There are instances where we have been unable to trace or contact copyright holders before our printing deadline. If notified, the publisher will be pleased to acknowledge the use of copyright material. | 8 THE VERB PHRASE PAGE 78 3 The first auxiliary is important in negatives and questions. In negatives the auxiliary has not after it. 17 2 They haven t played the video. In questions the auxiliary comes before the subject. 23 Have they played the video In simple tenses the auxiliary is do. They didn t play the video. Did they play the video 61 Meaning in the verb phrase A NEW FLAT Ian How s your new flat Jason Oh it s okay thanks. We ve been there a month now and I think we re going to like it. We re decorating at the moment. You must come and see us when we ve finished. Ian Thanks. That d be nice. You were lucky to find somewhere. Jason Yes we were getting pretty desperate. We d been looking for ages and couldn t find anywhere. The flat wasn t advertised. We heard about it through a friend. It s quite convenient too. We get the train to work. Ian Whatfloor is the flat on Jason Well we live right at the top but there are only fourfloors. Ifthere was a lift it would be perfect. 1 Tense The first word of a finite verb phrase is either present or past. Usually the tenses mean present time and past time now and then . Present I think we re going to like it. We live right at the top. Past We heard about it through a friend. We were gettingpretty desperate. NOTE In some contexts the choice of present or past depends on the speaker s attitude. Haveyou a moment I want to askyou something. Haveyou a moment I wanted to askyou something. Here the present tense is more direct. The past tense is more distant. It makes the request more tentative and so more polite. For these tenses in conditional clauses 257 4c . 2 Modal verbs With modal verbs we can express ideas such as actions being possible or necessary. We couldn tfind anywhere. You must come and see us. For the meaning of modal verbs 102. 3 The perfect These verb phrases have perfect aspect. We havejust finished the decorating. We have been there a month now. We had been lookingfor ages. PAGE 79 62 Action verbs and state .
