Questions about the English Verb Tenses Course

Questions about the English Verb Tenses Course

by Tu
(Hanoi, Vietnam)

I did two exercises of lesson 3 in the 10-day course of English verb tenses.

I have some things which I don't really understand. Please help me!

(A) In exercise 1:

I don't understand why the past progressive tense was used in this sentence.

"2. They were playing (play) outside all morning."

"All morning" means now they are still playing!

So I think it should be the simple present.

In addition, what is the aspect of the action?

Ola's answer:

Hi again Tu,

I'm happy to see you are asking about things that are not clear to you. That is they way to succeed! :)

Now, I will answer each question, one by one, starting with this first one.

I can understand your confusion. It can indeed go both ways. The speaker may have in mind the past or the present.

If it is now noon he can say, "They were playing outside all morning."

If it is still morning, he can say, "They are playing outside all morning."

(B) And why is the present progressive tense used in this case?

"9. This month they are renovating (renovate) the house."

This month, may be they already finished the work, or didn't they?

"This month" can indicate this is a temporal action. They don't regularly renovate their house. This action is in progress currently. We want to emphasize they are in the middle of it, so we use the present progressive tense.

(C) In exercise 2:

I don't understand why we use the future progressive in the last sentence:

"I will live (live) in a big house. I will have (have) a big family, and I will make (make) a lot of people happy!"

I think she already has a big house, already has a big family, and she already makes a lot of people happy, doesn't she? Because now she is a famous singer and very successful!

That may be so, but since she is talking about her future the sentences are in the simple future tense.

(D) The last question: what are the signs (hints) when doing exercises about verb tense? Specifically, I don't understand the signs in the above sentences!

That's a good question. These are the signs:

First, you need to spot the time of the action. Determine whether it is in the past, present or future.

Then, determine the aspect of the action. Should you emphasize that it is in progress or complete?

For example, "When you called me last night I _______________ (get ready) to leave the house."

What is the time of the action? Last night --> past.

Is there any emphasis regarding aspect? Yes, it seems that the action was in progress when the other person called --> progressive.

Now we combine the two: past + progressive --> past progressive.

End result:
"When you called me last night I was getting ready to leave the house."

These are my questions when I finished lesson 3. It seems a bit harder for me!

Please help me and answer these questions. I hope to receive your answer and I'm waiting for the answer!

Sorry for any inconvenience!

Thank you so much for the free course about these verb tenses!

I hope this makes things a bit more clear. Let me know if you still have questions :)

Ola

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Jul 12, 2011
Thank you
by: Tu

Thank you for your answer! I am trying to do more things in English! When I read my post again, I know that I was wrong in many sentences with wrong tenses!

I hope I have chances to help you in any things!
Thanks again!

Ola's answer:

You are most welcome :)

Jul 12, 2011
Answer
by: OlaA

Ola's answer:

Hi Tu,

I totally under what you are saying.

The thing is that English verb tenses are a tool you should use in order to get your message across effectively. They help us understand what other people mean, and they help other people understand what we mean.

That's the only purpose verb tenses have. They are there so that when somebody says something about an action or a state, we will understand when and how the action happened.

So you can indeed say it is pretty subjective at times.

The basic purpose of the e-mail course is to provide you with good understanding of what's the purpose of each and every tense. In addition, it gives much practice so that you can remember the rules such as spelling and the different helping verbs.

Once you have accomplished that, you need to move on to "real life English."

So Now, after this long "tense philosophy" here is what you need to do:

1) Understand the purpose of each tense. (The course is there to help you do just that! Read, clarify and practice.)

2) Make many sentences of your own with each tenses until you are sure of how and when to use it.

3) Read books and stories, magazines and articles and listen to podacsts. See how the tenses are used in real life.

4) Use them to get YOUR message across.

I hope this helps :)

Ola

Jul 12, 2011
Thank you
by: Tu

I was very surprised when you responded immediately. I just post my question yesterday afternoon! Thank you so much for that!

Do you think I want to succeed? I ask you just because in the last of each lesson, you wrote:
"Do you have any questions? Now is the perfect time to ask them." that helps me not to feel bad when I ask questions!

Besides, I think if I don't ask you when I finish the exercises, maybe I will never understand them. I am 22 years old now, and I need to improve my knowledge for my work! This may be called NOW OR NEVER!

And now, just a little disturb to you.

I still have a trouble with this sentence:

"This month they are renovating (renovate) the house."

If I meet some cases in real life that which are like this one, how can I determine the tense?

You answered that "this month" can indicate this is a temporal action. They don't regularly renovate their house. This action is in progress currently. We want to emphasize they are in the middle of it, so we use the present progressive tense.

I wonder if this is not objective, just subjective? How can I guess the ideal with a sentence?

Can I write this sentence like so:

1) This month, they have renovated the house.
When the renovating work was finished this month, and we say the sentence this month, too!
OR
2) This month, they will renovate the house.
When the work renovating will be done on 20th this month, and we say this sentence on 10th this month!

Sorry for the many questions, but in the real life, I am a talkative person, too.

But don't worry, I can listen other than talk!

Thank you for all your help and your patient!

Thank you for your belief, too. Because you don't know what kind of person I am!

Best regard,
Tu

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