VERB PHRASE, TENSES, SINGURAL AND PLURAL NOUN

1.      Verb phrases

Recognize a verb phrase when you see one.

Every sentence must have a verb. To depict doable activities, writers use action verbs. To describe conditions, writers choose linking verbs.

Sometimes an action or condition occurs just once—pow!—and it's over. Read these two short sentences:

Offering her license and registration, Selena sobbed in the driver's seat.

Officer Carson was unmoved.

Other times, the activity or condition continues over a long stretch of time, happens predictably, or occurs in relationship to other events. In these instances, a single-word verb like sobbed or wascannot accurately describe what happened, so writers use multipart verb phrases to communicate what they mean. As many as four words can comprise a verb phrase.

A main or base verb indicates the type of action or condition, and auxiliary—or helping—verbs convey the other nuances that writers want to express.

Read these three examples:

The tires screeched as Selena mashed the accelerator.

Selena is always disobeying the speed limit.

Selena should have been driving with more care, for then she would not have gotten her third ticket this year.

In the first sentence, screeched and mashed, single-word verbs, describe the quick actions of both the tires and Selena.

Since Selena has an inclination to speed, is disobeying [a two-word verb] communicates the frequency of her law breaking. The auxiliary verbs that comprise should have been driving [a four-word verb] and would have gotten [a three-word verb] express not only time relationships but also evaluation of Selena's actions.

Realize that an adverb is not part of the verb phrase.

Since a verb phrase might use up to four words, a short adverb—such as also, never, or not—might try to sneak in between the parts. When you find an adverb snuggled in a verb phrase, it is still an adverb, not part of the verb. Read these examples:

For her birthday, Selena would also like a radar detector.

Would like = verb; also = adverb.

To avoid another speeding ticket, Selena will never again take her eyes off the road to fiddle with the radio.

Will take = verb; never, again = adverbs.

Despite the stern warning from Officer Carson, Selena has not lightened her foot on the accelerator.

Has lightened = verb; not = adverb.

2.      Tenses

Although the various shades of time and sequence are usually conveyed adequately in informal speech and writing, especially by native speakers and writers, they can create havoc in academic writing and they sometimes are troublesome among students for whom English is a second language. This difficulty is especially evident in complex sentences when there is a difference between the time expressed in an independent clause and the time expressed in a dependent clause. Another difficulty arises with the use of infinitives and participles, modals which also convey a sense of time. We hope the tables below will provide the order necessary to help writers sort out tense sequences.

As long as the main clause's verb is in neither the past nor the past perfect tense, the verb of the subordinate clause can be in any tense that conveys meaning accurately. When the main clause verb is in the past or past perfect, however, the verb in the subordinate clause must be in the past or past perfect. The exception to this rule is when the subordinate clause expresses what is commonly known as a general truth:

·         In the 1950s, English teachers still believed that a background in Latin is essential for an understanding of English.

·         Columbus somehow knew that the world is round.

·         Slaveowners widely understood that literacy among oppressed people is a dangerous thing.

The tables below demonstrate the correct relationship of tenses between clauses where time is of the essence (i.e., within sentences used to convey ideas about actions or conditions that take place over time).

Click HERE for a table describing the various tenses of the active voice.

Click HERE for a table describing tense sequences of infinitives and participles.

Tense in Independent Clause	Purpose of Dependent Clause/ Tense in Dependent Clause	Example(s)
Simple Present	To show same-time action, use the present tense	I am eager to go to the concert because I love the Wallflowers.
	To show earlier action, use past tense	I know that I made the right choice.
	To show a period of time extending from some point in the past to the present, use the present perfect tense.	They believe that they have electedthe right candidate.
	To show action to come, use the future tense.	The President says that he will vetothe bill.
Simple Past	To show another completed past action, use the past tense.	I wanted to go home because Imissed my parents.
	To show an earlier action, use the past perfect tense.	She knew she had made the right choice.
	To state a general truth, use the present tense.	The Deists believed that the universeis like a giant clock.
Present Perfect or Past Perfect	For any purpose, use the past tense.	She has grown a foot since sheturned nine. The crowd had turned nasty before the sheriff returned.
Future	To show action happening at the same time, use the present tense.	I will be so happy if they fix my car today.
	To show an earlier action, use the past tense.	You will surely pass this exam if youstudied hard.
	To show future action earlier thanthe action of the independent clause, use the present perfect tense.	The college will probably close its doors next summer if enrollmentshave not increased.
Future Perfect	For any purpose, use the present tense or present perfect tense.	Most students will have taken sixty credits by the time they graduate. Most students will have taken sixty credits by the time they have graduated.

Authority for this section: Quick Access: Reference for Writers by Lynn Quitman Troyka. Simon & Schuster: New York. 1995. Used with permission. Examples and format our own.

Note:
Unless logic dictates otherwise, when discussing a work of literature, use the present tense: "Robert Frost describes the action of snow on the birch trees." "This line suggests the burden of the ice." "The use of the present tense in Carver's stories creates a sense of immediacy."

Sequence of Tenses
With Infinitives and Participles

INFINITIVES
Tense of Infinitive	Role of Infinitive	Example(s)
Present Infinitive (to see)	To show same-time action or action later than the verb	Coach Espinoza is eager to try out her new drills. [The eagerness is now; the trying out will happen later.]
		She would have liked to see more veterans returning. [The present infinitive to see is in the same time as the past would have liked.]
Perfect Infinitive (to have seen)	To show action earlier than the verb	The fans would like to have seensome improvement this year. ["Would like" describes a present condition; "to have seen" describes something prior to that time.]
		They consider the team to have been coached very well. [The perfect infinitive to have been coached indicates a time prior to the verb consider.]
PARTICIPLES
Tense of Participle	Role of Participle	Example(s)
Present Participle (seeing)	To show action occurring at the same time as that of the verb	Working on the fundamentals, the team slowly began to improve. [The action expressed by beganhappened in the past, at the same time the working happened.]
Past Participle or Present Perfect Participle	To show action occurring earlier than that of the verb	Prepared by last year's experience, the coach knows not to expect too much. [The action expressed byknows is in the present; preparedexpresses a time prior to that time.]
		Having experimented with several game plans, the coaching staffdevised a master strategy. [The present perfect participle having experimented indicates a time prior to the past tense verb, devised.]

3.      Singular and plural

A noun names a person, place, thing, or idea.

Usually, the first page of a grammar book tells you about nouns. Nouns give names of concrete or abstractthings in our lives. As babies learn "mom," "dad," or "milk" as their first word, nouns should be the first topicwhen you study a foreign language.

For the plural form of most nouns, add s.

·         bottle – bottles

·         cup – cups

·         pencil – pencils

·         desk – desks

·         sticker – stickers

·         window – windows

For nouns that end in ch, x, s, or s sounds, add es.

·         box – boxes

·         watch – watches

·         moss – mosses

·         bus – buses

For nouns ending in f or fe, change f to v and add es.

·         wolf – wolves

·         wife – wives

·         leaf – leaves

·         life – lives

Some nouns have different plural forms.

·         child – children

·         woman – women

·         man – men

·         mouse – mice

·         goose – geese

Nouns ending in vowels like y or o do not have definite rules.

·         baby – babies

·         toy – toys

·         kidney – kidneys

·         potato – potatoes

·         memo – memos

·         stereo – stereos

A few nouns have the same singular and plural forms.

·         sheep – sheep

·         deer – deer

·         series – series

·         species – species

Sumber :

http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/verbphrase.htm

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sequence.htm

http://www.talkenglish.com/Grammar/singular-plural-nouns.aspx