The forms of verbs in English are diverse. But this is not a reason to consider his grammar an incomprehensible science. If you seriously decided to study it, first of all, you need to drop all seriousness and read the book of the psychologist and teacher A.A. Pylitsyna called "English in the family circle."
I see that you just want to ask: “Why do we need temporary forms of verbs in English?” The explanation is very simple. Remember the cartoon about the Winnie the Pooh bear: once he didn’t want to eat the “wrong honey” collected by the “wrong bees”? This, of course, is a joke. But, imagine, the British are such jokers that they seriously decided to speak the “wrong” language. They even have irregular verbs. Do not believe? Judge for yourself! Let's write a small list: 3 forms of verbs in English:
- forgive: forgive-forgave-forgiven
- begin: begin-began-begun
- go: go-went-gone
- feed: feed-fed-fed
- run: ran-run-ran
- stop: quit-quit-quit
Why these verbs were called incorrect is not difficult to guess. After all, if you look closely at them, it becomes obvious that in the first three all forms are different. In the fourth, the last two forms coincide, but differ from the first. In the fifth, the first and last forms coincide. In the sixth, all three forms are absolutely identical. Can such naughty naughty people be compared with regular verbs? Judge for yourself:
open: open-opened-opened
ask: ask-asked-asked
watch: watch-watched-watched
This is where order and control are: for regular verbs, the second and third forms coincide under any circumstances and always have an ending - ed.
And what is the first form of a verb? English grammar invites us to meet His Majesty the Infinitive. You can never ignore this Very Important Person, because the particle to is always used in front of him, and he answers the question "what to do?" Well, what can answer such a question? Of course:
to learn, to learn, to learn!
(study, study, study!)
The infinitive always dictates what we should do:
read: to read
is: to eat
sleep: to sleep
I think from what has been said it becomes obvious that the infinitive is the first form of the English verb. But what we see: in the sentence
I like to eat bananas. I like to eat bananas.
The first form of the verb is found two times, but only one of them has a to particle - how to understand this?
It's simple: to eat is an infinitive (answering, as we recall, the question "what to do?"). The word like does not have a particle to , which means it answers the question “what am I doing?”.
But if I had done something earlier, it would have required the use of the second form of verbs in English.
Example:
I ate bananas yesterday.
Yesterday I ate bananas.
I drove a limousine last night.
Last night I rode a limo.
I wrote letters to my girlfriends.
I wrote letters to my friends.
Now, to say what happened in the past, you just put the verb in the second form! In the words of the wonderful actor V. Livanov (by the way - the best Sherlock Holmes of all time): “Elementary, Watson!” However, if everything is so simple, then why use the third form of verbs in English? Anticipated this question ...
You see, from the phrase we said I ate bananas yesterday it’s not at all clear, I ate all the bananas yesterday, or left a little for today. In the same way, thanks to the phrase I wrote letters to my girlfriends , the question remains unclear, did I write letters to my friends, or did they still remain incomplete? Therefore, if we want to focus the interlocutor's attention on the fact that the action was completed, we need knowledge and use of the third form of verbs in English:
I have written letters to my girlfriends.
I wrote letters to my friends.
I have eaten bananas.
I ate bananas.
And the verb have in these phrases does not translate in any way, because it is needed precisely to indicate the completeness of the action. It helps to indicate an event in the past, and therefore is called the auxiliary verb.
If you liked this article and would like to continue studying English grammar, be sure to read the lessons of A.A. Pyltsina “English in the style of Rock” and “English with blondes” - you will like it even more!