Past tense and possessive and when to add 's'

Don't fret. English is my second language, too.

Tenses in English are one of the most difficult things in English because they're so inconsistent and there seem to be no particular rules. "Swim, swam, swum" or "lit, lit, lit" or "pit, pitted, pitted" or "spit, spat, spat." Argh!


The best thing to do is to consult a dictionary, especially when you're confused. You'll just need to memorize the exceptions. And read a lot -- internalize it (it's just a bad word now: internalize.. LOL).

I try not to use possessive with inanimate objects. "The car door" or "the door of the car."

"Foods" means a variety of food, I think. I have seen people use "moneys" or "monies" and I thought "money" is uncountable (puns intended). This whole "countable" and "uncountable" business is also very confusing to non-English speakers.

"Is there a website where this is explained in detail?"

Probably, but I don't know of one offhand.

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"For example, I was told that, as a rule, add 'ed' to whatever comes after "be" and "is/are". I can't spare cash to buy a book that I saw someone in this forum recommend at the moment, so is there a really good, free, site for this?

There you go, in the sentence above, I'm not sure if recommend should be recommended."

It should be "recommend."

I saw that someone recommended a book.

I saw someone recommend a book.

---
"For example,

Every thing is issued to you.

Every thing will be issued to you."

Those sentences don't use past tense. They use verbs in the passive voice ("is issued," "will be issued"). A verb in the passive voice is made of two parts: (1) a form of "to be" plus (2) the past participle of the verb, not the simple past tense of the verb.

For example:

show = present tense
showed = past tense
shown = past participle

You'd therefore write "The students were shown a movie."

Similarly, "I was drawn into the conversation" (draw, drew, drawn) or "Twenty bottles of wine were drunk at the wedding" (drink, drank, drunk).

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"Do I write Car's door or car door? I know Bob's legs and such but when we're not talking about living things then I start to wonder. Like, Microsoft's products or Microsoft products."

You write "car door." Generally, it is incorrect to use the possessive ending with inanimate objects. There are a few words that are conventional exceptions, such as "life" and "world." The world's greatest golfer... Life's little mysteries... Some set phrases are also exceptions, such as "at death's door" and "art for art's sake."

The Microsoft example can go either way, depending on a slight difference in the meaning. "Microsoft's products": products that belong to the Microsoft company. "Microsoft products": products manufactured by Microsoft.

---

"Sometimes I see 'FOODS' but isn't food noncount?"

It can be either kind of noun. "There was plenty of food on the table" (mass noun). "Oatmeal is a good food for children," "Eat a variety of foods" (count noun).

OK, I'm in trouble, because that is as clear as mud to me.

Similan,

The best thing you could do is pick up a copy of a little book called, "The Elements of Style."

It answers many, many questions about grammar and technical English.

Best Regards,

Bart

similan said:

I have a lot of problem with past tense (hey, don't raise you eyebrow at me, I have an excuse, Eng is my second language).

Is there a website where this is explained in detail?

For example, I was told that, as a rule, add 'ed' to whatever comes after "be" and "is/are". I can't spare cash to buy a book that I saw someone in this forum recommend at the moment, so is there a really good, free, site for this?

There you go, in the sentence above, I'm not sure if recommend should be recommended.

For example,

Every thing is issued to you.

Every thing will be issued to you.

But that's not always the case.

Moving on. Possessive. Is there a rule for that? Do I write Car's door or car door? I know Bob's legs and such but when we're not talking about living things then I start to wonder. Like, Microsoft's products or Microsoft products.

And then there's the S

Sometimes I see 'FOODS' but isn't food noncount?

Thanks

Click to expand...

similan said:

They don't have it where I'm living. I tried several highschool textbooks but they suck bad. They're written by some overachievers Thai guys that don't know anything about writing text to teach.

Anyway. I'll search the net some more.

Cheers

EDIT:

Whoa! Is this the book?

Click to expand...

No, that isn't the book. The one on Bartleby is the 1918 edition by Strunk alone. You want the Strunk & White version. You can get it pretty much anywhere. I've never been in a bookstore than didn't have. And even if one doesn't, it can order it for you. You can also get it from Amazon.com, etc.

It's very easy to find, very cheap, even new, and a must have for writers.

Strunk & White has much of what you need to know, but it won't tell you things like whether to say "I just wanted to ask" or "I want to ask." (Both are correct; the second sounds more assertive.)

Another Suggestion

Try a college handbook of English grammar - there should be some of those on e-bay. Scott Wolley had a pretty good one but the best is/was Harbrace (or Harcourt Brace). The handbooks spell out the rules and give reasonable examples.

Does this help?
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/grammar/tenses.html
Or this?
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_tensec.html

I googled English grammar past tense and got a lot of hits.

Yay!
You're welcome.