OH ENGLISH –III

 Peculiarities- II

English tenses

I do not suggest that English tenses up the learner. Strangely, the indicator of time / period is referred to as Tense. Truly, learners grow tense while using the appropriate verb which fits the time frame –‘Present, Future, Past, Past participle.

For some, this is another nervous zone, for  the language has intricate structuring of tenses. For instance, students are taught [to begin with] that adding ‘D’OR ‘ED’ to a present tense verb would express the past tense as in several cases

LIVE - LIVED    JUMP- JUMPED     WORK - WORKED    KILL – KILLED

Using such examples teachers make it appear that English grammar is the easiest under the Sun. [In our student days teachers would make us stand in the noon Sun if we do not properly use tenses. It was ‘under the Sun’ phobia that drove grammar into us]. However, a number of students used to cling on to the use of ‘D’ or ‘ED’ and wrote ‘WRITED’ [WROTE] EATED [ATE] SHOOTED [SHOT] from the oversimplification by some lazy teachers. However, there were some quite serious teachers who would impress up on learners the wide variants thereof, as in TAKE TOOK TAKEN and  GET  GOT GOT [THE BRITISH STYLE]. The Americans brought in GOTTEN as the Past Participle of GET, AS IF THE LANGUAGE IS FREE OF CONFUSIONS. Other examples are SIT, SAT, SAT EAT, ATE, EATEN,      WRITE, WROTE WRITTEN,               RUN RAN, RUN. MEET, MET, MET. There is no uniformity in formulation of words for tenses.  It is enough if we remember that the pattern is ‘non-uniform’ for us to safely tread the muddy track of tenses in English.

Another confusion is between the tenses for  FLY and FLOW

Fly, flew, flown [for birds] Flow, Flowed, Flowed [for rivers][as per British usage].

Much water has flowed under the bridge;[CORRECT FORM] but many choose to write        Much water has flown under the bridge [A WRONG PARTICIPLE AS PER BRITISH CONVENTION].

APOSTROPHE  [’] Quite some unwanted dilemma [ or confusion?] prevails among learners  in using apostrophe. Usually, it denotes whose possession an article is. This is Gita’s house = The house belongs to Gita. Its gate is damaged. The ‘its’ here refers to the house; Gita’s is a reference to the house owned by Gita. Though in both situations [its] and [Gita’s] indicate possession. BUT, APOSTROPHE is used in respect of Gita, but not for its, though the it here also relates to the house. His, its need not be used with apostrophe. But many wrongly use apostrophe for ITS and write “it’s” . When written as it’s, it means either It is or it has as APOSTROPHE is used as abbreviation for ‘is’ or ‘has.’

In North India apostrophe is employed indiscriminately. Many signs on display carry information for some commercial publicity. Even a  name like Lewis is written  LEWI’S. Some conditioning of mind tells the user to add [‘] whenever ‘S’ appears in a word. So, the purpose of apostrophe   gets defeated by irrational use of it.

SPELLING and PRONUNCIATION

Another inexplicable twist in English language relates to the pronunciation in the view of the spelling.  

RENDEZVOUS= Rendevoo, SUPERFLUOUS= Superfloo

COUGH, TOUGH, ROUGH, rhyme with cuff, tuff, ruff by the letters G and H, but, THOUGH is not THUFF, PLOUGH is not PLUFF, and Bluff does not spell BLOUGH, Hand cuff does not spell HAND COUGH.

Also, CHEF and PARACHUTE are pronounced –shef AND parashute CH= SH by sound.

MORE TO FOLLOW

Prof. K. Raman