27. The future perfect tense. Its formation and use.

Formation. The future perfect is formed analytically by means of the auxiliary to have in the future indefinite (shall/will have) and participle II of the notional verb.

In the interrogative the corresponding form of the first auxiliary (shall/will) is used in the front position and the second auxiliary (have) and participle II follow the subject.

In the negative the corresponding negative forms of shall/will are used and the second auxiliary (have) and participle II follow them.

In the negative-interrogative the corresponding negative-interrogative forms of shall/will are used in the front position and the second auxiliary and participle II follow the subject.

The future perfect is very rarely used either in conversation or in writing.

It is used to denote:

1. An action that both begins and ends before, a definite moment of time in the future (the exclusive future perfect).

"I have no doubt," I said, "that I shall have seen anybody who is anybody by then."

You will have got my cable and I shall have received your answer long before this letter reaches you.

The moment in the future before which the action is to begin and end may be indicated by appropriate adverbials or other verbs denoting future actions, or by the whole context or situation.

2. An action that begins before a certain moment of time in the future and goes up to it or into it. This is the case when the action in question is expressed by statal verbs, which do not admit of continuous forms, or else by certain actional durative verbs, such as to live, to study, to work, etc., which denote a process (the inclusive future perfect).

She will have been in your service fifteen years next year.

28. The simple past, the past perfect and the past perfect progressive (continuous). Their formation and use.

The simple past

Formation. The affirmative forms of the past indefinite are synthetic, the interrogative, negative and negative-interrogative forms are analytic.

Affirmative (synthetic) forms are represented by the second of the basic verb forms.

Interrogative forms are built by means of the auxiliary to do in the past indefinite (did), which is placed before the subject, and the infinitive stem of the notional verb, which follows the subject.

Negative forms are built by means of the negative form of the auxiliary, which has two varieties: a) didn’t (used in the spoken language) and b) did not (used in the written language) and the infinitive of the notional verb that follows it.

The auxiliary did also occurs in affirmative forms in cases when the speaker wishes to emphasize his statement, as in:

But I assure you, he did tell me of it himself.

Actually, I did see him once last week.

There are a few verbs which form their past indefinite differently from the way described above. These are:

The verb to be, which has synthetic forms not only in the affirmative, but also in the interrogative, negative and negative-interrogative. It also distinguishes the category of number. The interrogative is formed by placing the verb before the subject.

The verb to have, which also has synthetic forms for all structures.

When having meanings other than ‘possess’ or when used as part of a phrasal verb (to have a look), to have forms its interrogative and negative in the ordinary way with the auxiliary to do.

The past indefinite is the verb form most frequently used; its range of application is immense, especially in all kinds of narratives.

The past indefinite is used: