different than they did.
6. My father, a doctor, is being careful now because of the bird flu.
7. We were having a good time together.
8. Americans are believing so strongly in self-reliance, independence, and freedom for the individual.
9. The first time she saw him at the party, she loved him and she knew she wanted to be with him.
10. When she knew my secret, she went out and told everyone about the embarrassing thing I had done.
Time clauses
Directions:
Read the following passage about the life of Benjamin Franklin. Find and underline each dependent clause
that shows a time relationship. Decide if the basic meaning is ―before‖, ―at the same time‖, or ―after‖.
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston in 1706, the fifteenth child in a poor family. Franklin
began learning about saving money and living wisely as a young child. For example, when he was six
years old, young Benjamin learned an important lesson in thrift after he had spent too much money
for a whistle. By the time he was twelve years old, Franklin had begun to work in his brother James’
printing shop. Because of his great love for reading, young Franklin spent almost all of his free time
and lunch times reading while he was working at his brother’s shop. He also taught himself to write,
and before long had published fourteen articles. When his brother James found out, he beat Ben, so
Ben left to work on his own. He sailed to Philadelphia and began to work for a printer there. While
he was working in Philadelphia, his writings made the Governor of Pennsylvania afraid of his ability
to think and write. As a result, the Governor tricked Franklin into going to England and then
abandoned him there without money. Again, Ben used his resourcefulness and found work with a
printer. Eventually, Franklin returned to the American colonies and set up his own printing
business with help from his father’s friend.
Regretting some of the things that he had done in his younger days, Franklin devised a
method for developing his personal life. His method was made up of thirteen virtues: temperance,
silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility,
chastity, and humility. Franklin sought to develop one virtue at a time and made daily recordings of
his progress in his diary. While he was developing these virtues, Franklin was also spending a great
deal of his spare time inventing many useful items, including stoves, bifocals and batteries, in
addition to debating philosophy and studying. He also became fluent in four different languages.
When Franklin died in 1790, he had actually made major contributions in five different areas
of activity: business, journalism, citizenship, and statesmanship. He had been active in public life
until he was eighty three. Most importantly, his contributions had helped shape the destiny of the
new nation which he had helped to found, the United States of America.
 Each of the adverbial clauses you’ve underlined above show relationships in time; therefore, they are sometimes called
time clauses. A time clause is a kind of dependent clause which is introduced by a subordinating conjunction of time or
a time adverbial.
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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
Time Word
when
while
before
as soon as
by the time
once
until
Clause
Subject + Verb Phrase, etc.
There are three basic time relationships in English: before, at the same time, and after. Time words can be categorized
according to these three basic meanings.
before
before
when
by the time
until
at the same time
while
as
when
after
after
when
once
as soon as
Aspect & Sentence Adverbials
Aspect
simple
progressive
perfect
perfect progressive
Meaning
at the moment of focus
in progress during the moment of focus
completed before the moment of focus
in progress before and during the moment of focus
•
When the basic meaning of sentence adverbials are matched with the idea of aspect, we can say:
—
If the time clause has the meaning before, the verb in the main clause is usually perfect.
—
If the time clause has the meaning at the same time, one of the verbs is usually progressive.
—
If the time clause means after, both of the verb phrases are usually simple. However, we may use perfect in the time
clause to emphasize that the action in the time clause is completed before the action in the main clause.
…young Benjamin learned an important lesson in thrift after he had spent too much money for a whistle
Verb Tense & Sentence Adverbials
Main Clause
Time Clause
Past
Past
since
Present
Present
Future
Future
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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
Present Tense: Verb tense usage
Directions:
Decide whether the following passage should use the simple present, present progressive, present perfect,
present perfect progressive or past forms. (Note: A total of 3 past tense forms are used.)
Since the 1950s and 1960s, tremendous changes (1)
fathers (2)
(occur) in the roles that
(play), especially in the early years of their children’s care. Steve, a typical
modern father, (3)
(feel) that it (4)
(be) more important
for him to share in the the raising of his children Molly and Max than it (5)
a little more money each year. He (6)
Fathers (7)
(be) to earn
(not, want) to be a stranger to his own children.
(appear) to have far more capacity to care for small children
than people (8)
(think) in times past. In the past, psychologists (9)
(assume) that the mother (10)
(be) the better-suited parent for
early childcare—both temperamentally and biologically. But recent research (11)
(suggest) that, given a chance, fathers (12)
(be) as caring as mothers with their young
children.
Like Steve, many fathers today (13)
(change) their ideas. They (14)
(get) involved in the care and education of their children. The trends (15)
(suggest) that soon, more and more fathers (16)
Directions:
(take) an active role in raising a family.
Write the appropriate verb forms in the following paragraph.
Alan and his friends have been planning to learn rock climbing for weeks. He first (1)
(learn) about this sport from a TV program. Since then, he (2)
climbing to learn more about it. He (3)
(convince) his friends to go with him, too. They (4)
(decide) to go after the semester (5)
(choose [already]) a rock climbing school and they (7)
equipment they (8)
(rent) videos about rock
(end). They (6)
(buy [already]) all of the
(need) on their trip. Even though they are nervous about climbing up the
side of a mountain, they are excited about their upcoming trip.
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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
Present/Future Tense Verbs: Sentence combining
Directions:
Join the second sentence of each of these pairs to the first sentence using the suggested linking word(s).
Make sure to change nouns to pronouns where necessary.
Example:
I’ll go to the movies. I will finish my homework. (after)
homework.
 I’ll go to the movies after I finish my
(1)
Paul and Kathy are going to have a good time. They will be on vacation in Montreal. (while)
(2)
I’m going to go camping for three days. I will have finish all of my final exams. (once)
(3)
Carl and Reiko are leaving for their new jobs They’ll sell their new house. (as soon as)
(4)
Even my boss is going to take some time off. He will have finished printing and checking the
month-end report. (when)
(5)
It will be almost next semester. Carol will finally get her paper typed. (by the time)
Present/Future Tense Verbs: Error Correction
Directions:
Some of the verb phrases in the following paragraph contain incorrect verb forms. Find and underline
15 errors in verb forms. Then write the corrections above the errors.
This year spring break will be very exciting. I will going to San Francisco with my family. I never been there
before, so I’m not know what to expect. I have been plan this trip for several months now. When my cousin first suggested
it, I wasn’t want to go. But then he tell me all there was to do and see, and I was decide it would be a lot of fun. Now I
am really look forward to it. We will leaving on Friday night so that we can arrive on Saturday morning. . When we
getting there, we will go to the Golden Gate Bridge. I hope we can see it at dawn. Then we going to go to Chinatown for
breakfast. We also planning to visit Fisherman’s Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. Before we come back, we will going to
visit Yosemite National Park. By the time I’m get home, I will seen many new things and been many new places.
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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
Past Tense Verbs: Sentence Combining
6:30 a.m.
6:40 a.m.
6:42 – 6:47 a.m.
6:48 a.m.
6:48 a.m.
6:49 – 6:51 a.m.
6:51 a.m.
6:51 a.m.
6:53 – 6:55 a.m.
6:55 a.m.
6:56 a.m.
Directions:
alarm goes off
gets up
takes a shower
gets out of shower
falls on floor
shaves
cuts his face
throws razor on the floor
gets dressed
tears a hole in his shirt
finds a new shirt
6:57 a.m.
6:58 a.m.
6:58 a.m.
6:59 – 7:14 a.m.
7:14 a.m.
7:14 – 7:15 a.m.
7:15 a.m.
7:15 a.m.
7:16 a.m.
7:16 a.m.
7:18 a.m.
makes coffee
pours the coffee.
spills coffee on his shirt
eats breakfast
finishes eating breakfast
goes to look for another clean shirt
hears the doorbell
runs to the door, but no one is there
loses temper
goes back to the bedroom
decides to lie back down and go to sleep
Combine each of the following groups of words into one sentence, using the appropriate past tense forms,
the information above, and the time signals given to complete the story about Dave Nelson’s morning.
Yesterday morning everything went wrong for Dave Nelson.
(1)
although / his alarm goes off at 6:30 / (not) gets up / until 6:40  Although his alarm went
off at 6:30, he didn’t get up until 6:40.

(2)
while/gets out of shower/falls on floor
(3)
throws his razor on the floor/because/cuts his face/while/shaves
(4)
when/gets dressed/tears a hole in his shirt
(5)
because/tears a hole in his shirt/finds a new shirt
(6)
while/pours the coffee/spills coffee on his shirt
(7)
by 7:14/finishes eating breakfast/so/goes to look for another clean shirt
(8)
while/looks for another clean shirt/hears the doorbell
(9)
loses temper/after/runs to the door but finds no one there
(10)
finally/decides to lie back down and go to sleep/because/all morning/everything goes wrong 







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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
Present/Past Tense Verbs: Error Correction
Directions:
Some of the verb phrases in the following paragraph contain incorrect verb forms. Find and underline 10
verb tense errors. Be sure to underline the whole incorrect verb phrase Then write the corrections above the
errors.
My family immigrated to the U.S. five years ago, when I was fourteen years old. As a result, the biggest
adjustment for me was school. I have attending schools here in the US for the last five years, and my school experience in
America has been totally different than the experiences that I had in my country. The biggest difference has been that the
teachers that I had in my country were much more serious, formal, and distant than the teachers that I have had in the U.S.
First, when I went to school in my country, the teachers do not smile or make any jokes in class, and they are not usually
allow the students to smile in class, even if it is related to the subject. However, since I come to the U.S., I often heard
teachers saying funny things to make the students laugh. For example, my high school history teacher always started class
with a joke in order to catch students’ attention and make them pay attention to his lectures. In addition, to me, the teachers
in my country are serious and strange people. The students admire them, but sometimes they are afraid of them. In
contrast, I often seen American students treating their teachers like friends, or even talking back to their teachers. In my
country, a student would be publicly beaten for treating his teacher with so little respect. Finally, it was very difficult for
many students in my country to imagine their teachers as real people; they even forgot that their teachers had families and
children and go shopping like everyone else. But, in the U.S., teachers are often talking about their personal lives, so
students can relate to them more like friends. In short, while the relationship between teachers and students is more informal
and friendly in the U.S. than in my country, I fell much more comfortable respecting my teachers the way we always did in
my country, even though they seemed much more serious and distant than American teachers.
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ESL 33A
Grammar Packet #3: Verb Tenses
Directions:
The following paragraphs have verb tense errors. Make the appropriate corrections.
Mary
My friend Mary is someone who influenced me a lot in my life. Before I knew Mary, my grade was bad.
I don't know how to do my homework, and no one can help me out. But I had met Mary when I am in my first
year of high school. She's my classmate at my new school. Mary is a good student, and get good grades. After
she started to know me, she knew that I have some problems with my studies. So she teaches me how to do my
homework when we studyed together. I change my school life because I want to be smart like her. Sometimes we
go to library to borrow books or read books. She reads books very fast and understands all of them. I am very
envy her and want to be just like her. So I started to studied hard and read books when I have time. Now my
reading skills have improved fast. Because of my friend Mary, my life get better. My English also improve. My
future is much better than before since Mary appears in my life.
Lossing My Father
When I was young, my father immigrated to the United States because the government of my country is
an dictator so our country's economic isn't stable to do the business. The lossing father affected my childhoold
and gives me an anxiety feeling in school and in my extended family. In school, I missed him very much when I
saw my friend's father came and picked them up. While my friends are talking about their family and how did
their father take them to go vacation, I felt so sad and looked myself down. He always brought me to the parks
or the country on weekend and I had a lot of happiest times. That made me remembered him a lot all the times
after he left home. I was an introvert person until I reached high school that made me depression in my mind
ever. By the way, he left home when I was in the middle school. I write a letter to my father every time I think of
him. I missed my father's warm and kind heart to me. Even though lossing my father is a kind of sadness, but it
effects me independent myself and facing problems to solve my own. Now I talked a lot to others and discussed
to do everything easily. For me, it made me matured in my future life.
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