Hi there! Welcome to the English language club.
Sometimes tense seems more complicated than it has to be. So we have 3 key ideas
that really make tense make sense. The first has to do with sentence structure.
In English the order of the different types of words in a sentence is particularly important.
This structure determines the meaning of the verb. The first big idea is that there are
three main structures for verbs, so sentences can be either: positive, negative, or questions.
And these simple structures are the same for every verb and in every tense.
So this is the framework that all communication in English is based on!
If you really want to improve your English then make sure you hit the
like button and subscribe to the channel so that you don’t miss future videos.
Also stay tuned at the end of this video because we have written a course called
Inside English which is designed to help you to make tense make sense.
There are a lot of things that make tenses seem complicated like rules, exceptions and irregular
verbs but underneath all that there is a logic and that is what we focus on in Inside English.
So keep watching for more about that. But for now. let's get back to the video.
So, what do we mean by Positive, Negative and Question structures?
Let's look at some examples. A positive sentence structure would be.
You are listening.
We can make a negative structure by adding the word “not”.
You are not listening. and we can make the question structure
by changing the order of the words. Are you listening?
Looking at the positive structure we have the SUBJECT
the AUXILIARY verb and then the main VERB
You are listening.
So when we make a statement, we use the positive structure
which is where the auxiliary verb comes between the subject and the main verb.
Here are some more examples of the positive structure.
The important thing here is that the structure is the same. You will see that even though the
auxiliary verbs and the forms of the main verbs are different because the
tenses are different, this structure is still. Subject-Auxiliary verb-Main Verb.
She has helped people. We are walking together.
They had planned the party.
The subject tells us who performs the action of the main verb.
The auxiliary verb is the most important thing for telling us the tense of a verb.
And the main verb is what defines the action.
The second main structure is the negative structure. We use
it when the action of the verb does not happen. The structure is similar to positive sentences,
but we use the word “not” between the auxiliary verb and the main verb to make it negative.
SUBJECT-AUXILIARY+NOT-VERB So let's make those original examples negative.
You are not listening.
She has not helped people. We are not walking together.
They had not planned the project.
So you can see again that with negative sentences, the structure is very consistent.
There are things that make tenses seem complicated like contractions , you would often say ‘They
hadn’t planned the party.’ and things like irregular verbs, and with some tenses you don't
need to say the auxiliary verb, but underneath it all there is a logical and consistent structure.
The third structure is the Question.
There are different types of questions and we won’t get into all of them in this video but one
of the most common is when you start the sentence with an Auxiliary verb. So the structure is
Auxiliary Verb- Subject- Main Verb So let's make our examples into questions.
Are you listening?
Has she helped people? Are we walking together?
Had they planned the party?
With this type of question, when you start with an auxiliary verb,
the answer will always be either yes or no.
As I said, there are other types of questions but here you can see how, along with the
positive and negative structures, where you put the auxiliary verb is really important.
So here are the three structures for verb use in English.
Positive: Saying that something does happen.
We have finished.
Subject - Auxiliary Verb - Main Verb
Negative: Saying that something doesn’t happen.
We have not finished.
Subject - Auxiliary Verb - Not- Main Verb
And then questions: Asking whether something happens
Have we finished?
Auxiliary Verb - Subject - Main Verb
Of course there are many things that can be layered on top of this to make it seem
more complicated. The form of the main verb, the subject, and any auxiliaries change based on the
tense and many verbs are irregular. Sometimes you don't need to say the auxiliary verb.
But underneath it all, no matter what verb it is and no matter what tense it is,
the order will fit one of these three structures, so they are crucially important in English.
And remembering them is going to help you speak English with confidence!
We have written a course called Inside English that goes a little deeper into these ideas and
focuses on helping you to make sense of tense. We’ve noticed that when learning about tenses,
students often quickly get overwhelmed because there are a lot of things that
make tense seem complicated. But there really is a logic to
English and in order to find it, you have to forget about the exceptions,
the dozens of little rules and you have to focus on the basic principles of how it really works.
English tenses are often taught as a list of rules to memorize. When you learn English that way,
you quickly get overwhelmed and bored and confused by all the exceptions and irregularities.
So this is actually a terrible way to understand English because it
makes it difficult to understand how the language actually works.
But there is a logic to English. And in this course, that is what we focus on.
This course is designed for anyone hoping to improve their English with a particular
focus on really understanding the tenses, how they are formed and when to use them.
By the end of the course you will be able to speak English more comfortably because
you understand what each tense means. and you'll instinctively use each tense with the
correct form because you understand the key ideas of how tenses work.
Instead of getting distracted and confused by the things that make the tenses complicated,
we will stay focussed on the things that make tense make sense.
We have identified 3 key ideas which are often not clearly taught but are actually really important.
Then we will look at the main tenses and see how these key
ideas apply to all them without exceptions. So you can be sure that you will use what
you've learned every time you speak English. You will have seen a lot of the content in our
free videos, like this one. But if you sign up to the course you will get all that content delivered
within a structure that will systematically help you build on what you already know. You will
also get interactive exercises so you can test yourself and help to retain what you have learned.
If you sign up to the course you'll also obviously helps us, so it's a great way
you can support the English Language Club so we can put out more content in the future.
The ideal student for this course is someone who speaks English but gets confused by irregular
verbs or lacks confidence because there are too many exceptions to those rules and because of this
feels like there is too much to learn. It’s not for
complete beginners but anyone who has a pre-intermediate intermediate level right
up to native speakers will find that Inside English helps to make tense make sense.
If you want to know more then use the link in the description to find out how to sign up.
Or you can check out some of our other videos and don’t forget to
like this video and subscribe to the channel and I will see you next time.