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Todays Tackle: Verbs - Infinitive, Tenses, Auxiliaries, and Modal Auxiliaries

Who knew verbs could be as complicated as they actually are?

All verbs, no matter what action they describe or what purpose they serve, have a base form also known as the infinitive.  The verb changes to agree with three things:

Person: the subject committing or receiving the action, or the subject about which the action is taking    place

Number: demonstrates the quantity of people or things committing the action

Tense: locates the action in time

If you’ve ever taken a foreign language, I’m certain you’ve spent time in class drilling different conjugations.  Conjugation refers to the change the verb undergoes to reflect these three conditions influencing the verb.  Here’s a refresher:

Present:                        I bake, run, eat

Past:                             I baked, ran, ate

Future:                         I will bake, will run, will eat

Present Perfect:            I have baked, have run, have eaten

Past Perfect:                 I had baked, had run, had eaten

Future Perfect:             I will have baked, will have run, will have eaten

To reflect a tense change, the ending of the word is changed.  Many verbs are regular, such as bake.  Others are irregular, like run and eat.  In the past tense, regular verbs receive an –ed ending.  As you can see, that is the only one reflected in this conjugation chart.  Where is the infamous –ing, you ask?  It is hiding in the progressive form.  (Look!  I just used it there!)  Let’s take a look:

Present Progressive:                   I am baking, am running, am eating

Past Progressive:                        I was baking, was running, was eating

Future Progressive:                    I will be baking, will be running, will be eating

Present Perfect Progressive:       I have been baking, have been running, have been eating

Past Perfect Progressive:            I had been baking, had been running, had been eating

Future Perfect Progressive:        I will have been baking, will have been running, will have been eating

I bet you all think you know what each tense indicates.  Write it down. 

Now compare.

Present:                                    Actions in the present moment

Past:                                         Completed actions occurring at a static moment in the past

Future:                                     Actions occurring after the present moment

Present Perfect:                        Actions culminating in the present moment

Past Perfect:                             Actions culminating in a fixed moment in the past

Future Perfect:                         Actions culminating in a fixed moment in the future

Present Progressive:                       A less awkward way to state actions still occurring in the present           moment

Past Progressive:                            Actions in the past that grant a narrative opening for expansion upon the event*

Future Progressive:                        Continuous actions located in the future

Present Perfect Progressive:           Actions that have already begun in the past but continue in the present  moment

Past Perfect Progressive:                Actions that began and end in the past

Future Perfect Progressive:            Actions that begin and end in the future

I will warn you, the definitions of the progressive forms are ones I have developed in considering the role of each form.  Do take a look at each form yourself and figure out definitions that make the best sense to you.  So long as they are right, of course.  The past progressive is the oddest, hence the *.  That one is a particularly inelegant definition.

Before I move on to explain the auxiliary verbs, I want to draw your attention once again to the verb endings that indicate tense changes. 

Base/Infinitive: used in the present tense, retains base form or adds –s or –es to agree with third person singular subjects.

Past: used in the plain old past tense, adds the –ed

Past Participle: used in the perfect tenses, adds has, had, or will have before the past tense form of the verb

Present Participle: used in the progressive forms, adds the –ing ending

Alright.  Auxiliary verbs.  Any verb associated with the anchor verb that isn’t the anchor verb is an auxiliary verb.  Let me illustrate.

I baked.                                    No auxiliaries, just the base verb bake.

I am baking.                             One auxiliary, “am,” and the present participle baking.

I have been baking.                  Two auxiliaries, “have” and “been” and the present participle

I will have been baking.           Three auxiliaries, “will,” “have,” and “been” and the present participle

Be, Have, and Will are the three most common auxiliary verbs.  But there is another class called modal auxiliaries that replace will to indicate a variety of conditions.  Examples:

Must                        I must have been baking.

Could                      I could have been baking.

Should                     I should have been baking.

These also include Might, May, Can, and occasionally Do.  In each case, they replace the will to illustrate varied meanings.  I’ll leave the classification of those meanings to you for now, I haven’t mastered them just yet and don’t want to lead you astray unwittingly.

Confused yet?  You’re in good company, a whole world of actions have opened up to you.  If I were smart, I would include some exercises.  Maybe next time.

Addendum:  I apologize for any wacky formatting that may have slipped through, indentation is much easier in Word.