GRAMMAR UNDERSTANDING

Simple Tenses: Present - Past - Future

There are a number of tenses in English grammar. However among them, there are some basic tenses which
can be developed into other tenses. They are Simple Present Tense, Simple Past Tense, and Simple Future
Tense. Since they involve sentences, the structure remains following the basic rule of a sentence
construction.
A. Simple Present Tense
 To demonstrate an event that used to happen or related to “Habitual Actions”
 Functions:
1. Permanent states
 is talking about things that are always, generally true.
- I live in Jember
2. General truth (facts)
- A week has seven days
- The sun rises in the east
- The sun shines by day, and the moon by night
3. Routines / habits
 is talking about things you do regularly, all the time.
- I go to school everyday
- He usually eats an egg for breakfast
 Time Signals (Adverb of Frequency)

Always : selalu
Generally : biasanya
Often : sering
Regularly : secara tetap
Seldom : jarang
Now & then : kadang-kadang
Once a week : sekali seminggu
Normally : biasanya
Usually : biasanya
Sometimes : kadang-kadang
Frequently : sering
Everyday : setiap hari
 Affirmative (Positive) Form (+)
Subject Verb Examples
I, You, We, They Infinitive I love you
He, She, It Infinitive s/es She learns her lessons

Negative Form (-)

Subject Verb Examples
I, You, We, They Do + not + infinitive I don’t believe you
He, She, It Does + not + infinitive It doesn’t work

Interrogative Form (?)

Subject Verb Examples
Do I, You, We, They Infinitive Do they need the book?
Does He, She, It Does she know who am I?

The spelling rules for He, She, and It

Verb Rule Examples
Most verbs Add s - The office opens at 8 o’clock
- The class starts at 9 a.m
Ends in a consonant + y Change y to ies - The baby cries very loudly
- The bird flies in the sky
Ends in ch, sh, s, x, z Add es - Mr. Diawara teaches English at Language
Centre
- She wishes to have a new car
Do and go Add es - My sister goes to school everyday
- Rina does all her homework
have has - She has dinner at 8 p.m
- She has brother and sister

B. Simple Past Tense

 To demonstrate a past event.
 Functions:
1. A finished single action in the past
- I got scholarship last year
- The movie started at 7.30 p.m
2. A finished state in the past
- Dian lived in a small town
- Bima had a bad score
3. A repeated action in the past
- Novi always studied English on Monday
- She went to school everyday
When we use the past simple, we often say the time of the action: in 1960, at 7.30, on Monday.
 Time Signals (Adverb of Frequency)
Yesterday : kemarin
Last night : semalam, tadi malam
Last week : minggu yang lalu
A few minutes ago : beberapa menit yang lalu
Two days ago : dua hari yang lalu
A month ago : sebulan yang lalu
In 1976 : pada tahun 1976
 Affirmative (Positive) Form (+)
Subject Verb Examples
I, You, We, They Past Tense I saw the car of my brother
He, She, It

Negative Form (-)

Subject Verb Examples
I, You, We, They Did + not + infinitive We did not call him
He, She, It

Interrogative Form (?)

Subject Verb Examples
Did I, You, We, They Infinitive Did you see my cat?
He, She, It

Past Simple: Regular and Irregular Verb

1. Regular Verbs
Usually we add –d / ed to the verb
The spelling rules for d / ed
Verb Rule Examples
Ends in – e Add d - She lived in Jember
e.g: live
Ends in a consonant + vowel + Double the final - He stopped working at 5.30 p.m
consonant consonant
e.g: stop
Ends in consonant + y Change y to ied - I copied some articles
e.g : copy

2. Irregular Verbs
→ have no regular pattern
Many common verbs have an irregular past form:
e.g:
 go went
 have had
 meet met
 get got
 feel felt
 eat ate

C. Simple Future Tense

 To demonstrate future actions.
 Functions:
1. A future actions
- He will post the letter
- I shall go to Malang tomorrow
2. A future appointment
- He will meet you by ten
- She will help you with your homework tomorrow
3. To show “a signal”
- Rani will give you a good dictionary if you go with him
 Time Signals (Adverb of Frequency)
Tomorrow : besok
 Tonight : malam ini
1. The time signals in present continuous can also be used in future tense
e.g: next month : bulan depan
2. Temporal conjunction (kata sambung yang bersifat sementara)
If : jika
When / while : ketika
Before : sebelum
After : sesudah
As soon as : segera sesudah
Till / untill : hingga, sampai
 after all of this temporal conjunctions the following sentence will be written without shall /
will

Affirmative (Positive Form) (+)

Subject Verb
I, we Will / shall + infinitive
You, They, He, She, It Will + infinitive

Negative Form (-)

Subject Verb
I, we Will / shall +not + infinitive
You, They, He, She, It Will +not(won’t)+ infinitive

Interrogative Form (?)

Subject Verb
Will / shall I, we Infinitive
will You, They, He, She, It

 Future intentions
 besides the formula above future tenses can use to be + going + to + infinitive
We use to be + going + to + infinitive when we are talking about our plans or intentions
- We are going to study English next summer.
- Alice is not going to have a party this year.
(+) I’m
(-) I’m not Going to Infinitive
(?) Am I

The Active and Passive voices

 Active Voice

In most English sentences with an action verb, the subject performs the action denoted by the verb.

These examples show that the subject is doing the verb's action.

Example: The man must have eaten five hamburgers …> The man (subject) is doing the eating
(verb)

Example: Marylin mailed the letter …> The Marylin (subject) is doing the mailing (verb)

Example: Colorfull Parrots live in the forest …> The Parrots (subject) is doing the living (verb)
Because the subject does or "acts upon" the verb in such sentences, the sentences are said to be in the
active voice.

 Passive Voice

One can change the normal word order of many active sentences (those with a direct object) so that the
subject is no longer active, but is, instead, being acted upon by the verb - or passive.

Note in these examples how the subject-verb relationship has changed.

Example: Five hamburgers must have been eaten by the man …> Hamburgers (subject) are being
eaten (verb)

Example: The letter was mailed by Marylin …> Letter (subject) is being mailed (verb)

Example: Colorfull Parrots live in the forest …> The Parrots (subject) is doing the living (verb)

NOTE: Colorful parrots live in the rainforests cannot be changed to passive voice because the sentence
does not have a direct object.

To be + Past Participle (V3)

Exercises

Make into the passive voice these following sentences

- Ever since we've had agriculture, people have been employing technology to make it
better.
- He basically followed old agriculture; he planted a lot of seed and hoped for rain.
- While wheat and wine constitute the staples of French agriculture, its distinguishing
characteristic is the variety of its products.
- Though harmful to the economic condition of the island, it left agriculture comparatively
unaffected, because the insolvent institutions had never fulfilled the objects of their
foundation.

Rewrite these sentences in ACTIVE voice

- The cassava growing region of coastal Kenya is separated from cultivated areas inland
by an arid belt which does not support intensive agriculture
- A similar relation of people to one another is seen in every combination of men for
common activity in agriculture, trade, and every administration

Make a short paragraph (minimum 5 sentences, maximum 10 sentences) related to agriculture

product using the correct tenses!

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