Thursday, September 06, 2007

Simple. Progressive. Perfect. Perfect Progressive. Where is all this tension coming from?

(Laughing) Okay, it’s about tenses, not tension, but if you’re like me, one can easily lead to the other. To better understand what makes writing active vs. passive, one must understand the tenses and all their various forms. I’m still learning, but here are a couple of websites that have really helped me see the difference.

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/usetense.html

Home of the University of Ottawa, this extensive website lists all of the tense forms, and a few easy to understand examples of each.

Another good resource can be found at http://www.englishpage.com/index.html. Click on the Verb page and you’re on your way! And if you still think writing is easy, check out the Gerund page. It’s full of fun exercises to help you keep from splitting those infinitives.

2 comments :

Jessica Ferguson said...

Great resources. Thanks for sharing.

SuseADoodle said...

**shudder** Grammar!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-- RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY, fast!

LOL

In all honesty, I look back at my education and wonder "What did I learn?" Worse, "What was I taught?"

In Math class, I had teachers who made mistakes at the board. Since I learn things the first time they are presented (or did when I was a quick, bright kid not this addle brained dullard of a middle-aged whatever), I learned the mistake and not how to repair it.

In science, (and some math classes), I was in "advanced" sections and somehow that meant we got "higher" learning and missed the basics completely. No pulleys or fulcrums in physics, we leared how to answer "Is light a particle or a wave?" "Yes."

And because at 7th grade we were all scoring as college level readers, we were put in an advanced English course and allowed to learn French or Spanish. Our English teacher loved to tell stories of his "harrowing days" as a captain in the Reserves. So, the English grammar I learned was a knock-off from French class; and what I remember of that is thanks to a much more recent course of study of Americn Sign Language which follows the syntax rules of French.

Long way to go to say, THANK YOU so much for these much needed grammar links!!

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