Introduction

The tenses have a very important place in learning English. A writer communicates with a reader with the effective use of the correct tense. But when you employ the tenses, you get confused with the different types of verb tenses. 

If the tenses are still chaotic for you, then it is the perfect time to learn it now! 

A writing that may sound lifeless can be packed with action only with the mere change of a tense form. A story may not sound interesting in the past form, but when changed into the present tense, the story seems interesting as the events sound like happening in real-time.

So let’s unfold the mystery of tenses by diving and grasping the gist of it.

What is a Verb Tense?

A verb tense shows the timing of an event or action. Whether you are writing, reading, listening, or even proofreading something, you need to know the correct tenses to depict when that action or situation happened.

Types of tenses

In the English language, there are three tenses.

• Past describes the actions that have already happened.
• Present describes the actions that are happening.
• Future describes the actions that will happen.

The 12 types of verb tenses are simply categorized in the following table.

Here we have 3 simple tips for you to use the correct tense according to the situation.

Learn the right form of verb according to the sentence 

There are three forms of the verb in English Grammar. You must know the three verb forms in order to use them correctly according to different tenses. Like in most cases, -ed is added to the end of a verb in the simple past tense. However, it cannot be applied to all the verb tenses. For present tense, the 1^st form of the verb is accompanied by is, am, and are. The third form of the verb is used in the perfect verb tenses.

Avoid inconsistent verb tense shift 

Usually, it is recommended to use the same verb form in your entire project. The reader might be confused with the tense shifting.

Some stories that show different sequences and period of time and the story jumps frequently between present and past scenes. There should be obvious breaks in different sections of the story to avoid confusion.

However, if you are describing a different era or period then a shift in verb tenses is used. But even then there should be no tense shift in a sentence or more ideally in a paragraph.

For example, this sentence:

“She had sung (past perfect Tense) the song and then she danced (simple past tense)”

Should be written as,

“She sang (simple past tense) the song and then she danced (simple past tense).”

To maintain the flow and clarity, a whole sentence should be written in the same tense form.

Learn to choose the correct tense 

You should know exactly where and how to use the correct tense. For that, you should also master the forms of verbs as the tenses depend on it mainly. The basic form of tenses that is used the most are

• Simple past tense. It uses the second form of the verb for any action, e.g. went or ate.
• Simple present tense. It uses the first form of the verb for action, e.g. go or eat.
• Simple future tense. It uses the first form of the verb.

Some pro tips!

If you want to make your writing foolproof then you can follow these tips and tricks to take your verb tenses to the next level.

• Practice, practice, and practice. It is the first rule to imply.
• Rewrite a paragraph in other tense forms and you can see the change and effect that it brings to the story with the change of tense.
• When you are writing a story or a novel, you have to decide in which tense you are going to write it. The tenses can entirely enliven the narration of your story.
• Keep the tense same throughout one project so that the reader doesn’t get confused with the changing time frame.
• You can mix and match the verb tenses for displaying a variety of events. But make sure to break them clearly.
• Showing different moods can uplift your story. Using a subjunctive or potential mood can add possibilities and suspense to your story.

Here is a quick review of the 12 forms of verb tenses. You can have a look and choose the correct tense forms according to the situation and events.

Let’s see a quick example of the same sentence in different verb tenses.

The simple form of tenses is the most used.

Simple past tense: Mary went to the park. 

Simple present tense: Mary goes to the park.

Simple future tense: Mary will go to the park.

The perfect tenses are used to explain the events or actions that are completed already. It is the opposite of progressive actions where the action is going on.

Past perfect Tense: Mary had gone to the park.

Present perfect tense: Mary has gone to the park.

Future perfect tense: Mary will have gone to the store.

The progressive tenses are used to tell about something that happened and continue to happen later on.

Past progressive tense: Mary was going to the park.

Present progressive tense: Mary is going to the park.

Future progressive tense: Mary will be going to the park.

The perfect progressive tenses explain the ongoing events.

Past perfect progressive tense: Mary had been going to the park.

Present perfect progressive tense: Mary has been going to the park.

Future perfect progressive tense: Mary will have been going to the park.

You can notice the difference in the verb forms and how the different tenses change the meaning of the same sentence.

Final thoughts

Learning tenses is a must-have for the English language. You can unlock the changes in your writing by using different verb tenses and inject life and energy into them.

Follow these tips and keep your focus on how the verbs are used. Once, you have learned the rules of correct tenses and practiced them hard, you will never be blamed for using the wrong tenses.

The post How to Choose The Right Tense: Three Practical Tips appeared first on Linguix Blog.

If you are looking for ways to polish your writing – simultaneously being able to make your words more interesting but being clearer and more articulate – then substituting a few well-known verbs for alternatives can be an effective approach to make.

Here are 10 verbs that can easily be replaced by something a little bit more descriptive to give your writing an added depth and quality of communication.

1) get

‘Get’ is one of those verbs in English that can seemingly represent anything. While in terms of spoken English that can be a fantastic flexibility, in written English is just seems a little bland.

That’s not to say that there are times when ‘get’ is perfectly acceptable to use in written English, but why not try and replace it with some of these options, depending on the context:

organize, purchase, avail, requisition, become

2) have

For ‘get’, read ‘have’. Stunningly flexible, but at the same time massively over-used. Be careful with context, but here are some nice alternatives:

possess, experience, enjoy, own, manage

 3) say and tell

In creative writing, it is a good idea to avail of words known as ‘reporting verbs’. These verbs, for example ‘say’ or ‘tell’, are simply verbs that we used to report the words of others. However, unlike ‘say’ and ‘tell’, there are reporting verbs that can also articulate much more about the tone of voice and the feeling of the speaker. These options are therefore much more descriptive by far: 

shout, yell, whisper, schmooze, prattle, garble

4) walk

Likewise, ‘walk’ is a very literal word, so doesn’t give you much detail about how the movement was achieved. These words can visually stir up something much more interesting and closer to the way the movement was performed:

skip, gallop, stroll, wander, stride, amble, saunter

5) eat

‘Eat’ is a very methodical word. We all ‘eat’, but that doesn’t really do justice to the way some people perform this action. Some consume their food delicately, while others are like a hungry wolf. In short, get more descriptive about this otherwise boring action with some of these alternatives:

gobble down, chomp, gulp, crunch, devour 

6) look

Continuing on the theme of mechanical verbs that don’t communicate much at all other than the literal action, look is as boring as it gets. When someone looks at you, they do it in any number of ways: think about the first time you looked into the eyes of that special someone. Look? It just doesn’t do it justice, does it? Here are some alternatives:

Peer, gaze, gawp, stare, inspect, consider

7) win

Winning can be achieved in so many different ways, and the margin of the victory can be incredibly close, or not. That’s why win really doesn’t cover the actual manner of the victory. Here are some other words that can do that:

Conquer, destroy, upset, overwhelm, overcome

8) think

Think is a really generic verb that doesn’t capture the essence of how something can fill your mind for large parts of the day, or simply be something that stays and goes quicker than you sometimes even realize. These words are much better:

Ponder, struggle, wonder, consider, dwell

9) make

‘Make’ is well-known in English for being a verb that represents the creation or invention of something, and therefore becomes a catch-all. Reverting back to the original verbs is much more descriptive, so try to remember these:

design, create, engineer, invent, devise

10) do

‘Do’ is a word that has actually becoming the very representation of a generic verb. In English, it is actually used as a replacement for other verbs when the verb is obvious in context. Here’s an example:

‘Have you created a password yet?

‘I’ll do it later.”

Of course, there is a time and a place for using ‘do’ and avoiding unnecessary repetition, but in order to create more interesting written text, think about what the word ‘do’ actually signifies. Here are some examples:

complete, participate, involve, attend, engage

The Linguix writing tool instantly gives you a list of synonyms that you can choose from to make your written English that much more engaging. It’s just one of the many benefits that Linguix provides!

The post 10 Overly Used and Boring Verbs, and How You Can Replace Them appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Another reason for the problems caused by these two verbs in particular comes down to one simple concept: collocation. Collocation is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “the habitual juxtaposition of a particular word with another word or words with a frequency greater than chance”.

To simplify this concept, collocations are words that you would expect to find together in a particular language, when not referring simply to sentence structure. 

Particular verbs with particular nouns, and then particular adjectives with particular nouns are the best examples of collocations, but are certainly not the only cases of where this phenomenon occurs. Here is a classic example of English collocations in action:

“The Empire State Building is a very tall building.”

“Mount Everest is a very high mountain.”

In these cases, the adjectives ‘tall’ and ‘high’ have exactly the same meaning, but it wouldn’t sound right to call the Empire State Building a ‘high building’ (‘high-rise’ would work). 

Similarly, you wouldn’t call Mount Everest ‘tall’. There is no reason for this other than this has become the historical and cultural norm in English, to describe buildings as tall and mountains as high. This is a perfect example of a collocation.

So how does this relate to the verbs ‘make’ and ‘do’? Well, because in many circumstances, the decision to use ‘make’ or ‘do’ is based only on the frequency by which native speakers say it, therefore the phrase becoming ‘normal’. Here is an example:

“We currently do business in China.” Not “We currently make business in China”.

To a native English-speaker, the choice is simple, but to someone of another language, there can be nothing simple in deciding what is the correct the verb to use, especially if those two vrbs have the same meaning in your mother tongue. This is the frustration of collocations when learning another language.

How to learn collocations

Learning collocations, therefore, really comes down to experience. How well can you trust your ear when speaking the language? For that is what native speakers of any language do when they speak their language; they don’t think about the grammatical rules, they speak on instinct and the ability to recognize the correct sounds.

Listening to as much English as possible, and then making a note of these word combinations, is the best approach to take. Once you have identified a collocation, write it down, create an example sentence that is relevant to you, and then repeat the sentence frequently until the sound becomes fixed in your mind.

The best way to distinguish between ‘make’ and ‘do’ in English

Luckily, there is some logic to the way English speakers apply the verbs ‘make’ and ‘do’.

‘Make’ is applied when something is created, established, designed or invented that did not exist before the intervention of that person.

‘Do’, on the other hand, is used when an activity, which already exists, is completed. Let us look at some examples:

“I have made a mistake. I’m sorry.”

In this example, the mistake did not exist before the intervention of the person speaking. He or she created that mistake.

“I need to do my homework tonight.”

Homework is not created by the student. The activity is prescribed by a teacher, and the student then completes the activity, or is a participant in it.

Here are some more clear examples of where ‘make’ represents the creation of something, while ‘do’ is the participation in an activity:

Unfortunately, this will not always help you. On other occasions, as seen, the choice is simply based on collocation. In this case, you must learn the expression by heart.

However, the good news here is that many more examples follow the rules than break them.

The post The verbs ‘make’ and ‘do’ in English, and why they cause so many problems appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Using the right structure

If English is not your native language, or even if it is, then using the correct structure is integral to forming questions accurately.

There are two main structures when making questions in English:

Structure 1: Using the verb ‘to be’

Structure 2: Using all other verbs

Nearly all questions in English fall into these two structures. Learning them, and practicing them, is a priority for all learners of English.

The major difference between using the verb ‘to be’ and all other verbs in questions is that the verb ‘to be’ does not use an auxiliary.

The closed question

When a question doesn’t include a question word (for example, ‘Is he from Mexico?’) it is because it is a yes/no question, also known as a closed question.

These types of questions are great when you are looking for a quick, straight answer.

Indirect questions

English is a very indirect language, and native English speakers generally don’t respond well to questions that are too direct in nature. Therefore, indirect questions are vitally important.

How to make indirect questions

1)    Open-ended indirect questions using the verb ‘to be’

2)    Open-ended indirect questions using all other verbs

3)    Closed indirect questions (sometimes using would + past tense to emphasize politeness)

Indirect questions work really well in English because they put the respondent at ease. Use them as frequently as possible. That said when you need to get to the point, do it!

Other important considerations when asking questions

There is more to asking a great question than getting the structure right, of course. Here are some other important considerations when forming questions:

·  Judge your timing. There is a time and a place for questions. And there is a time and a place to just listen and observe. Judge the right time to ask your question, as incorrect timing may not lead to the type of answer you were looking for.

·  Emphasize the positive. All people respond better to positivity, so try to pitch your question with this in mind. For example, “What went wrong?” could be replaced with “What can we do to make this right?”

·  Dig deeper with further questions. The lead-off question might not be the only one you need to ask. Depending on what the answer is, don’t be afraid to delve a little deeper to help you really understand. Just because you have asked the question, it doesn’t mean that you should just accept the answer as it is. “Could you give me an example?” is a really powerful follow-up question.

·  Pitch your question just right with the language you use. Don’t be too technical if you are speaking with a non-technical person. Don’t be too informal in your language if you are dealing with high-level management. Think about your audience at all times.

·  Don’t interrupt. This is a frequently made mistake. Once you have asked the question, let the other person respond. Don’t interrupt, and don’t dig into their answer until they have finished speaking. Prepare good follow-up questions for when the time comes that they have finished speaking and make sure that they don’t answer one of those follow-up questions in their initial response because that means you weren’t listening.

·  Listen. There is nothing worse than failing to listen to the answer that is given.

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The table below reveals all the major verb tenses in English (there may be other niche tenses which are only used in very specific circumstances) and what they are for.

The table below reveals many of the major verb tenses in English, along with the other tenses they are typically used with. The collaborative nature of the verb tenses is one of the most difficult things to learn, as it is this aspect which can be most different between languages.

For this reason, it’s important to learn how to use verb tenses together. In fact, this is one of the keys to becoming fluent.

These are not all the tenses in English, but they are all of the most common. The ONLY tenses in English that MUST be used with other tenses (unless you state a specific time*) are past continuous and past perfect.

Past continuous is used to tell us when a longer action in the past was interrupted by another action (therefore, it MUST be used with another tense). For example,

“I was playing tennis yesterday when it started to rain.”

(playing tennis = long action that was interrupted, started to rain = the action that was the cause of the interruption)

Past perfect is used to talk about an action or situation that happened before another action.

“I hadn’t seen the new Star Wars film, so I went to see it yesterday.”

(hadn’t seen = the action that was the furthest in the past, went to see = the most recent past action)

* If you state a specific time, you can avoid the need to use these verb tenses in conjunction with another. For example:

“At 2 PM yesterday I was watching TV.”

“In June 2002, I had been living in London for nearly two years.”

The post The English Verb Tenses, and Their Relationship appeared first on Linguix Blog.

You see, the number of possible options is significant! Let’s sort things out and understand when you should use recommend, suggest, and advise.

Hint: Use this free online grammar check tool to fix your mistakes. Linguix Paraphraser also helps you to improve the content you’ve already written.

What these words stand for

First of all, let’s cover the basics. Verbs “recommend,” “suggest,” and “advise” are all used in situations when someone is telling another person what to do. In many cases you can use these verbs interchangeably. However, there are also some differences in their exact meanings and usage patterns.

Let’s break this down:

• Advise is a more formal verb, it is used in corresponding situations when one person gets direction from some sort of professional (doctor, teacher) or superior person (manager, government official).
• Recommend is less formal and more personal. You use it when suggesting something based on your own experience.
• Suggest is the less formal of all three verbs, you use it when talking about ideas, opinion, etc.

Guidelines 

The more you study these words, the more differences you will find. Here are common guidelines you should know to be always correct in this “advise/recommends/suggest” puzzle.

Suggest doing something

You use this form in the case when the person suggesting is always involved in the activity. This form is often used with a gerund.

Example:

She suggested going for lunch.

In this example, the person is also about to go for lunch with others.

Suggest (that) someone (should) do something 

In this case, the person suggesting does not mean he or she will participate in the activity.

He suggested that I should go and apply for this job.

Sometimes, however, the person making the suggestion might also be involved in the activity:

He suggested that we should all go for lunch.

Important: the verb “recommend” follows the same rules as “suggest.”

Recommend something/someone to someone

This is a “recommend/suggest/advise + noun” pattern. If you want to include in your sentence the person who the suggestion is being made to, then you can use the “noun object + to + person” pattern.

She recommended her dentist to me. 

ESL students often put “to + person” after the verb itself. It is done like this in many languages, but this is wrong in English.

Wrong: She recommended to me her dentist.

Suggestion + that + subject + base verb

This is the trickiest part of the topic. The structure when the suggestion verb is followed by a noun clause is called the subjunctive mood.

The exact pattern looks as follows: “verb of suggestion + that + subject + base verb.”

Examples:

My coworker recommended that she take a taxi home from the office.

The sales rep suggested that he put this offer on hold.

The post Advise, Recommend, Suggest: Which Verb To Choose appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Base form – see

Third-person singular – sees

Continuous or progressive participle – seeing

Past form – saw

Past participle – seen

See is an irregular verb so the base form, past and past participle forms are all different. A regular verb will simply add -ed in the past and participle form. Example:

Base form – watch

Third-person singular – watches

Continuous or progressive participle – watching

Past form – watched

Past participle – watched

Stative and dynamic verbs

Verbs are often defined as actions, but this is not strictly true, as some verbs are stative, meaning they represent a state or situation, rather than something dynamic. Examples:

Considering whether a verb is stative or dynamic is important as a stative verb cannot be used in the continuous/progressive tense. Example:

I am being hungry. Not possible because the verb is stative, so the sentence should always be: I am hungry.

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