Skip to main content

The Past III

Introdução


The modal auxiliary of the Past – DID



The emphatic form:

Pronoun + modal + action

He did play


Negative phrases are essentially emphatic:


Pronoun + modal + negative + action

He did not play


The separation of the modal and negative elements produces a stronger hammered negative. When the two are contracted, the negative form becomes less marked, making the sound and our expression smoother:


Pronoun + modal /negative + action

He didn’t play


The modal DID is thrown behind the verb to reduce the emphatic weight in the affirmative:


Pronoun + action/ modal

He play (did)


The standard written form results in the -ed ending: He play -ed

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How the Present Perfect Tense works

Timeline - How the Present Perfect Tense works Experiences The essence of the present perfect tense pulls the verbal expression down, inside us. This movement reflects our experience and even belief and true knowledge, which even in mediaeval times was placed in the heart. The sense we are aiming for is very similar in all of the following three examples: • I have visited the Louvre. • I believe in aliens. • I know it’s true. No Details The movement physically collapses our lungs. For this reason we do not go into detail, because in simple structures, we can not add extensive information. To add detail of past experiences, we typically use the simple and progressive past tense or use an adverb. • There has been a plane crash • A Transatlantic flight out of Paris crashed at 7.45 pm, twenty minutes after take off. Nobody was killed …etc. Recent Time In a similar movement - a slight variation on the theme - the expression is pulled back and released until the
Post a Comment
Read more

Chart of Modal Inflection

With each movement and directional vector (or sense) of each modal, we can start to map out the areas of modal expression. The chart (illustrated above) shows how each aspect is directed;a skill we certainly need to emulate, if we are to give the correct language signals. As the chart shows , the high area is reserved for probability, the degree of which ranges from positive certainty through possibility to uncertainty at the back of the head. The forward area (ahead of the eye) carries the different notions of future modality, rising from the low downward driven decisive intention or acceptance (will) and determination (shall) through obligation(must), permission (may) and advice – or deferred obligation (should) to prediction (will) and desire (will, must, should). The past forms are set back or directed behind us, with past probability looped high in speculation but ending low - so as to combine with the auxiliary have and the past pa
Post a Comment
Read more

Verb Tense Inflections

  A verb tense, in the strictest definition of the term, is the time frame in which the action is placed; thus we have the traditional idea of past, present and future tenses and within these three basic time frames, we can also differentiate certain other aspects such as the subjunctive or progressive tenses, plus other ideas such as the imperfect past, the conditional tense, and imperative. The tenses of the verbs, in reality, rely entirely on the directions we employ over them. Whereas conjugation is the movement in the pronunciation which indicates the relative position of the subject of the verb - personal vectors - the tense of the verb is a different relative positioning in our conception of time, thought and attitude. In English, it may at first seem difficult to perceive the difference in verb tenses due to the absence of easily identifiable verb endings; the tags that identify both the tense and person; thus discerning the different senses (or directions) is also, at first s
Post a Comment
Read more