Monday, February 4, 2008

TENSES



TENSES
THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH

Thursday November 16, 2006
Horrors! A 'future past tense'?
In the interest of raising the standard of English in our schools, we are starting a new section here called Clangers in Class. If you have any stories to tell about errors committed in English class by teachers and/or students or anywhere in the school, just drop us a line.
MY niece came home one day and seemed confused about the corrections her teacher had told her to do. Hence, I took a look and was appalled at what I read.
Here is a scanned copy of her homework. The instructions given were for the students to change a few sentences into the future tense with an example given as follows:
Example = I saw him.
Answer = I shall see him
The teacher gave a tick (meaning correct) for sentences in which my niece used the wrong tense, e.g.:
2. She gives me a book.
She will gave me a book.
but crossed sentences that were correctly changed into the future tense, e.g.:
11. We go home after this.
We shall go home after this.
12. The fisherman catches some fish.
The fisherman will catch some fish.
In fact, she was asked to make corrections to these two sentences by replacing shall go with shall went and will catch to will caught.
Is there a new tense in the English language called "future past tense"?
I ask this because it seems that this is what this teacher seems to be teaching my niece. I told my niece to inform the teacher that her corrections were unnecessary as they were already grammatically correct but the teacher got upset and insisted that the whole exercise had to be re-done to this so called "new tense". – C.N. Gomez
Of course there is no such "new" tense! The teacher needs to improve her understanding of tenses.
If she is an English language teacher, she should know that in the simplest form of the future tense, the helping (auxiliary) verb "will" or "shall" must be followed by the base form of the main verb.
In your niece's homework exercise, the correct sentences in the future tense should be:
1. I shall take a book.
2. She will give me a book.
3. He will draw a picture.
4. You will tell me a lie.
5. They will fight.
6. She will sell her shoes.
7. I shall hear the noise.
8. He will eat the apple.
9. She will give it to me.
10. They will sing ... (but "just now" does not refer to the future)
11. We shall go home after this.
12. The fisherman will catch some fish.
13. He will buy a book.
– Fadzilah Amin
After reading the above article appearing in THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH of November 16, 2006, I wrote to The Associate Editor of THE STAR'S MIND OUR ENGLISH on November 19, 2006. I have not seen my such message being published; and I post it here in the hope that it will be useful to those interested in English grammar.
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I refer to the story headlined "Horror! A 'future past tense'?" in Mind Our English on November 16.
It is indeed terrible that the teacher crossed out correct grammar usages and replaced them with incorrect ones.
This may have some bearing on The Star's Report of today (November 19) carrying the title of "100% failure shocks leaders" reporting that a n island school with 26 pupils had a 100% failure in the UPSR examination and Sabah education director Normah Gagoh who had disclosed the school's failure said that based on feedback from all schools, poor understanding of English was also a cause for the poor showing.
While on the subject of tenses, may I share with readers by listing below all the sixteen tenses in the English language with an example each in the active (earlier sentence) and passive (later one) voices:-
1. Simple present – I eat an apple. An apple is eaten by me.
2. Present continuous (or progressive) – I am eating an apple. An apple is being eaten by me.
3. Present perfect – I have eaten an apple. An apple has been eaten by me.
4. Present perfect continuous – I have been eating an apple. An apple has been being eaten by me.
5. Simple past – I ate an apple. An apple was eaten by me.
6. Past continuous (or progressive) – I was eating an apple. An apple was being eaten by me.
7. Past perfect – I had eaten an apple. An apple had been eaten by me.
8. Past perfect continuous – I had been eating an apple. An apple had been being eaten by me.
9. Simple future – I shall eat an apple. An apple will be eaten by me.
10. Future continuous (or progressive) – I shall be eating an apple. An apple will be being eaten by me.
11. Future perfect – I shall have eaten an apple. An apple will have been eaten by me.
12. Future perfect continuous – I shall have been eating an apple. An apple will have been being eaten by me.
13. Simple future in the past – I should eat an apple. An apple would be eaten by me.
14. Future continuous (or progressive) in the past – I should be eating an apple. An apple would be being eaten by me.
15. Future perfect in the past – I should have eaten an apple. An apple would have been eaten by me.
16. Future perfect continuous in the past – I should have been eating an apple. An apple would have been being eaten by me.
One will note that some of the tenses are rarely used in passive voice.
Kengt, Penang

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