Download Lesson 1. The Verb Phrase: Verbs in English

Comparative Morphosyntax II
Table of Contents
Lesson 1. The Verb Phrase: Verbs in English 3
The Base Form 3
Past and Present Forms 3
Exercise 4
The infinitive form 4
More Verb Forms: -ing and -ed 6
USES OF THE _ING FORM 6

Consonant substitution: 15

Additional stem extensions: 15

Additional stem-vowel changes: 15

Stem vowel change with /we/ substituted for /o/: 16

Stems with consonant and vowel change: 16

Stems with shortening and vowel change: 16

Stem lengthening by insertion of /je/: 16
Exercise 7

Consonant and vowel change with /we/ substituted
for /o/: 16
Finite and non-finite verbs 8

Answer the questions: 8
Lesson 2. The Verb Phrase: Auxiliary Verb Types in
English 9
Auxiliary Verbs 9
Ellipsis 10
Enclisis 10
Totally replaced stems: 16
Answer the questions 16
Lesson 5. The Auxiliary Constituents of the Verb
Phrase 19
The Spanish Auxiliary 19
a.
The Primary Modifications 19
b.
The Secondary Modifications 20
Answer the questions 11
Lesson 3. English Verb Tenses 12
Present Tenses 12
1.
Present Simple 12
2.
Present Continuous 12
The future 12
1.
Present Continuous 12
2.
Going to 12
3.
Present Simple 12
4.
Will 13
5.
Future Continuous 13
6.
Future Perfect 13
7.
Future Perfect Continuous 13
Past Tenses 13
1.
Past Simple 13
2.
Used to and Would 13
3.
Past Continuous 13
Perfect Tenses 14
1.
Present Perfect Simple 14
2.
Past Perfect 14
Lesson 6. The Auxiliary Constituents of the Verb
Phrase II 23
The English Auxiliary 23
Contingency-Permission (may/might) 23
Potentiality (can/could) 24
Obligation - advisability (should/must/have to) 25
Willingness, likehood and certainty (will/would) 25
Lesson 7. Other Constituents of the Verb Phrase 27
Ser & Estar 27
Non-verbal constituents of the verb phrase 28
Revision quiz on Verb Phrase 28
Exercise 29
Homework 31
Index 33
Lesson 4. The Verb Phrase: Spanish Verb Forms.
Stem Changes. 15

Shortened stems: 15
Sources 33
Lic. Christian Cristóful
Day 1 Revision Exercises
Answer
1. What’s Morphology?
2. What’s Syntax?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Work in pairs or trios.
I.
Exemplify: provide examples of:
a. Diminutives in both English and Spanish
b. Augmentatives in both English and Spanish
c. Enclisis
d. Compounding
e. Items in Spanish that, though they exist, are not the usual semantic equivalents of English. Then
do the opposite with English.
II.
Translate the following:
 Si hubiese sabido que vendrías, no hubiera preparado la merienda
______________________________________________________________________
 Vino, se cambió y se fue
______________________________________________________________________
 Flotaba en las nubes cuando su profesora le despertó
______________________________________________________________________
 Si tuviese dinero, compraría una casa y me iría a vivir allá
______________________________________________________________________
 Llevaré el almuerzo al cuarto 432, donde están haciendo una fiesta
______________________________________________________________________
 She would have been here
______________________________________________________________________
 They left the room as soon as they found the key
______________________________________________________________________
 The newlyweds walked along the veranda, kissed and stumbled
______________________________________________________________________
 I usually walk 1 km a day, if I walked 2 km a day, by the time I'd reached the supermarket I
would have lost 100 grams!
______________________________________________________________________
III.
Read the statements carefully. Do you think they are True or False? Give your opinion.
1
T F
2
T F
3
4
T F
T F
5
T F
6
T F
7
T F
8
T F
9
T F
An English-speaking student studying Spanish will not be accustomed to the expression of
person-number categories with the verb.
The Spanish system is simple and clear, and not a problem to explain; but to internalize the
system is a serious problem for the student.
Both English and Spanish are made up of stem and affixes
Both English and Spanish have stem changes in irregular verbs
Both English and Spanish have regular and irregular patterns of conjugation with a large
majority of regular verbs.
An example of a Stem with shortening and vowel change in Spanish would be: Saber =
supe
Primary modifications of verbs in Spanish are ASPECT and TENSE.
The quality of Aspect in Spanish could be divided into initiative aspect, terminative aspect &
imperfective aspect.
In Spanish, the initiative and the terminative aspects are only one: the PERFECTIVE
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10
T F
11
T F
12
T F
13
T F
14
T F
15
T F
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
IV.
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
aspect.
In English, as in Spanish, the auxiliary is the vehicle of the tense system.
The Spanish auxiliary carries a primary modification of aspect-tense and a series of three
secondary modifications.
The English auxiliary does NOT have any aspect distinction.
The English tense system is based upon the fundamental dichotomy between PAST and
NON-PAST.
English verbs have seven modifications.
When the Spanish verb "ser" occurs with a temporal adverb, the subject of "ser" refers to an
event.
In the sentence "El desayuno era a las nueve", desayuno refers to an event
In the sentence "El desayuno estaba en el comedor", desayuno refers to food
"Jacinta es bonita" and "Jacinta está bonita" convey different meanings
ser and estar are not in complementary distribution
Podía hacerlo vs. pude hacerlo mean the same
The full verb phrase always includes a verbal constituent
A very important function of the noun phrase in a full verb phrase is that of direct object.
the use of the preposition "a" in Spanish, called the "personal a" is used for personifications:
A single Spanish sentence can cause different English translations
The use of "personal a" in Spanish expresses possession.
Tree Diagrams: Embedded sentences
Embedded sentences are the ones that are subordinated to the main sentence. In the sentence:
“This is the house that Jack built”, the phrase “this is the house” is the main sentence because it is
already a full sentence. The phrase “that Jack built” adds extra information to the sentence, and it is
introduced by the complementizer “that”. This is therefore, the embedded sentence.
How to analyze embedded sentences
1º Distinguish the embedded sentence from the main one
2º Is the embedded sentence located in the NP or in the VP?
3º Analyze the main sentence as usual. Leave the embedded one for the last
4º Analyze the embedded sentence named as S’
5º Normally, S’ = complementizer + new sentence, so, you might want to write S’ = comp + S
6º Analyze the new sentence as usual
7º Practice doing your textbook’s embedded sentence tree diagrams
V.
Taxonomy: put the lexical items into their corresponding category:
Would
some
Never
Te
aquella
No
sin
Ti
mi
VI.
Draw tree diagrams for the following sentences:
 "Elvira said that Elena would bring some food"
 "Ti
ricorderò
di
quella stella che
[you
remind (fut) of
that
star
that
[I'll remind you of that star that never dies]
 "Nació mi destino que morirá sin ti"
non
no
muore mai"
dies never]
Task for the whole module: Read your textbook An Introduction to Language. Chapter 4.
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
In this module we will focus on the verb phrase and its constituents in both, English and Spanish
Lesson 1. The Verb Phrase: Verbs in English
A verb is a word that describes an action or a state of being. The word verb is from the Latin verbum, meaning "word"-short, one may suppose, for "action word." Verbs have many subcategories in all languages. A transitive verb normally
requires an object noun phrase: for example, hit [the ball], or vacate [the house]. An intransitive verb (arrive, for
example) does not allow an object noun phrase. A copular verb such as be, seem, or appear links the subject to some
other noun phrase or to a modifier. Auxiliary verbs such as have or be in has gone or is leaving express some special
aspect of an event; modal verbs such as must, may, or can express an attitude toward an event. An impersonal verb
expresses an event not involving wilful performance by an individual person (for example, rain in "It's raining"). Just as
nouns are the heads of noun phrases that may include additional material such as articles and modifiers of various
sorts, verbs are the heads of verb phrases that may include noun phrases as objects and other kinds of additional
material that fill out the meaning of the verb. These additions are called complements. For example, in "She admitted
reluctantly that she was exhausted," both reluctantly and that she was exhausted are complements of the verb
admitted.
Defining verbs is a very complex task. Verbs have traditionally been defined as "action" words or "doing"
words. The verb in the following sentence is rides: Paul rides a motorbike
Here, the verb rides certainly denotes an action which Paul performs - the action of riding a motorbike.
However, there are many verbs which do not denote an action at all. For example, in Paul seems unhappy,
we cannot say that the verb seems denotes an action. We would hardly say that Paul is performing any
action when he seems unhappy. So the notion of verbs as "action" words is somewhat limited.
We can achieve a more robust definition of verbs by looking first at their formal features.
The Base Form
Here are some examples of verbs in sentences:
[1] She travels to work by train
[2] David sings in the choir
[3] We walked five miles to a garage
[4] I cooked a meal for the family
Notice that in [1] and [2], the verbs have an "_s" ending, while in [3] and [4], they have an "_ed" ending.
These endings -as we studied in first year- are known as INFLECTIONS, and they are added to the BASE
FORM of the verb. In [1], for instance, the _s inflection is added to the base form travel.
Certain endings are characteristic of the base forms of verbs:
Ending
-ate
-ify
-ise/-ize
Base Form
Concentrate, demonstrate, illustrate
clarify, dignify, magnify
baptize, conceptualize, realise
Past and Present Forms
When we refer to a verb in general terms, we usually cite its base form, as in "the verb travel", "the verb
sing". We then add inflections to the base form as required.
[1] She
[2] David
[3] We
[4] I
Base Form
travel
sing
walk
cook
+
+
+
+
+
Inflection
s
s
ed
ed
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to work by train
in the choir
five miles to a garage
a meal for the whole family
Lic. Christian Cristóful
These inflections indicate TENSE. The -s inflection indicates the PRESENT TENSE, and the _ed inflection
indicates the PAST TENSE.
Verb endings also indicate PERSON. Recall that when we looked at nouns and pronouns, we saw that there
are three persons, each with a singular and a plural form. These are shown in the table below.
Person
1st Person
2nd person
3rd Person
Singular
I
you
he/she/John/the dog
Plural
we
you
they/the dogs
In sentence [1], She travels to work by train, we have a third person singular pronoun she, and the present
tense ending -s. However, if we replace she with a plural pronoun, then the verb will change:
[1] She travels to work by train
[1a] They travel to work by train
The verb travel in [1a] is still in the present tense, but it has changed because the pronoun in front of it has
changed. This correspondence between the pronoun (or noun) and the verb is called AGREEMENT or
CONCORD. Agreement applies only to verbs in the present tense in English. In the past tense, there is
no distinction between verb forms: she travelled/they travelled.
Exercise
Identify all the verbs in the following extract.
Her pace slowed and an ache spread from between her shoulders. Vapours swirled and
banked; the light of on-coming headlights drained out of the car. Sodium street lamps burned
phosphorescent holes in the fog, but as she turned off Main Street to the cottage she noticed
the one which illuminated the alley was out.
The infinitive form
The INFINITIVE form of a verb is the form which follows to:
to ask
to protect
to believe
to sing
to cry
to talk
to go
to wish
This form is indistinguishable from the base form. Indeed, many people cite this form when they identify a
verb, as in "This is the verb to be", although to is not part of the verb.
Infinitives with to are referred to specifically as TO-INFINITIVES, in order to distinguish them from BARE
INFINITIVES, in which to is absent:
To-infinitive
Help me to open the gate
Bare infinitive
Help me open the gate
Exercises
I. Choose one of the verbs in brackets to complete each sentence. Take into account meaning and
structure (consider their base forms and their inflections)
1.
I taught Jim to drive a car before the age of 18.
I hoped to drive a car before the age of 18.
(hoped/taught)
2.
We ________ him to go to the party
We_________ to go to the party
(allowed/agreed)
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3.
They _______ for the kittens to go to good homes
They________ the kittens to go to good homes
(wanted/arranged)
4.
He ________ the children to stay away
He________ to stay away
(warned/threatened)
5.
The police ________ for his protectors to give him up
The police ________ him to give himself up
(appealed/forced)
6.
She _________ him to visit the exhibition before it ended (promised/told)
She _________ to visit the exhibition before it ended
7.
Did you ________ for the bed to be delivered or shall I collect it? (need/arrange)
Did you ________ the bed to be delivered or will you collect it yourself?
8.
I ____________ my mother to buy a new car
I ____________ to buy a new car
(decided/persuaded)
II. There is at least one verb (or related to verb) mistake in each sentence. Suggest appropriate
corrections.
1. She longed the holidays to come so that she could be with her family again
2. I overheard say that he’s thinking of moving to Manchester
3. We watched to play football until it started to rain
4. Very reluctantly, he consented her to lend the money to Janet
5. My parents always encouraged work hard at school
6. For years the group has been campaigning an inquiry to hold into the accident
7. I think we should let them to stay until the weekend
8. Sam promised me to show me how to fish for salmon, but he never had the time
9. Hospital workers had to make them to do with a 1.5% pay increase this year
10. I hear her tell that she’s got a new job. (= someone told me about it)
11. This card entitles to take an extra person with you free
12. They let me to borrow their car while they were on holiday
III. Report these sentences using one of these verbs and a to-infinitive. Use each verb once only
Agree
encourage invite
order
promise
refuse
volunteer
warn
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
You can’t borrow the car! He refused to lend me the car
You really should continue the course. He…
I’ll phone you soon. He…
Okay, I’ll come with you. He…
Stop the car! He…
Would you like to go out for dinner? He…
I’ll work late at the weekend. He….
Don’t go out without an umbrella. He…
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
More Verb Forms: -ing and -ed
So far we have looked at three verb forms: the present form, the past form, and the infinitive/base form.
Verbs have two further forms which we will look at now.
[1] The old lady is writing a play
[2] The film was produced in Hollywood
The verb form writing in [1] is known as the -ing form, or the -ING PARTICIPLE form. In [2], the verb form
produced is called the -ed form, or -ED PARTICIPLE form.
Many so-called -ed participle forms do not end in -ed at all:
The film was written by John Brown
The film was bought by a British company
The film was made in Hollywood
All of these forms are called -ed participle forms, despite their various endings. The term "-ed participle
form" is simply a cover term for all of these forms.
The -ed participle form should not be confused with the -ed inflection which is used to indicate the past
tense of many verbs.
We have now looked at all five verb forms. By way of summary, let us bring them together and see how they
look for different verbs. For convenience, we will illustrate only the third person singular forms (the forms
which agree with he/she/it) of each verb. Notice that some verbs have irregular past forms and -ed forms.
Base/Infinitive
Form
Past Tense
Form
-ing Form
cook
he cooks
he cooked
he is cooking
walk
he walks
he walked
he is walking
take
he takes
he took
he is taking
bring
he brings
he brought
he is bringing
he is
he was
he is being
be
USES OF THE _ING FORM
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Present Tense
Form
-ed Form
he has
cooked
he has
walked
he has taken
he has
brought
he has been
Following a preposition: where would you go if you felt like having a quick snack?
As part of a continuous form of a verb: the bank clerk was wearing a dark suit.
As an adjective: it was an exciting experience to spend the day with the firefighters.
As a noun and subject: Sleeping is my favourite way of spending Saturday mornings.
As a noun and object: one of the council’s responsibilities is cutting the grass in the park.
After certain verbs: after I had finished doing my homework, I watched TV.
Finish these sentences using a gerund and other words
1. Working as a postman or postwoman involves...
2. When I get on the bus I usually try to avoid...
3. He was sent to prison, even though he denied...
4. A specialist in hypnosis helped her give up...
5. Although my ring was insured, I didn’t want to risk...
6. To improve my fluency in English I need to practise...
7. It was a lovely sunny spring day, so I suggested...
8. I know it’s very fattening, but I’m afraid I just can’t help...
9. When the police found the money, the security guard admitted...
10. Visiting New York for a few days is great, but I can’t imagine...
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Exercise
I. A verb has been highlighted in each of the following sentences. Indicate the form of the verb by
selecting one of the choices given.
1. He plays the piano in a jazz club
2. David is singing in the shower again
3. He was told not to laugh at policemen
4. His arm swelled up after the accident
5. The population has increased by 6% since 1970
Present - Past
Infinitive - _ed - _ing
Present - Past
Infinitive - _ed - _ing
Present - Past
Infinitive - _ed - _ing
Present - Past
Infinitive - _ed - _ing
Present - Past
Infinitive - _ed - _ing
II. Complete these sentences in any appropriate way using either the to-infinitive or the –ing form of
the verb in brackets. If both forms are possible, give them both
1. Passing the kitchen, he stopped to drink a large glass of water
2. When the car broke down, she started…
3. Here’s the money I owe you. I meant…
4. To lose weight, I’d advise you…
5. I found that my back stopped…when….
6. To help me get to sleep, I tried…
7. The orchestra was just beginning….
8. Please don’t hesitate….
9. When he found that he couldn’t walk, he began….
10. The handle came off when I tried….
11. You could see the doctor today but as you haven’t got
an appointment it would mean…
Remember:
An _ing form:
A bare infinitive:
(drink)
(push)
(give)
(cut out)
(ache)
(think)
(play)
(call)
(shout)
(lift)
(wait)
Suggests that the action is repeated or happens over a period of time. Did you hear
those dogs barking most of the night?
Suggests that we watch, etc. some of the action, but not from start to finish. I was able
to watch them building the new car park form my office window
Suggests that the action happens only once. I noticed him throw a sweet wrapper on
the floor, so I asked him to pick it up
Suggests that we watch, hear, etc. the whole action from its start to finish. I watched
him climb through the window, and then I called the police
Exercise
Consider which verb form is more likely and why
1. I heard the baby cry/crying for most of the night
2. I felt the snake bite/biting me and saw it slither off into the bushes
3. When you came out of the station, did you notice the children play/playing musical instruments
across the street?
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
4. I noticed her quickly slip/slipping the necklace inside her coat and leave the shop
Finite and non-finite verbs
Verbs which have the past or the present form are called FINITE verbs. Verbs in any other form (infinitive, ing, or -ed) are called NON-FINITE verbs. This means that verbs with tense are finite, and verbs without
tense are non-finite. The distinction between finite and non-finite verbs is a very important one in
grammar, since it affects how verbs behave in sentences. Here are some examples of each type:
Finite or Nonfinite?
Finite
Tense
David plays the piano
My sister spoke French on
holiday
It took courage to continue
after the accident
Leaving home can be very
traumatic
Leave immediately when you
are asked to do so
Present
Past
Finite
NONE -- the verb has the
infinitive form
NONE -- the verb has the -ing
form
NONE -- the verb has the -ed
form
Non-finite
Non-finite
Non-finite
Exercises
1. In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the highlighted verb is finite or non-finite.
1. Paul runs to work every day
2. They have run away together
3. Tim gave Paul a menacing look
4. Katie was watching TV when the
phone rang
5. We found him smoking behind the
shed
Finite
Non-finite
Finite
Non-finite
Finite
Non-finite
Finite
Non-finite
Finite
Non-finite
Answer the questions:
1. Is the following statement correct? Why? "A verb is a word that describes any action performed by the
subject"
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
2. What's the difference between finite and non-finite verbs?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
3. What's a bare infinitive?
_______________________________________________________________________
4. What's an inflection ?
_______________________________________________________________________
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Lesson 2. The Verb Phrase: Auxiliary Verb Types in English
Auxiliary Verbs
In the examples of -ing and -ed forms which we looked at, you may have noticed that in each case two
verbs appeared:
[1] The old lady is writing a play
[2] The film was produced in Hollywood
Writing and produced each has another verb before it. These other verbs (is and was) are known as
AUXILIARY VERBS, while writing and produced are known as MAIN VERBS or LEXICAL VERBS. In fact,
all the verbs we have looked at on the previous pages have been main verbs.
Auxiliary verbs are sometimes called HELPING VERBS. This is because they may be said to "help" the
main verb which comes after them. For example, in The old lady is writing a play, the auxiliary is helps the
main verb writing by specifying that the action it denotes is still in progress.
In this section we will give a brief account of each type of auxiliary verb in English. There are five types in
total:
This is used to form passive constructions, eg.
The film was produced in Hollywood
Passive be
It has a corresponding present form:
The film is produced in Hollywood
As the name suggests, the progressive expresses action in progress:
The old lady is writing a play
Progressive be
It also has a past form:
The old lady was writing a play
The perfective auxiliary expresses an action accomplished in the past but
retaining current relevance:
She has broken her leg
Perfective have
(Compare: She broke her leg)
Together with the progressive auxiliary, the perfective auxiliary encodes aspect,
which we will look at later.
Modal can/could Modals express permission, ability, obligation, or prediction:
may/might
You can have a sweet if you like
shall/should
He may arrive early
will/would
Paul will be a footballer some day
must
I really should leave now
This subclass contains only the verb do. It is used to form questions:
Do you like cheese?
"Dummy" Do
to form negative statements: I do not like cheese
and in giving orders: Do not eat the cheese
Finally, dummy do can be used for emphasis: I do like cheese
An important difference between auxiliary verbs and main verbs is that auxiliaries never occur alone in a
sentence. For instance, we cannot remove the main verb from a sentence, leaving only the auxiliary:
I would like a new job
~*I would a new job
You should buy a new car
~*You should a new car
She must be crazy
~*She must crazy
Auxiliaries always occur with a main verb. On the other hand, main verbs can occur without an
auxiliary.
I like my new job I bought a new car She sings like a bird
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Ellipsis
In some sentences, it may appear that an auxiliary does occur alone. This is especially true in responses to
questions:
Q. Can you sing?
A. Yes, I can
Here the auxiliary can does not really occur without a main verb, since the main verb -- sing -- is in the
question. The response is understood to mean:
Yes, I can sing
This is known as ELLIPSIS -- the main verb has been ellipted from the response. In Pragmatics, we call
it “gapping”
Exercise
These idiomatic phrases contain transitive verbs. However, the objects can be left out because the
expression share normally used in contexts in which it is clear what is meant. In what contexts are they
used? What objects are missing?
1. You wash and I’ll dry
2. Are you ready to order?
3. Do you think?
4. Who scored?
5. It’s your turn to deal
6. I’ll weed and you can water
Enclisis
Auxiliaries often appear in a shortened or contracted form, especially in informal contexts. For instance,
auxiliary have is often shortened to 've:
I have won the lottery ~I've won the lottery
These shortened forms are called enclitic forms. Sometimes different auxiliaries have the same enclitic
forms, so you should distinguish carefully between them:
I'd like a new job ( = modal auxiliary would)
We'd already spent the money by then ( = perfective auxiliary had)
He's been in there for ages ( = perfective auxiliary has)
She's eating her lunch ( = progressive auxiliary is)
The following exercise concentrates on three of the most important auxiliaries -- be, have, and do.
Exercise
Is the highlighted verb a main verb or an auxiliary verb?
1. I will have the soup
2. Police are investigating the incident
3. It is very peaceful here
4. Where does your brother work?
5. They have decided to advertise your
job
6. He does his homework on the way to
school
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Main Verb
Auxiliary Verb
Main Verb
Auxiliary Verb
Main Verb
Auxiliary Verb
Main Verb
Auxiliary Verb
Main Verb
Auxiliary Verb
Main Verb
Auxiliary Verb
Lic. Christian Cristóful
Answer the questions
1. What are auxiliary verbs?
_______________________________________________________________________
2. What's ellipsis?
_______________________________________________________________________
3. What's enclisis?
_______________________________________________________________________
4. What does "progressive" mean?
_______________________________________________________________________
5. What does "perfective" mean?
_______________________________________________________________________
Exercise.
Typical Errors.
Non-native speakers of English usually make mistakes when learning the language. Tenses are usually
misused. The task for you is to find the mistakes and correct them
1. This large goat is only living in the mountains of Switzerland
2. I call to thank you for the present you sent
3. John is resembling his older sister
4. The rise in demand for timber destroys large areas of rainforest
5. I work at the University for over ten years now
6. When have you got there?
7. ‘Have you read a book called Waiting for Anya?’ ‘Who has written it?’
8. Charles is a gifted footballer, but up to now he didn’t play well in international matches
9. We’ve seen Jean in town the other day
10. Have you ever been to the opera when you lived in Milan
11. I was meeting a lot of interesting people while I was working in Norway
12. Being in large crowds was always making her feel nervous
13. How long are you wearing glasses?
14. We’ve been staying with Paul and Jenny until last weekend
15. That’s twice I’ve been forgetting to bring my diary to work this week
16. I’ve never been listening to any of Talia’s music before
17. The new bridge had been opened six months ago
18. He just heard the news and was rushing home to tell his family
19. When I saw the vase, I knew it was exactly what I had looked for
20. I had been knowing Helen for a number of years
21. When I grow up I’ll be an astronaut
22. Take your umbrella; it’ll rain
23. The world’s supply of oil is soon running out
24. Put your coat on before you’ll go out
25. I promise I call you as soon as I get home
26. I won’t be able to meet you next week. I will stay in London for a few days
27. Can I borrow your camera? I’ll be giving it back to you tomorrow
28. The army needs to change its image if more women will be recruited
29. There’s no point asking John for a lift – he will leave by now
30. The last time I met John, he’s getting on a train to go to Brussels
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Lesson 3. English Verb Tenses
Present Tenses
1. Present Simple
The present simple is most often used:
a. To refer to situations which are permanent. “Maria lives and works in the center of Barcelona”
b. To refer to habits or to things which happen repeatedly. In the summer I drink a lot of lemonade.
I get up every morning at 9 o’clock
Maria sometimes goes to parties, but she almost never dances.
c. To refer to natural or scientific laws
d. To say when things will happen in the future.
e. Instead of will after words and expressions such as if, when, until, before, as soon as, while when
we are referring to the future.
2. Present Continuous
The present continuous is used to express:
a. An activity happening now (while we are speaking). “They’re playing football in the garden”
b. An activity happening around now, but perhaps not at the moment of speaking. “She’s studying
maths at university”
c. To refer to changes, development and progress. “Even though he still needs to stay in bed, his
health is improving”
d. A planned future arrangement. “I’m meeting Jane at 10 tomorrow”
e. In the structure always/continually/forever/constantly + present continuous to refer to other
people’s habits which we find irritating. “You’re always talking! Be quiet!”
The future
1. Present Continuous
The present continuous for future is used
a. To express a planned future arrangement. “What are you doing on Saturday? We’re having a
party. Can you come?”
b. With the verbs go and come. We’re going to the cinema. Do you want to come?
2. Going to
Going to is used:
a. To express a future decision, intention or plan made before the moment of speaking. “I’m going
to study hard”
b. When we can see or feel now that something is certain to happen in the future. “Look at these
clouds! It’s going to rain”
3. Present Simple
The present simple is used:
a. To say when things will happen in the future according to a timetable, program or schedule. “We
must wait for another 20 minutes – the bank opens at 9 o’clock”
b. To refer to the future after words and expressions such as if, when, until, before, as soon as,
while. “Before you go, will you turn out the light?”
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
4. Will
Will is used to express
a. a future intention made at the moment of speaking. “’It’s Jane’s birthday’ ‘Is it? I’ll buy her some
flowers’”
b. An offer. “I’ll carry your suitcase”
c. To make predictions about the future based on what we think or believe, not on what is
happening now. “John will probably be a very good teacher one day”
5. Future Continuous
The future continuous (will + be + _ing) is used to refer to something which will be happening at a
future point in time. “This time tomorrow we’ll be flying over the Atlantic”
6. Future Perfect
The future perfect (will + have + past participle) is used to refer to something that will happen before
a future point in time. “By the year 2050, man will have travelled to Mars.
7. Future Perfect Continuous
The future perfect continuous (will + have + been + _ing) is used to refer to something which will
continue for some time before a future point in time. “Do you realize that in June I’ll have been
working here for twenty years?”
Past Tenses
1. Past Simple
The past simple is most often used:
a. When we refer to actions or events which happened at a particular time in the past. “I cut my
finger yesterday and it still hurts today”
b. When we refer to completed actions, events or situations which lasted for a period of time. “I
worked for two years as a mailman”
c. To refer to habits or things which happened repeatedly in the past. “When I was a child, we had
breakfast at 8 o’clock every morning”
2. Used to and Would
a. Used to is commonly used to refer to past habits and situations. “He used to smoke heavily, but
now he can’t even stand the smell of cigarettes”
b. Would is not so common in conversation and can only be used to refer to past habits, not past
situations. “When we were children, we would go for a picnic every Sunday”
3. Past Continuous
a. The past continuous is most often used:
b. To refer to something which was already happening before another past event. “we were
watching TV when the police arrived”
c. To refer to temporary activities or situations in the past. John feels so tired because he was
working hard in the garden all morning”
d. To refer to activities or situations which were going on at the same time in the past. “While I was
looking around the house, Jane was talking to the landlord.”
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Perfect Tenses
1. Present Perfect Simple
i
Present Perfect Simple
The present perfect is used:
a. To refer to something which started in the past and continues in the present. “He’s worked as a
doctor for many years”
b. To refer to something which happened in the past but in a period of time not yet finished. I have
studied for three hours this morning – I’ll study for another two hours after lunch”
c. To refer to recent events which are directly related to the present. “Where’s my wallet? Oh no!
Someone has stolen it!”
d. To refer to something which happened in the past but we don’t know when. “I’ve been a couple
of times to France – it’s a beautiful country”
ii
Time-expressions
The present perfect is often used:
a. With time-expressions which mean at any time up to now: ever, never, already, before, yet, still,
so far, up to now, recently, lately, this year.
b. With the word for when we want to say how long something ahs lasted. “I’ve been a teacher for
10 years”
c. With the word since when we want to say when something started. “He has had that book since
he was a child.”
d. With the word just when we want to say that an event was very recent. “Where’s John? Oh, he’s
just gone out”
iii
Present Perfect Continuous
The present perfect continuous is used:
a. To refer to activities or situations which began in the past and which are still continuing. “You’ve
been working so hard recently, why don’t you have a rest?”
b. To emphasise the continuity, repetition or duration of an action or situation. “Are you still reading
that book? You’ve been reading it for the last three weeks!”
c. When you can see the results of a recent activity or situation. “Your clothes are covered in paint!”
Have you been painting the house?”
2. Past Perfect
i
Past Perfect Simple
a. We often use the past perfect when we mention two actions or situations in the past, and we
want to show that one happened before the other. “The door opened and a tall woman walked in
– Richard suddenly realized that she was the woman he had seen on the plane”
b. After expressions such as It was the first time and it was (one of) the most we usually use the
past perfect. “he was so nervous because it was the first time he had played the piano in
public”
ii
Past Perfect Continuous
The continuous form is used if we want to emphasize the continuity, repletion or duration of an action
or situation. “He was furious! Apparently he had been waiting for her for over two hours!”
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Lesson 4. The Verb Phrase: Spanish Verb Forms. Stem Changes.
The constituent structure of English verbs is simply stem plus tense suffix. Spanish verbs, however, are formed by stem
+ theme + tense + person-number. The implications are obvious:
An English-speaking student will have no feeling for the expression of a theme in verb forms, and he will not be accustomed to the expression of person-number
categories with the verb. The Spanish system is simple and clear, and not a problem to explain; but to internalize the system is a serious problem for the student.
Verbs are said to be regular if they conform to the most general rules. The majority of Spanish verbs follow a single
paradigm of stem formation and affixation. Regular verbs are those with only one stem; verbs with variant stems are
irregular.
In Spanish, there are several types of stem changes in irregular verbs.

Shortened stems:
Infinitive
Escribir
Infinitive Stem
/_ir/
//
(past participle)
Romper
(past participle)
Haber
(3rd person plural present indicative)
Hacer
(1st person singular future)

Consonant substitution:
Producir
(past)
Conducir
(past)
Hacer
(1st person singular present simple)
Haber
(1st person singular subjunctive)

Additional stem extensions:
Traer
(past)
Estar
(past)
Andar
(past)

Additional stem-vowel changes:
Poder
(past)
Hacer
(past)
Haber
(past)
Venir
(past)
Decir
(2nd 3rd present ind)
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Lic. Christian Cristóful

Stem vowel change with /we/ substituted for /o/:
Morir

(past part)
Stems with consonant and vowel change:
(pres sub and 1st pre in)
Caber
(past)
Saber
(past)
Tener
(past)
Poner
(past)
Querer
(past)
Decir
(past)
(1st person singular present simple)
(past part)

Stems with shortening and vowel change:
Saber
(1st person sing pres indic)
Volver
(past part)
Resolver
(past part)

Stem lengthening by insertion of /je/:
Abrir
(past part)
Cubrir
(past part)

Consonant and vowel change with /we/ substituted for /o/:
Poner
(past part)
 Totally replaced stems:
Ser
(2nd pres ind)
(3rd pres ind)
(pres sub)
(past)
(pres indic, imperat)
(pres sub)
(past)
Ir
Answer the questions
1. What causes irregularities in the structure of verbs?
_______________________________________________________________________
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
_______________________________________________________________________
2. How many stem changes are there in verbs in Spanish?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Irregularities in English
Task: Read in your textbook the article “Why do languages change?” Pages 480 – 482
Do exercises 1 (pages 483-484) and 3 (pages 485) from your textbook
Aspect
Read the following text and make a mind map out of it. Verb Aspect
Verbs exhibit various changes in human languages; some tongues inflect their verbs to indicate tense (past, present,
future); some inflect verbs to indicate the person and number of the subject and/or object; and some have special
forms to indicate "moods" such as commands (imperatives), conditional or hypothetical statements, and so forth. An
element of verb mechanics that seems to be neglected by many language designers is aspect.
Aspect refers to the internal temporal constituency of an event, or the manner in which a verb's action is distributed
through the time-space continuum. Tense, on the other hand, points out the location of an event in the continuum of
events.
Be advised that many of the verb forms which are traditionally called "tenses" in grammar books and foreign language
text-books are actually aspects; the traditional terminology is misleading. The distinctions between she read that book,
she used to read such books, and she was reading that book when I entered the room are aspectual distinctions
rather than differences of tense.
Also be aware that there is no widespread agreement on terminology with regard to aspect. Among linguists, different
people use the same terms in different ways; for example, the aspect which is properly called "perfect" is often called
"perfective," and this can lead to confusion when discussing languages that mark both a perfective-imperfective and a
perfect-nonperfect opposition.
Not all languages have inflections or special words to mark aspect, but most languages have ways to express the
meanings which are embedded in the aspectual categories. (Bulgarian has a very rich set of aspectual inflections, but
some dialects of German have very few.) When explicit inflections or particles are not available to indicate aspect,
languages will use less elegant methods, often involving idiomatic set phrases, such as "used to" which marks the past
tense form of the habitual aspect in English. In many natural languages, we find verb forms that combine both
aspect and tense, e.g. the Spanish imperfect Juan leía, "Juan was reading, Juan used to read," which
combines the past tense and imperfective aspect.
Perfective and imperfective
In the sentence she was singing when I entered, the verb "entered" presents its action as a single event with its
beginning, middle, and end included; this is an example of the perfective aspect. The verb "was singing," on the other
hand, refers to an internal portion of her singing, without any reference to the beginning or end of her singing; this is an
example of imperfective aspect. In other words, the perfective treats a situation as a single shapeless whole, similar to
the concept of a "point" in geometry, while the imperfective looks at the situation from the inside out and admits the
possibility that the situation has a temporal shape. "Situation" refers to anything that can be expressed by a verb: a
"state" (a static situation that will remain the same unless something changes it), an "event" (a dynamic situation
considered as a complete, single item) or a "process" (a series of dynamic transactions viewed in progress).
A few examples, provided by Comrie1, might help us to clarify the perfective-imperfective distinction. "In French the
difference between il régna (Past Definite) trente ans and il régnait (Imperfect) trente ans [he reigned for thirty years] is
not one of objective or subjective difference in the period of the reign; rather the former gathers the whole period of
thirty years into a single complete whole, corresponding roughly to the English [he had a reign of thirty years]' i.e. one
single reign, while the second says rather that at any point during those thirty years he was indeed reigning... Similarly
in Ancient Greek, we find the Aorist (perfective past) in  // [he reigned ten
years]' or rather [he had a reign of ten years], to bring out the difference between this form and the Imperfect
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
(imperfective past)  // ‘he reigned for ten years’, or more explicitly ‘he was
reigning during ten years’."
Habitual and progressive
The imperfective aspect can be sub-divided into habitual and continuous aspects. The habitual aspect refers to a
situation that is protracted over a long period of time, or a situation that occurs frequently during an extended period of
time, to the point that the situation becomes the characteristic feature of the whole period. An example of the habitual
aspect in the past tense is, the neighbour’s dog used to wake me up by barking every morning. We must be careful to
avoid two common misconceptions about the habitual. First, the habitual is not the same thing as the iterative or
frequentative aspect, which merely refers to something that happens several times without being the foremost
characteristic of a period of time (e.g. he coughed over and over again, then recited his poem). Second, the past
habitual does not necessarily imply that the condition is no longer true; it is perfectly reasonable to say Erik used to be
a member of the Volapük League, and he still is.
The continuous aspect encompasses the progressive aspect. Progressivity is a special type of imperfectivity which
emphasizes that an action is in progress; often this is mentioned to provide a background or frame of reference for
some other situation. An example of the progressive aspect is English John is singing, Spanish Juan está cantando,
Italian Gianni sta cantando, Icelandic Jon er að syngja, Irish tá Seán ag canadh.
Some behaviors of the progressive in English are relatively strange compared to other languages. One example of this
is the use of the progressive to indicate a more temporary situation than is indicated by the basic form of the verb, e.g.
the Sphinx stands by the Nile versus Mr. Smith is standing by the Nile, or I live at 123 Main Street (semi-permanently)
versus I'm living at 123 Main Street (temporarily). English generally does not use progressive forms of verbs of passive
perception; the phrase *you aren't hearing seems odd in English, but the Portuguese counterpart você nao está
ouvindo is perfectly acceptable. However, these verbs do take the progressive in English when referring to
counterfactual perception, as in you aren't hearing voices from beyond the grave again, are you? Also note that English
environmental verbs, such as "to rain" and "to snow," almost always occur in the progressive form when they are in the
present tense, but some related languages (e.g. Icelandic) never use the progressive form of the corresponding verbs.
If you are trying to design a neutral auxiliary language for international communication, you must be careful to exclude
these anglo-centric, unpredictable uses of the progressive aspect from your design.
Perfect (retrospective) and prospective
Unlike most aspects, the perfect does not tell us anything about the internal temporal constituency of a situation.
Instead, it indicates the continuing relevance of a past situation. In other words, the perfect expresses a relation
between two points on the continuum of events. Linguists are not unanimous in classifying the perfect as an aspect
rather than as a tense. An example of the perfect, from English: I have lost the book (perfect) versus I lost the book
(non-perfect). The perfect can indicate a relation between a state in the past and an even earlier event, e.g. John had
read the book; it can express a relation between a past event and the present state, e.g. John has read the book; and it
can express a relation between a future state and an event that occurs prior to it, e.g. John will have read the book.
English often uses the perfect to express a situation that started in the past and continues into the present, e.g. we
have lived here for a long time. Many other languages use the present tense in such sentences: French j'attends
depuis trois jours, German ich warte schon drei Tage, Russian ja zhdu uzhe tri dnja `I have been waiting for three
days.'
Because the term "perfect" is likely to be confused with "perfective," and because its counterpart is called
"prospective," I would suggest that "retrospective" is a better name for this verb form.
The perfect verb form expresses a relation between a situation and some event that happened before it. In some
languages we also find a prospective form which relates a state to some event that happens after it. In English the
prospective is indicated by phrases such as "to be about to" and "to be on the point of," as in John is about to resign
from his job. In the "redneck" dialect of American English, the prospective is marked by the phrase "fixin' to," e.g. I was
fixin' to drive to work when I noticed a tornado comin' toward the trailer park.
Conclusion
If you want to design a language that is very expressive and able to derive a large number of related words from a
relatively small inventory of roots, building a good system of aspect markers is essential. The ability to create these
words by predictable derivation results in a vocabulary that has internally-defined meanings and is less vulnerable to
misuse than an a posteriori lexicon taken from "recognizable" sources.
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Lesson 5. The Auxiliary Constituents of the Verb Phrase
The Spanish Auxiliary
The verb phrase is the focal point of a large proportion of the difficulties that exist in grammatical
description. There are two kinds of problems: those of the verbal elements themselves, and those of the
non-verbal elements which may appear in a verb phrase.
1.1
The auxiliary
The aux introduces a set of MODIFICATIONS into the verb phrase. Two of these modifications may be
considered PRIMARY, since it is obligatory that they be chosen in any finite VP, and three may be
considered SECONDARY since they are not obligatory and can be chosen in addition to the primary
modifications.
a.
The Primary Modifications
The primary modifications are ASPECT and
TENSE. Aspects: initiative aspect, terminative
aspect & imperfective aspect. In Spanish, the
iniciative and the terminative aspects are only
one: the PERFECTIVE aspect. Consider the
following examples:
(1) el nene anduvo a los seis meses. Iniciative
(Perfective in Spanish)
(2) el nene andaba a los seis meses.
Imperfective (in the middle of the event)
(3) el nene se cayó. Terminative (Perfective in
Spanish)
(4) el nene se caía. Imperfective (in the middle of
the event)
(5) golpeó la mesa. Terminative (perfective)
(6) golpeaba la mesa. Imperfective (not a single
prolonged event but a series of events)
Aspect then, is either perfective or imperfective.
Perfective forms in Spanish are represented by
the preterit conjugation of the verb. Perfective
forms in Spanish are necessarily past tense.
Imperfective forms may be either past or nonpast.
Imperfective
Perfective
PRIMARY
Non-Past
Past
(Past)
Habla
Hablaba
Habló
19
"Imperfect," is, by definition, incomplete or
continuing. Thus, when we conceptualize a
past action/event/state as it was unfolding
without reference to when it began or when
it ended, or, when we refer to a past action
which was repeated (again, without
reference to a specific period of time or to
an end point,) Spanish uses the imperfect.
Consider the following sentence:

Cuando yo tenía diez años, jugaba con
mi perro que se llamaba Sydney.

When I was ten, I played with my dog
whose name was Sydney.
I am now 82 years old and Sydney has
been dead for 70 years and so both my
being ten years old and my dog Sydney are
past completed sentences. However, my
focus is neither on the beginning of my tenth
year, nor on the end of my tenth year, nor
on the completed past experience of being
ten and playing with Sydney, nor on
Sydney's death nor on his being dead.
Thus, the verbs are in the imperfect.
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
b.
The Secondary Modifications
There are three main secondary verb modifications:
1. RELEVANT ANTERIORITY. This modification places the event as anterior to some specified or
implied pasto or non-past point of reference, and marks it as being of continuing relevance to that
point of reference. The forms for relevant anteriority are the PERFECT TENSES of Spanish. It is the
perfective form of haber, as opposed to imperfective había that marks something like
"completedness"
He hablado tres veces
(I have talked three times, and I may still talk some more; my having
talked is somehow directly pertinent to what I am doing or saying now.)
Sabía que a las doce
había hablado tres veces
(They knew that at twelve I had talked three times, and my having
talked was somehow directly pertinent to what happened at twelve.
2. EXPLICIT DURATION. Applied to a form that carries the primary modification of perfective aspect,
it specifies a duration for the event that may otherwise be implicit only in the context or unspecified:
Estuvo hablando conmigo vs. habló conmigo.
Estuvo carries the duration information. Habló, on the other hand, can be extended by using external
modifications:
Habló conmigo por dos horas.
Combining both the auxiliary modification of duration and an external modification of duration results
in strong emphasis on the duration of the event:
Estuvo hablando conmigo por dos horas.
Applied to a form which is marked as imperfective, the durative modification specifies a limited
duration.
Estaba hablando con Juan cuando este señor me interrumpió.
VERB MODIFICATIONS
Secondary
Relevant Anteriority
Explicit Duration
Ha hablado
Está hablando
Primary
Imperfective
Non-Past
Ha estado hablando
Habla
Había hablado
Past
Perfective
(Past)
Hablaba
Estaba hablando
Había estado hablando
Estuvo hablando
(hubo
hablado)
(Hubo estado hablando)
Habló
3. EXPLICIT SUBSEQUENCE.
The forms with the subsequence modification show contrast between past and non-past. (perfective
and imperfective aspects are irrelevant to it)
Hablaré mañana
Dijo que hablaría (ayer, mañana)
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
The subsequence modification can be added to the other two secondary modifications: explicit
duration and relevant anteriority:
Estaré hablando mañana
Dijo que hablaría (ayer, mañana)
Habré estado hablando mañana a las doce
Dijo que habría estado hablando ayer a las doce
The tense forms that mark subsequence are the CONDITIONAL and the FUTURE. The conditional is
just subsequent to some point in the past, just as future is subsequent to the moment of speaking.
Consider: Dije (decía)que hablaría vs. digo que hablaré
That is, the event hablaría is subsequent to the event dije (or decía) in dije (decía) que hablaría just
as the event hablaré is subsequent to the event digo in digo que hablaré.
The conditional always implies subsequence, even if the subsequence is purely hypothetical and
even impossible:
Lo haría pero no puedo; lo haría si pudiera
Thus, the complete modifications chart looks like this:
Primary
Subsequence
Non-past
habla
Hablará
Imperfective
Past
hablaba
hablaría
Perfective
(Past)
habló
Secondary
Anteriority
Duration
Ha hablado
Está hablando
Ha estado hablando
Habrá hablado
Estará hablando
Habrá estado hablando
Había hablado
Estaba hablando
Había estado hablando
Habría hablado
Estaría hablando
Habría estado hablando
(hubo hablado)
Estuvo hablando
(Hubo estado hablando)
Summarizing: the Spanish auxiliary is made up of two primary modifications which are
obligatory and three optional secondary modifications.
Exercise:
The following sentences are cited merely to highlight the perfective-imperfective contrast. Explain the
differences. There is one example already done.
Trabajé en la embajada
Vs.
Trabajaba en la embajada
(Perfective: the working is viewed as having terminated)
No encontré la casa
Vs.
No encontraba la casa
____________________________________________
(Imperfective: implication is that I was in the midst of working there at
some particular time, perhaps when something else happened - cuando
nació mi tercer hijo)
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Hablé con la muchacha que quería ____________________________________________
Conocer
____________________________________________
El señor salió, fue a un restaurante ____________________________________________
Y comió mucho
____________________________________________
Los días fueron bonitos; siempre
____________________________________________
Hizo sol cuando fuimos al campo
____________________________________________
El día estaba bonito; por eso
____________________________________________
Fuimos a la playa
____________________________________________
Yo no supe a qué hora llegó
____________________________________________
Juan leía mientras yo estudiaba
____________________________________________
Así nos llevamos muy bien
____________________________________________
Durante los crudos inviernos
____________________________________________
Rusos, la gente se moría de hambre
______________________________________
The imperfect is also used when we speak of past repeated or habitual actions/events/states without reference
to a conclusion. For example:

No se llevaban muy bien.

They did not get along well.
However, if you indicate a specific time frame in which the action/state/event took place thereby indicating that
it is clearly a concluded past, the verb is in the preterit. An example would be:


Después de la muerte de su hijo, no se llevaron bien por un año.
After the death of their child, they did not get along well for a year.
As you no doubt know from previous study of Spanish and from our temporal map, it is not uncommon to find
both the preterit and the imperfect in the same sentence. If you have a past action/state/event that was
ongoing and therefore, makes no reference to when it began or to when it ended (Ex.: "I was studying.") and
the action of another verb intercepts the action of the verb which reports the ongoing action, then the second
verb will be in the preterit while the first verb will be in the imperfect.

Yo estudiaba cuando María me llamó.
 I was studying when Maria called me.
If, on the other hand, Maria called me each and every time that I was studying, then the action of both verbs is habitual
and both will be in the imperfect
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Lesson 6. The Auxiliary Constituents of the Verb Phrase II
The English Auxiliary
In English, as in Spanish, the auxiliary is the vehicle of the tense system. We have seen that the auxiliary of
Spanish carries a primary modification of aspect-tense and a series of three secondary modifications.
English, on the other hand, does NOT have any aspect distinctions. Rather, its tense system is based upon
the fundamental dichotomy between PAST and NON-PAST. English verbs have three modifications plus
combinations. Two similar modifications to Spanish are SUBSEQUENCE
and
RELEVANT
ANTERIORITY.
Marked with primary and secondary (and external)
modifications
Currency
The sun was burning brightly through the window as
he was getting up
Relevant Anteriority
After he had left, she called Sue
Subsequence
She knew that no matter when he would leave she'd
cry
Relevant Anteriority and After they had been working a while, they realized how
Currency
difficult the job was
(Subsequence and)
Relevant Anteriority
(Subsequence),
Relevant Anteriority and
Currency
She said that after he had left she'd cry
We knew that by the time he had been speaking for
two hours, he'd be tired
Why is “subsequence” in the chart in parenthesis? _______________________________________
The secondary English modification which is similar to the Spanish modification of explicit duration is
that of CURRENCY. The currency modification resembles either the past imperfective or the past
imperfective with explicit (limited) duration. It carries information being CURRENTLY in the middle of
something.
The other secondary modifications of English are best shown through translation equivalents with
English itself:
Contingency-Permission (may/might)
The difference between may and might is that only may carries the permissive potential; might is
restricted to contingency. Are they interchangeable? _____________________________________
Fill in the chart
Contingency
Permission
May
might
Provide Examples.
1. ___________________________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________________________________
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Potentiality (can/could)
Unlike may and might, can and could are NOT interchangeable in clauses, because could carries the
notion of UNFULFILLED POTENTIAL, whereas can is simply static potential.
Provide Examples:
Can: ___________________________________________________________________
Could: ___________________________________________________________________
These modal verbs are often used to express a sense of possibility. This sense of possibility may be 'strong' (i.e.
we are certain about something) or 'weak' (i.e. we are not so sure).
1 Can. Can is used:
a. To show that someone has an ability to do something, or senses something.
Helen can cook really well.
Did you turn off the cooker? I can smell something burning!
b. To show that a certain effect is possible.
Skiing can be really tiring. Smoking can damage your health.
2 May, mIght and could. They are used:
a. To show that there is a chance that something will happen in the future.
Don't drive so fast - you may / might / could have an accident.
b. To show that something is possibly true now. (The continuous form should be used where the present
continuous would be appropriate.)
Jane is not at home - she might be at work.
This painting could be extremely valuable - why don't you ask an expert?
May not and might not I mightn't are used:
To show that something is possibly not the case:
Speak slowly and clearly because he may not understand you.
You can ask him, but he might not / mightn't help you.
3 Can't and couldn't
Cannot / can't or could not I couldn't are used when we are almost certain that something is not the case it is impossible. (We never use mustn't, because this means that something is prohibited.)
She can't / couldn't be so young - she has three children!
What you tell me can't / couldn't possibly be correct - I'lI have to check it.
Practice Exercises
A Fill in the gaps in 1-6 by using couldn't or mightn't.Where do you think the two speakers are?
1. That............................be the same referee as last week; he's too slim!
2. If they score a second goal we............................win this match.
3. That............................be a penalty; the defender's nowhere near him!
4. He............................be able to carry on playing, with that leg injury.
5. You say he's no good but I bet you............................play like that.
6. They're such a boring team that I............................come here again.
B Rewrite 1-10 using can, could, may or might, or the negative form of one of these.
1. Perhaps she won't cross the line first, after all.
2. It's possible that he'll get the silver medal in the javelin.
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
3. It is not necessarily the case that the favourite will win.
4. It's not certain that the world record-holder will take part.
5. I believe they are capable of coming first in the relay.
6. He's unlikely to run the last 1000 metres as quickly as that.
7. There's a strong possibility that they're already getting tired.
8. There's no chance they'll break the Games record this time.
9. She is an extremely good sprinter.
10. The crowd realize that a victory by their hero is impossible.
Obligation - advisability (should/must/have to)
Should carries a sense of obligation slightly weaker than must or have to, and occurs with all
subjects.
What is the difference between must and have to? _______________________________________
Provide Examples.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Willingness, likehood and certainty (will/would)
We use will when we talk about willingness to do something (e.g. in offers, invitations, requests, and
orders) and will not (or won’t) when we talk about unwillingness to do something (e.g. reluctance, refusal)
Provide Examples: ______________________________________________________________________
To talk about general or repeated willingness in the past we can sometimes use would, but we can’t
use would in this way to talk about a particular occasion in the past. Compare
Whenever I had to go to town, Ron would give me a lift (=repeated, habitual situation)
I was late, so Ron gave me a lift to town (not…Ron would give me…)(=in particular occasion)
Will = habit.
Martha doesn’t like some of the things that Bill does
‘He will play his music too loud when I’m trying to work.’
‘He will leave the front door open when he goes out.’
Think of a close friend or relative and say what things they do that annoy you. Use ‘He/she will…’
Learning Problems concerning English and Spanish auxiliaries.
The obligatory selection of aspect in Spanish. This element is lacking in English.
Gastó su dinero sin cuidado vs. gastaba su dinero sin cuidado.
Solution: The English speaker must learn to specify the content of a sentence more explicitly than he
is used to.
Exercises
I. Correct the sentences if necessary, or put a 
1. I had to work late on Friday, so my mother would pick Sue form school
Picked
2. Mary wouldn’t sing for me, even though I often asked her to
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
3. The moment I asked Steve, he would agree to lend me the car for the day
4. When I phoned, the receptionist wouldn’t let me have an appointment with Dr Johnson before next
week
5. At the interview they wouldn’t tell me how much travelling was involved in the job
6. Yesterday he would make me sandwiches and would bring me a cup of coffee
7. When I had problems with my homework last night, my father would do it for me
8. Five years ago, the children in this school would help to plant all the trees you see before you
9. Before he moved to London, Thomas would meet me every day after work
10. When I was young, shopkeepers would cycle around town, delivering food to customers
II. Where necessary, suggest a correction for these sentences, or put a 
1. I think I saw her go out, so she mightn’t be home
2. It mightn’t be true. There must be some mistake
3. It’s snowing heavily in Scotland so it can take Hugh a long time to get here
4. If we don’t get to the market soon they can’t have any flowers left. They will all have been sold
5. if you’re free at the moment, we may have a job for you
6. May you be given the job permanently?
7. I thought they were on holiday – but I can be wrong, of course
8. Children may enter only when accompanied by an adult
9. ‘I’ve had this birthday card, but it doesn’t say who sent it.’ ‘May it be from Ron?’
III. Correct the mistakes
1. We would have a cat, but one day it just disappeared
2. Before I went to university, I used to work as a carpenter for about five years
3. If the drought goes on much longer, there can be water rationing before the end of the month
4. May it snow this far south?
5. Her parents can have influenced her decision to resign
6. When I went to school we must learn Latin
7. He should like some milk, please
8. John was decided to chair the meeting
9. The children were wanted to come with me
10. The orchestra was conducted
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Lesson 7. Other Constituents of the Verb Phrase
Ser & Estar
Two verbs in particular must be treated separately: ser and estar
Ser is consistently followed by one of the following elements in all sentences:
a) Temporal Adverb (TA): ex?
b) Locative adverb (LOC): ex?
c) Pred (NP or Adj): ex?
Rule: when ser occurs with a TA, the subject of ser refers to an event. Ex?
In the following examples, are they events or objects? Are they modified by TA, LOC or Pred?
La sinfonía será mañana
El desayuno era a las nueve
La lectura fue a las dos
Now look at the following sentences:
La sinfonía está en la mesa
El desayuno estaba en el comedor
La lectura está en la página doce
What is the difference? What's the rule? When do we use ser and when estar?
Compare: Jacinta es bonita vs. Jacinta está bonita. Explain the difference.
Are ser and estar in complementary distribution? Explain
Examine the following situation and underline the right option:
Juan sees José for the first time. José is fat, and Juan classifies him in his mind as a member of the class
"fat people." Juan says to himself:
"José es/está gordo"
José gets sick and goes to the hospital. He loses a great deal of weight. When Juan sees him the next time,
he comments on José's changed condition:
"José es/está flaco"
Pedro is introduced to José for the first time while he is thin from his loss of weight in the hospital. He says
to himself:
"José es/está flaco"
The next time Pedro sees José, José has gained back his normal weight. Pedro says:
"José es/está gordo"
What is the rule for the use of ser and estar then?
Revision exercises:
Highlight the difference between perfective/imperfective aspects.
 Podía hacerlo vs. pude hacerlo
 Cortó la cinta vs. cortaba la cinta
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Lic. Christian Cristóful




Comenzó a escribir a los 7 vs. comenzaba a escribir a los 7
Empezó la clase, dio la lección y terminó exhausto
Se afeitaba todos los días
Son las 12 vs. eran las 12
Non-verbal constituents of the verb phrase
The full verb phrase always includes a verbal constituent, and may also include one or more of the
following, depending on the particular structure:
Noun phrase
Adjective
Adverb
Direct objects
A very important function of the noun phrase in a full verb phrase is that of direct object. This use of the
noun phrase offers little difficulty, since the English and Spanish constructions are almost identical:
I see the house
He has the book
Did you bring the apples?
veo la casa
tiene el libro
¿trajiste las manzanas?
However, there is a difference, the use of the preposition "a" in Spanish, called the "personal a". What does
it do?
It is used for personifications: “Saludó al día”; “Llamó a la muerte”; “Sobrevivió al desastre”
Moreover, its use can cause different English translations, as in:
Las gitanas roban los niños
Gypsy women steal children
Las gitanas roban a los niños
Gypsy women rob children
Quiere un chofer
Quiere a un chofer
She wants a chauffeur
She loves a chauffeur
The use of personal a also expresses possession. Compare the following sentences:
Tengo un hermano
Tengo a mi hermano conmigo
Learning Problems:
¿por qué llamaste tu esposa?
¿dónde conociste Roberto?
Si, yo conozco tu novia
Hypercorrection: ¿qué te contestó a Hugo?
Revision quiz on Verb Phrase
1. The constituent structure of English verbs is simply stem plus tense suffix. Spanish verbs, however
are formed by stem + aspect + tense + person-number. What are the implications of this difference?
__________________________________________________________________________
2. There are different classes of stem changing verbs. Classify the following verbs:
Morir
Poder
Pedir
Mentir
Pensar
Sentir
Sonar
contar
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Exercise
Match the definitions of the linguistic dictionary
1
2
Adjective
Adverb
3
Article
4
Bound morphemes
5
Constituent
6
8
Demonstratives
Derivational
morphemes
Determiner
9
Diphthong
10
14
15
16
17
18
Direct object
Embedded
sentence
Free morphemes
Inflectional
morphemes
Intransitive verb
Lexical category
Main verb
Morpheme
Morphological rules
19
Morphology
20
21
Node
Noun
22
Noun Phrase
23
Orthography
24
Participle
25
Passive sentence
26
Preposition
7
11
12
13
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
Prepositional
phrase
Prescriptive
grammar
Sentence
Syntax
Tree diagram
Verb
Verb phrase
A graphical representation of the hierarchical structure of a phrase or sentence
A labelled branch point in a phrase structure tree
A sentence in which the verbal complex contains a form of to be followed by a
verb in its participle form
A sentence occurring within a sentence in a phrase structure tree
A syntactic category of expressions consisting minimally of a noun phrase
followed by a verb phrase
A syntactic category whose members are words (nouns, verbs, articles, etc)
A syntactic unit in a phrase structure tree (e.g. the girl is a noun phrase
constituent in the sentence the boy loves the girl)
A verb that may not be followed by a noun phrase direct object.
Bound grammatical morphemes that are added to complete words according to
rules of syntax (e.g. 3 person singular verbal suffix _s)
Morphemes added to stem morphemes to form new stems or words.
Morphemes that can only occur in words attached to other morphemes
One of the several subclasses of determiners
Rules for the combination of morphemes to form stems and words
Rules of grammar
Single morphemes that constitute words
Smallest unit of linguistic meaning or function
The category of words which when combined with a noun form a noun phrase
The form of a verb that occurs after the auxiliary verb have
The grammatical relation of a noun phrase when it appears immediately below
the verb phrase (VP)
The nonauxiliary verb in the verb phrase
The rules of sentence formation
The study of the structure of words; the component of the grammar that
includes the rules of word formation
The syntactic category occurring within both noun phrases and verb phrases
consisting on a preposition followed by a noun phrase
The syntactic category of expressions containing a verb and possibly other
syntactic units such as noun phrases and prepositional phrases
The syntactic category of expressions containing some form of a noun or
pronoun and capable of functioning as the subject or as various objects in a
sentence
The syntactic category, also lexical category, of words that occur first in a
prepositional phrase
The syntactic/lexical category of words that can occur as the first syntactic unit
in a verb phrase
The written form of a language; spelling
They compromise the core of a noun phrase
They precede a noun and qualify it
They usually occur last within a verb phrase and qualify the verb
Vowel + glide
Words such as this, that, those and these, that function syntactically as articles
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
3. In Spanish, there are several types of stem changes in irregular verbs. Provide at least one example
of each:
 Shortened stems:
 Consonant substitution:
 Additional stem extensions:
 Additional stem-vowel changes:
 Stems with consonant and vowel change:
 Stems with shortening and vowel change:
 Stem lengthening by insertion of /je/:
 Totally replaced stems:
4. In Spanish, the aux introduces a set of MODIFICATIONS into the verb phrase. Explain.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
5. In this pair of sentences, describe the contrast by commenting on their aspect
Trabajé en la fábrica vs. Trabajaba en la fábrica
_________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
6. Ser is consistently followed by one of the following elements in all sentences. Provide examples:
d) Temporal Adverb (TA):
e) Locative adverb (LOC):
f) Pred (NP or Adj):
7. True or false?
 English, does NOT have any aspect distinctions ( )
 The currency modification in English resembles neither the Spanish past imperfective nor the past
imperfective with explicit duration ( )
 May/might express advisability/contingency ( )
 When “ser” occurs with a TA, the subject of ser refers to an event ( )
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Homework
Task 1. Tree Diagrams. Make up 3 simple sentences and 3 embedded sentences. Make tree
diagrams out of them. Submit them in a piece of paper next Monday.
Whenever you do homework, you are free to research either in books, e-books, or by asking
others. Always state your source
Task 2. The English Auxiliary. Do the following exercise. Due. Right after lesson 5
Underline the correct form of the verb in the following sentences. Then categorlze each group under the uses below.
The first one has been done as an example. In one of the sentences both answers are correct. Due: after lesson 5
(L) degrees of likelihood
necessity)
(A) ability
(P) permission (O) obligation
(N) necessity (or lack of
1
(L)
a) Tony must have been/must have run into heavy traffic. He should have arrived by now.
b) He won’t have/won’t be here in time for dinner.
c) He can’t have/can have called. I’ve been in all evening and haven’t heard the phone.
2
( )
a) Apparently, you mustn’t/don’t have to enter the country without a visa.
b) I know you don’t have to/mustn’t have a visa if you’re travelling from Spain.
c) I have to/must remember to get my passport renewed.
3
( )
a) Sue doesn’t need to/needn’t have to/didn’t need to worry. I’m sure she’ll pass the exam.
b) I needn’t have/didn’t need worried about the interview. I got the job quite easily.
4
( )
a) You can’t to/are not allowed to smoke until you’re 16 in England.
b) I was allowed to/could stay out until quite late as a child.
5
( )
a) The bank was closed so I couldn’t/wasn’t able to get any money out.
b) I could/was able to get some from the cashpoint by the supermarket
Task 3 The English Auxiliary. Do the following exercise. Due: right after lesson 5
The following sentences are too formal. Rewrite each sentence using the word in brackets.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
We are obliged to tell the teacher if we’re going to be late. (have)
You weren’t compelled to help me but thanks all the same (need)
You can dispense with the dictionary. The text is quite easy (need)
Were you successful in booking a table at the’ restaurant? (able)
My parents have never permitted me to have a party. (allowed)
He will in all probability have decided to stay at home. ‘(must)
I worried unnecessarily about the exam. It was easy, (have)
We are not authorised to proceed beyond this point. (must)
I won’t be capable of meeting you at 9.00. (able)
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
10. I am sure that isn’t John at the door. He’s still at work. (can)
Task 4. Use of English Verbs. Research on the uses of the following verb constructions and
answer the questions. Due: Some time before the day of the final exam (you decide when)
Be to + infinitive. Look at these examples.
They were to bargain with people
I’m to meet the new manager tomorrow
The hero was never to see his native land again.
1. What time is referred to by the verb be + infinitive?
Needn’t have done/didn’t need to
a. Jane needn’t have hurried. The bus was late
b. Sam didn’t need to hurry after all. He was informed the meeting would start late.
2. Who didn’t hurry?
3. Who hurried unnecessarily?
Don’t have to/must not
a. I don’t have to go to work tomorrow, it’s Saturday
b. You mustn’t go to work, you’re too ill
4. What’s the difference in meaning?
Regretfully/regrettably
a. Regretfully, he turned away from Maria’s house and walked towards the station
b. Regrettably, our request for help was turned down.
5. What is the difference in meaning?
READING: The first two years of your career you are given the opportunity to read and learn about
this fascinating subject of Linguistics. We want to train you to develop critical thinking. This is
accomplished first by having something to think about.
Our aim is not only for you to become language experts, but also to excel in reading
comprehension and be keen on doing the practice exercises. This will prepare you to be quick on
interpreting technical theory and swift (but accurate) on doing exercises related to that theory.
Since you are going to do this at home, the skimming and scanning reading techniques will not be
useful for our purposes. Consider intensive, thorough reading instead.
You will not get any process points for this. Take into account that you are PAYING for this.
Remember, we are NOT responsible for either your level of English or doing your reading
assignments. It is entirely up to you.
Reading Assignment. You are free to
Read the Theory: Textbook, chapters 3 & 4 (pages 63 – 97 & 105 - 148)
Practise the Exercises: Do Exercises from pages 98 – 104 and 149 – 156 from your textbook,
[do NOT submit]. If you have any questions, do not hesitate on asking me.
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Lic. Christian Cristóful
Index
Additional stem extension, 15, 30
Agreement, 4
Auxiliary, 9, 10, 19, 23
Bare infinitive, 4
Consonant substitution, 15, 30
Contingency, 23
Currency, 23
Ellipsis, 10
Enclisis, 1, 10
Estar, 15, 27
Exercise, 4, 7, 10, 21, 29
Locative adverb, 27, 30
Modal, 9
Obligation, 25
Participle, 29
Passive be, 9
Perfective have, 9
Permissive, 23
Potentiality, 24
Primary modifications, 1
Progressive be, 9
Ser, 16, 27, 30
Shortened stems, 15, 30
Spanish auxiliary, 2, 21
Stem vowel change, 16
Stems with consonant and vowel change, 16,
30
To-infinitive, 4
Verb phrase, 29
Willingness, 25
Sources
Fromkin, Victoria and Robert Rodman. An Introduction To Language. Harcourt Brace. 1998
Hewings, Martin. Advanced Grammar in Use. Cambridge University Press. 1999
http://www.sil.org/americas/brasil/fun/englboqz.htm. 1999 SIL International.
Stockwell, Robert et all. The Grammatical Structures of English and Spanish. Chicago Press.
Slabakova, R (1998), The L2 Acquisition of Telicity in English by Spanish and Slavic Native Speakers. Talk
in GASLA1998, University of Pittsburgh
The 1997 Groelier Multimedia Encyclopedia
Verb Aspect. Invisible Lighthouse -> Language Lab from the 24th edition of Journal of Planned Languages.
1996-2002 by Richard K. Harrison
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