The Indicative Mood

Tenses
- Form -

The distinction between the concepts of time and tense should always be taken into consideration when discussing about verbs
and conjugation.

The concept of TIME is universal, and it can be past, present or future. The TENSE, however, is the relationship between the form
of the verb and how this form expresses the notion of TIME.

The conjugation of the English verb is based on the first three principal forms; they are the dictionary forms of the English verb.

Bare Infinitive First form Second form Third form

V0 Infinitive Past Simple Past Participle
V∅ V1 Preterite V-en
V-ed V3
V2
∅ work to work worked worked
∅ give to give gave given

Before commencing a discussion about the conjugation system of the English verb, it is necessary to make a classification of the
verb. There are two main criteria: form and function.

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 I. FORMAL CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS
1) ONE WORD VERBS
 Simple verbs: work; play; learn; eat; drank etc.
 Derivative verbs (formed by means of affixes – prefixes and suffixes): mislead; blacken; synchronize etc.
 Compound verbs: understand; overburden; blackmail; broadcast; hitch-hike etc.

2) MULTI-WORD VERBS
 Verb + Adverbial Particle (phrasal verbs): come back; put on; sit up; take off; throw up etc.
 Verb + Preposition (prepositional verbs): call on; look at; look for; take after; turn into etc.
 Verb + Adverbial Particle + Preposition (phrasal-prepositional verbs): come down on; look up to; put up with; run up to etc.

3) According to the Formation of the Past Tense and the Past Participle:
 Regular Verbs – they are formed by adding ‘-(e)d’ to the bare infinitive:
to walk – walked – walked to call – called – called to close – closed - closed
 Irregular Verbs – the past tenses and the past participles of these verbs vary and must be learnt:
to go – went – gone to cut – cut – cut to lose – lost – lost to come – came – come
to be – was/ were – been to have – had – had to do – did – done

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 Spelling Rules for Adding ‘-ed’
1) Verbs ending in a consonant preceded by a single stressed vowel double that consonant before adding the ‘-ed’:
to rub – rubbed – rubbed to knit – knitted – knitted to prefer – preferred – preferred
to regret – regretted – regretted
 in all other cases, the consonant is not doubled:
to seat – seated – seated to order – ordered – ordered to thicken – thickened – thickened

2) The compound or simple verbs ending in ‘ap’, ‘ip’ or ‘p’ double the consonant before adding ‘-ed’ if the stress is on the
first syllable:
to worship – worshipped – worshipped to kidnap – kidnapped – kidnapped
to sideslip – sideslipped – sideslipped

3) Verbs ending in ‘l’ always double the consonant before the ‘-ed’:
to travel – travelled – travelled to quarrel – quarrelled – quarrelled to control – controlled – controlled
to cancel – cancelled – cancelled to compel – compelled – compelled
EXCEPTION: unparalleled

4) Verbs ending in ‘ic’ add a ‘k’ before adding the ‘-ed’:

to mimic – mimicked – mimicked to picnic – picnicked – picnicked

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 5) Verbs ending in ‘y’ preceded by a consonant change the ‘y’ into ‘i’ before adding the ‘-ed’:
to cry – cried – cried to try – tried – tried

6) Verbs ending in ‘y’ preceded by a vowel keep the ‘y’ before adding the ‘-ed’:
to play – played – played to (dis)obey – (dis)obeyed – (dis)obeyed to enjoy – enjoyed – enjoyed

7) Verbs ending in a silent ‘e’ lose the ‘e’ before adding the ‘-ed’:
to dance – danced – danced to tie – tied – tied to dye – dyed – dyed

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 II. FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS
According to their syntactical functions, verbs may be divided into: full/ content/ ordinary/ notional/ lexical verbs and
auxiliary/ function/ helping verbs.
1) A full/ lexical/ notional verb has a meaning of its own and can form the predicate by itself:
We work a lot. I often go home. They played football.
2) An auxiliary verb has no independent meaning of its own, but helps to build up compound forms of the English verb.
They serve as:
a) Tense formers (temporals):
 To be: am, is, are, was, were, been, being
 To have: have, has, had
 To do: do, does, did
 Used to
 Shall; will
 Should; would (FUTURE-IN-THE-PAST)

b) Mood formers (modals):

can – could may – might shall – should will – would
must ought to need have to dare used to
Note: to be, to have, to do, to need, to dare can also be used as full verbs:
We were in Great Britain last year. He has two sisters. They did their work well.
I badly need a new suit. I have never dared (to) ask him.

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 THE NICE PROPERTIES OF ENGLISH AUXILIARIES
NICE is an acronym for the four syntactic characteristics that distinguish auxiliary verbs from lexical verbs in English
grammar:
N – negation
I – inversion
C – coda/ code
E – emphasis
A mnemonic for the four properties which distinguish auxiliary verbs from other verbs, as follows:
 auxiliaries alone can be negated:
She doesn't smoke. She wouldn't smoke. She's not smoking.
WE DON’T SAY: She smokes not.

 auxiliaries alone can be inverted:

Is she smoking? Does she smoke? May she smoke?
WE DON’T SAY: Smokes she?
- YES – NO Questions: Is Min Hee sitting over there? Has Gilbert understood this?
- WH – Questions: Where is Min Hee going to sit? What has Gilbert understood?
Note: lexical verbs require do-insertion to form a question:
- YES – NO Questions: *Speaks Keun Bae any other languages? → Does Keun Bae speak any other languages?
- WH – Questions: *What languages speaks Keun Bae? → What languages does Keun Bae speak?"

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  auxiliaries alone exhibit code/ coda, the ability to allow a following verb phrase to be deleted – in constructions that
'stand for' or 'code' a previously mentioned verb phrase, the first auxiliary is repeated and inverted with the Subject, and the
lexical verb is deleted:
- TAG Questions: She should not eat kimchi, should she? The vase was broken by the workers, wasn't it?
*She should not eat kimchi, eat she? *The workers broke the vase, broken't they?
*She eats kimchi, eats not she?
- ELLIPSIS: I should see the doctor, and so should she. *I saw the doctor, and so saw she.
“Who should eat kimchi?” “– She should.” “Who ate kimchi?” “*- She ate.”
We were eating kimchi, and so was she. *We eat kimchi and so eats she.

 auxiliaries alone can be emphasized – they can have prosodic emphasis (i.e. the force with which something is uttered):
She DOES smoke. She MUSTN'T smoke. She CAN smoke. She IS smoking.

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 CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH TENSES AND THEIR MAIN USES
1) Present Time:
 Present Tense Simple/ Indefinite is used:
- for general, habitual or repeated actions, as well as for general truths and scientific laws;
- to replace future tense in temporal clauses and in conditional clauses type 1.

 Present Tense Continuous/ Progressive is used:

- for actions happening at the moment of speaking;
- for temporary actions;
- for actions that happen around the moment of speaking even if not exactly at the moment of speaking;
- for changing or developing situations/ trends;
- to express a near future when we arranged to do something and the date and place are known.

 Present Tense Perfect Simple is used:

- for actions that started in the past and that may continue up to the present;
- for actions which have recently finished and whose results are visible in the past;
- for actions happening at an unstated time in the past.

 Present Tense Perfect Continuous/ Progressive is used:

- to put emphasis on the duration of the action began in the past that continues up to the present;

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- for actions that began in the past, lasted for a while and may or may not last in the present, but whose results are visible in the present.
NOTES FOR PRESENT TIME:
 verbs of liking and disliking, verbs of the senses, verbs of perception as well as other intransitive state verbs are not
normally used in the progressive form, except when they are performed deliberately by a subject on another object;

 HAVE BEEN TO – used to say that someone has gone somewhere and returned
HAVE BEEN IN – used to say that someone lives in a specific place
HAVE GONE TO – uses to say that someone went somewhere but have not returned yet

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 2) Past Time:
 Past Tense Simple/ Indefinite is used:
- for actions that happened at a definite time in the past; the time is stated, already known or implied;
- for actions that happened in the past immediately one after the other;
- for past habits or states which are now finished.

 Past Tense Continuous/ Progressive is used:

- for an action which was in progress at a stated time in the past; we do not mention when the action started or finished
- for an action which was in progress when another action interrupted it; we use the past continuous for the longer action and the past
simple for the action interrupting the longer action;
- for two or more simultaneous past actions;
- to describe the narrative background in stories.

 Past Tense Perfect Simple is used:

- for an action that happened before a past action or before a stated past time;
- for an action which finished in the past and whose results were visible in the past

 Past Tense Perfect Continuous/ Progressive is used:

- to put emphasis on the duration of a past action which started and finished in the past before another past action or past moment;
- for an action which lasted for some time in the past and whose result was visible in the past.

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NOTES FOR PAST TIME:
 USED TO + V0 – used for past actions, states and routines (that do not usually continue in the present)
WOULD + V0 – used for past actions and routines; it is not used with state verbs
BE USED TO + Noun/ Pronoun/ Ving – be accustomed to; be in the habit of
GET USED TO + Noun/ Pronoun/ Ving – become accustomed to

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 3) Future Time:
 Future Tense Simple/ Indefinite is used:
- in predictions about the future, after verbs of thinking or believing, as well as after expressions and adverbs denoting degrees of
certainty;
- for on-the-spot decisions;
- after verbs of promising, threatening, warning, requesting, hoping and offering;
- for actions, events or situations which will definitely happen in the future and which we cannot control.

 Future Tense Continuous/ Progressive is used:

- for an action which will be in progress at a stated future time;
- for an action which will definitely happen in the future as the result of a plan or arrangement;
- when we ask politely about someone’s plans for the near future, especially when we want to know if our wishes fit in with their plans.

 Future Tense Perfect Simple is used:

- for an action which will be finished before a stated future time.

 Future Tense Perfect Continuous/ Progressive is used:

- to emphasise the duration of an action up to a certain time in the future

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NOTES FOR FUTURE TIME:
 BE GOING TO + V0 – is used:
- for plans, intentions or ambitions we have for the future;
- for actions we have already decided to do in the near future;
- in predictions when there is evidence that something will happen in the future.

 BE GOING TO + V0 – to talk about something we intend to do

FUTURE SIMPLE – to give details or make comments

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 PRESENT TIME – FORMS
PRESENT TENSE SIMPLE

Affirmative (+) Interrogative (?)

S + VØ Do/Does + S + VØ ?
S + V-es

Negative (-) Negative-interrogative (-?)

S + do/does + not + VØ Do/Does + S + not + VØ ?
S + don’t/doesn’t + VØ Don’t/Doesn’t + S + VØ ?

Note 1: we use ‘do’ support to form the interrogative and the negative:
Note 2: the present tense simple form is identical with the bare infinitive; for the third person singular, we add the ending ‘-(e)s’
to
the bare infinitive; the following spelling rules apply (they are analogous to the regular plural formation for nouns):
- most verbs ending in a consonant or a semi-vowel take ‘-s’:
to look – looks to read – reads to bear – bears to grow – grows

- verbs ending in a voiced consonant or a silent ‘e’ take ‘-s’:

to take – takes to (en)circle – (en)circles to face – faces to rise – rises

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to freeze – freezes

- verbs ending in ‘-s’, ‘-x’, ‘-z’, ‘-sh’, ‘-ch’ take ‘-es’:

to dress – dresses to mix – mixes to push – pushes to reach – reaches
to match – matches to buzz – buzzes

- verbs ending in ‘y’ preceded by a consonant change the ‘y’ into ‘i’ before adding ‘-es’:
to try – tries to cry – cries

- verbs ending in ‘y’ preceded by a vowel keep the ‘y’ and add ‘-s’:
to say – says to play – plays to enjoy – enjoys

- verbs ending in ‘o’ preceded by a consonant which have been in the language for a longer period of time take ‘-es’:
to go – goes to do – does

- verbs ending in ‘o’ preceded by a vowel follow the general rule and take ‘-s’:
to shoo – shoos to shoe – shoes

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PRESENT TENSE CONTINUOUS

(+) (-)
S + am/is/are + V-ing S + am/is/are + not + V-ing
S + aren’t/ isn’t + V-ing

(?) (-?)
Am/Is/Are + S + V-ing ? Am/Is/Are + S + not + V-ing ?
Aren’t/ Isn’t + S + V-ing

Note: the ‘V-ing’ is the present participle which, as a general rule, is formed by adding ‘-ing’ to the bare infinitive; the following spelling
rules must be observed:
- verbs ending in a consonant preceded by a single stressed vowel double the consonant before adding the ‘-ing’:
to run – running to get – getting to rub – rubbing to star – starring
to begin – beginning to forget – forgetting to prefer – preferring to admit – admitting
to stop - stopping
In all other cases, the final consonant doesn’t double:
to look – looking to sing – singing to feed – feeding to drink – drinking
to offer – offering to listen – listening to remain – remaining

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- the compound/simple verbs ending in ‘ap’, ‘ip’ or ‘p’ double the consonant if the stress is on the first syllable before ‘-ing’:
to worship – worshipping to kidnap – kidnapping to sideslip – sideslipping

- verbs ending in ‘l’ always double the ‘l’ before adding the ‘-ing’:
to compel – compelling to travel – travelling to fulfil – fulfilling to control – controlling

to quarrel – quarrelling

- verbs ending in ‘ic’ add a ‘k’ before adding the ‘-ing’:

to mimic – mimicking to picnic – picnicking

- verbs ending in a silent ‘e’ drop the final ‘e’ before adding the ‘-ing’:
to have – having to make – making to sneeze – sneezing

EXCEPTIONS:

to dye – dyeing to singe – singeing to eye – eyeing to tinge – ting(e)ing

to canoe – canoeing to hoe – hoeing to shoe – shoeing to toe – toeing to queue – queueing

- verbs ending in ‘ie’ change ‘ie’ to ‘y’ before adding the ‘-ing’:
to die – dying to lie – lying to tie – tying

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COMPARE: Dying (murind) – dyeing (vopsind) vs. singing (cântând) – singeing (pârlind)

- verbs ending in ‘y’ follow the general rule:

to annoy – annoying to cry – crying to play – playing to (dis)obey – (dis)obeying

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PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE

(+) (-)

S + have/ has + V3 S + have/ has + not + V3

S + haven’t/ hasn’t + V3

(?) (-?)

Have/ Has + S + V3 ? Have/ Has + S + not + V3 ?

Haven’t/ Hasn’t + S + V3 ?

PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS

(+) (-)

S + have/ has + been + V-ing S + have/ has + not + been + V-ing

S + haven’t/ hasn’t + been + V-ing

(?) (-?)

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Have/ Has + S + been + V-ing ? Have/ Has + S + not + been + V-ing ?

Haven’t/ Hasn’t + S + been + V-ing ?

PAST TIME – FORMS

PAST TENSE SIMPLE
(+) (-)

S + V2 S + did + not + VØ

S + didn’t + VØ

(?) (-?)

Did + S + VØ ? Did + S + not + VØ ?

Didn’t + S + VØ ?

PAST TENSE CONTINUOUS

(+) (-)

S + was/ were + V-ing S + was/ were + not + V-ing

S + wasn’t/ weren’t + V-ing

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(?) (-?)

Was/ Were + S + V-ing ? Was/ Were + S + not + V-ing ?

Wasn’t/ Weren’t + S + V-ing ?

PAST PERFECT SIMPLE

(+) (-)

S + had + V3 S + had + not + V3

S + hadn’t + V3

(?) (-?)

Had + S + V3 ? Had + S + not + V3 ?

Hadn’t + S + V3 ?

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

(+) (-)

S + had + been + V-ing S + had + not + been + V-ing

S + hadn’t + been + V-ing

(?) (-?)

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Had + S + been + V-ing ? Had + S + not + been + V-ing ?

Hadn’t + S + been + V-ing

FUTURE TIME – FORMS

FUTURE TENSE SIMPLE

(+) (-)

S + shall/ will + VØ S + shall/ will + not + VØ

S + shan’t/ won’t + VØ

(?) (-?)

Shall/ Will + S + VØ ? Shall/ Will + S + not + VØ ?

Shan’t/ Won’t + S + VØ ?

FUTURE TENSE CONTINUOUS

(+) (-)

S + shall/ will + be + V-ing S + shall/ will + not + be + V-ing

S + shan’t/ won’t + be + V-ing

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(?) (-?)

Shall/ Will + S + be + V-ing ? Shall/ Will + S + not + be + V-ing ?

Shan’t/ Won’t + S + be + V-ing ?

FUTURE PERFECT SIMPLE

(+) (-)
S + shall/ will + have + V3 S + shall/ will + not + have + V3

S + shan’t/ won’t + have + V3

(?) (-?)
Shall/ Will + S + have + V3 ? Shall/ Will + S + not + have + V3 ?

Shan’t/ Won’t + S + have + V3 ?

FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS

(+) (-)
S + shall/ will + have been + V-ing S + shall/ will + not + have been + V-ing

S + shan’t/ won’t + have been + V-ing

(?) (-?)
Shall/ Will + S + have been + V-ing ? Shall/ Will + S + not + have been + V-ing ?

Shan’t/ Won’t + S + have been + V-ing ?

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Note: in traditional grammars, we use ‘shall’ for the first person singular and plural, and ‘will’ for the other persons; nowadays we use
‘will’ in most cases.

EXAMPLES OF CONJUGATION

Simple Tenses:

Continuous Tenses:

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Perfect Tenses:

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Perfect Continuous Tenses:

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