Present Perfect

FORM

[has/have + past participle]

USE 1 Unspecified Time Before Now

We use the Present Perfect to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the Present Perfect with specific time expressions such as: yesterday, one year ago, last week, when I was a child, when I lived in Japan, at that moment, that day, one day, etc. We CAN use the Present Perfect with unspecific expressions such as: ever, never, once, many times, several times, before, so far, already, yet, etc.

ADJECTIVES ORDER

An adjective is a word that describes something (a noun) or someone (a person).

Adjectives sometimes appear after the verb To Be

• He is short.
• She is tall.

Adjectives sometimes appear before a noun.

• Red car
• Old hat

BUT… Sometimes you want to use more than one adjective to describe something (or someone).

What happens if a hat is both old AND ugly?

Do we say… an ugly old hat OR an old ugly hat?

An ugly old hat is correct because a certain order for adjectives is expected
(Note, you may hear the other version old ugly hat, though it doesn’t sound natural)

webgraphy:http://www.grammar.cl/english/adjectives-word-order.htm

Jueves,26 de Junio de 2014

Infinitive Verb vs. Base Verb

A lot of people think that the infinitive is the most basic form of a verb, but it isn’t. The most basic form is the base form. The base form is just the verb, without the “to.” Some people also call this a bare infinitive.

• be
• have
• hold
• sleep
• dream
• webgraphy:http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/verbs/infinitive-verb.html

Defining an Infinitive Verb

Basically, an infinitive verb is a verb with the word “to” in front of it.

• to be
• to have
• to hold
• to sleep
• to dream

When you use an infinitive verb, the “to” is a part of the verb. It is not acting as a preposition in this case. And the verb is always just the verb. It’s not conjugated in anyway – no -ed, no -ing, no -s on the end. Sometimes you’ll see sentences like this:

• She went from kissing him to slapping him in no time.

You see “to slapping,” and it’s easy to think that’s an infinitive verb, but it isn’t. It’s a preposition (to) and a gerund (slapping). You can tell it’s not an infinitive because of the -ing on the end of the verb. Infinitives never have an -ing ending.

webgraphy:http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/verbs/infinitive-verb.html

Martes,24 de Junio de 2014

Using an Infinitive Verb

There are several possible ways to use infinitive verbs. You can use them:

1. as the subject of a sentence – To err is human; to forgive, divine.
2. like an adjective or adverb phrase that expresses purpose or intent – My instructions are to press this button every hour.
3. following a direct object – He told me to give this to you.
4. following certain other verbs:

• afford – We can’t afford to eat out every night.
• agree – Let’s agree to disagree.
• aim – I aim to please.
• appear – She appears to have the chicken pox.
• arrange – I’ll arrange to meet you at 3:00.
• attempt – We attempted to contact him several times.
• determined – They are determined to finish the race.
• beg – She begged to stay up past her bed time.
• care – Would you care to dance?
• choose – He’ll always choose to eat pizza if given the choice.
• claim – They claim to have been home all night.
• dare – Do you dare to approach me?
• decide – We decided to get married in a hot air balloon.
• demand – I demand to know who said that!
• deserve – You deserve to have all you want in life.
• expect – Do you expect to see her any time soon?
• fail – She failed to achieve any of her goals.
• happen – I happen to have all the things you need.
• help – It would help to be able to swim.
• hesitate – He hesitated to ask for the day off.
• hope – She hopes to be engaged by the end of the summer.
• learn – We’re learning to communicate better.
• long – Oh how he longed to hold her in his arms!
• manage – Have you managed to complete your work on time for once?
• mean – I didn’t mean to hurt you.
• need – You need to think before you speak.
• neglect – He neglected to tell his parents about the accident.
• offer – Jim offered to help me pack.
• plan – What do you plan to do after college?
• prepare – I’m preparing to run away.
• pretend – Don’t pretend to sleep when I’m talking to you.
• proceed – We then proceeded to drink until we blacked out.
• promise – I promise to love you forever.
• refuse – She refused to sign the documents.
• resolve – He has resolved never to fight again.
• seem – They seem to be having some sort of argument.
• stop – We stopped to use the restroom and stretch.
• swear – Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
• tend – I tend to laugh when I’m nervous.
• threaten – He threatened to shoot me if I didn’t give him my wallet.
• use – She gave MacGeyver her cigarettes and an earring, which he used to make a bomb.
• volunteer – They volunteered to paint kids’ faces at the fair.
• vow – We vowed to love and cherish one another.
• want – Do you really want to hurt me?
• wish – Do you wish to see me cry?
• would hate – I would hate to be in his shoes.
• would like – The gentleman would like to accompany the lady home.
• would love – I would love to dance!
• would prefer – He would prefer to go bowling, but she wants to see a movie.

As you can see, the infinitive verb has many uses, both functional (We need to leave now) and philosophical (To be, or not to be? That is the question).

• webgraphy
• http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/verbs/infinitive-verb.html

to + infinitive

We use the to-infinitive

• to express purpose (to answer "Why...?"):

He bought some flowers to give to his wife.
He locked the door to keep everyone out.

We sometimes say in order to or in order not to:

We set off early in order to avoid the traffic.
They spoke quietly in order not to wake the children

… or we can say so as to or so as not to:

We set off early so as to avoid the traffic.
They spoke quietly so as not to wake the children.

• after certain verbs (see verbs followed by infinitive), particularly verbs of thinking and feeling:

choose, decide, expect, forget, hate, hope, intend, learn, like,
love, mean, plan, prefer, remember, want, would like, would love

… and verbs of saying:

agree, promise, refuse

They decided to start a business together.
Remember to turn the lights out.

Some verbs are followed by a direct object and the infinitive(see verbs followed by infinitive):

advise, ask, encourage, invite, order, persuade, remind, tell, warn,
expect, intend, would prefer, want, would like

She reminded me to turn the lights out.
He encouraged his friends to vote for him.

• after certain adjectives.

Sometimes the to-infinitive gives a reason for the adjective:

• disappointed
• glad
• sad
• happy
• anxious
• pleased
• surprised
• proud
• unhappy

We were happy to come to the end of our journey
= We were happy because we had come to the end of our journey
John was surprised to see me
= He was surprised because he saw me

Other adjectives with the to-infinitive are:

• able
• unable
• due
• eager
• keen
• likely
• unlikely
• ready
• prepared
• unwilling
• willing

Unfortunately I was unable to work for over a week.
I am really tired. I’m ready to go to bed.

We often use the to-infinitive with these adjectives after it to give opinions:

• difficult
• easy
• possible
• impossible
• hard
• right
• wrong
• kind
• nice
• clever
• silly
• foolish
• webgraphy
• http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/es/english-grammar/verbs/infinitive