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(22) I forgot to go to the bank. (23) I hate going to the bank, but I hate to forget stuff, too. (24) You start forgetting stuff, and you start to lose it. (25) I want to tell you I love you. EXERCISE 5.04: Modals--Identify any modal auxiliaries or quasi-modal constructions in the following sentences. How do they affect the meaning of the main verb? 1) I shall return. 2) I should have been a pair of ragged claws. 3) I have to go to the symphony tonight. 4) I must have been mistaken. 5) I am going to kill that guy one of these days. 6) I have known him for many years. 7) I can see clearly now. 8) I would like to take you out tonight. 9) I may be giving you a ring later. 10) I could not love you more than today I do. 11) I might have known he would betray me. 12) I used to talk to him on MySpace. 13) I was going to tell you eventually. 14) I need to write myself a note. 15) I will try again tomorrow. Progressive Aspect English inflects its verbs only for the past and present tense, and it forms its “future” tense by using the modal auxiliary will. One often encounters references to additional tenses, the “present progressive,” “the past perfect,” and so on. These “tenses” actually combine a true tense (present or past) with an aspect of the verb, though we need not be quite that technical in our discussion here. The progressive and perfect aspects are formed by combining verb forms we encountered in our earlier discussion of interrogative sentence form, the primary auxiliaries and verb participles. Progressive aspect of a verb is signalled by be as a primary auxiliary, followed by the present participle (or ing-participle) of the next verb. We have one more use for the ing-participle of verbs; when preceded by a form of be (including the past participle been), the ing-participle signals progressive aspect If the main tense of the sentence is present, then we have the present progressive; if it is past, we have the past progressive. Some students have difficulty in understanding that you can have a past progressive formed by a present participle. Try to remember that whether it is present or past depends on the tense of the first auxiliary verb--was drinking in sentence (2) is past progressive even though it has a "present" participle: (1) The ship is heading into a storm. [PRESENT PROGRESSIVE] 118
(2) The captain was drinking heavily last night. [PAST PROGRESSIVE] (3) It will be sinking soon. [FUTURE PROGRESSIVE?] 119 EXERCISE 5.05: More Ing-Words: Are the highlighted -ing words participles used to form the progressive, participles used as premodifiers, participles heading a postmodifying participial phrase, participles used as nouns (gerunds), or not participles at all? 1) Annabelle was all too willing. 2) Baby needs some bling-bling. 3) The bells are ringing for me and my gal. 4) The drum solo left a ringing in my ears. 5) Tom was being rejected by Annabelle. 6) Ginger thinks of herself as a caring individual. 7) Harry has been walking in the forest. 8) He gave her an enormous ring to make it up to her. 9) His lecture was interruped by a ringing cell-phone. 10) His bride, smiling in her blue-silk dress, had looked radiant. 11) Hot food was served by smiling faces. 12) I am just giving her a back rub. 13) John had always wanted to die in the bull-ring. 14) Many are smiling as they read that story. 15) Sitting on the fence is his specialty. 16) Smiling and belly-laughing are so relaxing. 17) Susan was smiling more and more. 18) Tony had been paying him hush money. 19) Walking to school this morning, I talked to myself. 20) We live in exciting times. The progressive gets its name because it suggests that a given action is or was in “progress” at the time we are talking about. We use the progressive more than we may realize. Standard English users rarely use the simple present tense for things which are happening as they speak. In theory, both of these sentences refer to something which is happening right now: (4) I walk to school. (5) I am walking to school. In practice, sentence (4) almost always refers to a habitual action--something which is true these days--which we may or may not be engaged in at the moment. Sentence (5) can refer to a habitual action, too, but is more apt to be used if we are, in fact, walking to school at the moment we say it, perhaps while chatting on our cell phone. To make matters a bit more confusing, either the simple present or the present progressive can be used to refer to a past action; this is called the narrative present: if we were telling an anecdotes about something that happened to us on the way to school yesterday, we might use either of the following: (6) So I walk to school, and this guy starts following me. (7) So I am walking to school, and this guy starts following me.
Page 1 and 2: V. VERB QUALITIES -Subjunctive Mood
Page 3 and 4: Exercise 5.02: Subjunctive or Not?-
Page 5 and 6: In addition to its obvious uses in
Page 7: (3) Ought you to do so? One might t
Page 11 and 12: You might notice that the auxiliary
Page 13 and 14: 123 We can sometimes become confuse
Page 15 and 16: Passive Voice When have is the prim
Page 17 and 18: What looks like the object of a pre
Page 19 and 20: EXERCISE 5.09: Passive and Active--
Page 21 and 22: 11) Karen is knocked up. 12) Last n

V. VERB QUALITIES - UW-Parkside: Help for Personal Homepages

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