Talking about Verbs

Now that you studying in English at a high level, you need to be able to talk about the language itself. One of the biggest areas of the confusion for students is the difference between the past tense and the present perfect.

The past tense is indicated by use of the pass tense marker, represented here by V sub d{V(d)}. Here are some examples of regular verbs and their past tense forms:

So, as you can see, for regular verbs, the past tense form is indicated by the addition of an -ed at the end of the verb.

However, some of the most common verbs in English are irregular, so it’s important to learn them. Here are some examples.

Altogether there are over 200 irregular verbs in normal use. Many people think that the past tense form only indicates past time.

However, that is only one of the possible meanings. The past tense form is also used to express something that is unlikely or imaginary, from the speaker’s point of view.

Here is an example: “He wishes he had a car.” The fact is that he doesn’t have a car, so the use of “had” indicates that it isn’t real, it’s imaginary. If he had a car, he could drive us to school. Again, he doesn’t have a car, so he can’t drive us to school. This condition expresses something that isn’t a fact. It’s a counter-factual condition, which means it goes against what we know or believe.

Look at these two sentences:

Both sentences are correct, but there is a difference in meaning. In the top sentence, the condition that she waits is more likely from the speaker’s point of view. In the bottom sentence, the speaker thinks it’s less likely that she is going to wait.

When we talk about experience or results, we use the present perfect form. This form uses “have” followed by the participle{have+V(n)}.

For regular verbs, this participle is identical to the past tense form.

For irregular verbs, this participle is often different.

When we use the perfect form, the primary focus is on the subject of the sentence, not the verb. It emphasizes condition, experience or results rather than actions or events. In these two examples, we see the contrast:

The top sentence gives the condition or state of the subject, and the bottom sentence is expresses an event. The top sentence describes the condition of the subject of the sentence, SHE, rather than an event. The fact that she is left the hotel is now part of her experience, or state of being. The bottom sentence is expresses the action or event, “she left”, which is something she did.

In general, the past tense form expresses events or acts, and the perfect form expresses experience or conditions. When we use the perfect form of the verb, we focus on the state of the subject and not an action or event.

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