Forms of verbs in English

Forms of verbs in the English language are diverse. But this is not an excuse to consider his grammar as an incomprehensible science. If you seriously decided to study it, first of all you must drop all seriousness and read the book of the psychologist and teacher AA. Pyltsyna called "English in the family circle."

I see you want to ask: "Why do we need temporary forms of verbs in English?" The explanation is very simple. Remember the cartoon about the bear cub of Winnie the Pooh: once he did not want to eat "wrong honey", which was collected by "wrong bees"? This, of course, is a joke. But, imagine, the British are such jokers that they seriously decided to talk in the "wrong" language. They even have irregular verbs. Do not believe me? Judge for yourself! Let's write a small list: 3 forms of verbs in English:

1. Forgive: forgive-forgave-forgiven
2. Begin: begin-start-started
3. Go: go-went-gone
4. Feed: feed-fed-fed
5. Run: ran-run-ran
6. Quit-quit-quit

Why these verbs were called wrong - it is not difficult to guess at all. After all, if you look closely at them, it becomes obvious that the first three have different forms. In the fourth, the last two forms coincide, but differ from the first. In the fifth, the first and last forms coincide. In the sixth, all three forms are absolutely identical. Can you compare these naughty sharks with the correct verbs? Judge for yourself:

Open: open-opened-opened

Ask: ask-asked-asked

Watch: watch-watched-watched

Here is where the order and control: the correct verbs the second and third forms coincide under any circumstances and always have an ending - ed.

And what is the first form of the verb? English grammar offers us to get acquainted with His Majesty the Infinitive. You can never ignore this Very Important Person, because he always uses a particle of to, and he answers the question "what to do?" Well, what can you answer such a question? Of course:

To learn, to learn, to learn!

(Study, study, study!)

Infinitive always dictates what we should do:

Read: to read

Is: to eat

Sleep: to sleep

I think, from what has been said, it becomes obvious that the infinitive is the first form of the English verb. But what do we see: in the sentence

I like to eat bananas. I love eating bananas.

As many as two times the first form of the verb occurs, but only in front of one of them is a particle to - how is this to be understood?

It's simple: to eat is an infinitive (responding, as we remember, to the question "what to do?"). The word like does not have a particle to , and therefore answers the question "what do I do?".

But if I did something earlier, I would need to use the second form of verbs in English.

Example:

I ate bananas yesterday.

Yesterday I ate bananas.

I drove a limousine last night.

Last night I was riding a limousine.

I wrote letters to my girlfriends.

I wrote letters to my friends.

Now, to say about what happened in the past, you just put the verb in the second form! As the wonderful actor V. Livanov (among other things - the best Sherlock Holmes of all times and peoples) said: "Elementary, Watson!". However, if everything is so simple, then why use the third form of verbs in English? I had a presentiment of this question ...

You see, from what we said the phrase I ate bananas yesterday is not at all clear, I ate all the bananas yesterday, or a little for today left. Similarly, thanks to the phrase I wrote letters to my girlfriends , the question remains unclear, whether I wrote letters to my friends, or did they remain unfinished? Therefore, if we want to emphasize the interlocutor's attention to the fact that the action was completed, knowledge and use of the third form of verbs in English will be required:

I have written letters to my girlfriends.

I wrote letters to my friends.

I have eaten bananas.

I ate bananas.

And the verb have in these phrases does not translate, because it is necessary to indicate the completeness of the action. It helps to designate an event in the past, and therefore is called an auxiliary verb.

If you liked this article, and you want to continue studying the grammar of the English language, be sure to read the lessons of AA. Pyl'cin "English in the style of Rock" and "English with blondes" - you will like it even more!