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main verbs on their own, or as auxiliaries attached to full verbs. Here are
some examples:
 As main verbs:  Conrad was Polish, but he had success as a writer in
English.
 As auxiliary verbs:  He is going to the library ,  They have finished the
wine ,  I don t [do not] understand. The use of primary verbs as auxiliaries
gives information about when the event took place or will take place.
There is one other way of classifying verbs: as finite or non-finite. The finite
forms of verbs are those that have changed to indicate number, person, tense
or mood. The first verb in a verb phrase is always finite: for example,  He was
going to read the novel ,  They hadn t achieved the results they wanted. Here
are examples of the other ways that finite verbs change:
Ï% Finite verbs showing a contrast in number and person:  I read ,  She reads ,
 He is ,  You are.
Ï% Finite verbs showing a contrast in tense:  They live in Brighton. They lived
in New York.
Sentences 135
Ï% Finite verbs showing a contrast in mood. There are three broad types of finite
verb phrases that indicate mood: indicative, subjunctive and imperative.
 The most common type of verb phrase is indicative; it is used to state or
question factual matters, for example,  I m cross.  Is it raining?
 The subjunctive expresses wishes, conditions and other non-factual situ-
ations, for example,  I demanded that Tony apologise. Note, if the sen-
tence was indicative (indicating a factual statement: that Tony had
apologised), the verb apologise would be inflected:  I demanded that Tony
apologised.
 The imperative is used for directive statements, for example,  Go away.
Leave me alone.
Non-finite forms don t vary in this way and therefore don t express contrasts in
number, person, tense or mood. There are three non-finite forms of the verb:
Ï% The  ing participle: For example,  Walking down the road, I met my friends
does not change even when I switch around the subject to  Walking down
the road, my friends met me.
Ï% The  ed participle: In this example,  Bored, she gave an audible sigh the
non-finite bored doesn t change however the subject changes, thus the sen-
tence,  Bored by the long discussion, the whole seminar group was restless.
Ï% The base form used as an infinitive:  to read ,  to write ,  to dream . For
example,  I used to like to read and my parents still like to read.
5.6.1 Unnecessary shift in tense
Can you see what has happened in this extract from a student essay?
The Contagious Diseases Act (1864) was set up because of the
overwhelming public concern about venereal disease that was mainly
associated with the idea that the prostitutes  carried diseases. The act
enforced on the idea that if a woman is believed to be committing
prostitution by an officer of the law then she can be forcefully searched
in order to provide evidence, if she is suffering from venereal disease, she
could be detained in a hospital for a period of up to three months.
It starts, rightly, in the past, about an Act that was set up, but moves into the
present, discussing the idea that women can be searched (the past of can is
could). Sometimes this error is committed within one sentence. Although jour-
nalists often tell stories in the present tense to vivify them, before moving on to
a discussion of past events in the past tense, your essays should not meander
through time. Some tutors feel that, especially if you are writing about the past,
136 Studying English Literature
the only appropriate tenses for such assignments are past tenses. If you are dis-
cussing a general principle or the work of contemporary writers and critics,
you might feel it is appropriate to write in the present; however, the fact that
you are discussing recorded words might negate this. Whatever your feeling,
ensure that you write in the tense you intend, and that you do not vary it
within a single sentence.
5.6.2 Wrong tense or verb form
The appearance and explanation of these errors cannot be generally diag-
nosed since they are inevitably wide-ranging and each case is particular.
Furthermore, what is an error in standard British and American usage may well
be an acceptable form in different regional variations. Here is one example that
I encounter regularly, being asked,  What was your address? when the speaker
is requesting not a former address but the one of my current residence, and
thus the question should be,  What is your address? Confusion about the tense
and exact meanings of the modal auxiliary verbs causes their widespread
misuse in a similar way. Again, when making holiday plans I am asked by the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]