10.3. WORKOUT FOR REAL-TIME TALK

Envisioning language study as travel in a dimension, we could think about our skill as guarding us against steep slopes. Let us warm up, for some workout.

Exercise 60. We do the exercise in our thoughts, as in the MIND PRACTICE. The arrow cues show the target grammatical time. We regard our linguistic Form Relativity.

Example: If you learned, you knew.
The forms “learned” and “knew” together show there is no linguistic relativity here. Our target grammatical time is the FUTURE.

Answer: If you WILL learn, you WILL know.

1. If you learn, you know.

2. If you WERE ABLE TO learn, you WERE ABLE TO know.

3. If you learned, you WOULD know.

4. If you HAD learned, you WOULD have known.

5. If you learn, you WILL know.

6. If you learned, you WOULD know.

7. If you HAD learned, you WOULD have known.

8. If you learn, you WILL know.

Exercise 61. Let us try “jumping” time extents, as in EXERCISE 55. We provide the arrow cues for the target grammatical time. Our “jumping” symbols are:

“One time extent forward”;

“One time extent backward”.

We can present the flow of time as on a symbolic line.

We can place the question mark, for the Interrogative Expression.

Example: If you learned {?}, you knew.

Answer: DO you learn, if you know?

Example: If you learned, you knew {?}

Answer: If you learn, DO you know?

We can place the letter N for our Negative Expression.

Example: If you learned {N}, you knew.

Answer: If you DON’T learn, you know.

Example: If you learned {N}, you knew {N}.

Answer: If you DON’T learn, you DON’T know.

Example: If you learned, you knew {N}.

Answer: If you learn, you DON’T know.

*****
TASK

1. If you learned, you knew {?}

2. If you learn {N}, you know.

3. If you learned, you WOULD know {?}

4. If you HAD learned, you WOULD HAVE known {N}.

5. If you learn, you WILL know {N}.

6. If you learned, you WOULD know {N}.

7. If you HAD learned, you WOULD HAVE known {?}

8. If you learn, you WILL know {?}

9. If you learned {N}, you WOULD know.

10. If you HAD learned {N}, you WOULD HAVE known {?}

Exercise 62. We can be back with someone we met in EXERCISE 37. Ms. Seges appeared already in Part One of our grammar course.

We were learning about personal pronouns, then (CHAPTER 1). Now we may think about our time frames, real-time and Modal. We can think about time frames also when the story is fictional.

It is weekend, late morning. Mr. Seges ― he never appeared in our grammar story before ― returns from a literary meeting.

Example: Ms. Seges is home, in her study. Though she had worked most of the night on her new book, she would be analyzing some old papers, now.

Answer: Ms. Seges is home.

Though she had worked most of the night on her new book,

she would be analyzing some old papers, now.

We can view Modal structures as modified real-time phrases
(SUB-CHAPTER 10.1).
Here, the phrase is not about a theory.
In our story, Ms. Seges is in her study, analyzing some old papers.

Let us compare a theory:
There is something very interesting about the old papers.
Otherwise, she would be sleeping.

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TASK

1. MR. SEGES: Honey, I’m back. What are you doing?

2. MS. SEGES: I’d be reading horoscopes.
(Ms. Seges never reads horoscopes.)

3. That is…?
(Mr. Seges does not believe she would ever read horoscopes.)

4. This looks like a calligraphic copy of Vespucci’s letters. It was slipping out of our backyard hedge, no covers or front matter.

5. “Hadn’t it sure taken a lot to make such a book, I’d suspect that Babbitt next door.

6. You remember, Bill wrote the book I was looking for was as likely to be obtained as a calligraphic of Vespucci’s originals.

7. And it was the title the Babbitt gave me. It was completely a fairy-tale, Bill even checked with the Freeman’s.”

8. About legends, my favorite Chicago blend is…

9. Honey, I would have remembered about the coffee; but I was so preoccupied…

10. I’m putting that with my records. The coffee is not a fairy-tale. It continues to exist somewhere in Chicago.

*****

From the key: Let us remember about text rich interpretation, as in EXERCISE 55. Babbitt is a character by Sinclair Lewis, an American writer. The Freeman’s is a famous auction house to specialize also in books.

Amerigo Vespucci described his voyages in letters to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici. Calligraphic copies were still quite a habit for most important documents, in Vespucci’s times.

*****

Skimming can encourage effective learning; feel welcome to have a peek into EXERCISE 64, before doing this one.

Exercise 63. Let us focus on Form Relativity with the Progressive. We remember about the earthling proper egoism (please compare SUB-CHAPTER 8.1).

We have the value {IN} next to the verb to go with the Progressive. However, we can stay {ON} our cognitive grounds for qualities, hearts and minds (CHAPTER 7).

Example: {PAST}, he, N 1. (be) extremely busy, 2. (remember) {IN} to bring that brand coffee.

Answer: If he had not been extremely busy, he would have remembered to bring that brand coffee.

Our symbolics:
A CLOSED MODAL FRAME, AND GRAMMATICAL TARGET PAST.

Please think if to use FORM RELATIVITY in example 2. A non-relative form will show a number of activities different from the relative. We can use Modals other than WILL, too.

*****

1. {PRESENT}, she, N read {IN} the calligraphic, she, sleep {IN}.
(She worked on her new book all night.)

2. {PAST}, he, N write {IN}, he, read or talk {IN}.
(The colloquium was very engaging.)

3. {PAST}, he, N hear {IN} from Bill then, {PRESENT}, he, write {IN} him a letter now.

4. {PRESENT}, it, N be {IN} such a good quality, she, think it a mere prank.

5. {FUTURE}, it, N sustain {IN} the quality throughout, it, compare {IN} with the Bodleian Horace and Francis Crease talent.

6. {FUTURE}, they, look in the library, they, get the Medici print.
(Someone most probably made it from the Medici print.)

7. {PRESENT}, it, N be so conscientious, he, throw it in that Babbitt’s garden next door.

8. {FUTURE}, it, prove necessary, she, have it carbon dated.

9. {PRESENT}, it, be as good as it looks, it, M be of worth even as just a calligraphic.

10. {PAST} it, N deprive of the front matter, {PRESENT}, it, be {IN} easier to find out who made it.

Feel welcome to some more exercise. We are gradually getting independent of cues. Real-time, we people speak without them.
10.4. MORE WORKOUT FOR REAL-TIME TALK

*****

10.1. THE UNREAL PAST OR CONDITIONAL: REAL TIME

Let us try a few more quotes.

More than that, and breaking precedent once more, I do not intend to commence any sentence with these words ― “If George Washington had been alive today”, or “If Thomas Jefferson”, or “If Alexander Hamilton”, or “If Abraham Lincoln had been alive today…”
Theodore Roosevelt, American President

PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Grammar resources might label the quote from Theodore Roosevelt as the 3rd Conditional, Unreal Past, or even the Past Unreal Conditional, dependent on the grammar approach solely.

Some of those resources would tell we build the 3rd Conditional of the Past Perfect and the Future in the Past.

We would have to recognize the Past Perfect for a potentially Unreal form, then.

Worse still, our “Unreal Past Perfect” would be as good as merely a fancy. Please compare a quote from Gerald Ford.

If Lincoln were alive today, he’d be turning over in his grave.

PRESIDENT GERALD FORD.

It is not only for our pension plans that we might be unwilling to have the Past Perfect for merely a fancy.

With Perfect tenses overall, our syntactic HAVE helps tell about real time. It has an open, real-time frame. To compare physical space, we might think about paths or routes on real ground.

{TO} is our cognitive variable.
We have the variable to render duration and time spans.

With the Unreal grammatical time or Conditional, HAVE brings hypothetical time. It is not part the real map, then.

It comes with an auxiliary compass for relative time, and closes the frame for the theory. We attach the auxiliary compass to the Modal.

Our cognitive variable is {ON}.

Duration and time span become generalized.
We have called it our Modal Net.

Whether our verb would be to read, to speak, to run, to stop, or to jump, duration becomes non-essential, with a theory closed frame.

The matter is exactly the same with the anchor HAVE in Theodore Roosevelt’s quote. The phrase, “had been alive”, is not concerned with longevity or shortness of life.

The phrase narrates about being alive generally, and we could quote Gerald Ford’s wording, “were alive” for an exact paraphrase.

Naturally, we might note that live people would not be likely staying in their graves, but our thing here is to work grammar for language uses as they are, even if absolutely abstract or humorous.

We may recur to CHAPTER 10. Our example was
“If you HAD eaten the cookie, you WOULD NOT HAVE had it (at some later, but still PAST time)”.

Again, the anchor HAVE pays no heed to the length of time it takes to eat a cookie. It helps mind if the cookie remains, or has been consumed in the course of events.

The syntactic role is narrative, not factual.
We may compare SUB-CHAPTER 9.2.
I thought the handle MIGHT HAVE / COULD HAVE broken off.
(It turned out it was still in place.)

However we know the theory was against fact, we can tell our story with the anchor HAVE.

About stories and their telling, the Conditional or grammatical “unreal time” are often backtrack logic: we look to the consequent, to speculate on the premise.

Let us think if language might transfer features.

We can view the phrase had eaten as a transfer of the syntactic anchor from the consequent.

We may think about a similar transfer for the Passive, where the object becomes the subject and the predicate adapts.

We do not need to view the anchor HAVE as the real-time Past Perfect. For speculation as “had been alive” or “were alive”, the choice is purely stylistic.

Let us try another president quote.

*****

“If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me, I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress.”
Calvin Coolidge, American President

CALVIN COOLIDGE IN 1910, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Grammar resources might label the above as the 2nd Conditional, or view the phrase “I WOULD have made progress” as a Modal modification of a real-time “I HAVE made progress”.

The argument might be, the words definitely refer to a time span, between some time PAST and PRESENT, in which progress has been made.

Let us consider two views to our syntactic structures. We began building our language structures joining the grammatical Person, Time, and Aspect.

Modal verbs have brought form relativity and auxiliary grammatical time. Let us picture these language components.

Let us think where the verb TO HAVE might occur, as an auxiliary or head verb.

For the auxiliary time, we may compare SUB-CHAPTER 9.1.
Modality is not indispensable:
We can have auxiliary time without it, too.
I am happy to have exercised;
I was happy to have exercised;
I will be happy to have exercised.

Let us change the verb “to exercise” into the verb phrase “to make progress”.
I am happy to have made progress;
I was happy to have made progress;
I will be happy to have made progress.

Let us modify our infinitive with the Modal form MAY.
I am happy I may have made progress;
I was happy I might have made progress.
I will be happy I may have made progress.

We can view phrases as modified, as well. Our view is likely to depend on the context and word sense, namely, if a phrase looks a theory, or not.

The progress in Calvin Coolidge quote is not a theory.
I cannot see any way in which I would HAVE made progress.

Our symbolics is to help comprehend.
For Calvin Coolidge quote, we can use
MODAL MEDIATION, REAL-TIME OPEN FRAME.

For a theory, we may compare,
But the obstacles, she WOULD HAVE made progress.
But she has not made any progress.
The symbolics to help see the difference can be
A CLOSED MODAL FRAME.

*****

Let us think how the Modal frame closes. With our modified infinitive above, Modality is attached as a subordinate clause. It does not make the main grammatical time.

Let us compare Modality for our main or head, real time.

If someone asked,
“What HAS she BEEN doing?”
An answer as,
“She MAY HAVE BEEN working”,
would close the hypothetical time on the grammatical and real-time PRESENT, just as the question.

Saying, “She MAY HAVE finished by tomorrow”, or “She WILL HAVE finished by tomorrow”, we would close our hypothetical time on tomorrow.

We can use our auxiliary time extent with all grammatical time, but we need to mind the form of the Modal verb alone, for the main time.

PRESENT Modal forms tend towards the grammatical PRESENT or FUTURE.

If we say we CAN or MAY work, the hypothesis goes into the FUTURE a little. Our Modal frame remains open.

Modal shapes we class as PAST tend towards the PAST or PRESENT. It is only with the open frame that we can use PAST Modal forms for the grammatical FUTURE.

We might say,
“We COULD do this tomorrow,”
but without auxiliary HAVE.

For our main time, we would not produce forms as
*She COULD HAVE / MIGHT HAVE finished by tomorrow.

The only exception would be the Modal WILL itself, but it is our regular mapping word for the FUTURE.
She WOULD HAVE finished by tomorrow.

The form “CAN” is quite special. We use it to tell what we are really able to do; we have the skill, or even mastery and finesse. Many grammar resources discourage closing the frame on it in the Affirmative, whatever the grammatical time.

If we are tentative about a future result, we can say
“Maybe it WILL HAVE ended by tomorrow”.
We may view the structure as the real-time Future Perfect, with an open real-time frame.

*****

Language is not a record or chronicle. It does not require absolute certainty about things coming true, or confirmation in events, for the thought to be real and for the structure to be grammatical.

*****

Do we need to resolve between labels as “Unreal Past” or “Conditional”? Let us mark individual verbs for grammatical form, in these words by Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

“No group and no Government CAN (FORM: PRESENT) properly prescribe precisely what SHOULD (FORM: PAST) constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is (FORM: PRESENT) concerned.”

It is obvious there must be a relative interpretation for grammatical from, and the extent for this relativity embraces the verb phrase.

A verb phrase can be one verb, or a verb structure, as with auxiliary HAVE.

Classing entire stretches of language as Conditional or Unreal Past, we might feel lost for the main time. We can stay by terms as “a relative verb form”, or “verb form relativity”.

Verb forms would be relative to the main grammatical time, the reference we make for the real time.

*****

Well, we may have worked out some logic. If we were lazy, we would have been doing something else for the past hour.

For a competent insight into our syntax, let us consider the Progressive. Feel welcome.
10.2. FORM RELATIVITY: THE PROGRESSIVE

*****

9.1. MODAL SYNTAX, GRAMMATICAL PRESENT OR PAST

Let us think about the two clocks pictured above. They show different hours. Let us say we ask what has happened, trying to explain why the clocks show different times.

Forms as below might address the question,
“What has happened?”
The question is in the grammatical PRESENT, and the target grammatical time of the responses also is the PRESENT.

Let us say both clocks should have a small handle at the back.

38. The handle MAY HAVE broken off.

38a. It MIGHT HAVE broken off.

39a. It COULD HAVE broken off.

*****

We may wonder if a form as “the handle can have broken off” would be possible as well. CHAPTER 9 shows the Modal verb CAN for objective and general contexts.

23. Bald eagles CAN fly above clouds.

A form as CAN HAVE and in a context as particular as here might be awkward, in American. The form MAY HAVE would be natural.

23b. It MAY HAVE been a bald eagle.

*****

Which of the above forms might address a question in the grammatical PAST, as “What happened?”

38. The handle COULD HAVE broken off.

39a. The handle MIGHT HAVE broken off.

This means that forms as 38a and 39a can address both the grammatical PRESENT and the grammatical PAST.

Let us compare some more Modal syntax, PRESENT or PAST.

CERTAINTY

40. The handle MUST HAVE broken off.

CONTINGENCY

41. You SHOULD HAVE checked on the handle.
42. The handle OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN checked.

43. You NEEDN’T HAVE manipulated the handle.

Well, the verb TO HAVE can be quite a handle itself. Not only in American English, the verb TO HAVE may occur with Modal patterns, the Passive, and the infinitive.

To work out the verb TO HAVE, we may begin visualizing the infinitive and the head time. Our head time is mauve. The infinitive is underlined.

44. I remember to exercise.

If we recall our exercise as something prior, ANTECEDENT, we might say:

44a. I remember to have exercised.

With the verb TO HAVE, our main grammatical time could be the PAST, PRESENT, as well as FUTURE. Let us think about the effect of our exercise on ourselves. The exercise makes us happy.

MAIN GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE PRESENT
I am happy to have exercised;

MAIN GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE FUTURE
I will be happy to have exercised;

MAIN GRAMMATICAL TIME: THE PAST
I was happy to have exercised.

Would the auxiliary HAVE generally make an antecedent reference in time?

If we say we have learned something, we say we began learning some time before speaking about it, that is, the PRESENT.

If we will have learned, or we had learned something, respectively, we begin learning some time before a FUTURE or PAST time.

*****

Whether a thing is fact or theory, the verb TO HAVE brings an antecedent reference to grammatical time, and it does not mean the time is PAST.

*****

Let us recur to our main grammatical time and syntax.

45. Where is the handle? It MAY HAVE broken off.
(Finding the handle is much of an open question.)
Would oranges have handles?

45a. I thought the handle MIGHT HAVE / COULD HAVE broken off.
(Finding the handle was not much of an open question, in the case.)

Let us focus on the Modal form alone.

45b. The handle MIGHT HAVE / COULD HAVE broken off.

Finding the handle
IS NOT
or
WAS NOT
much of an open question.

The Modal form alone does not give enough guidance. We need the main grammatical time or the context, to tell the target grammatical time.

We can venture our time frames. Feel welcome.
9.2. THE MODAL TIME FRAME

*****

CHAPTER 8. ALCHEMY OF TIME FOR BEGINNERS

Most grammar resources agree that we have four Aspects in English, the Simple, the Progressive (or Continuous), the Perfect, and the Perfect Progressive (or Perfect Continuous).

By the label, we can say the Perfect Progressive should have features of the Perfect and the Progressive.

We extracted general patterns for the Simple, Progressive, and Perfect in SUB-CHAPTER 3.1.

We can compare Perfect Progressive examples, as online or in books, and note a general pattern for it, too.
FUTURE:
I will have been reading.

PRESENT:
I have been reading.

PAST:
I had been reading.

Let us think how to build this pattern. We can reckon the verb to be from the Progressive takes the place for the head verb in the Perfect pattern.

The verb to have in the Perfect attracts the third form. The Progressive auxiliary be takes on the third form, within the Perfect pattern.

We can have the Perfect Progressive for a merger of the Perfect and the Progressive. Our alchemy makes room for the head verb in the merged, Progressive pattern.

We have correlated the Simple, Progressive, and Perfect Aspects with cognitive mapping values, {ON}, {IN}, and {TO}.
Please compare CHAPTER 4.

We can use the Perfect to say what has progressed TO a time.

We can use the Progressive to tell what is progressing IN a time.

The two combined, the Perfect Progressive can help tell what has been progressing IN a stretch of time we refer TO another time.

What language marker (preposition) could we choose for our merged variable? We could think about “into”, to join the “in” and “to”.

However, “into” may mean the same as “in” or “to” alone, dependent on the context. The westerly wind frolicked into eddies, in exercise 44 (SUB-CHAPTER 7.1).

“Into” may make an impression more formal or emphatic than “in” or “to” on their own.

Let us think about the preposition AT.

Something has been progressing AT this time.

If our moment in time belongs with the FUTURE, we can say,
AT a time, something will have been progressing.

If our moment belongs with the PAST, we can say,
AT a time, something had been progressing.

Some grammar books will associate our feature {TO} with the Aspect we also can name the Perfect Simple. Some may have the name Perfect Continuous, for our variable {AT}.

Psycholinguistics says that naming processes do not change the ways language forms can work for brains. Book authors are people, and people happen to differ in approaches. Language forms can work regardless of grammar labels.

Our visualization is not to fix a picture for language. We do not have to stay with the same visuals for all time. We can present our mapping on one extent, as well as a few extents.

We can merge our Progressive and Perfect arrow cues (please refer to SUB-CHAPTER 5.1).

Perfect tenses have an open time frame: they connote another, simultaneous reference in time.

Let us think about the Perfect Simple. The PRESENT Perfect Simple can embrace some time with reference TO the PRESENT.

17. Madame Règle has lived in Paris for fifteen years.

The open frame here looks TO the PRESENT, regarding a time fifteen years ago.

The PAST Perfect Simple can refer one time in the PAST TO another time in the PAST.

17a. Before moving to Paris, Madame Règle had lived and worked in Lyon, the silk capital of France, for five years.

The open time frame looks TO the PAST, regarding a time five years before.

The FUTURE Perfect Simple may look to a time span from the PRESENT TO the FUTURE. Our basic or nodal time reference is the PRESENT, but we can think about the PAST as well.

17b. Tomorrow, Madame Règle will have lived and worked in France for twenty years.
(Altogether, in France, she has lived in Lyons and Paris.)

Madame Règle is an avid reader. She never really reads one book only. She usually has a small book with her, tied to her bag with a colorful scarf like with a string. She says that actually being able to look at a book makes it more present to her mind. At the same time, there is always another, bigger book she reads at home.

The practiced school habit of stringing books together might have had its advantages. Jill shares the behavior sometimes.

The Perfect Progressive makes a dual time reference and has an open time frame, the same as Perfect Simple. The Perfect Progressive can highlight a process, its time span or dynamism.

Let us think about the verb to read. We write the verb to read identically in the first, second, and third form. We say it differently.

1st form 2nd form 3rd form

read read read

[rI:d] [re:d] [re:d]

The verb to have takes the third form.

17c. Madame Règle has read [re:d] a book about a French thinker, René Descartes.
(She has finished.) {TO}

When we merge the Perfect and the Progressive, our pattern has room for the head verb in the Progressive.

17d. She has been reading [rI:dI Ƞ] a series of philosophical commentary books.
(Her reading is still in progress, she has not finished yet.) {AT}

We do NOT use the third form twice, and we do not add the ING to it. The following example shows the potential error.

17e. She has been * [re:dI Ƞ].

Let us return to our variable {ON}. Could we have it for our basic cognitive reference? Feel welcome to further journey.
8.1. EARTHLING BASIC VARIABLE

*****

CHAPTER 7. TIME IN THE MIND AND HEART

When it comes to talk about hearts and minds, we might picture the difference between the Simple and the Progressive as above, one face being joyous, the other unhappy.

Saying, “I am hating you”, could be a joke.
Saying, “I hate you”, could declare hatred.

Most grammar books tell about “stative” or “static verbs”. The books enumerate such “stative verbs” to remember and never to use with the Progressive.

According to those books, we should never come across phrases as “I am loving you”, or “I am hating you”.

The fact is such phrases do occur, and we cannot expect of life to be as a grammar book.

Let us try things the classic way. Most grammars group the “stative” or “static verbs”. We may collect a few samples and reckon.

Our senses:
to feel, hear, look, perceive, see, sense, smell, sound, taste.

Our feelings:
to admire, adore, appreciate, cherish, cost, desire, detest, disdain, dislike, esteem, fear, feel, hate, like, loathe, love, prefer, regard, relish, respect, revere, want, wish.

Our minds:
to admit, appreciate, appear, assume, believe, belong, choose, cost, disapprove, esteem, expect, feel, hope, know, mean, object, perceive, prefer, realize, recall, recognize, recollect, regard, relish, remember, see, sense, stipulate, suppose, think, understand.

Property (things or animals owned):
to belong, charge, have, hold, owe, own, possess, retain, vest.

Properties (characteristics, attributes, features):
to appear, appertain, befit, concern, consist, contain, emerge, hold, inhere, keep, matter, seem, show, signify, sound.

We may be happy with own notes on words.

When we want more words, we can use a thesaurus, as at the THESAURUS.COM.

Let us compare the Simple and the Progressive, using our cognitive variables. We can maintain the infinity symbol for the Simple.

The infinity is not eternity or uncertainty. It is to mind that natural language is not a finished set.

We can begin with our senses. We have correlated the Simple with the variable {ON}, and the Progressive with the variable {IN}.

8. She feels cold. {ON}
Her body feels cold. {ON}

We can use ING when we use our sense of touch:

8a. She is feeling her temperature. {IN}
She is using palpation to feel the temperature. {IN}

We may reflect on our sense of touch:

8b. The wind feels cold (right now). {ON}

Our moods happen to be dynamic. We could ask,

8c. How are you feeling? {IN}
(How are you taking your own condition, mood?) {IN}

To convey the same meaning as in 8c, we also could ask,
8d. How do you feel? {ON}
(How are you taking your own condition, mood?) {IN}

The form may not refer to the sense of touch and well, the way we feel about answering can depend on who asks the question.

Our feelings are worth thinking about. We can use introspection.

We probably never say about someone shivering,
8e. She / he *is feeling cold. {IN}

This could sound hard-hearted, as if we would be saying someone is just exercising his or her senses, when his or her body temperature is low.

People naturally develop group language use. Our language may vary, dependent on who we speak with: a close friend or a stranger, for example. Grammars usually do not prescribe on group language use. However, we mostly say,

8f. She / he feels cold. {ON}
8g. She / he is cold. {ON}

In everyday language, we often use the Modal verb can, to tell about our senses. It may not change the meaning at all,

9. I can feel something strange. ~ I feel something strange. {ON}
9a. I can see something. ~ I see something. {ON}

The Modal yet may bring another connotation,
9b. Things can look better. {ON}
(They do not; it needs to stop raining.)

Verbs may become phrasal verbs. Their meanings may change then, as with to see about, or to look for.

Contemporary American English uses phrasal verbs extensively. We have a few phrasal verbs in our grammar guidance.

We can say we catch on a bit of language, when we get to hear or see it. We may catch on to a bit of language and learn it.

If we come across something or someone, we meet or find them, often by chance. When we look up dictionaries, we read them. If we look to something, we consider it.

We can get to know phrasal verbs better in Part Four.

Let us give some more time to eyesight.

10. What are you looking at? {IN}
(What are you viewing?) {IN}

10a. What are you looking for? {IN}
(What are you seeking?) {IN}

10b. She is seeing him tomorrow. ~ She is meeting him tomorrow. {IN}
10c. She is seeing about getting the new house. ~ She is arranging the purchase of the house. {IN}

Let us look to a few more examples about our senses. The meaning may change, if we change the variable.

11. I can hear some strange noise. ~ I hear some strange noise. {ON}
11a. They are hearing new candidates now. {IN}
(They are interviewing or auditioning them.)
11b. You are hearing things. {IN}
(Your nervous system is producing delusions.)

The meaning will always depend on the context and the speaker’s intentions. We can call it the locutionary intent, in linguistics.

12. You look great now! {ON}
(I like your appearance now.) {ON}

English is as honest as any other language ― in fact, it terms an innocent lie a “white lie”. Imagine a boss wearing a horrible suit. What might others say?
“Interesting, boss”. “Chic.”’

“White lies” are usually brief utterances. There is always the hazard of praising the boss while he or she would be deliberately wearing something awful, to tell friends from foes.

We can speak about our senses with an open time frame (please compare CHAPTER 6),

13. I have not heard from him in years. {TO}
(He hasn’t contacted me in years.) {TO}

Please compare,
13a. She has never seen anything like this. {TO}
(This is the first time she can see such a strange thing.) {ON}
13b. He has never felt so good. {TO}
(He is now very comfortable.)

Our noses are quite a regular sense. We can speak about smell with an open time frame, use the verb can, as well as balance our variables.

14. She has never smelled anything more portending savor. {TO}
(An irresistible scent is coming from the kitchen.) {IN}
14a. I can smell something nice. ~ I smell something nice. {ON}

Fresh herbs can make food healthier and irresistible.

14b. The roses smell beautiful. {ON}
14c. She is smelling the roses. {IN}
(She is using her sense of smell.) {IN}

How could 101 roses smell?

Psycholinguistics says there is always an emotional component in human learning and thinking.

Naturally, learning something does not mean automatically loving or hating it. However, if we choose to learn something, it is good to think about the advantages.

We humans remember pleasurable experiences much better than unpleasant impressions. Our senses are not our feelings directly, yet human emotionality may require some diplomacy about perception.

However tolerant to the verb can, our noses happen to be delicate. We may say,
15. It smells here. {ON}
Actually, we are going to be close to saying,
15a. It stinks here. {ON} TABOO

As this could be an ugly and unpleasant thing to say, we can mark this socially uncertain expression as TABOO.

We may be more socially agreeable, if we take some responsibility for our perception,
(as liable as we get to be).

15b. I (think I can) smell something. {ON}

We may want our taste buds to make sense, too:
16. I can taste some nice flavor in this. ~ I taste some nice flavor in this. {ON}

Same as with other senses, we can use ING to say that we are using our taste buds. When it is our sense of taste to be telling us something, we can simply stay ON our cognitive extent.
16a. The drink tastes sweet. {ON}
(This is what our taste buds are telling.) {IN}
16b. He is tasting the drink. {IN}
(He is trying it.) {IN}

Let us think about our variables and recur to CHAPTER 4. If we select part an extent for our view, we may mark we do not mean an entire extent.

When we use our senses or act on appearance, we can have this for an activity in progress, the same as any other actions we take or carry out. We can follow the dynamic use of verbs, that is, use –ING.

When we perceive, feel, or think, we may want our linguistic gravitation (compare SUB-CHAPTER 6.2). Our senses, feelings, and thoughts belong with our cognizance. We can stay ON our notional grounds.

Let us compare two forms,
What are you hoping for? {IN}
What do you hope for? {ON}

The latter form, hope for, would make an impression broader than the form hoping for. To discuss this, we need to talk about…

FEELINGS!

We cannot really speak a language if we are unable to speak about our feelings in it. We can present a few stative uses of verbs for feelings, in pairs of antonyms, that is, words of opposite meanings.

Thesauruses (or thesauri) mostly abbreviate antonyms as ant, and synonyms as syn.

Psycholinguistics says we are all language users. We can use words without carrying out any action about them. Never leaving home, we can speak about space flight, climbing Mount McKinley, or diving in the Milwaukee Deep.

Mount McKinley (or Denali) is the highest peak in the USA and North America entire. It is about 20,300 feet above the sea level. Denali is the third most prominent summit in the world. It neighbors on the Wonder Lake.

The Milwaukee Deep is the most profound depth in the Atlantic. It belongs with the Puerto Rico trench and is about 27,500 feet. USS Milwaukee discovered it. The USA has borders on the Atlantic Ocean in the east and on the Pacific in the west.

Language users as we are, we can present words about feelings in antonyms, without any emotional disturbance or distress.

admire, adore, cherish ~#~ detest, disdain
appreciate, esteem ~#~ disregard
benefit, favor ~#~ cost
dare ~#~ fear
desire, relish ~#~ abhor, reject
like ~#~ dislike
love ~#~ hate, loathe
prefer ~#~ reject
respect, revere ~#~ disparage
want, wish ~#~ have no relish in / taste for

Could the value ON be our earthling basic variable?
SUB-CHAPTER 8.1 has an idea.

We can try pairs of synonyms with our stative uses for thinking. Synonyms are words close in meaning. We yet cannot always use synonyms interchangeably.

accede, agree ~#~ admit, consent
appreciate ~#~ realize
assume ~#~ presume, stipulate
believe ~#~ consider, suppose
expect ~#~ think likely, count upon
feel ~#~ hold, think
forget ~#~ become oblivious of, overlook
know ~#~ be aware of, remember
mean ~#~ intend
object ~#~ disapprove
perceive, sense ~#~ consider, recognize
see ~#~ comprehend, understand
think ~#~ cerebrate

Human potential for language is inborn. However, ― with each and every language ― we all need to learn speaking and writing. Chatting with minors can be a clever thought (!)

We people are language users with regard to thinking and other processes, activities, or experiences. We can speak about Benjamin Franklin, the wave theory of light, or a Pulitzer Prize author, never getting to all the details of the lives, theories, and works.

Let us put our words for property together with synonyms and antonyms for us, sometimes rich and sometimes not-so-affluent people who learn.

belong ~#~ be part of, pertain to ~#~ be exclusive of
have, hold, own ~#~ possess, retain ~#~ be devoid of
owe ~#~ be indebted ~#~ be creditor to
vest ~#~ charge ~#~ cost

Properties happen to come and go. Let us put our stative uses for properties together with their synonyms. When a property (feature, characteristic) is gone, we can use negation.

appear ~#~ look, seem
concern ~#~ be of interest to, relate to
consist ~#~ be composed of, be made up of
consist ~#~ exist
contain ~#~ hold or include within
hold ~#~ remain (valid, true)
matter ~#~ be of importance
signify ~#~ imply, mean
sound, look ~#~ convey an impression

*****

The above provides quite a thorough analysis of verbs for feeling and thought. To feel is a very interesting verb.

We might say, “I feel fresh”, to speak about our senses. We could say, “I feel love”, to speak about our emotions. We also could say, possibly in another context, “I feel this is stupid” [TABOO], to say what we think.

Natural language does associate feelings and thoughts with spatial variables. “High on emotion” or “in the deepest of our thoughts”, we require some of the notions for space, to think about time and feelings.

Cognitive variables naturally can help manage our expression on that.

The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated,
James Madison, the 4th President of the United States.

We can find resources about American presidents at WHITEHOUSE.GOV, the website of the President’s home. It is enough that we type “presidents” in the search field.

*****

Classing verbs as stative and grouping them in categories befits behaviorist analyses more. Our perspective is psycholinguistic: we stay with cognitive variables.

We can agree there might be stative uses of verbs, but we do not list special verbs never to use with the Progressive.

If we go WORDNET.PRINCETON.EDU, we get a project with the US National Science foundation, WordNet. It is free to download and use, according to the license. Resources like WordNet help view vocabulary in a connected way.

Feel welcome to the practice for the mind and the heart.
7.1. EXERCISES: THE SIMPLE OR THE PROGRESSIVE

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6.5. THE TARGET TIME AND FRAME

Berry target, photo by Brigitte Tohm from Pexels.

With goals, purposes and targets, the matter is to have what we want, where we want it, and when we want it, like a bowl of berries in the picture above.

For language skill, we need to practice linguistic targets.

Exercise 37. We have our time frames for our guidance. We choose between the Simple and the Perfect, in the PAST.

Please put the verb in the form for the grammatical PAST and give the arrow cue along with the mapping value. In language, we can seek inspiration with words. Let it be a simple chair this time.

Example: His parents (surrender) □ his place in the kindergarten. When Ms. Duncan (suggest) □ playing the musical chairs, Art (throw) □ in three right hand gloves. One of them (belong) □ to Ms. Duncan.

If we feel we could be better off writing entire answers, we can do so without looking to others. Writing belongs with human fine motor behavior. It is important in integrating language skills.

Answer: His parents surrendered his place in the kindergarten. When Ms. Duncan suggested playing the musical chairs, Art threw in three right hand gloves. One of them belonged to Ms. Duncan.

We can only think about the logical cues and mapping values, as in MIND PRACTICE 1.2.
Answer: {ON}

1. Despite his early predilection for challenge, he (get) □ himself a chairborne job. His chair (have) □ an advantage, however. He (design) └┘ it for use by one person exactly

2. Originally, he never (expect) □ of a woman to fill a chair. He (change) □ his mind when he (perceive), □ at about 26, that the strategy almost (reduce) └┘ him to his local club armchair, for dialogue.

3. He (marry) Jin in summer. They (spend) □ their countryside honeymoon mostly bringing the chairs from the garden. His friend Jalen (persuade) □ him to go on a vacation, in a better weather. They (choose) □ Amtrak to journey. Art and Jin first (meet) □ in a parlor car. Face to face with their notebooks, they (realize) □ they were actually chatting with each other over the Unlimited (!)

4. He soon (begin) □ developing his son-in-law attitude. Eva, his mother-in-law, (love) □ to say nobody should let predecessors set the measure for the chair. Art (have) □ a reservation. His job (be) └┘ by principle like trying to keep someone on the edge of the seat with soft overboiled noodles. Jalen Seges (agree) □ that office routines (take) □ some time.

5. Art (know) □ that contending Eva’s arguments (be) □ suggestive of trying verbally to captivate a moving rock. Incontrovertibility (belong) □ with the Seges family ethos. A Yale graduate married to a Harvard grad, Ms. Seges (be) └┘ a woman of resolve, throughout her life. She (talk) table and chairs right when junior (begin) □ preschool. Her grandchildren would go to best schools, to fill their grandparents’ walnut bobbin chairs.

*****

Art is thinking about a new job. Routines of predetermined beginning and end are not his nature. With language work, we also can learn to negotiate: we contend the arguments and not the people, for that.

Could we look up the Amtrak Unlimited, Yale, and Harvard over the Internet? Can we comprehend words like “incontrovertibility”, if our dictionary does not have them? There are sample hints down this page.

Exercise 38. Please tell the time frames and map values (ON, IN, or TO), along with the grammatical time (PRESENT, PAST, or FUTURE). We have the arrow cues with every task, if we need them.

Example: Her father 1. (be) a nibmeister. She 2. (have) a clear taste for good quality since she 3. (be) a little girl.

CUES

Again, we can think about the frames and variables, minds first or only.
Answer:
(1) □ was, {ON} PAST;
(2) └┘ has had, {TO} PRESENT;
(3) □ was, {ON} PAST.

A. When she was in her early teens, she 4. (make) a miniature book. It 5. (be) three inches square.

B. She 6. (keep) the book for her thinktionary. She still 7. (happen) to add words to it, though she 8. (make) many more such books.

C. A young girl, she 9. (put) her miniature book in her jacket pocket and 10. (go) to sit by the river. Whenever a word 11. (come) to her mind, she 12. (write) it in with her miniature fountain pen.

D. Her handwriting 13. (change) a little, since then. By and large, she 14. (adjust) her letters to the size of her notebook. One day, she 15. (engross) her future husband’s name in her thinktionary. His name 16. (remain) the only word to take a page entire, out of the alphabetical order.

E. Chantelle 17. (have) a collection of pens. Her favored inkwells 18. (be) glass, silver, and pewter. Her first book 19. (tell) about a girl’s language of the heart.

*****

Form (16) also might be “his name remains”: there are no universal rules to govern contexts, and we are free to decide on our own, dependent on our cognitive mapping.

Miniature books belong with arts. Their scopes may be the same as of standard volumes. They are smaller because they are miniaturized. Chantelle’s miniature book is one of the biggest sizes ― it is three inches square.

The “thinktionary” is a coined word. We can compare it with the word “dictionary”. Everyone can have own thinktionaries. Have we met Chantelle already?

HINTS FROM THE KEY

We do not have to use Past Perfect forms whenever anything happened earlier or preceded something else. We would need millions of past tense forms to speak about Old English, thinking only about the days and years since those times.

Amtrak Unlimited is a forum for Amtrak passengers.

Harvard and Yale are two very prominent and competitive American universities.

*****

How do we interpret words as incontrovertibility?
Here is how we can interpret information about words. We do not need to memorize it.

Just browsing and reading dictionaries, we might get even surprised with how much we remember and “intuitively” use.

We can interpret incontrovertibility by the word build.

The American Heritage online will show the word in•con•tro•vert•ible and explain that the verb to con•tro•vert may mean “to raise arguments against; voice opposition to”.

We look up the parts in– and –ibility. The particle in– may negate. The particle –ibility can work with a noun and connote “an ability, inclination, or suitability”.

However, the particle in– may also mean “having the function of”. We can look up words such as “inbound” or “incant”. Inflammable materials or substances can be highly flammable.

The verb “to controvert” derives from the noun controversy. The noun consists of the particles contro– and versus.

Contro– or contra– can connote “against, opposite, contrasting”. The particle in– does not work in the sense “into” or “within” with the particle con–.

The American Heritage dictionary can tell that incontrovertibility relates to the adjective incontrovertible, meaning “impossible to dispute, unquestionable”.

In•con•tro•vert•i•ble•ness is another, probable form.

We can guess that Art Veltall’s mother-in-law may be a person difficult — but not impossible — to persuade or influence. His wife Jin is some personality, too.

READ HOW TO USE THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY

Feel welcome to further journey.
CHAPTER 7. STATIVE USE OF VERBS

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6.4. MORE GRAMMAR AND WORD PRACTICE

Boutique d’bonheur, photo by Brigitte Tohm from Pexels.

It is natural to wish someone good luck, with tests and exams. Grammar exercises can “buy” us some luck. They do not have to be difficult, for that. Good luck (!)

Exercise 34. All verbs in parentheses will have a closed time frame, and remain {ON} a PAST cognitive ground.

1. The kitten (spill) all the milk by the mill down the hill.

2. The hedgehog (hide) the apples from the bird in a good jar with a lid.

3. The rabbit (strew) the cashews for the jabiru and (go on) making his debut callaloo.

4. The gades (lay) a fair-trade plan for a decade.

5. The corn-fed chick (flee) the shed for some strick.

6. The adept turtle (keep) his hep by the skep except when the bees (sweep).

7. The little bat always (cut) the coconut a bit imprecise, cooking the rice to suffice all sojourning mice.

8. The mountain cat usually (sit) on his mat to chat with the standpat spat on habits and repast.

9. The southern wind (heave) the sea and (sheave) the tides to incline a span unsized in eyes.

10. The butterfly (weave) in a cove; the dove taut (think) about a courtly lot.

*****

For spoken American English, please find the Voice of America at VOANEWS.COM. There is worthwhile, standard American English along with materials for learners. The LEARNING ENGLISH site has slow and clear readouts of news.

*****

Exercise 35. Let us try our time frames and logical cues with mapping values. Our pieces of thought are longer, more proportionate to everyday language.

We can be very serious about grammar and keep a sense of humor: when we humans learn, we happen to be very formal, and this may burden our learning and language styles.

Good American English does not have to be gravely serious (!)

WE CAN FIND THE LYRICS ONLINE
We also can visit the official website
THE OFFICIAL SIMON & GARFUNKEL

Example: Right after he (1) had fought his dependence on the game of Monopoly, he (2) fell for spinnakers completely. A born and bred Alaskan, he (3) went to cruise the Antarctic with a chute.

1. He (4) sold his vintage Chevy and nearly (5) bought a Jeep, when he (6) thought that his vehicle (7) approximated an expression of his ego. A Jeep almost (8) portended a personality change.

2. A newspaper article on alpha and beta males seriously (9) disappointed him. He (10) was neither.

3. Many years, he (11) has looked for a role model. Nobody (12) has met his expectations on both personality and body build, however, and he (13) gave up trying to have body and mind for separate, on Earth.

4. He (14) has pursued some philosophy. At the present, he (15) is pessimistic on a resolve between existence and matter. He (16) thinks he (17) will resort to stoicism.

5. His friend (18) says he (19) needs some sense of humor, if he (20) wants to put up with a woman in his life. The woman always (21) is another Self.

Could this be Jim?

Exercise 36. We are staying with the Simple pattern {ON} a PAST time extent. We try some syntax for the Negative, too.

Example: Consciously pragmatic, Jill (decide) that tidying on her own (be) N too traditionalist. At least she (remember) where her things usually (be) before she (put) them somewhere completely else.

Answer: decided, was not (N, the Negative), remembered, were, put

In the beginning, we may care to write up entire answers. Our human memories can learn with writing habits. It is up to us to choose (!)

Full answer: Consciously pragmatic, Jill decided that tidying on her own was not too traditionalist. At least she remembered where her things usually were before she put them somewhere completely else.

1. She never (get) totally honest with anyone, on favorite comedy episodes.

2. An article on family roles in kite flying (incline) her towards psychoanalysis for a while. She yet soon (conclude) that she (need) N another grammatical person to be herself. Being herself anyway (happen) to her all the time, and she simply (like) to hold the strings. The West Coast had the weather.

3. Disputes on Sandburg and Creeley (bring) her to the belief it (be) never possible to think about one poet strictly, although it (make) no sense sometimes to try talking about two at the same time.

4. After some study of a number of concepts on the cosmos, she (picture) the humanity as an odd kind of fish in a series of still larger fish tanks. Early in the series, there (be) N any point to try bringing another fish tank to imagination. It anyway (require) adding more fish tanks.

5. She (tolerate) pop music well and (watch) American football with friends, but she always (choose) her fountain pens on her own and (keep) them just for herself.

Could this be Jill?

Feel welcome to some more exercise, on the open or closed time frame and the PRESENT, PAST, or FUTURE.
6.5. EXERCISES

*****

6.2. GRAMMAR COGNITIVE GROUND

Camille Pissarro, Boulevard Montmartre, Morning in Spring (Le Boulevard de Montmartre, Matinée de Printemps), Wikimedia Commons

The picture above is part a CITYSCAPE SERIES by Camille Pissarro. The series shows Boulevard Montmartre at different times of the year, day, and in varied weather.

We can think about grammar as allowing varied views on time.

Let us imagine an American in Paris (George Gershwin did). The American we imagine could be a young woman. She could be the Jill from the office, the Jill Smith that Jim wanted to meet.

Jin was not lying.
Jill is on her vacation.

Could this be Jill?

Jill is a reedy yet energetic figure, her rebellious and dark, almost black hair flying in the mid-September Paris wind. Jill is a very resolute person, one to walk big steps and to breathe deep.

Jill is entering a French restaurant ― a place deliberately prudent in its fine interior. She is looking for her friend, Madame Règle. Madame Règle often has her lunch there.

*****

Monsieur Sauf is not the stereotype, for a man to make his living gratifying taste buds. But the large apron knotted on his left hip in a kind of ― Jill, though learned, would never be sure ― stevedore or half hitch, you could think that he is some athlete, here about a plate of Moules Marinière himself. He is the restaurateur.

*****

This is not the first time Jill meets Monsieur Sauf. Still, she feels minute in his presence. She asks Monsieur Sauf about Madame Règle. Monsieur Sauf can say, reliant on his knowledge,

7. I haven’t seen her today.

He also can say,

7a. I didn’t see her today.

Madame Règle is not a systematic person at all. The only regularity about her would be a small book she always carries fastened to her bag with a scarf or, actually, a variety of scarves of many colors and textures.

The book is not the same book every day, and the choice of the scarf sure depends on some totally unpredictable factor, just as the exact time for lunch, for which you might want to assume the broad time frame of about sixty minutes to commence or not to happen altogether.

Madame Règle comes to lunch between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. or does not show up at all. Let us check on the time. It is 1:30.

Monsieur Sauf can use expression 7. The expression has an open time frame. Madame Règle still may emerge in the door.

7. I haven’t seen her today.

Now let us think the time is 2:30. Monsieur Sauf can use expression 7a. The expression has a closed and PAST time frame.

Monsieur Sauf knows that Madame Règle is not coming today. The knowledge is part the context.

7a. I didn’t see her today.

What if Jill asks whether Madame Règle was there, let us say, half an hour earlier? Monsieur Sauf may follow his linguistic gravity,

7b. I didn’t see her.
(On the cognitive ground: She was not here at the time in the PAST you are asking about.)

Jill is a grindstone to turn about good food. There is no telling her that good food could be bad and she esteems the French cuisine.

She usually visits Monsieur Sauf’s restaurant when she is in Paris. If she meets Madame Règle, she sure will join her for a meal by a table looking to the Quai de Seine (!)

There is an anecdote associated with Benjamin Franklin. A man asked a smith to make his ax especially sharp. The man ended up turning the grindstone himself.

We can find plenty of facts and trivia about America at ARCHIVE.ORG, a free internet resource.

Let us practice our more and more METICULOUS natures in exercises.
6.3. EXERCISES: THE ASPECT AND THE TIME FRAME

*****

6.1. OUR LINGUISTIC GRAVITY: THE NOTIONAL GROUND

As we saw in CHAPTER 6, concepts of a time frame and a cognitive ground can help comprehend the difference between the Simple and Perfect Aspects.

The Simple Aspect would have a closed time frame.

We could say,
5b. He loves to hear about Jim’s little cousin. He met the kid last summer.

We close the frame when we have the cognitive ground, as we saw also with example 2, in CHAPTER 6.

5a. He met Jim’s little cousin last summer.

In example 5a, the phrase “last summer” gives the cognitive ground for the verb form “met”. The verb form precedes the phrase, we yet always know what we want to say before we say it.

Our closing the frame does not mean we have to view the PRESENT for strictly separate from the PAST or FUTURE. We could say,

5c. He says (that) he met Jim’s little cousin last summer.

The Perfect Aspect would have an open time frame. We do not close this time frame on any particular real-time extent. It always tells about a span.

We could not say,

5d. *He has met Jim’s little cousin last summer.

(An asterisk can mark an incorrect expression. Informally, we may name a mistake a serious blunder.)

We also could not say,

5e. *He says (that) he has met Jim’s little cousin last summer.

To speak about the present and the past or future, we keep one time reference for one sentence or clause head.

We have those heads marked in ink blue, in all our examples here.

If we put both closed and open time frames with one sentence or clause head, our syntax will be broken.

5f. *He (says that he) has met Jim’s little cousin last summer.

*****

The open time frame may suggest effects, highlights, as well as prospects.

6. He has written ten books.

(He is likely to write more; his writing belongs with the PRESENT.)

6a. He wrote ten books.

(Maybe he is not going to write any more; his writing belongs with a closed time frame in the PAST.)

Let us now think about our cognitive ground as with gravity. Let us say we speak about last year. The time reference, last year, gives us the notional ground.

6b. He wrote the book last summer.

(It does not matter, if his writing belongs with the PRESENT or PAST. We have the notional ground and this makes our gravity work.)

To respond to 6b, many classic grammar books might advise to use the Present Perfect.

6d. I have/haven’t seen the book.

Pragmatically, we would be making quite a broad open time frame with that, however. The frame would emphasize the time span. This is why in everyday American we happen to get forms as here.

6d. I never read / saw the book.

Language allows to pool the cognitive information and say we never saw or read the book the author wrote last year.

It is for the sake of the cognitive ground that most people would add some circumstance, to affirm.

6e. I saw it at our book fair/ that year, etc.

*****

It is not just a concept that human brains can do logic. The sooner we begin to work on it, the better.

Feel welcome to further language journey.
6.2. ASPECT COGNITIVE VARIABLE AND TIME FRAME

*****

5.3. PRACTICE: REAL SYNTAX AND MORE WORDS

All verbs here can be irregular. Feel welcome to APPENDIX 2: it marks American English forms as AE, when they differ from British forms, BR. We continue practicing abbreviated verb forms, as in EXERCISE 28.

’m: am
’re: are
’s: is
’ve: have
’s: has
’d: had

We can tell abbreviated “is” from “has” only by their contexts, as both get shortened to ’s.

Example: They ‘ve clung.
Answer:
cling, clang, clung.

1. We ’re swimming.

2. It’s shone.

3. You’d gainsaid.

4. She’s eaten.

5. They’d woken.

6. He’s heard.

7. They’re working.

8. She’d spun.

9. It’s crowing.

10. You’ve spoken.

Exercise 30. We provide the 2ND and 3RD verb forms. Not every verb in this exercise is irregular. We can write REG next to a regular verb.

Example: She ‘s read.
Answer: TO, the PRESENT; read, read, read

1. We’re drawing.

2. She’s sung.

3. You’d written.

4. You’ve colored.

5. They’ve painted.

6. She’s swinging.

7. It’s ringing.

8. She’s left.

9. I’m dreaming.

10. We’ve played.

Feel welcome to the second part of the language journey.
PART TWO, CONTENT

*****

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