The choice of a past tense in the object subordinate clause

If the verb in the main clause is in the past tense (usually, in the Simple Past), there are three possible variants of the action in the subordinate clause: at the same time as the action in the main clause; earlier than the action in the main clause; later than the action in the main clause.

If the action in the subordinate clause took place at the same time as the action in the main clause, the Simple Past (or the Past Continuous if required by the context) is used in the subordinate clause.

I thought that he worked at a bank.

I knew that she was waiting for me by the entrance.

If the action in the subordinate clause took place earlier than the action in the main clause, the Past Perfect (or the Past Perfect Continuous if required by the context) is used in the subordinate clause.

I knew that he had already left for Rome.

She said that she had been waiting for me for a long time.

If the action in the subordinate clause took place later than the action in the main clause, the Future in the Past is used in the subordinate clause ("would" is used instead of "will").

I wasn't sure that he would be at home.

I knew that she would be waiting for me by the entrance.

It will be much easier to understand the rules of the sequence of tenses if you study how direct speech is changed into reported speech. (See the file Sequence of Tenses in Reported Speech in

The verb. The categories of person and number.

Grammatically the verb is the most complex part of speech. First of all it performs the central role in realizing predication - connection between situation in the utterance and reality. That is why the verb is of primary informative significance in an utterance. Besides, the verb possesses quite a lot of grammatical categories. Furthermore, within the class of verb various subclass divisions based on different principles of classification can be found.

Semantic features of the verb. The verb possesses the grammatical meaning of verbiality - the ability to denote a process developing in time. This meaning is inherent not only in the verbs denoting processes, but also in those denoting states, forms of existence, evaluations, etc.

Morphological features of the verb. The verb possesses the following grammatical categories: tense, aspect, voice, mood, person, number, finitude and phase. The common categories for finite and non-finite forms are voice, aspect, phase and finitude. The grammatical categories of the English verb find their expression in synthetical and analytical forms. The formative elements expressing these categories are grammatical affixes, inner inflexion and function words. Some categories have only synthetical forms (person, number), others - only analytical (voice). There are also categories expressed by both synthetical and analytical forms (mood, tense, aspect).

Syntactic features. The most universal syntactic feature of verbs is their ability to be modified by adverbs. The second important syntactic criterion is the ability of the verb to perform the syntactic function of the predicate. However, this criterion is not absolute because only finite forms can perform this function while non-finite forms can be used in any function but predicate. And finally, any verb in the form of the infinitive can be combined with a modal verb.

Verb: Person and Number.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 756