The Grammatical Categories of the Verb

The English verb has the following grammatical categories:

· person	· aspect
· number	· voice
· tense	· mood

v In modern English there are only few ways of expressing grammatical categories of person and number:

1. The ending -S/-ES in the 3^rd person singular in the Present Indefinite Active.

E.g. She speaks good English.

2. The forms of the verb TO BE for different persons (singular and plural).

E.g. I am / was

He (she, it) is / was

We (you, they) are / were

NOTE 2. Some speakers (especially in the South of England) use SHALL for Future tenses in the 1^st person singular and plural.

E.g. I shall speak to him tomorrow.

v Tense is a grammatical category which denotes the time of the action or state.

v Aspect is a grammatical category which shows the way in which the action develops.

The English language has two marked aspects: the progressive (continuous) aspect and the perfective aspect. TENSE as the correspondence between the form of the verb and our concept of time (past, present, or future) is combined with ASPECT as the way in which an action is experienced (in progress or completed). The only form which has no aspect characteristics is the Indefinite form.

E.g.	am/is/are reading
	was/were reading
I	will be reading
We	would be reading
You	have/has been reading
He	had been reading	the book.
She	will have been reading
It	would have been reading
They	have/has read
	had read
	will have read
	would have read

v Voice is a grammatical category which shows the relation of the predicate to the subject and the object. There are two voices in Modern English:

· the Active Voice

· the Passive Voice

The Active Voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject is a doer of the action expressed by the predicate.

E.g. I wrote a letter yesterday.

The Passive Voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject is acted upon.

E.g. The letter was written (by me) yesterday.

v Mood is a grammatical category which shows the speaker’s attitude to the action expressed by the verb from the point of view of its reality. In Modern English there are three moods:

· the Indicative Mood

· the Imperative Mood

· the Subjunctive Mood

The Indicative Mood presents actions and states as facts.

E.g. He bought some bread yesterday.

The Imperative Mood expresses orders, commands or requests.

E.g. Buy some bread.

The Subjunctive Mood presents actions and states as non-facts, as something imaginary or desired.

E.g. He would buy some bread if he had money.

He would have bought some bread yesterday if he had had money.

TENSES IN THE ACTIVE VOICE

THE PRESENT TENSES

THE PRESENT INDEFINITE TENSE

(THE PRESENT SIMPLE)

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16