Excuses, excuses... (Present Perfect)

I am sorry I haven’t written for a while.

I have been busy the last few weeks.

This happens to be true but it is also a good example of English grammar.

First, what am I saying here? Well, I am making an excuse:

I haven’t written for a while = my last post was on March 15th and from then until now I have not posted anything…

And why?

Because from my last post until now I have been busy.

Just have a think about how you would make an excuse like that in your language…

One reader asked me why I always write, “think how you say this in your language”.

The reason is: when you learn a foreign language it is easy to think that it is just funny words and stupid rules and to forget that people really use this language to do things like making excuses or asking how their friends are…

It is very important to remember that English people say things in English not to use a complicated grammar but to communicate something! The same as you do when you speak your language!!

And it is easier to learn the English phrases and sentences if you see that they mean something and realise that it is not just a sack full of mixed up words.

My excuses above are examples of the Present Perfect:

I haven’t written

I have been busy

And I bet that the same excuse looks very different in your language.

In the next couple of weeks we will look more closely at the Present Perfect…yoohoo!

Present 'Simple' Can't Be Difficult...?

Languages are made of words and words are made of letters but the basic building block of a language is the sentence.

In English the shortest possible sentence is a subject and a verb:

I (subject - first person singular nominative personal pronoun, remember?) exist (verb).

Dogs (subject) bark (verb).

They are not fantastically informative sentences, but they are sentences and they are very short!

You have the subject which is what the sentence is about and the verb which tells you what the subject does.

Verbs come in different tenses (a kind of 'time form') so that they can tell you what the subject does in the present or in the future or the past.

The verbs in our mini sentences above are about the present, so they are in the present simple tense. The present simple tells us about things which kind of always happen or never happen...etc.

People always exist, dogs always bark (especially the neighbour's dog).

So for things which happen always, usually, often, sometimes, rarely or never we can use this tense.

In some languages there is a different form of the present for each person too. Greek for example has a different form of the verb for I, you, we, they, he/she/it (first, second and third person singular and plural):

iparcho - I exist
iparcheis - you exist
iparchei - he/she/it exists...

In English the verb only changes for the third person singular, he/she/it. We put an "s" on the verb:

I exist - he exists
Dogs bark - A dog barks

In other words it works like this:

I, you, we, they	VERB
he, she, it	VERB + s

Easy enough? Well, there is a catch.

Those sentences up there are all positive. If you want to say what is not always true then you have to use a negative form...and if you want to ask a question about what always happens, you need a question form.

Now, don't panic! Remember auxiliary verbs? Well we use 'do' to make the present simple negative and question forms.

Negative: Cats do (auxiliary verb) not bark (main verb)
Question: Do (auxiliary verb) you exist (main verb)?

In those sentences the 'do' has no meaning, only a function.

[Tip!! The auxiliary verb tells you the tense, the main verb tells you the sense]

So, it looks like this:

Negative Form

I, you, we, they DO he, she, it DOES

NOT

VERB

Question Form

DO I, you, we, they DOES he,she, it

VERB ?

...and what about that 's' on the third person form? Well, you can see it goes on the auxiliary verb 'does' and NOT the main verb!

Now if that does not make you agree that English is Easy, then I give up!

Welcome to English is Easy!

For some reason the old blog "English is Easy!" has disappeared - so I have relocated. I hope you have found me!

Soon the old posts will be back and some new ones too.

By the way, please ask if there is anything which is puzzling you about the English language.