Improve_Your_Punctuation.PDF

John wanted to be a teacher.

‘John’ is the subject and ‘wanted’ is thefiniteverb. It has
person, number and tense so thisisa sentence.

She was running across the road.

The subject is ‘she’ and ‘was’ has been added to the present
participle to make the past progressive tense. The finite verb
is ‘was running’.

He has written a letter.

‘He’ is the third person and ‘has’ has been added to the past
participle to make the perfect tense. The finite verb is ‘has
written’.

A finite verb can be more than one word.

Looking at tenses

Finite verbs show tense – past, present and future.

The present and past tenses
The past tense often ends in ‘ed’. Notice that the third
person singular in the present tense usually ends in ‘s’.

To play

Present tense Past tense

I play I played

you play you played

he, she, it plays he, she, it played

we play we played

they play they played

18 / IMPROVE YOUR PUNCTUATION & GRAMMAR