Grammar in Use 2e

Page 1

Present Continuous (I am doing)

Am/is/are -ing is the present continuous.

I am doing something = I'm in the middle of doing something; I've started doing it and I haven't finished yet.

e.g.:

She is driving to work.

Where's Margaret? "She's having a bath." (not "She has a bath");

Page 2

Present simple (I do)

I/we/you/they -> drive/work/do etc.

he/she/it -> drives/works/does etc.

We use it to say that something happens all the time or repeatedly, or that something is true in general. It is not important whether the action is happening at the time of speaking.

e.g.:

I usually go away at weekends.

My sister teaches...

We use do/does to make questions and negative sentences:

do -> I/we/you/they -> work?/come?/do?

does ->he/she/it -> work?/come?/do?

I/we/you/they -> don't -> work/come/do

he/she/it -> doesn't-> work/come/do

e.g.:

Where do you come from?

I don't smoke.

Page 3

Past simple (I did)

Regular verbs -ed. e.g.:

I worked in a shop.

She passed her examination because she studied very hard.

Irregular verbs. e.g.:

write->wrote

see->saw

go->went

In question and negatives we use did/didn't + infinitive (enjoy/see/go etc.):

Did you enjoy? -> I didn't enjoy.

Did she see? -> She didn't see.

Did they go? -> They didn't go.

The past of be is was/were

I/he/she/it -> was/wasn't

we/you/they -> were/weren't

was I/he/she/it?

were we/you/they?

Page 4

Past continuous (I was doing)

I/he/she/it -> was playing/doing/working

we/you/they -> were palying/doing/working

We use the past continuous to say that somebody was in the middle of doing something at a certain time. The action or situation had already started before this time but had not finished:

e.g.:

Tom burnt his hand when he was cooking the dinner. (past simple/ pas continuous)

When Karen arrived, we were having dinner ( = we had already started dinner before Karen arrived.)

When Karen arrived, we had dinner.(= First Karen arrived and then we had a dinner.)

Page 5

Present perfect (I have done)

I/we/they/you have (=I've etc.) finished/lost/done/been

he/she/it has (=he's etc) finished/lost/done/been

The present perfect simple is have/has + past participle. The past participle often ends in -ed (finished/decided etc), but many important verbs are irregular (lost/done/been/written etc).

When we use the present perfect there is a always a connection with now. The action in the past has a result now, e.g.:

Where's your key? I don't know. I've lost it.

I cant't find my bag. Have you seen it?

When often use the present perfect to give new information or to announce a recent happening, e.g.:

Ow! I've cut my finger.

The road is close. There's been an accident.

(from the news) The police have arrested two men in connection with the robbery