| In traditional grammar,
there are six tenses: present (waddle, is/are waddling,
do/does waddle), past (waddled, was/were waddling, did
waddle). future (will waddle, shall waddle, will be
waddling, shall be waddling), present
perfect (has/have waddled, has/have been waddling), past
perfect (had waddled, had been waddling), and future perfect
(will/shall have waddled, will/shall have been waddling). The
one-word forms are called simple present and simple past.
The forms that include a verb with the ending -ing are called progressive,
and those that use a form of do as a helping verb are called emphatic
(when forms of do are used as helping verbs in questions, they are
not emphatic).
Traditionally, the following words have been called modal
auxiliary verbs: may, might, can, could, would, should, and must.
Shall and will are also modal auxiliaries when they express
determination or intention. Modal auxiliary verbs are used with present
and present-perfect forms of the verbs they modulate. Here are a few
examples: may go, might have gone, can drive, could be driving, would
have been driving, should be waiting, must have waited.
As
you make your way through these flashcards, you may wish to refer to a
section of my website that deals with terminology, www.german-latin-english.com/diagrammingterms.htm. |
| On the right is a diagram of the sentence "Ducks are
waddling." The subject, ducks, and the present progressive verb,
are waddling, rest
on a base line and are separated by a vertical line that passes through
the base line. |
 |
Any sentence with an unmodified*
subject and a verb like the ones above is diagrammed with only two lines:
a base line and a vertical line; that is, the sentence "People would
have been driving" is diagrammed just like "Ducks are waddling."
On Flashcard 3, you will see how to diagram nouns with modifiers. |
| * A
noun preceded by an article (a, an, the) or by an adjective (any of
thousands like tall, funny, ancient, difficult, and significant)
is said to be modified by this word. Of course, a noun can be modified by
both an article and an adjective, or by two or more adjectives).
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