Simple Past Tense

Explanation

1. The simple past tense is expressed with the past form of the verb and nothing else.

My grandfather died last year.  (Correct)

My grandfather was died last year.  (Incorrect)
My grandfather has died last year.   (Incorrect)
2. The simple past tense refers to

a. action which occurred at a specific time in the past
b. completed action
c. past status

Examples

Specific past actionI ate lunch at noon today.
He drove to work yesterday.

Completed action
She finally mailed the letter.
Jan finished her report on time.

Past status
John was still single in 1995.
Jane was a movie star.

Note the usage of the past tense in the following story.

Yesterday Mrs. Hubbard had a very rough day. In the morning, she went to the kitchen and looked in the cupboard for some food for her dog, but the cupboard was empty. Her poor dog stared up at her with its hungry eyes, and she knew she had to do something quickly. She hurried to the grocery store to buy some dog food, but unfortunately the store was out of her dog's favorite brand, so she had to catch a bus downtown. After buying the food, she waited for a half hour in the rain to get a taxi. When she finally got home, her dog was sound asleep on the living room sofa.

Common problems with the past tense

1. Using the present tense when the past tense is required.

Last week, Tonya fix her neighbor's car.  (Incorrect)

Last week, Tonya fixed her neighbor's car.  (Correct)

2. Using "was" with verbs in the past tense.

It was happened one night in September.  (Incorrect)

It happened one night in September.  (Correct)

Exercises

Change the verbs in the following sentence into past tense.

1. Yesterday, I go to the restaurant with a client.
2. We drive around the parking lot for 20 minutes in order to find a parking space.
3. When we arrive at the restaurant, the place is full.
4. The waitress asks us if we have reservations.
5. I say, "No, my secretary forgets to make them."
6. The waitress tells us to come back in two hours.
7. My client and I slowly walk back to the car.
8. Then we see a small grocery store.
9. We stop in the grocery store and buy some sandwiches.
10. That is better than waiting for two hours.

Correct the mistakes in the following sentences:

1. Last night, Samantha have pizza for supper.
2. My pet lizard was died last month.
3. Yesterday I spend two hours cleaning my living room.
4. This morning before coming to class, Jack eats two bowls of cereal.
5. What was happened to your leg?

Conjunction

In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, phrases or clauses together. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" should be defined for each language. In general, a conjunction is an invariable grammatical particle, and it may or may not stand between the items it conjoins.

The definition can also be extended to idiomatic phrases that behave as a unit with the same function as a single-word conjunction (as well as, provided that, etc.).

Types of conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions, also called coordinators, are conjunctions that join two or more items of equal syntactic importance. Coordinating conjunctions include for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. The mnemonic acronym FANBOYS may be used to remember these, with each letter being the initial letter of a conjunction. It is often stated that these seven words are the only coordinating conjunctions; however (at least in British English) others have been identified including whilst, now, and nor, and but nor

Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together to coordinate two items. English examples include both … and, (n)either … (n)or, and not (only) … but (also)....

Subordinating conjunctions, also called subordinators, are conjunctions that introduce a dependent clause. The most common subordinating conjunctions in the English language include after, although, as much as, as long as, as soon as, because, before, if, in order that, lest, since, so that, than, that, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, wherever, whether, while. Complementizers can be considered to be special subordinating conjunctions that introduce complement clauses (e.g., "I wonder whether he'll be late. I hope that he'll be on time"). Some subordinating conjunctions (although, before, until, while), when used to introduce a phrase instead of a full clause, become prepositions with identical meanings.

In many verb-final languages, subordinate clauses must precede the main clause on which they depend. The equivalents to the subordinating conjunctions of non-verb-final languages such as English are either clause-final conjunctions (e.g. in Japanese), or suffixes attached to the verb and not separate words

Such languages in fact often lack conjunctions as a part of speech because:

1.the form of the verb used is formally nominalised and cannot occur in an independent clause

2.the clause-final conjunction or suffix attached to the verb is actually formally a marker of case and is also used on nouns to indicate certain functions. In this sense, the subordinate clauses of these languages have much in common with postpositional phrases.

Coordinating conjunctions

For: indicates reason (used as a synonym of 'because'), or purpose

And: used to connect words, phrases, or clauses

Nor: presents an alternate negative idea

But: indicates a contrast or exception

Or: presents opinions, alternates, or substitutes for ideas of equal importance

Yet: connects ideas that follow logically and are contrary

So: shows the consequences of related ideas

Interjections

Interjections

Hi! That's an interjection. :-)

Interjections like er and um are also known as "hesitation devices". They are extremely common in English. People use them when they don't know what to say, or to indicate that they are thinking about what to say. You should learn to recognize them when you hear them and realize that they have no real meaning.

Interjection is a big name for a little word. Interjections are short exclamations like Oh!, Um or Ah! They have no real grammatical value but we use them quite often, usually more in speaking than in writing. When interjections are inserted into a sentence, they have no grammatical connection to the sentence. An interjection is sometimes followed by an exclamation mark (!) when written.

The table below shows some interjections with examples.

interjection..... meaning...................................................example

ah..................expressing pleasure ...................................."Ah, that feels good."

.....................expressing realization .................................."Ah, now I understand."

.....................expressing resignation.................................."Ah well, it can't be heped."

.....................expressing surprise...................................... "Ah! I've won!"

alas ................expressing grief or pity ................................"Alas, she's dead now."

dear ...............expressing pity ..........................................."Oh dear! Does it hurt?"

......................expressing surprise ....................................."Dear me! That's a surprise!"

eh ..................asking for repetition ...................................."It's hot today."
....................................................................................."Eh?" "I said it's hot today."

......................expressing enquiry ......................................"What do you think of that, eh?"

......................expressing surprise ......................................"Eh! Really?"

.......................inviting agreement ......................................"Let's go, eh?"

er ...................expressing hesitation ..................................."Lima is the capital
......................................................................................of..er..Peru."

hello, hullo ........expressing greeting ......................................"Hello John. How are you
.......................................................................................today?"

.......................expressing surprise ......................................."Hello! My car's gone!"

hey .................calling attention ..........................................."Hey! look at that!"

.......................expressing surprise, joy etc ............................"Hey! What a good idea!"

hi ....................expressing greeting ......................................"Hi! What's new?"

hmm ................expressing hesitation, doubt
.......................or disagreement ..........................................."Hmm. I'm not so sure."

oh, o ...............expressing surprise ........................................"Oh! You're here!"

.......................expressing pain ............................................"Oh! I've got a toothache."
.......................expressing pleading ......................................."Oh, please say 'yes'!"

ouch ................expressing pain ............................................."Ouch! That hurts!"

uh ...................expressing hesitation ......................................"Uh...I don't know the answer to that."

uh-huh ..............expressing agreement ....................................."Shall we go?" "Uh-huh."

um, umm ...........expressing hesitation ......................................."85 divided by 5 is...um...17."

well ..................expressing surprise ........................................."Well I never!"

........................introducing a remark ......................................."Well, what did he say?"

Prepositions

This is a list of English prepositions. In English, some prepositions are short, typically containing six letters or fewer. There are, however, a significant number of multi-word prepositions. Throughout the history of the English language, new prepositions have come into use, old ones fallen out of use, and the meaning of existing prepositions has changed. Nonetheless, the prepositions are by and large a closed class.

Single words -

aboard - about - above - across - after - against - along - alongside - amid - amidst - among - amongst - around - as - aside - astride - at - athwart - atop - barring - before - behind - below - beneath - beside - besides - between - beyond - but - by - circa - concerning - despite - down - during - except - excluding - failing - following - for - from -given - in - including - inside - into - like - mid (from "amid". Usually used poetically.) - minus - near - next - notwithstanding (also used post positionally) - of - off - on - onto - opposite - out - outside - over - pace - past - per - plus - qua - regarding - round - save - since - than - through - throughout - till - times - to - toward - towards - under - underneath - unlike - until - up - upon - versus - via - with - within - without - worth

Multiple words

Two words -

according to - ahead of - as of - as per - as regards - aside from - because of - close to - due to - except for - far from - in to (contracted as into) - inside of (note that inside out is an adverb, not a preposition) - instead of - near to - next to - on to (contracted as onto) - out from - out of - outside of - owing to - prior to - pursuant to - regardless of - subsequent to - thanks to - that of

Three words -

as far as - as well as - by means of - in accordance with - in addition to - in case of - in front of - in lieu of - in place of - in point of - in spite of - on account of - on behalf of - on top of - with regard to - with respect to

Archaic or infrequently used -

anent - anti (loan word) - behither - betwixt - cum (loan word) - ere - fornenst - fornent - outwith - pro (loan word) - qua (loan word) - re (loan word) - sans (loan word) - unto (largely supplanted by to; used in some formal, religious, or archaic contexts) - vis-à-vis (loan word)

Not fully grammaticalised -

concerning - considering - regarding - worth

Preposition-like modifiers of quantified noun phrases -

apart from - but - except - plus - save

Postpositions -

ago as in "five years ago", sometimes (wrongly) considered an adverb rather than a postposition

apart as in "this apart", also used prepositionally ("apart from this")

aside as in "such examples aside", also used prepositionally ("aside from such examples")

away as in "five light years away", sometimes (wrongly) considered an adverb or an adjective rather than a postposition

hence as in "five years hence", sometimes considered an adverb rather than a postposition notwithstanding also used prepositionally

on as in "five years on", also used prepositionally

through as in "the whole night through", also used prepositionally

withal archaic as a postposition meaning with

Drunken Santa

(oil painting by Jaisini)

Drunken Santa is a work that creates a miracle of equilibrium. What seemed like a clash of an opposite spectrum's colors became the unlikely harmony in this painting. Jaisini's artistic vision here is formed from two components of physical and emotional states of being.

Freezing and heating serve as a symbol to a human need for warming up from the chill of solitude by means known to people at all times. The artist pursues his art philosophical quest for worldly knowledge that had left its traces in many of his works. A line of composition literally ignites the

painting's surface with the movement. The color of this work is "phosphorescent," and it create the different planes if the subtle color nature. The warm color of purple supports the hot color of Santa's figure and an exotic fish above Santa. This hot color may represent the so-called material universe, the world of the gross senses that can be observed in a sober state. The cold, arctic blue color represents the unknown, the world of a deep state of drunkenness where real is unreal and otherwise. The only hard reality is the self, which never changes in any state. And maybe that is why

Jaisini favors the painting's main hero, Santa, to possess the vivacious color of fire. Jaisini chooses this color of fire to manifest the self and the cold cerulean, cobalt and ultramarine to renounce self as a mortal entity surrounded by the eternal unknown.

While Santa drinks his feelings of frigid loneliness vanish. And so, he gets a company of some almost hallucinatory nature. A shark, a ghostly image, a profile of another prototypical drunk who is not accidentally situated in a horizontal position. An amalgam of the several female figures that consists of a woman in stockings, a nun, a big-breasted silhouette that create a shadow between.

A heat can be sensed around the hot colored Santa who has lost his beard and is holding a glass of red wine. He shows his thumb that may be just a polite substitution for the middle finger sign.

The colors of the work are balanced by a virtuoso composition of a cubist character. The picture's space is divided endlessly. More images start to appear. The world of "Drunken Santa" vitalizes to almost chaotic state.

The work is a treasure. It depicts and witnesses the intangible mechanism of reality transformation. In the state of intoxication, what happens to the solid world of sober state? Everything disappears. It is just like the dream-world, that we call unreal, because when we are awaken it is not there.

Just so the solid world must be unreal because it also vanishes in the drunk or deep-sleep states. Then what is reality? In "Drunken Santa," this problem is elaborated to the triumphant conclusion. The simplicity of symbolism of the warm and cold colors. The dazzling composition of figuration superimposed to abstraction. And besides the beauty of artistic logic, Jaisini's works are marked with the rich, magnetic colors, as in "Drunken Santa" and others, strikingly attractive pictures in their intricate game of light and shadow, in their absolute congruence of visual and conceptual.

Review of oil painting "Drunken Santa" by Paul Jaisini