My friends! We are back home after the long vacation in Ukraine and are ready to teach you a little again. Ha-ha!
Well, reading and correcting your stories on my last challenges, I noticed some of you have true problems using nonfinite verbs, especially in the passive form. So, I am planning to post a few blogs related to this part of grammar. I'd like to start with the Participle I. Last year, Tanya posted the blog where she explained how to use participles correctly. Here is the link:
http://www.myenglishclub.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-use-the-participles-correctly.
However, I will try to explain it again.
The Participle I has the following forms:
| Active | Passive |
Simple | learning | being learned |
Perfect | having leaned | having been learned |
In a sentence, the participle I is used as a modifier of time. In fact, it replaces a time clause. The perfect forms are used when the action defined by the participle preceded the action defined by the predicate. If both actions are simultaneous, we use the simple form:
Learning English, you should pay more attention to its grammar. (When you learn English...).
Having learned some grammar, the students started using it correctly (After the students had learned some grammar, they started...).
Being taught grammar, you shouldn't say you don't need it to speak good English (When you are taught grammar....)
Having been asked to use participles correctly, the students said, there was no need as they could replace them with the clauses (When the students had been asked to use .....).
Commenting my last example, I will say that using participles, you make your English sound much better, especially when you write or tell your stories.
So, I will ask you to write some short stories within 200 word limit using all four forms of the patriciple. You can also write some separate sentences. It depends on your desire and fantasy.
I will be thankful for your posting the replies here, OK?
Comments
My friends! I realize it is not easy to use English participles if you don't have such a part of speech in your native languages. So, I decided to write my short story to show you how to do it. I have just recalled one episode and I will tell it a) using the clauses; b) using the participle phrases. So, here is my story:
A) (only clauses).
One spring day I came into my classroom and immediately felt it was too cool there. As we live in everlasting summer, no one wears warm clothes in Florida. I looked at my students and realized they were freezing although it was about 25 C outside. However, it was about 17 C inside! When I asked my students if they knew who had turned conditioning on instead of opening the windows, they only shrugged their shoulders. They were shivering with cold and my first thought was to let them out. But they asked me with one voice to give them a lecture and I proposed them to listen to it outside. We all went out and settled in our university park. When my lecture was over, I saw our president who was coming up to us. He asked me: “Since when have you lectured outside?” I replied: “Since I haven’t been able to teach in my classroom because someone wants to kill me and all my students with such low temperature!” He said: ”Are you sure of your students’ remembering everything you have just told them under the sun?” The students were asked a few questions and they answered them correctly and our president went away leaving us alone.
B) (using participle phrases).
Having come into my classroom on one spring day, I immediately felt it was too cool there. Living in everlasting summer, no one wears warm clothes in Florida. Looking at my students I realized they were freezing although it was about 25 C outside. However, it was about 17 C inside! Having asked my students if they knew who had turned conditioning on instead of opening the windows, I saw them only shrug their shoulders. They were shivering with cold and my first thought was to let them out. But they asked me with one voice to give them a lecture and I proposed them to listen to it outside. We all went out and settled in our university park. Having finished my lecture, I saw our president coming up to us. He asked me: “Since when have you lectured outside?” I replied: “Since I haven’t been able to teach in my classroom because someone wants to kill me and all my students with such low temperature!” He said: ”Are you sure of your students’ remembering everything you have just told them under the sun?” Having beenasked a few questions the students answered correctly and our president went away leaving us alone.
You can compare both stories and I hope, you will see the second one sounds much better
I tried to write a story using all participles but I couldn't manage to use all of them. especially past perfect. would you kindly advise me how can I improve in this aspect?
http://www.myenglishclub.com/profiles/blogs/an-odyssey-of-a-neutrin...
Dear ladies! I am looking forward to reading your stories!
Hi Danny! Thanks for your challenge, I'll do my best for partecipating.
Teacher, don't you know that I printed this lesson. ^^
I'll try to come back and participate. ^^
Dear SNR! If you write a story about some events that took place in the past and are not related to the present, you should use only the past tenses if your story is written from the third person. You can read about it here:
http://www.myenglishclub.com/group/improving-grammar-with-tanya-and...
If you tell it from the first person, there may be different tenses. For example, just imagine that I am telling you about my yesterday.
Yesterday I met my university mate I hadn't seen for ages. He said he had got married and has a son. He said they are living in Texas but are going to move to Florida soon. We talked about this and that and he said he will call me the day after tomorrow.
As you can see, I have used the past tenses telling about yesterday and the actions before yesterday (past perfect). However, I have used the present tenses speaking about the actions or facts that are still the same today. I also used the future tense meaning a day after tomorrow as it hasn't come , yet.
If it is not clear, just ask again, OK?
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