Information collection & exchange

se: the trappings on a verb that indicate when th
tinuous tenses. 
present: The Hodja walks to the mosque. 
present progressive: The Hodja is walking to the mosque. 
past: The Hodja walked to the mosque. 
ogressive: The Hodja was walking
past pr
to the mosque. 
future: The Hodja will walk to the mosque. 
future progressive: The Hodja will be walking to the mosque. 
present perfect: The Hodja has walked to the mosque. 
present perfect progressive: The Hodja has been walking to the mosque. 
had walked
past perfect: The Hodja 
to the mosque. 
past perfect progressive: The Hodja had been walking to the mosque. 
The Hodja will have walked
future perfect:
to the mosque.
progressive: The Hodja will have been walking
future perfect 
to the mosque. 
sentences, the verbs (not the verb phrases!) are underlined: 
verb: traditionally defined as a word that expresses an action or a particular state. ("A particular state" is one 
of the phrases grammarians use to talk about the verb be, which clearly behaves like a verb, but somehow 
doesn't express action.) In the following
The Hodja was preaching at the mosque. 
He pointed out that it is sinful for a woman to wear makeup. 
Someone in the audience commented that the Hodja's wife wore makeup all the time. 
The Hodja replied, "But it looks good on the hussy!" 
 Using reference grammars 
Fo
ar of 
English. Thousands of reference grammars of English have been written over the last two hundred years, 
r your own interest and possibly peace of mind, you might want to invest in a reference gramm

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inc
reference grammars of 
English available in the language of your country. 
 W
Reference grammars describe a language the same way that, say, a textbook on human anatomy describes 
the
us kinds of words: nouns, pronouns, 
djectives, etc. It will define each kind, give examples, and discuss the ways in which the relevant words 
ehave. A reference grammar will tell you, for example, that nouns change form when more than one is 
eing talked about, and will go into the changes that occur: regular ones ("cat" - "cats") and irregular ones 
mouse" - "mice"). After discussing the word classes, the grammar might go on to discuss kinds of 
ements, 
to discuss the ways sen
into other sentences, i.e., complex and compound phrases and 
A reference grammar is
tructed accordingly. 
ragraph
n 
grammars, explanations
e read what has come beforehand to 
understand the point being made. In the 
ar, for example, the index contains the 
following for "this/that": 
se:
rness/distance 4.33; as 
adjectives/pronouns 
uns 4.36, 13.19n.7, by which 
1.42; common uses 
10; this Sunday (no preposition) 8.12, 
App 48.