OTHER USES OF BE

be is used to express physical or mental condition:

/ am hot/cold. He was excited/calm.

They will be happy/unhappy.

With certain adjectives, e.g. quiet/noisy, good/bad, wise/foolish, it is possible to use the continuous form of be, e.g. Tom is being foolish, to imply that the subject is showing this quality at this time. Compare Tom is being foolish, which means Tom is talking or acting foolishly now, with Tom is foolish, which means that Tom always acts or talks foolishly. Similarly, The children are being quiet means they are playing quietly now, but The children are quiet might mean that they usually play quietly.

Other adjectives include:

annoying generous/mean

cautious/rash helpful/unhelpful

clever/stupid irritating

difficult mysterious

economical/extravagant optimistic/pessimistic

formal polite

funny selfish/unselfish

With some of these, e.g. stupid, difficult, funny, polite, the continuous form may imply that the subject is deliberately acting in this way:

You are being stupid may mean You are not trying to understand.

He is being difficult usually means He is raising unnecessary

objections.

He is being funny usually means He is only joking. Don't

believe him.

She is just being polite probably means She is only pretending to

admire your car/clothes/house etc.

B be is used for age:

How old are you? -I'm ten/I am ten years old. (not I'm ten years) How old is the tower? ~ It is 400 years old. (years old must be used when giving the age of things.)

C Size and weight are expressed by be:

How tall are you?/What is your height? ~ I am 1'65 metres. How high are we now? ~ We're about 20,000 feet. What is your weight? or What do you weigh/How much do you weigh? ~ I am 65 kilos or / weigh 65 kilos.

D be is used for prices:

How much is this melon? or What does this melon cost? ~ It's £1. The best seats are (= cost) £25

have as an auxiliary verb

115 Form and use in the formation of tenses

A Form

Principal parts: have, had, had Gerund/present participle: having

Present tense:

Alternative negative contractions (chiefly used in perfect tenses): I've not, you've not, he's not etc.

Negative interrogative: have I not/haven't I? have you not/haven't you? has he not/hasn't he? etc.

Past tense:

Affirmative: had/'d for all persons

Negative: had not/hadn't for all persons

Interrogative: had I? etc.

Negative interrogative: had I not/hadn't I? etc.

Other tenses follow the rules for ordinary verbs.

B Use to form tenses

have is used with the past participle to form the following tenses:

Present perfect: I have worked.

Past perfect: / had worked.

Future perfect: / will/shall have worked.

Perfect conditional: / would/should have worked.

117 have + object + past participle

A This construction can be used to express more neatly sentences of the type 'I employed someone to do something for me'; i.e. instead of saying / employed someone to clean my car we can say / had my car cleaned, and instead of I got a man to sweep my chimneys ('got' here = paid/persuaded etc.), we can say / had my chimneys swept.

Note that this order of words, i.e. have + object + past participle, must be observed as otherwise the meaning will be changed: He had his hair cut means he employed someone to do it, but He had cut his hair means that he cut it himself some time before the time of speaking (past perfect tense).

When have is used in this way the negative and interrogative of its present and past tenses are formed with do:

Do you have your windows cleaned every month? ~ I don't have

them cleaned; I clean them myself.

He was talking about having central heating put in. Did he have it

put in in the end? It can also be used in continuous tenses:

/ can't ask you to dinner this week as I am having my house painted

at the moment.

While I was having my hair done the police towed away my car.

The house is too small and he is having a room built on. get can be used in the same way as have above but is more colloquial. get is also used when we mention the person who performs the action:

She got him to dig away the snow. (She paid/persuaded him

to dig etc.)

(have with a bare infinitive can be used in the same way, e.g. She had him dig away the snow, but the get construction is much more usual in British English.)

B The have + object + past participle construction can also be used colloquially to replace a passive verb, usually one concerning some accident or misfortune:

His fruit was stolen before he had a chance to pick it

can be replaced by

He had his fruit stolen before he had a chance to pick it, and

Two of his teeth were knocked out in the fight can be replaced by

He had two of his teeth knocked out.

It will be seen that, whereas in A above the subject is the person who orders the thing to be done, here the subject is the person who suffers as a result of the action. The subject could be a thing:

The houses had their roofs ripped off by the gale. get can also replace have here:

The cat got her tail singed through sitting too near the fire. (The

cat's tail was singed etc.)

118 had better + bare infinitive

had here is an unreal past; the meaning is present or future:

I had/I'd better ring him at once/tomorrow. (This would be a good

thing to do/the best thing to do.) The negative is formed with not after better:

You had better not miss the last bus. (It would be unwise to miss it,

or I advise/warn you not to miss it.)

had here is usually contracted after pronouns and in speech is sometimes so unstressed as to be almost inaudible. had better is not normally used in the ordinary interrogative, but is sometimes used in the negative interrogative as an advice form:

Hadn 't you better ask him first? =

Wouldn 't it be a good thing to ask him first? you had better is a very useful advice form:

You had better fly. (It would be best for you to fly, or I advise

you to fly.)

In indirect speech had better with the first or third person remains unchanged; had better with the second person can remain unchanged or be reported by advise + object + infinitive:

He said, 'I'd better hurry' =

He said (that) he 'd better hurry.

He said, 'Ann had better hurry' =

He said (that) Ann had better hurry.

He said, 'You'd better hurry' =

He said (that) I'd better hurry or

He advised me to hurry.

119 have meaning 'possess' and 'suffer (from) pain/illness/disability'

A Examples:

He has a black beard. I have had this car for ten years. Have you got a headache? ~ Yes, I have. The twins have mumps. He has a weak heart.

B Form

Note that the negative and interrogative can be formed in two ways.

C have is conjugated with do for habitual actions:

Do you often hare headache¹,? ~ No. I don't.

When there is not this idea of habit, the have not (got)/have you (got) forms are more usual in Britain, whereas other English-speaking countries (notably America) use the do forms here also. An American might say:

Can you help me now? Do you have time?

where an Englishman would probably say:

Can you help me now? Have you got time?

do forms can therefore be used safely throughout, but students living in Britain should practise the other forms as well.

D got can be added to have/have not/have you etc. as shown above. It makes no difference to the sense so it is entirely optional, but it is quite a common addition, got, however, is not added in short answers or question tags:

Have you got an ice-axe? ~ Yes, I have.

She's got a nice voice, hasn 't she? have (affirmative) followed by got is usually contracted:

I've got my ticket. He's got a flat in Pimlico. The stress falls on got. The 've or 's is often barely audible. have (affirmative) without got is often not contracted. The have or has must then be audible.

120 have meaning 'take' (a meal), 'give' (a party) etc.

A have can also be used to mean:

'take' (a meal/food or drink, a bath/a lesson etc.)

'give' (a party), 'entertain' (guests)

'encounter' (difficulties/trouble)

'experience', 'enjoy', usually with an adjective, e.g. good.

We have lunch at one.

They are having a party tomorrow.

Did you have trouble with Customs?

I hope you 'II have a good holiday.

B have when used as above obeys the rules for ordinary verbs:

It is never followed by got.

Its negative and interrogative are made with do/did.

It can be used in the continuous tenses.

We are having breakfast early tomorrow, (near future)

She is having twenty people to dinner next Monday, (near future)

/ can't answer the telephone; I am having a bath, (present)

How many English lessons do you have a week? ~ I have six.

You have coffee at eleven, don't you? (habit)

Ann has breakfast in bed, but Mary doesn 't. (habit)

Will you have some tea/coffee etc.? (This is an invitation. We can

also omit Will you and say Have some tea etc.)

Did you have a good time at the theatre? (Did you enjoy yourself?)

Have a good time! (Enjoy yourself!)

/ am having a wonderful holiday.

I didn 't have a very good journey.

Do you have earthquakes in your country? ~ Yes, but we don't have

them very often.

do

121 Form

Principal parts: do, did, done Gerund/present participle: doing

Present tense:

Negative interrogative: do I not/don't I? do you not/don't you? does he not/doesn't he? etc.

do as an ordinary verb has the affirmative shown above. But for negative and interrogative we add the infinitive do to the above forms: What does/did she do? (See 126.)

Past tense:

Affirmative: did for all persons

Negative: did not/didn 't for all persons

Interrogative: did he? etc.

Negative interrogative: did he not/didn't he? etc.

do is followed by the bare infinitive:

/ don't know. Did you see it? He doesn 't like me.

122 do used as an auxiliary

A do is used to form the negative and interrogative of the present simple and past simple tenses of ordinary verbs (see 103-5): He doesn't work. He didn 't work. Does he work? Did he work?

B It is possible to use do/did + infinitive in the affirmative also when we wish to add special emphasis. It is chiefly used when another speaker has expressed doubt about the action referred to:

You didn't see him. ~ I \did see him. (The did is strongly stressed in speech. This is more emphatic than the normal I saw him.) I know that you didn't expect me to go, but 1 \did go.

C do is used to avoid repetition of a previous ordinary verb:

1 In short agreements and disagreements (see 109):

Tom talks too much. ~ Yes, he does/No, he doesn't. He didn't go. ~ No, he didn't/Oh yes, he did.

2 In additions (see 112):

He likes concerts and so do we. (Note inversion.)

He lives here but I don't. He doesn't drive but I do.

3 In question tags (see also 110):

He lives here, doesn't he? He didn't see you, did he?

D do is used in short answers to avoid repetition of the main verb: Do you smoke? ~ Yes, I do (not Yes, I smoke)/No, I don't. Did you see him? ~ Yes, I did/No, I didn't. (See 108.)

E Similarly in comparisons (see 22): He drives faster than I do.

F do + imperative makes a request or invitation more persuasive: Do come with us. (more persuasive than Come with us.) Do work a little harder. Do help me, please.

G It can similarly be used as an approving or encouraging affirmative answer to someone asking for approval of, or permission to do, some action: Shall I write to him? ~ Yes, do or Do alone.

123 do used as an ordinary verb

do, like have, can be used as an ordinary verb. It then forms its negative and interrogative in the simple present and past with do/did:

/ do not do do you do? don't you do?

he does not do does he do? doesn't he do?

I did not do did he do? didn't he do? etc.

It can be used in the continuous forms, or simple forms:

What are you doing (now)? —I'm doing my homework.

What's he doing tomorrow? (near future)

What does he do in the evenings? (habit)

Why did you do it? ~ I did it because I was angry. How do you do? is said by both parties after an introduction:

HOSTESS: Mr Day, may I introduce Mr Davis? Mr Davis, Mr Day. Both men say How do you do? Originally this was an enquiry about the other person's health. Now it is merely a formal greeting.

Some examples of other uses of do:

He doesn't do what he's told, (doesn't obey orders)

What do you do for a living? ~ I'm an artist.

How's the new boy doing? (getting on)

/ haven't got a torch. Will a candle do? (= be suitable/adequate) ~

A candle won't do. I'm looking for a gas leak. (A candle would be

unsuitable.)

Would £10 do? (= be adequate) ~ No, it wouldn't. I need £20. to do with (in the infinitive only) can mean 'concern'. It is chiefly used in the construction it is/was something/nothing to do with + noun/ pronoun/gerund: It's nothing to do with you = It doesn't concern you.

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 725