- •Parts of speech
- •The noun General Characteristic
- •The Grammatical Category of Number
- •The Pronunciation
- •The Spelling/Formation
- •Nouns Used only in the Singular
- •Nouns Used only in the Plural
- •Collective nouns
- •The Category of Case
- •The Formation
- •The Pronunciation
- •V. Articles with Nouns in the Possessive Case
- •The adjective General Characteristic
- •Degrees of Comparison
- •Formation
- •Comparative Constructions
- •The adverb General Characteristic
- •Formation
- •II. Degrees of Comparison
- •Some, any, no, none
- •(A) few, (a) little
- •Much, many, a lot of, lots of, plenty of, etc.
- •The verb General Characteristic
- •Present tenses
- •The Present Indefinite (Simple)
- •I. The Formation:
- •II. Spelling of the third person singular forms.
- •III. The Meaning:
- •IV. The Use of the Present Indefinite
- •The Present Indefinite is used to denote future actions
- •The Present Indefinite is used to denote past actions:
- •The Present Continuous (Progressive)
- •I. The Formation.
- •II. Spelling of the –ing forms.
- •III. The Use of Present Continuous.
- •IV. Verbs Not Used in the Continuous Forms.
- •V. The Present Continuous vs. The Present Indefinite.
- •The Present Perfect
- •I. The Formation
- •III. Patterns
- •IV. Time Indication
- •V. The Present Perfect vs. The Past Indefinite
- •VI. The Past Indefinite and the Present Perfect as Variants
- •The Present Perfect Continuous
- •I. The Formation
- •II. The Use of the Present Perfect Continuous
- •III. The Present Perfect Continuous vs. The Present Perfect
- •IV. The Present Perfect Continuous and the Present Perfect as Variants
- •Past tenses
- •The Past Indefinite Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •The Past Continuous Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Continuous vs. The Past Indefinite
- •The Past Perfect Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Perfect vs. The Past Indefinite
- •The Past Perfect Continuous
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Perfect Inclusive vs. The Past Perfect Continuous Inclusive
- •Future tenses
- •The Future Indefinite Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •III. ''Will'' as a modal verb
- •IV. ''Shall'' as a modal verb
- •The Future Continuous Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •The Future Perfect Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •The Future Perfect Continuous Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •Around the future
- •Reported speech
- •I. Statements
- •II. General Questions
- •III. Special Questions
- •IV. Short Answers
- •V. Commands and Requests
- •VI. Suggestions
- •VII. Advice
- •VIII. Offers
- •IX. Responses
- •Sequence of tenses
- •Modal Verbs in Indirect Speech
- •Question tags
- •I. Formation.
- •II. Agreeing and disagreeing with question tags
- •III. Echo tags
- •The imperative mood
- •I. Formation
- •II. Imperatives with 'let'
III. The Past Perfect vs. The Past Indefinite
The Past Perfect |
The Past Indefinite |
In adverbial clauses introduced by before and after both tenses can be used owing to the lexical meaning of these conjunctions: |
|
|
|
The Past Perfect is used to stress the completion of actions. |
Past Indefinite is often used with such terminative verbs as arrive, enter, look in, open, etc. when two actions closely follow each other. |
|
|
The Past Perfect Continuous
I. The Formation
The Past Perfect Continuous is formed analytically by means of the auxiliary verb ''to be'' in the Past Perfect and Participle I of the notional verb.
He had been speaking.
Had he been speaking?
He had not been speaking.
II. The Use:
1) We use the Past Perfect Continuous to talk about actions or situations which had continued up to the past moment that we are thinking about, or shortly before it:
At that time we had been living in the caravan for about six months.
When I found Mary, I could see that she had been crying.
I went to the doctor because I had been sleeping badly.
2) We use this tense when we want to focus on duration, to say how long something had been happening up to a past moment:
We’d been walking since sunrise, and we were hungry.
When she arrived, she had been travelling for twenty hours.
III. The Past Perfect Inclusive vs. The Past Perfect Continuous Inclusive
The Past Perfect |
The Past Perfect Continuous |
is used with stative verbs;
|
is used with actional verbs;
|
lays the stress on the mere action (if used with non-terminative verbs);
|
lays the stress on the duration of the action;
|
is used in negative sentences.
|
is used in positive statements.
|