Lesson Three

LESSON THREE 

In this Lesson you will learn the fourth step to help you figure out which verb or verbs to use in each sentence. This step is called conjugating.  The other steps you have already learned are (1) Verb Formula Chart, (2)  Principal Parts Verb Chart, (3) Pronoun Chart. Now you are going to learn how to take the information from the other three steps and put them altogether into one place in order to conjugate. Conjugation will help you locate all the verb children of a particular father and will also help you use verbs  correctly in sentences. As you know, the verb is the most important part of  speech in the English sentence; and you want to be able to use verbs correctly since every complete sentence has at least one verb in it. Each time you write or say a sentence, you have to make a decision about which verb to use.  

Review: In Lesson One you learned the three Simple and Perfect tenses -- Present, Past, Future, Present Perfect, Past Perfect, and Future Perfect. You  also learned the formulas for forming these six tenses. You learned about  infinitives and that they are called fathers. These fathers have many verb children; some look like the father; some do not. In Lesson Two you learned  to look at the child's last name to figure out who the father is. For instance,  the father of will drink is to drink. By looking at the last word in the child's name  (drink), you can figure out that the father's name is to drink. Will drink is in the to drink family. To drink is the father and has the following children: drink,  drinks, drank, shall drink, will drink, have drunk, has drunk, had drunk,  shall have drunk, and will have drunk. In Lesson Two you also learned which pronouns go in each part of the Pronoun Chart. 

Today it is time for you to learn the final step -- conjugating. Conjugating is  fun because you will take information that you already know and plug it into a  chart. When that happens, you will be surprised at how much you have already learned. 

By the way, conjugating is not done just in English. Verb conjugation is done  in many other languages. When it comes time for you to learn another language besides English, you will already know how to conjugate. That will  make it much easier for you to learn the new language. 

Let's review the Verb Formula Chart which you already know: 

2

You also know the Principal Parts of Verbs Chart which looks like this:

Now let's add some more verb fathers to the chart. 

TELL ME MORE! Click the PLAY button to hear additional  information.

Since you are going to be conjugating the verb to enjoy, you don't need the rest of the chart. Let's delete the other verbs so that the chart now looks like this: 

You already know the Pronoun Chart. 

Now using the (1) Verb Formula Chart, the (2) Principal Parts of Verbs Chart, and the (3) Pronoun Chart, here is how you conjugate the verb to  enjoy: 

CONJUGATION OF VERB FATHER – To enjoy 

Let's conjugate the verb to enjoy in the Present tense. 

PRESENT TENSE OF To enjoy -- (FORMULA) -- 1ST COLUMN 

Let's study the conjugation of to enjoy in the Present tense. First, a person  has to know the Verb Formula Chart and has to write the verb formula out  beside Present tense (1st column). Then a person has to know the  Pronoun Chart and has to write down the pronouns (1st, 2nd, 3rd person) in  the right places in the conjugation chart. Next a person has to look at the  Principal Parts of Verbs Chart under to enjoy (enjoy, enjoys, enjoyed).  The last step is to say, "I enjoy, you enjoy, he/she/it enjoys, we enjoy, you  enjoy, they enjoy."  

Now let's conjugate the verb to enjoy in the Past tense. You will follow the  exact same pattern as in the Present tense conjugation. 

PAST TENSE OF To enjoy -- (FORMULA) -- 2ND COLUMN  

Let's conjugate the verb to enjoy in the Future tense following the exact same  pattern as you have seen in the Present and the  

Past tenses.

FUTURE TENSE OF To enjoy -- (FORMULA) -- SHALL or WILL + 1ST COLUMN Singular Plural 

Present Perfect:

PRESENT PERFECT TENSE OF To enjoy -- (FORMULA) – HAVE/HAS +3RD COLUMN

Past Perfect: 

PAST PERFECT TENSE OF To enjoy -- (FORMULA) -- HAD + 3RD COLUMN 

Future Perfect: 

FUTURE PERFECT TENSE OF To enjoy - 

[(FORMULA) – SHALL/WILL HAVE + 3RD COLUMN] 

That's it. You have just conjugated the verb to enjoy in the three Simple tenses (Present, Past, and Future) and the three Perfect tenses (Present  Perfect, Past Perfect, Future Perfect). Notice under each tense the list of  different children. In the three Simple tenses, there are five different children:  enjoy, enjoys, enjoyed, shall enjoy, will enjoy. In the three Perfect tenses, there  are five children: have enjoyed, has enjoyed, had enjoyed, shall have enjoyed,  will have enjoyed. As you learn more English tenses, you will learn more  children. Conjugating will help you to find the children of verbs, and you will  become more aware of verbs. As you become more aware of them, you will  begin to know which verb fits correctly with each subject.  

One more thing that conjugating teaches you. Look at the 3rd person,  Singular, Present tense of to enjoy. What do you see? You see enjoys,  don't you? Notice that the Singular form ends in -s. It is common for people  to think that verbs that end in -s are Plural; but by your conjugating to enjoy, you  can clearly see that enjoys is not Plural but is Singular. (Many nouns that end in  -s are plural, but verbs which end in –s are singular.) 

Because subjects tell verbs what to do, it is important that a singular subject be matched with a singular verb. Which sentence is correct? (1) Ted and Sylvia  enjoys the concert. (2) Ted and Sylvia enjoy the concert. Since you are talking  ABOUT someone or something in the Present tense, you need to go to the 3rd  person place in the Present tense conjugation. Because there are two  subjects, you need to go to the Plural spot on the chart. What verb is in the  Present tense, 3rd person, Plural spot? (enjoy) Therefore, the correct choice  is (2) Ted and Sylvia enjoy the concert. Now do you see why conjugating is important? You were able to figure out the correct verb for the sentence based  upon what you had learned through conjugating.