Day: April 9, 2010

Present and Past (Everyday and Yesterday)

  • Compare the following sentences:

 

  1. I drink milk everyday.
  2. He eats fresh fruits now.
  3. She sleeps soundly.
  4. I like science fiction.
  5. Father leaves for office at 9’o clock.
  6. I get up at 6’o clock every morning.
  7. I go to school by bus.
  8. My sister loves music.
  1. I drank a lot of coffee.
  2. He ate junk food earlier.
  3. She slept soundly.
  4. I liked comics.
  5. Father left for office at 9’o clock.
  6. I got up late yesterday.
  7. I went to school by car yesterday.
  8. My sister loved music.
  • The sentences in the first column show something that happens everyday, always, often, usually.
  • The sentences in the second column show something that happened in the past (yesterday, last week, last Sunday etc.).
  • Notice the use of Verbs in the two columns. We use the first form of Verb to talk about present and we use the second form of Verb to talk about past.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

  • Look at the following sentences and notice time change and verb change:

 

  1. I wake up at 7o’clock everyday.
  2. I woke up at 6 o’clock yesterday.
  3. Tomorrow, I will wake up at 7 o’clock again.

 

  1. We go to Delhi every month.
  2. We went to Delhi last month.
  3. We will go to Delhi next month.

 

The first sentence in both the groups expresses habitual activity.

The second sentence in both the groups expresses past activity.

The third sentence in both the groups expresses future activity.

The words wake, woke, go and went are Verbs.

Wake and go denote action which is done in the present time.

Woke and went denote action which was done in the past time.

When we add will/shall to wake and go, we express action which will be done in the future time.

  • Verbs are, along with Nouns, the most important words in a sentence. They express actions. When the time of an action changes, the Verb also changes.

 

  • Let us look at some more examples:

 

Present (Today) Past (Yesterday) Future (Tomorrow)
We work We worked We shall work
You sleep You slept You will sleep
They run They ran They will run
I eat I ate I will eat
We speak We spoke We shall speak

 

  • Some Verbs have the same form in both Present and Past; as,
We read We read We shall read
It costs It cost It will cost
I bet I bet I will bet
The Sun sets The Sun set The Sun will set