2020-02-12 Grammar: simple vs. continuous

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - Notes from all classes
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Homework (optional): complete the verb chart
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Some verbs have both regular and irregular forms:
fit - fit - fit / fit - fitted - fitted

Some verbs are spelled the same as other verbs, but only one is irregular:
with different pronunciation:
	wind - wound - wound / wind - winded - winded
	(wind up a watch) / (to knock the breath out of someone)

	tear - tore - torn / tear - teared - teared
	(tear up paper) / (start to cry)
with the same pronunciation:
	ring - rang - rung / ring - ringed - ringed
	(the phone rang) / (to make a ring around something)
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Simple Past (review - hopefully):
+	I swam in a lake.
-	I didn’t swim in a river. (remember: did/didn’t + base form)
? y/n	Did you swim in a lake?
	Yes, I did. / No, I didn’t.
 info-	When did you swim in a lake?
	(subject question: Who swam in a lake? How many people went swimming?)
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Progressive is for actions that continue for some time. If you can be “in the middle of” something, then the progressive can be used for that “something”.

- Some verbs are not actions. They don’t take any time, so you’re never really in the middle of it:
	I have 100 books. (One way to check if a verb is an action is to ask if there’s a limit to how many.)

- Some actions typically happen very fast. It’s uncommon or strange to be in the middle of them.
	The car crashed into the tree.
	(The car was crashing into the tree. = We watched it in slow motion.)
	My sister hit me.
	(My sister was hitting me. = She repeatedly hit me many times.)
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p. 18 exercise 4 - Decide whether simple or progressive is correct. (These can be in any time frame.)
1 am studying
2 was reading
3 get, are marching (“marched” and “were marching” would be grammatical as well)
4 doesn’t study / isn’t studying
5 was speaking / spoke / is speaking / speaks
6 was looking, “discovered”
7 reached, thought
8 am trying / was trying
9 was studying, heard
10 be sleeping
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English is difficult. It can be understood through tough thorough thought though.
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Perfect is for things that happen before the “focus time”.
- If the focus is on a specific past or future time, the perfect aspect just tells us the order of events.
	When he left for work, he forgot the food he had packed the night before.
	I don’t know when I’ll do it, but I will have finished by tomorrow morning.
- present perfect is for things that will or might happen again in the same time frame
	I haven’t eaten lunch. = I still might have lunch.
	I didn’t eat lunch today. = I won’t have lunch. My next meal will be dinner.
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Homework: p. 20 exercise 6 - Should these sentences use simple or perfect?