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The tense system

Languages and
language learning
. Disc ussion point
Answer thequestions using thelist
below.
1 Whichlanguageintheworld is
spokenbymost people?
2 Whichlanguagehas thelargest
vocabulary?
3 Whichis theoldest written
language?
4 Whichsub-continent has the
largest number of languages?
5 Whichlanguagehas no irregular
verbs?
6 Whichlanguagehas themost
letters inits alphabet?
7 Inwhichlanguageis thelargest
encyclopaedia printed?
Is i t. . . Spanish/Cambodian/
English/Egyptian/Esperanto/
MandarinChinese/Indian?
Theanswers areonthenext page.
LE MONDE
AFFA1R
ES:les c hevaliers de
3 0 0 0 0 F A
Demain, tes robots a la f erme(pag e
LEFIGA B/
premier quotidian-
CORRIEnE
Key:
1 MandarinChinese is spokenby
700 millionpeople(70% of the
populationof China). Englishis
themost widespread, with400
millionspeakers.
2 Englishhas thelargest vocabulary,
withapproximately500,000 words
and 300,000 technical terms.
3 The oldest writtenlanguage is
Egyptian, whichis 5000 years old.
4 India has themost languages, with
845.
5 Thereareno irregular verbs in
Esperanto, anartificial language
invented in1887.
6 Cambodianhas 72 letters.
7 Thelargest encyclopaedia is
printed inSpanish.
Reading
Pre-reading task
Work inpairs.
Do you think thefollowing
statements aretrueor false? Write
[T] or [F] inthe boxes.
1 OH Englishwas alreadyan
important world languagefour
hundred years ago.
2 O It is mainlybecauseof the
United States that Englishhas
becomea world language.
3 QOnepersonout of seveninthe
world speaks perfect English.
4 QTherearefew inflections in
modernEnglish.
5 QInEnglish, manyverbs canbe
used as nouns.
6 O Englishhas borrowed words
frommanyother languages.
7 O Inthefuture, all other
languages will probablydie
out.
Skim reading
Read thearticleonEnglish as a
world language. Find out the
answers to thetrue/falsestatements.
Thereis onestatement for each
paragraph. Discuss your answers in
pairs. Thenread thearticleinmore
depth.
Englishas a world language
Countries in which English is spoken as mother tongue.
Englishas:
m ot her t ongue
1 ' I sec ondlanguage
p idginandC reole
I I f oreignlanguage
' O ther Eng lish- speak ing C arabbean countries include:St C hristopher,
N evis. Antigua. Dominica, St L ucia, St V incent, Barbados, andG renada.
Today, whenEnglishis oneof themajor
languages intheworld, it requires aneffort of
theimaginationto realizethat this is a rela-
tivelyrecent thing - that inShakespeare's
time, for example, onlya few millionpeople
spokeEnglish, and thelanguagewas not
thought to beveryimportant bytheother
nations of Europe, and was unknownto the
rest of theworld.
Englishhas become a world language
becauseof its establishment as a mother
tongueoutsideEngland, inall thecontinents
of theworld. This exporting of Englishbegan
intheseventeenthcentury, withthefirst settle-
ments inNorthAmerica. Aboveall, it is the
great growthof populationintheUnited
States, assisted bymassiveimmigrationinthe
nineteenthand twentiethcenturies, that has
giventheEnglishlanguageits present standing
intheworld.
Peoplewho speak Englishfall into oneof three
groups: thosewho havelearned it as their
nativelanguage; thosewho havelearned it as a
second languageina societythat is mainly
bilingual; and thosewho are forced to useit for
a practical purpose- administrative, profes-
sional or educational. Onepersoninsevenof
theworld's entirepopulationbelongs to oneof
thesethreegroups. Incrediblyenough, 75%
of theworld's mail and 60% of theworld's
telephonecalls areinEnglish.
BA SIC CHA RA CTERISTICS
SIMPLICITY OFFORM. Old English,
likemodernGerman, French, Russianand
Greek, had manyinflections to show singular
and plural, tense, person, etc., but over the
centuries wordshave been simplified. Verbs
now haveveryfew inflections, and adjectives
do not change according to thenoun.
FLEXIBILITY. As a result of theloss of
inflections, Englishhas become, over thepast
fivecenturies, a veryflexible language.
Without inflections, the same word can
operateas manydifferent parts of speech.
Manynouns and verbs have thesameform, for
exampleswim, drink, walk, kiss, look, and
smile. Wecantalk aboutwater to drink and to
water theflowers; time to go and to time a race;
a paper to read and to paper a bedroom.
Adjectives canbeused as verbs. Wewarm our
hands infront of a fire; if clothes aredirtied,
theyneed to becleaned and dried. Prep-
ositions too areflexible. A sixty-year old manis
nearing retirement; wecantalk about a round
of golf, cards, or drinks.
OPENNESS OFVOCA BULA RY. This
involves thefreeadmissions of words from
other languages and the easycreationof
compounds and derivatives. Most world
languageshave contributed somewords to
Englishat sometime, and theprocess isnow
being reversed. Purists of theFrench, Russian,
and Japaneselanguagesare resisting thearrival
of Englishintheir vocabulary.
THEFUTUREOFENGLISH. Geo-
graphically, Englishis themost widespread
languageonEarth, second onlyto Mandarin
Chineseinthenumber of peoplewho speak it.
It is thelanguageof business, technology,
sport, and aviation. This will no doubt
continue, althoughthepropositionthat all
oilier \ang\iagesmil dieoutvs, ateuid.
Correct this composition in the same way. There are twenty mistakes.
M
is UMS
?v\d /
v\V\0(^e
Mexico
it
Write a similar composition about
yourself.
Include information about:
- your background
- your education
- your work experience
- countries you have been to
- what you hope to do in the future.
Practise checking your own and your
colleagues' written work for
mistakes before giving it to your
teacher.
Languagereview
Thetensesystem
1 Continuous and Perfect aspect
There are two aspects in the tense
system of English, continuous and
perfect. Tenses have two elements of
meaning, the time of the verb action
and aspect. Aspect is the way the
speaker sees the verb action.
Continuous aspect
a. Ann sings well.
b. Ann is singing well.
In both sentences the tense is
:
present, but the aspect is different. In
a. Ann's ability as a singer is
permanent', b. refers to a
performance on a. particular
occasion.
Continuous tenses are less frequent
than simple tenses.
Perfect aspect
a. Peter livedin Rome for five years.
b. Peter has livedin Rome for five
years.
(a.) refers to a time in the past, now
finished; (b.) refers to both past and
present, and expresses an action
which began in the past and still
continues.
The Present Perfect is a very
common tense, and is particularly <
frequent in spoken English.
2 Active and Passive
English has active andpassive voices.
a. Maria speaks several languages.
b. English is spoken all over the
world.
In (a.) the agent, Maria, is the
subject.
In (b.) the agent is not given.
Passive sentences are less frequent in
spoken English, but they are very
common in scientific and official
writing.
> Grammar reference: page 109 and
.110
CONTROLLED PRACTICE
Thetensesystem
1 Complete the tense charts
opposite.
Use the verb work for the active
and mend for the passive in the
third person singular.
Notice that not all continuous
tenses are included. They are rare
because they are so long.
Complete the following sentences.
Continuous tenses are formed
with the auxiliary verb
+ the participle.
Perfect tenses are formed with the
auxiliary verb + the
participle.
Passive tenses are formed with the
auxiliary verb + the
participle.
2 Look again at the article on
English as a worldlanguage.
There are ten verbs in italics.
What tense are they?
3 You are going to interview ,
someone about her/his past,
present and future. First work in
pairs. Prepare the questions. >
ACTIVE
Present
Past
Future
Present Perfect
Past Perfect
Future Perfect
Simple
Jutotrrfa
Continuous
PASSIVE
Present
Past
Future
Present Perfect
Past Perfect
Future Perfect
Simple Continuous
background
education
travel experience
family
sports and hobbies
work experience
reason for learning English
hopes and intentions for the future
Where were you born?
What schools did . . .?
. . . university?
What countries have you . . . ?
When ...?
What ...?
. . . married?
Have you got . . .?
Do you play . . .?
...job?
How long . . . ?
Why ...?
What do you want . . .?
When are you going to . . .?
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SPORTS:
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3
- I?/
6B_ /f'^y
carets-.
Ask your teacher the questions to
check you have formed them
correctly.
4 Change partners. Ask and answer
questions about each other.