COURS DE GRAMMAIRE / SEM. 1 /L.A.MARTINEZ 9/12: Verb tenses and aspects (1/5) – The present perfect/past simple/past perfect 1/Use of the present perfect/ rappel A/ « The post hasn't come yet », « Your visitors have arrived! », « We have been married for the last 13 years ». B/ « Debbie has been to Scotland twice » (and she'll probably go there again), « I've ridden a horse lots of times » (and I still do), « We've often talked about emigrating » (and we still do). C/ « This factory has been closed for years », « I've had these shoes for years », « I've always known about you and Diana », « I've always loved you ». D/ « I have succeeded in all my exams so far », “William has lost his home and car keys”, “This horse has won all the races of the season”. 2/Use of the present perfect continuous A/ « I've been washing the car. I'm rather wet » / « I've washed the car. I'm rather wet », « I've been waiting for three years », « The roof has been leaking. The bedroom's carpet is wet », « The roof has been leaking. The bedroom's carpet is wet » BUT « I've always hated hospitals » / « She's always been the most beautiful in the family ». B/ « You look hot. Yes! I've been running ». C/ « I've been going to evening classes in Arabic », « David has been writting three letters to the hospital ». D/ «He has been writting to the hospital for over a month now », « He has already written no less than 5 letters to the hospital ». 3/FOR and SINCE → « Giles has worked here for ten years now », → « We've been waiting for twenty minutes », → « The Parkers have been living here for 25 years , → « I haven't seen you since September / since 1985 », → « I haven't been able to walk since I broke my leg », → « They haven't spoken to each other since their wedding day! ». NOTE: → « I haven't been able to walk since I broke my leg », → « We last went to the theater months ago! », → « Giles joined the company two years ago ». [Use of 'ago', 'since', 'for' → mémo 17] 4/ Use of the past simple A/ « The shop opened last week. Then it closed again two days later »,
« Our car broke down. But luckily we got it going again ». [Savoir utiliser le prétérit et connaître les verbes irréguliers → mémo 18] B/ «I've had these skis for years », « I had these skis for years. Then I sold them ». C/ « William has acted in more than fifty theater plays », « William acted in more than fifty theater plays ». D/ « There has been a serious accident on the M6. It happened at ten o'clock this morning near Preston when a lorry went out of control and collided with a car ». E/ « Imagine you were young and beautiful », « Suppose we were rich », « I wish I had a lot of brothers and sisters ». 5/Use of the past continuous A/ « At quarter to eleven, I was walking home », « I wasn't sleeping, so I got up », « I looked into the room, all the old people were watching television ». B/ « Police were slowly gaining ground over the escaped prisoner », « My grandmother loved this house ». C/ « William was having a shower when the doorbell rang »? « The sun was shining when the campers woke ». BUT « William was having a shower, while I was cleaning up the kitchen ». D/ « I was on my way to the pub. I was meeting William there», « Our former neighbours were always giving parties ». 6/Use of the past perfect A/ « We ran on the station platform, but the train had just gone », « Everything had seemed fine up to them », « They had been friends for six months when he disappeared ». B/ «I bought this shirt »→ He told us he had bought the shirt, « Paul had been there before » → I was informed that Paul had been there before. C/ « When the boss arrived, the meeting began » BUT « When the boss arrived, the meeting had begun », « When Max spoke, she put the phone down » BUT « When Max spoke, she had put the phone down ». D/ « The toaster went wrong before it had toasted even one piece of bread! », « We didn't want to stop until we had finished to job ».
7/Use of the past perfect continuous « The driver who died in the accident had been drinking », « A woman collapsed at the supermaket checkout. She had been working the whole day without eating anything », « The volunteers brought in their collecting boxes at lunch time yesterday. They had been collecting money all morning. They had collected hundreds of pounds ». -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Exercise 1/ Depuis combien de temps es-tu en fauteuil roulant? 2/Depuis les élections, le gouvernement réduit les dépenses. 3/ William travaille sur son rapport de stage depuis 2 heures de l'après-midi. Il a déjà écrit 20 pages. 4/ Je suis arrivée il y a dix minutes à peine. 5/depuis que la crise bancaire a commencé, les banqueroutes dans le secteur du bâtiment ont beaucoup augmenté. 6/ Je t'attends depuis le début de l'après-midi. 7/Je t'ai attendu de 3 à 5 heures puis je suis partie. 8/Lorsque j'étais représentant de commerce, je voyageais du lundi au vendredi. 9/Cette semaine, la Californie a publié les premiers détails de son programme pour réduire ses émissions de gaz d’échappement. 10/ Elle avait rencontré Max 6 mois auparavant. 11/Il avait déjà fait 3 ans de prison.
