Grammar is the structure of language—how words fit together to
form meaningful sentences. Most of the grammatical mistakes people make can be avoided by reviewing this chapter. Identify your weak spots and focus on those.
Here are some important terms and concepts to review before you read this section:
Verb: A word that expresses an action or a state of being.
Verbal: A word that is formed from a verb but is not functioning as a verb. There are three kinds of verbals: participles, gerunds, and infinitives.
It is important to realize that a verbal is not a verb, because a sentence must contain a verb, and a verbal won’t do. A group of words containing a verbal but lacking a verb is not a sentence.
Participle: Usually ends in -ing or -ed. It is used as an adjective in a sentence.
Gerund: Always ends in -ing. It is used in a sentence as a noun.
Note from the third sentence that a noun or pronoun that comes
before a gerund is in the possessive form: his, not him.
Infinitive: The basic form of a verb, generally preceded by to. It
is usually used as a noun but may be used as an adjective or an adverb.
You need to be familiar with both the way each tense is used
individually and the ways the tenses are used together.
Use the present tense to describe a state or action occurring in the present.
Congress is debating about health policy this session.
Use the present tense to describe habitual action.
Many Americans jog every day.
Use the present tense to describe “general truths”—things that are always true.
The earth is round and rotates on its axis.
Use the past tense to describe an event or state that took place at a specific time in the past and is now over and done with.
Hundreds of people died when the Titanic sank.
Few people bought new cars last year.
Use the future tense for intended actions or actions expected in the future.
The 22nd century will begin in the year 2101.
We often express future actions with the expression going to.
I am going to move to another apartment as soon as possible.
The present tense is also used to speak of future events. This is called the anticipatory future. We often use the anticipatory future with verbs of motion such as come, go, arrive, depart, and leave.
The senator is leaving for Europe tomorrow.
We also use the anticipatory future in two-clause sentences when one verb is in the regular future tense.
The disputants will announce the new truce as soon as they agree on its terms.
Use the present perfect tense for actions and states that started in the past and continue up to and into the present time.
Hawaii has been a state since 1959.
Use the present perfect for actions and states that happened a number of times in the past and may happen again in the future.
Italy has had many changes in government since World War II.
Use the present perfect for something that happened at an unspecified time in the past. Notice the difference in meaning between the following two sample sentences:
Present perfect: Susan Sontag has written a critical essay about Leni Riefenstahl. (We have no idea when—we just know she wrote it.)
Past: Susan Sontag wrote a critical essay about Leni Riefenstahl in 1974. (We use the simple past because we’re specifying when Sontag wrote the essay.)
The past perfect tense is used to represent past actions or states that were completed before other past states or actions. The more recent past event is expressed in the past, and the earlier past event is expressed in the past perfect.
After he came to America, Vladimir Nabokov translated novels that he had written in Russian while he was living in Europe.
Note the difference in meaning between these two sentences:
The Civil War had ended when Lincoln was shot. = The war was over by the time of Lincoln’s death.
The Civil War ended when Lincoln was shot. = The war ended when Lincoln died.
The first sentence is historically accurate.
Use the future perfect tense for a future state or event that will take place before another future event.
By the time the next election is held, the candidates will have debated at least once. (Note that the present tense form [anticipatory future] is used in the first clause.)