The Present Simple (Indefinite) Tense, страница 6

2. Incomplete actions that started in the past, lasted over a period of time and are still taking place in the pre­sent is expressed by an adverbial with 'since' while an adverbial with 'for' is used to denote a period of time. (Compare the use of similar adverbials with 'for' with the Past Simple). Such adverbs as ever, never, lately, recently, always, often, all my life, so far, etc. are also often used with the Present Perfect to denote incomplete past actions.

They have been married for 20 years.

I've lived here since 1992.

Have you ever ridden a helicopter?

I have never tasted papaya.

She's been here several times before.

A. The Past Perfect Tense

FORMATION

The Past Perfect Tense is formed with the auxiliary had and the Past Participle of the main verb.

Affirmative			Negative			Interrogative
I YOU		worked broken	I you		worked broken		I you	worked? broken?
he she it	had		he she it	had not		had	he she it
we you they			we you they				we you they

Contractions

'd = had; hadn't = had not

USAGE

The Past Perfect tense denotes a past event (action or state) that happened before another past event. action can be indicated by an adverbial phrase with the preposition 'by' or by a clause with the conjunctions before, no sooner ... than, hardly ... when, scarcely ... when. It may also become clear from the logical relations between the clauses or sen­tences in a context.

The letter had arrived by the end of the week.

By March the snow hadn’t melted yet.

Had they left before the trouble started?

They hadn't yet started eating by the time I arrived at the party.

Hardly had we put up a tent when it started to rain.

The Past Perfect Tense is commonly used in Reported (Indirect) Speech after the reporting verbs such as say, tell, ask, explain, wonder, etc. in the Past Simple.

She wondered who had left the door open. She said she had bought a lovely pair of shoes.

When Direct Speech is transformed into Reported Speech the adverbials of 'absolute past' are replaced by 'relative' indications of time: 'yesterday' is replaced by 'the day before', or 'the previous day', 'ago' by 'before', 'last night' by 'the previous night'.

I asked if the Browns had left the day before. We knew David had left school two years before.

Notice that the Past Perfect in Reported Speech is the result of changing two tense-forms in Direct Speech: the Past Simple and the Present Perfect.

Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
1. Ann said to me: «Graham has lost his new watch». 2. Ann said to me: «Boh went to a disco last Sunday».	1. Ann told me that Graham had lost his new watch. 2. Ann told me that Bob had gone to a disco the previous Sunday.

F. The Future Perfect Tense

FORMATION

The Future Perfect Tense is formed by means of the Future Simple of the auxiliary verb to have and the Past Participle

of the main verb.

Affirmative			Negative			Interrogative
I we	shall	have gone by 4 o'clock	I we	shall not	have gone by 4 o'clock	shall	I we	have gone by 4 o'clock'7
he she it you they	will		he she it you they	will not		will	he she it you they

USAGE

The Future Perfect Tense denotes an action viewed as comp­leted before a definite future moment indicated by an adverbial with the preposition 'by' or by another future action. / think she'll have finished the essay by Monday.

By the time you get back Mike will have left.

He'll have been in this business for five years by next summer.