Tension of Tenses

Tenses play a crucial role in the English language. But learning tenses is the most difficult task of learning English language. So today I am sharing all the tenses in a simple way and in a single post. Tenses denotes the time an action takes place, whether sometime in the past, in the present or will take some time in the future.

From a general view of tenses, this module will go on to discuss each tense in detail with examples. The table below gives a glimpse of the way tenses are used using the verb 'play'

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PAST TENSE

i. Simple Past Tense-

Indicates an action took place before the present moment and that has no real connection with the present time.
For example, "He danced in the function." (The action took place in the past, is finished and is completely unrelated to the present).  

                       "He flew to London yesterday."
Note
a. The form of Simple Past Tense is - verb + ed

ii. Past Perfect Tense-

Indicates an action in the past that had been completed before another time or event in the past.
For example, "He had exercised before it started to rain."
                         "He had slept before I came back from the market."
Note
a. The form of Past Perfect Tense is- had + verb (past participle form or the 3rd form of the verb)

iii. Past Continuous Tense-

Indicates an action going on at some time in the past or an action in the past that is longer in duration than another action in the past.
For example, "It was getting darker."
                        "The light went out while theywere reading."
Note
a. The form of Past Continuous Tense is- was/were + verb + ing

iv. Past Perfect Continuous Tense-

Indicates an action in the past that took place before another time or event in the past and continued during the second event/time point in the past.
For example, "At that time, he had been writing a novel for two months."
                         "He had been exercising when I called." 
Note
a. The form of Past Perfect Continuous Tense is- had + been + verb + ing .

PRESENT TENSE

i. Simple Present Tense-

Indicates an action that is generally true or habitual. That is, it took place in the past , continue to take place in the present, and will take place in the future. This tense is used to denote
-a habitual action- for instance, "He walk to school."
-general truths- for instance, "The sun rises in the east", "Honesty is the best policy."
-a future event that is part of a fixed timetable- for instance, "The match starts at 9 o' clock."
Note
a. The form of Simple Present Tense is- verb (infinitive without 'to' and agreeable with the subject)

ii. Present Perfect Tense-

Indicates an action that has been completed sometime before the present moment, with a result that affects the present situation.
For example, "He has finished the work."
                         "He has slept."
Note
a. The form of Present Perfect Tense is- has/have + verb (past participle form or 3rd form of the verb)

iii.  Present Continuous Tense-

Indicates an action that is taking place at the moment of speaking.
For example, "She is walking."
"I am studying."
Note
a. the form of Present Continuous Tense is- is/am/are + verb + ing

iv. Present Perfect Continuous Tense-

Indicates an action that started in the past and is continuing at the present time.
For example, "He has been sleeping for an hour."
Note
a. The form of Present Perfect Continuous Tense is- has/have + been + verb + ing

FUTURE TENSE

i. Simple Future Tense-

Indicates an action that will take place after the present time and that has no real connection with the present time.
For example, "She will visit her ailing grandmother soon."
                        "He will walk home."
Note
a. the form of Simple Future Tense is- will/shall + verb

ii. Future Perfect Tense-

Indicates an action in the future that will have been completed before another time or event in the future.
For example, "By the time we arrive, he will have studied."

Note
a. The form of Future Perfect Tense is- will/shall have + verb(past participle form or 3rd form of the verb)

iii. Future Continuous Tense-

Indicates an action in the future that is longer in duration than another action in the future.
For example, "He will be walking when it starts to rain."
Note
a. The form of Future Continuous Tense is-will/shall be + verb + ing

iv. Future Perfect Continuous Tense-

Indicates an action in the future that will have been continuing until another time or event in the future.
For example, "He will have been exercising an hour at 2:00."
Note
a. The form of Future Perfect Continuous Tense is- will/shall have been + verb + ing

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Easy way to learn any language

Learning languages can be very cumbersome. But if you take it as a fun task, it can be very easy. Hence I am sharing some ways which can make learning languages fun.

Steps to learn any language:

1. Learn alphabet / writing system.
2. Learn basic phrases.
3. Learn everyday verbs in present day.
4. Learn words YOU specifically use all the time.
5. Learn "favourite things".
6. Learn basic past tense.
7. Learn filler/transition words.

Hope these steps make learning languages fun.

Do you feel short of words?

This is a problem most of us face often in our daily lives. Most of us feel shortage of words to use during various tasks while writing a letter, giving a presentation, completing an assignment or even while having a simple conversation and we keep on repeating the same words, which reduces the impact of that thing. Our phrases seems very hackneyed.

So in today's post I am sharing a list of words which you can use instead of using the same bromide words. Hope these words will help you with your tasks and improve your vocabulary.

 I want to give you a suggestion that whenever you learn a word you should use it in your sentence as soon as possible and try to use it in your next conversation.

Please comment if you want to add more words to the list.     

Learn any language in 15 minutes only #Rule no 4

After using the 3 rules you discovered over the last few days to learn to speak French fluently. I decided to use the same rules finally master the Spanish language.

And failed miserably.

I was super motivated so I went to La Fnac (a well-known French book shop), bought Die Elfen, a fantasy book I had always wanted to read and started listening to lots of slow French conversations.

With all that, I knew I was going to finally succeed.

             

It started well. I was studying for a few hours every day and quickly read half of the book.

It was exhausting, but I was happy because I knew I was on the right track, I knew I would soon be able to joke in French and impress everyone around me.

Then life happened.

I started getting distracted, my study sessions became rarer and rarer and I quickly ended up forgetting everything I had learned.

That's because I wasn't following rule #4: study for at least 15 minutes per day.

When you start learning French, it's tempting to decide that you'll spend 2 hours studying every day.

And you may actually be able to do that.

But for most us, that's simply not realistic.

When you come back home after a long day of work the last thing you want to do is study French.

Sure, you promised yourself that you would study every day, but there are times when you would rather spend time with your friends and watch Amélie on Netflix.

There is a simple fix to this problem.

I call it the 15-minute rule and it will help you stay motivated and make steady progress even when you really don't feel like studying.

Decide you'll spend at least 15 minutes studying French every day.

That's it.

By doing that, you make starting (the hardest part) incredibly easy.

After all, you can just study for five minutes and stop.

But the truth is, you're unlikely to stop once you start.

That's what makes the 15-minute rule so powerful.

Ready to get started?

Download the 15-minute calendar, print it and write down your goal on it.

Then cross off each day of study and enjoy the intense satisfaction of knowing you are making progress every day and will soon speak French with confidence.

À bientôt !

P.S: Several studies have shown that writing down your goals on paper makes you way more likely to accomplish them so make sure you print the calendarand write your goal on it.

Rule no 3: Are grammar rules hurting you

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A few months ago, a reader John emailed me asking for help.

John had spent years studying French grammar but could barely put a sentence together when faced with someone. The rules of grammar were jumbled in his head and his brain was full of random conjugations and grammar rules he wasn't sure how to use.

He felt like he had all the stepping stones to say things but couldn't really say much.

John had broken rule #3: Learn grammar in context. 

The reality is that 80% of French grammar rules are useless because there are often hundreds of exceptions to the rule.

The good news is that this means roughly 20% of grammar rules are genuinely useful because they are easy to learn and apply to 80% of sentences.

For example, according to a study by McGill University Professor Roy Lister, a noun’s ending indicates its gender in 80% of cases.

This means you don't need to "just learn each word with its gender" as many French teachers say, you can, in fact, use a simple rule to guess the gender correctly in 80% of cases.

Here is a simple rule I created based on the study:

• The majority of words that end in -e or -ion are feminine.
• Except words ending in -age, -ege, -é, or -isme that are often masculine.
• Most words with other endings are masculine.

This simple rule has already helped thousands of French learners correctly guess the gender of most of the nouns they encounter and perfectly illustrates the idea of 80/20 language learning. 

You don't need to learn all the grammar rules you stumble upon and spend hours learning conjugation tables by heart. Instead, you can just learn the 20% of rules and conjugation patterns that apply to 80% of sentences.

The rest will come naturally as you spend time listening and reading and get used to the structure of the language just like you got used to the structure of your native language.

Learning the grammar you need and ruthlessly ignoring the rest won't just save you years of frustration, it will also help you learn French much faster because you will be able to focus on speaking and communicating with locals instead of spending hours studying with dusty grammar books. 

P.S: Not following the fourth rule could easily render all your efforts useless. In fact, not following it is the reason why I miserably failed the first time I tried to master the French language. Discover the fourth rule soon.

À demain ! See you tomorrow