Verb Tense and Examples

An Overview     click here for online practice
Simple Present	Simple Past	Simple Future
I play tennis every day.	Two years ago, I played tennis in England.	If you want to play with me, I will play tennis. I am going to play tennis next year.
Present Progressive	Past Progressive	Future Progressive
I am playing tennis now.	I was playing tennis when you called yesterday.	I will be playing tennis tomorrow. I am going to be playing tennis tomorrow.
Present Perfect	Past Perfect	Future Perfect
I have played tennis in several different countries.	I had played tennis a little before I moved to the United States.	I will have played tennis for four hours if I play for another hour.
Present Perfect Progressive	Past Perfect Progressive	Future Perfect Progressive
I have been playing tennis for ten years.	I had been playing tennis for three years before I moved to the United States.	I will have been playing tennis for over three hours by the time you arrive

Language as a Window into Human Nature

Language conveys so very much. Enjoy this video. Funny and informative language use.

An Artist's Statement

There are all different kinds of tones you can take in your artist’s statement. Here’s an example of the “why I make what I make” statement. It provides background that feeds the reader’s imagination. Ideal reader: someone who’s seen the work, and wants permission to understand it, love it. Who wrote it? Alfred Steiner “I spent my elementary school years in rural Ohio, in a big pile of animal parts. My best friend’s dad had a VCR with only three VHS tapes, one of which was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It was my favorite, and not just because the fictional events took place on the day I was born. There’s a scene in it where one of the nubile victims stumbles into a room strewn with bones—mostly animal—at once terrifying and rustic in the yellow Texas sun. Not to be outdone, my friend and I discovered a boneyard ourselves while roaming a nearby farm, harvesting a few cow skulls that we cleaned with bleach. There was also this fur dealer who lived in a hovel, just past the creek. In our only encounter, I watched this man enthusiastically carve out the heart of a fox and hand it to me. (I had asked for the organ to use in a third-grade science project.) But even that experience didn’t prepare me to find a severed blue eye staring back at me from the mailbox. Lowering the door of the box, I found the milky, apple-sized sphere suspended in a jar of formaldehyde. Turns out this horse eyeball was a gift from our veterinarian, who had already noticed my peculiar predilection. Pressing my memory for other seminal experiences involving animal entrails, I come up empty. But I do remember my friend telling me that his dad had a fourth videotape. Adult cartoons.”

Grammar In Use Present Continuous

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The Child Eater of Bern

A nearly 500 year old sculpture depicts a man eating a sack of babies, and no one is sure why.Standing in the middle of Bern, Switzerland, is the Kindlifresser, or “Child Eater.” The fountain sculpture towers above the ground a baby half stuffed into his mouth, and a sack full of three alarmed tots slung over its shoulder presumably for later snacking. The disturbing sculpture is no modern work of art; built in 1546, it is one of the oldest fountains in the city of Bern.
Strangely, no one is exactly sure why it’s there. There are three main theories. The first and most unfortunate possibility is that the Kindlifresser was built as a sort of warning to the Jewish community of Bern. The Kindlifresser wears a hat that is strikingly similar to the yellow pointed Judenhut that Jews were forced to wear at that time.
The second theory is that the terrifying Ogre is a depiction of Kronos, the Greek Titan. Kronos has arguably one of the most disturbing stories in Greek Mythology. Long story short, Kronos eats all his god children to keep them from taking over his throne.
The final theory is that the Kindlifresser is supposed to be the older brother of Duke Berchtold, the founder of Bern. Apparently the jealousy of being overshadowed by his younger brother for so many years caused him to go mad, eventually sending him into a rage where he collected and ate the town's children. (It would seem likely that this event would have been recorded in the towns history books, which it is not.)
It may of course be none of the above, and is simply a sort of boogie man from Switzerland’s Fastnacht, or ''Night of Fasting'' festival, a way to remind the Children of Bern to behave. Whatever the Kindlifresser represents, it has terrified Swiss children for nearly 500 years, and hopefully, will be there to terrify them for 500 years more.

Present perfect continuous

I started learning English in 2011.
I began a course at my local school in April of 2011.
I have been learning English for almost two years.

 This is the present perfect continuous.

have/has + participle +(verb)+ing

We use this verb tense to talk about current actions which began in the past but are still current now.

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thank you English Speaker

News Quiz | March 8, 2013

The New York Times Learning Network  is up-to-date and daily.

                                                                                                           Today we can read about the sanctions against North Korea and answer the questions for understanding.


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The unified vote at the United Nations on new sanctions against North Korea came hours after the country, infuriated by the proposed resolution and continuing annual joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States, threatened for the first time to carry out “a pre-emptive nuclear strike” on its enemies, of which _____ ranks first.
A. South Korea
B. China
C. USA
D. Taiwan

Snow Fall at Tunnel Creek

The avalanche at Tunnel Creek in the US State of Washington February 2012.

Very touching. Very compelling. Take time for this.

A multimedia article by John Branch 




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Adjectives and negative verbs

Complete each sentence with one of these adjectives

and  an appropriate negative form.

impartial          impetuous           implausible           ineffective          inevitable          inhibited

1 If the heavy rain continues, flooding will be______________ in some low-lying areas and many

people________ be able to get out in time.

2 Students who feel__________  __________ confident or relaxed enough to say what

they think.

3 The new director is rather_______________ and he’s just_____________ doing a very good job.

4 Heidi is very_______________ and _____________think carefully before she acts or makes

decisions.

5 It’s very important for judges to be___________ and __________to give special

support to any one person or group.

6 Torsten’s explanation for being late was really__________ and made__________

sense to anyone.

 

 

Answers:

1 inevitable … won’t

2 inhibited ...  aren’t

3 ineffective … not

4 impetuous … doesn’t

5 impartial … not
6 implausible ... no