When To Use Has and Had

Has and had

“Has” and “had” can be main verbs or auxiliary (helping) verbs. “Has” is the singular simple present tense form of the verb “have” and “had” is the simple past tense and also past participle of the verb “have”. You use “has” in a sentence when the subject is a singular noun or pronoun (except for “I” and “you”) and the sentence is in the simple present tense. “Had” is used with both singular and plural subjects.


As a main verb, “have” means “to own”, but it has other meanings as well, among them “to eat”. You will have to consult a dictionary for the other meanings. Here are some examples of the use of “has” and “had” as main verbs:

“He has a cat that he is very fond of.” (has=owns)

“Shalini has breakfast at 7.30 every morning.” (has=eats)

He had a cat last year, but the cat died. (had=owned)

The students had dinner late last night. (had=ate)

“Has” is also used as an auxiliary verb in a sentence using the present perfect tense, which talks about an action that was done in the past, without giving the time when it was done. A present perfect tense verb consists of “has” or “have” + the past participle of the main verb. “Has” is used with singular subjects and “have” with plural subjects. Here are some examples:

“She has seen the film.” (has + past participle of “see”, which is “seen” and no time is given)

“My friend has gone to Egypt to study medicine.” (has + past participle of “go”, which is “gone” – no time given)

“Had” is used as an auxiliary verb in a sentence using the past perfect tense, which talks about two actions or events, one of which was completed before the other happened. A past perfect tense verb consists of “had” + the past participle of the main verb. The earlier action/event is expressed in the past perfect tense, and the later action/event in the simple past tense. Here are some examples:

“We had eaten our dinner when our friends came.”

“Ahmad had given up hope of going to a university when a letter arrived offering him a place in the university of his second choice.”

Grammar: Verbs

VERBS

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Definition: Verbs are a class of words used to show the performance of an action (do, throw, run), existence (be), possession (have), or state (know, love) of a subject. To put it simply a verb shows what something or someone does.

For example:

• Paul rides a bicycle.
  * Here, the verb rides certainly denotes an action which Paul performs - the action of riding a bicycle.
• We buy some books to learn English verbs.
  * In this example, the action word is "to buy". It tells us that the subject "we", that is the person who performs the action of the verb is "buying some books".

The verb tense shows the time of the action or state. Aspect shows whether the action or state is completed or not. Voice is used to show relationships between the action and the people affected by it. Mood shows the attitude of the speaker about the verb, whether it is a declaration or an order. Verbs can be affected by person and number to show agreement with the subject.

Most statements in speech and writing have a main verb. These verbs are expressed in "tenses" which place everything in a point in time.

Verbs are conjugated (inflected) to reflect how they are used. There are two general areas in which conjugation occurs; for person and for tense.

Conjugation for tense
Conjugation for tense is carried out on all verbs. All conjugations start with the infinitive form of the verb.
The infinitive is simply the to form of the verb For example, to begin.
The present participle form (the -ing form), is formed by adding ing to the bare infinitive. For example, to begin - beginning.
There are two other forms that the verb can take, depending on the tense type and time, the simple past form and the past participle.

The form of the verb or its tense can tell when events take place.
For example, the verb kiss:

Present Simple kiss/kisses	Past Simple kissed	Future Simple will kiss
Present Perfect has/have kissed	Past Perfect had kissed	Future Perfect will have kissed
Present Continuous (Progressive) is/am/are kissing	Past Continuous (Progressive) was kissing	Future Continuous (Progressive) will be kissing
Present Perfect Continuous (Progressive) has/have been kissing	Past Perfect Continuous (Progressive) had been kissing	Future Perfect Continuous (Progressive) will have been kissing

Conjugation for person
Conjugation for person occurs when the verb changes form, depending on whether it is governed by a first, second, or third person subject. This gives three conjugations for any verb depending on who is acting as the subject of the verb. For example: we have I begin, you begin , and he begins. Note that only the third conjunction really shows a difference.

In English, we distinguish between regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs are those ones which form their past simple and past participle just by adding "-ed" to the base of the verb. The rest are irregular.

Examples:

• Dracula bites his victims on the neck.
• In early October, Giselle will plant twenty tulip bulbs.
• She travels to work by train.
• We walked five miles to a garage.

What Is Preposition?

PREPOSITION

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Definition: Prepositions are a class of words that indicate relationships between nouns, pronouns and other words in a sentence. Most often they come before a noun. They never change their form, regardless of the case, gender etc. of the word they are referring to.

Some common prepositions are:

about above across after against along among around at before behind below beneath beside between beyond but

by despite down during except for from in inside into like near of off on onto out

outside over past since through throughout till to toward under underneath until up upon with within without.

Prepositions typically come before a noun:

For example:

• after class
• at home
• before Tuesday
• in London
• on fire
• with pleasure

A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence.

For example:

• The book is on the table.
• The book is beside the table.
• She read the book during class.


In each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in space or in time.

Prepositions are classified as simple or compound.

Simple prepositions
Simple prepositions are single word prepositions. These are all showed above.

For example:

• The book is on the table.

Compound prepositions
Compound prepositions are more than one word. in between and because of are prepositions made up of two words - in front of, on behalf of are prepositions made up of three words.

For example:

• The book is in between War and Peace and The Lord of the Rings.
• The book is in front of the clock.

Examples:

• The children climbed the mountain without fear.
• There was rejoicing throughout the land when the government was defeated.
• The spider crawled slowly along the banister.

The following table contains rules for some of the most frequently used prepositions in English:

Prepositions of Time:

English	Usage	Example
on	days of the week	on Monday
in	months / seasons time of day year after a certain period of time (when?)	in August / in winter in the morning in 2006 in an hour
at	for night for weekend a certain point of time (when?)	at night at the weekend at half past nine
since	from a certain point of time (past till now)	since 1980
for	over a certain period of time (past till now)	for 2 years
ago	a certain time in the past	2 years ago
before	earlier than a certain point of time	before 2004
to	telling the time	ten to six (5:50)
past	telling the time	ten past six (6:10)
to / till / until	marking the beginning and end of a period of time	from Monday to/till Friday
till / until	in the sense of how long something is going to last	He is on holiday until Friday.
by	in the sense of at the latest up to a certain time	I will be back by 6 o’clock. By 11 o'clock, I had read five pages.

Prepositions of Place:

English	Usage	Example
in	room, building, street, town, country book, paper etc. car, taxi picture, world	in the kitchen, in London in the book in the car, in a taxi in the picture, in the world
at	meaning next to, by an object for table for events place where you are to do something typical (watch a film, study, work)	at the door, at the station at the table at a concert, at the party at the cinema, at school, at work
on	attached for a place with a river being on a surface for a certain side (left, right) for a floor in a house for public transport for television, radio	the picture on the wall London lies on the Thames. on the table on the left on the first floor on the bus, on a plane on TV, on the radio
by, next to, beside	left or right of somebody or something	Jane is standing by / next to / beside the car.
under	on the ground, lower than (or covered by) something else	the bag is under the table
below	lower than something else but above ground	the fish are below the surface
over	covered by something else meaning more than getting to the other side (also across) overcoming an obstacle	put a jacket over your shirt over 16 years of age walk over the bridge climb over the wall
above	higher than something else, but not directly over it	a path above the lake
across	getting to the other side (also over) getting to the other side	walk across the bridge swim across the lake
through	something with limits on top, bottom and the sides	drive through the tunnel
to	movement to person or building movement to a place or country for bed	go to the cinema go to London / Ireland go to bed
into	enter a room / a building	go into the kitchen / the house
towards	movement in the direction of something (but not directly to it)	go 5 steps towards the house
onto	movement to the top of something	jump onto the table
from	in the sense of where from	a flower from the garden

copy&paste from:

http://www.englishlanguageguide.com/english/grammar/preposition.asp

Beside and Besides

Beside

Beside means next to:

* A house beside the sea
* She sat beside her friend.

Besides

As a preposition, besides means in addition to or apart from

* What are you studying besides English? (in addition to)
* Who was there besides Jon? (apart from)

As an adverb, besides means as well or furthermore.

* He was scruffy and badly prepared. Besides, he turned up late for the interview.

You'd Better Stop Blogging

Hi all...

The title has nothing to do with me stopping from writing this blog.. hehehe.. it just that.. today let's look at how to use 'had better', shall we...

Had better

We use “had better” plus the infinitive without “to” to give advice. Although “had” is the past form of “have”, we use “had better” to give advice about the present or future.

* You'd better tell her everything.
* I'd better get back to work.
* We'd better meet early.

The negative form is “had better not”.

* You'd better not say anything.
* I'd better not come.
* We'd better not miss the start of his presentation.

We use “had better” to give advice about specific situations, not general ones. If you want to talk about general situations, you must use “should”.

* You should brush your teeth before you go to bed.
* I shouldn't listen to negative people.
* He should dress more appropriately for the office.

When we give advice about specific situations, it is also possible to use “should”.

* You shouldn't say anything.
* I should get back to work.
* We should meet early.

However, when we use “had better” there is a suggestion that if the advice is not followed, that something bad will happen.

* You'd better do what I say or else you will get into trouble.
* I'd better get back to work or my boss will be angry with me.
* We'd better get to the airport by five or else we may miss the flight.



taken from: http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/hadbetter/menu.php

All Children; Every Child

Let's have a little of grammar lesson today...

We can use all and every with similar meanings, but the grammar is different.

Let's look at these,

All + Plural - All children are different
All teachers make mistakes

Every + Singular - Every child is different (NOT... All Child)
Every teacher makes mistakes


Ok... see you in a few hours (next entry will be published at 1pm today)

Has or Have? Was or Were?

LOOK at these little ‘stories’ and see if you can find a mistake in each of them:

The theft

“My wife’s handbag with all her three credit cards, which she needed for her shopping spree, were stolen.”
“Did you report the theft?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Unlike my wife, the thief is not good at spending.”

The subject and verb of a sentence must always be in agreement: if the subject is singular, the verb must be singular; if the subject is plural, the verb must be plural.

The first sentence has a singular subject, “my wife’s handbag”. “All her three credit cards” is merely an additional phrase introduced by the preposition “with” after the subject.
Rewrite the first sentence: “My wife’s handbag with all her three credit cards, which she needed for her shopping spree, was stolen.”

(If we use the coordinating conjunction “and” instead of the preposition “with”, the verb becomes plural: “My wife’s handbag and her three credit cards, which she needed for her shopping spree, were stolen.”)


The singing


“Let’s hurry to the hall. David or his sisters is singing my new song right now.”
“Whenever I hear any of them sing, I always clap my hands — over my ears!”
In a sentence where the subjects are joined by “or” or “nor” and one of the subjects is singular and the other is plural, the number of the verb is determined by the subject nearer to it: David or his sisters are singing my new song right now.

The homework
The teacher asks Tommy, the only one of the pupils who have not done the homework, “What is your excuse?”
“My dog ate my homework,” the boy replies.
“And where is your dog now?”
“My mother took it to the vet’s. It doesn’t like arithmetic any more than I do.”

The first sentence should read: The teacher asks Tommy, the only one of the pupils who has not done the homework, “What is your excuse?”

In the clause “who has not done the homework”, “who” is the subject of the clause, and its antecedent is singular (“the only one”).


source: http://thestar.com.my/english/story.asp?file=/2009/3/4/lifefocus/3287984&sec=lifefocus

Mind Our English: Ups n Downs in Life

photo credits: izamree

Are these correct?

1. ARE these sentences grammatically correct?

a) Different types of soil lets water flow through it at different rates.

b) Our food is getting fewer by the days.

c) This is the ups and downs of life.

d) There is ups and downs in life.

2. “Hassan usually goes jogging with Michael.” The question form for this answer should be:

a) Whom does Hassan usually go jogging with?
b) With whom Hassan usually goes jogging?
c) With whom does Hassan usually go jogging?
d) Hassan usually goes jogging with who?

– kimhingoh

1. Sentence (a) is incorrect. The verb should agree with the main word in the subject, which is the plural noun “types”, and so the correct sentence is: “Different types of soil let water flow through it at different rates.”

Sentence (b) is also incorrect. “Food” is an uncountable noun, and so the adjective that should be used with it is “less”, not “fewer”.

Also, the expression at the end is “by the day” not “by the days”. The correct sentence is: “Our food is getting less by the day.” You could also write: “Our food is decreasing by the day.”
Sentence (c) is incorrect.

“Ups and downs” is usually considered a plural term, and so takes a plural verb. The correct sentence is: “These are the ups and downs of life.”
For the same reason, sentence (d) is also incorrect, and should be written: “There are ups and downs in life.”

2. Question (c) “With whom does Hassan usually go jogging?” is the correct form in formal modern English. The preposition should come before “whom”.

A more informal question is “Who does Hassan usually go jogging with?”, which you didn’t include among your question forms.

by FADZILAH AMIN

source: the star

The Best is / has yet to come?

WHICH is correct – “The best is yet to come” or “The best has yet to come”?
According to some friends, both are correct but used in different contexts. Please help.
– K.B. Ong

Both are correct, mean the same thing and can be used in the same context.
However, “The best is yet to come” sounds a little more poetic than “The best has yet to come”.
This may be because the former has echoes of Robert Browning’s famous lines: “Grow old along with me!/ The best is yet to be”.

by FADZILAH AMIN

taken from: The Star Online

Present Tense Required

WHY would this business make it a point to tell customers what it no longer specializes in?

— David, Petaling Jaya

source: http://thestar.com.my/english/story.asp?file=/2009/1/16/lifefocus/2956726&sec=lifefocus

English Grammar n Style

Fun with English grammar and style
By OH TEIK THEAM

LOOK at the following ‘stories’ and see if you can replace the italicised words with some other words to make the writing concise.

The accountant
The best friend of Tom’s wife saw him in the company of a bald man at the football stadium and told her about it. When Tom reached home later that evening, his wife accused him of lying. “You told me you were going to see your accountant,” she said.
Tom said, “That was my accountant.”

Change “in the company of” to “with”.


The secretary
The boss had asked for a duplicate copy of the document, and the new secretary asked a colleague who happened to walk by, “Do you know how this thing works?”
Smiling, the colleague turned the machine on, inserted the paper, and pressed the start button. “Simple, isn’t it?” he said. “This is an efficient shredder.”

Delete either “duplicate” or “copy”.

The maid
Before the arrival of the invited guests, the hostess said to her maid, “Bridget, make sure you don’t spill anything when you wait on them.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am,” Bridget said. “I won’t say a word.”

Delete “invited”.


The house
A man and his wife were looking over a house. They were undecided about the purchase until the estate agent mentioned that the house was in proximity to the bus stop.
“We’ll take it,” said the man after consulting with his wife. “There’ll always be something to do in the evening, throwing stones at buses.”

Change “in proximity to” to “near”.

copy n paste from: The Star

English Grammar Made Easy: How To Use Who and Whom

http://www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/314text/images/whom.gif

the following explanation is taken from here

The Rule.
Use the he/him method to decide which word is correct. he = who, him = whom

Examples:
Who/Whom wrote the letter?

He wrote the letter. Therefore, who is correct.

For who/whom should I vote?Should I vote for him? Therefore, whom is correct.

We all know who/whom pulled that prank.

This sentence contains two clauses: We all know and who/whom pulled that prank.

We are interested in the second clause because it contains the who/whom. He pulled that prank. Therefore, who is correct.

(Are you starting to sound like a hooting owl yet?) hahahaaa....

We want to know on who/whom the prank was pulled.

This sentence contains two clauses: We want to know and the prank was pulled on who/whom. Again, we are interested in the second clause because it contains the who/whom. The prank was pulled on him.

Therefore, whom is correct.

English Grammar Made Easy: Did and Bought

What did I bought?

That is wrong my dear...

You should have said...

What did I buy?






came across this in one of the blogs I've read.... let's improve our English together ok.... :)


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