2. Lesson 7: Perfect Tenses
The present perfect tense places an action or condition in a stretch
of time leading up to the present.
Balloons existed
Hot-air balloons have existed for 300 years. in the past; the
still exist.
The past perfect tense places a past action or condition before
another past action or condition.
Had used is
After scientist had used weather farther back in
the past that
balloons for years, people discovered
discovered.
them for sport.
The future perfect tense places a future action or condition before
another future action or condition.
Will have tried will
However, many more people will have tried occur before it
the sport before it becomes ordinary. becomes ordinary.
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3. Forming Perfect Tenses
To form the present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect
tenses, add has, had, have or will have to the past participle of
the verb.
Singular Plural
Present Perfect I have floated we have floated
(has or have + past participle) you have floated you have floated
he/she/ it has floated they have floated
Past Perfect I had floated we had floated
(had + past participle) you had floated you had floated
he/she/it had floated they had floated
Future Perfect I will have floated we will have floated
(will + have + past participle) you will have floated you will have floated
he/she/it will have floated they will have floated
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4. 1. People had wanted flight for hundreds of years, even though they
were flightless.
2. The Montgolfier brothers had launched small balloons in 1782
before they sent up a balloon carrying animals in 1783.
3. Now pilots have circled the world non-stop in a balloon.
4. In March 2009 it will have been ten years since Jones and Piccard's
historic flights.
5. Piccard's grandfather had piloted a balloon to a height of nearly
52,000 feet in 1931, almost 70 years before his grandson's feet.
6. Weather scientists have learned much about the earth's
atmosphere from balloon flights.
7. They have taken air samples around the globe.
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5. Lesson 8: Using Verb Tenses
A good writer uses different verb tenses to show that events occur
at different times. If you do not need to show a change of time, do
not change tenses.
Writing about the Present... shows actions and conditions that occur in
the present.
Present Tense--places the action in the
Bullet trains reach speeds of present
more than 130 miles per hour.
Present Perfect Tense--places the
Subways have carried commuters actions in a period of time leading up to
to work for decades. the present.
Traffic engineers are improving
Present Progressive Form(s)--show the
mass transportation. actions or conditions in progress now
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6. Writing about the Past... show actions and conditions that come to an end
in the past.
Past Tense--shows action that
In the 1850s batteries propelled
began and was completed in the
some tram railways. past.
People had crowded Boston's Past Perfect Tense--places the
streets before the Subway opened. actions before other past actions.
Officials were encouraging mass Past Progressive Forms--show that
transit for years before highways the actions in the past were
progressive.
got too crowded.
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7. Writing about the Future... show actions and conditions that are yet
to come.
People always will need to get Future Tense--shows that the actions are
yet to come
from home to work.
Home offices will have become Future Perfect Tense--places the actions
popular before subways are or conditions before other future actions
or conditions
overloaded.
More people will be working at Future Progressive Form(s)--show that the
action or condition in the future will be
home several days a week. continuing
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8. 1. Commuters (have used, will use) mass transit since the 1800s.
2. The first electric subways (opens, opened) in London, England in
1890.
3. In 1987 Boston (will become, became) the first U.S. city with a
subway.
4. After subways (had run, ran) for a few decades, they improved.
5. They (ran, will run) faster and were better ventilated.
6. Now many cities (had enjoyed, enjoy) computer-controlled trains.
7. These automatic commuter trains (carry, had carried) millions of
people everyday.
8. The next generation of subway trains (had moved, will move)
without engines or rails.
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