no more lazy Saturdays.. i'm planning to go around, learn a topic each saturday.. let the topic be anything..

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Tenses and auxiliary verbs



Here, I wish to throw some light on tenses used in English, common mistakes that we make and confusion existing between diff auxiliary verbs...

Auxiliary verb: A verb that combines with another verb in a verb phrase to help form tense, mood, voice, or condition of the verb it combines with


A commom mistakes (in red):

Q: Ma'am, can i come in?
A:(from ma'am) You can, but you may not!!
It should be 'may i come in?' When you use 'can', you test your own ability to come in. As a reason Ma'am says 'you can', that means you have the ability to come in, 'but you may not', means she dosen't want you to come in...

Jose should study tonight => it is Jose's responsibility to study tonight
Jose can/could study => he has the ability to study
Jose would study => he intents to study
Jose may/might study tonight => there is a possibility that Jose studies tonight

I was to have watched the movie => telling abt past
I was to watch the movie => I am supposed to be inside the thethre watching the movie, but got late..ehh
I am to watch the movie => I am looking forward to watch the movie

Auxiliary verb used with a habit: 'used to'
eg: He is a spoilt child, and is used to disobeying his elders.

Had had:
I would have gone on a trip to America if I had had enough money.
had: describes possession
had: to assert it happened in past

1 comment:

  1. Wow........ Being a Softskills trainer...i am delighted to c u write this kind of a post on ur blog... :)

    Just yesterday i was explaining the "Had had" thing to one of my participants who was confused over it... :)

    ReplyDelete