Changing tenses

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ESL forum > Grammar and Linguistics > Changing tenses

Changing tenses

natabut

Changing tenses

Good part of a day, dear collegues! ))

I badly need your help and will greatly appreciate any. Thumbs Up �

Could you name me any lately changes that can be observed in mordern English tense system? Both standard and colloquial variants. Such as using "will" instead of "shall", using "was" instead of "were" in Conditionals, the word "ain �t" in different senses, etc...

Or can you advise me any web sources that deal with it?

Thanks in advance.� Clap

And have most joy out of your work and rest!

Yours, Nataly

18 Nov 2009

RabbitWho

I was at a conference where they said the present perfect and past perfect, and specifically the past participles were dying out or at least changing.

For example "I done it" instead of "I did it" or "I have done it. "

Also "ken" meaning "know" and coming from German.. or when German and English were the same, I �m not sure, is still used in Scotland but not in most other places.

In England the third form of "Get" is now "Got" (if enough people make a mistake it becomes "right") but in America and Ireland it is still "Gotten" as far as I know.

18 Nov 2009

ballycastle1

IMHO and experience, I done/I seen are said by people who haven �t had the correct rules drummed into them! Yes, these incorrect forms are rife but it �s a question of education.

I live in Ireland and rarely hear (and never allow my children/students to say) �gotten �.

18 Nov 2009

[email protected]

Both are still used in AmE. "I will go to the store." (future, may or may not happen) I shall go to the store. (future, it is going to happen no matter what the obstacle is.) Shall is a bit outdated but among the educated it is still used.

In AmE "gotten" or "got" as a past participle is acceptable. Leaving out the "have" of the perfect tense is only used by the illiterate and maleducated.

I have got my grades just now. (present perfect)

I will have gotten my grades by the time I leave school. (future perfect)

I will have got my grades by the time I leave school. (future perfect still, but doesn �t flow)

I had gotten my homework from Mrs. S-B before my class. (past perfect)

So, from even my own examples, it dawned on me that we in AmE, use gotten in the past and future perfects but not in the present perfect. It �s a flow thing I suppose.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/got.html

"Was" and "Were" are used in imaginative conditionals.

If I were a director, I would be very strict. (Counterfactual Conditional refers to the present or past but who knows what will happen in the future, but it is a present impossibilty)

If Marcy were to have a job, she would make money. (Hypothetical Conditional refers to present and/or future)

Past tense refers to the present with "were" and "was". "Were" is used for first person and third person as well as second person both singular and plural. It �s an archaic subjunctive throwback.

"Ain �t" - Don �t even go there...it �s just really poor grammar and I would not touch it. To me the use of "ain �t" is ignorance spoken aloud. It means, �the future or present simple of "be" or "have" + not �. I ain �t gonna do no homework. You ain �t gonna have no dinner now. Yes, I have heard these sentences and I cringe. I especially hear it most in the southern USA. So hopefully you ain �t gonna use it. :P

19 Nov 2009