Tenses - BrainPop UK
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00:00Dear Tim and Moby, what are the different tenses from Nozima?
00:15Ladies and gentlebots, tonight you shall experience feats of wonder which have never before been witnessed upon the stage.
00:24I, the great Timothy, shall describe events that take place not only in the present time, but in the past and future as well.
00:36But first, I need a volunteer. How about you, sir?
00:43Now then, robot I've never met before, do you know what a verb is?
00:49Correct!
00:51A verb is a word that describes an action.
00:55For example, you walked on stage and answered a simple question. Both walked and answered are verbs.
01:03Every verb has an infinitive form, which often begins with the word to.
01:09To walk, to answer, to catch, these are all infinitives.
01:14But to describe events in the past, present, or future, I must conjugate or change these verbs.
01:21Specifically, I must drop the to and alter their endings.
01:25So, without further ado, let us conjugate verbs in the present tense.
01:31In case you are unaware, ladies and gentlebots, verbs in the present tense describe events taking place right now.
01:37Permit me to use my celestial gifts to tell you about your present.
01:43You live in South London and work at a factory.
01:47You drink a cup of tea every day at 3 p.m. and carry a silver watch in your waistcoat pocket.
01:56Am I correct, sir?
02:03As you can see, conjugating verbs in the present tense is quite simple.
02:08In most cases, you just drop the to from the infinitive form.
02:11I work, you work, they work, and we work.
02:14When you describe the actions of a third person, though, you must add an s, as in he works, she works, and it works.
02:23Irregular verbs are another exception.
02:26These strange creatures cannot be conjugated in the ordinary way.
02:32Instead, each has a unique form.
02:35A common example is the verb to be.
02:38You cannot say, I be, he bees, they bee.
02:42Instead, you must say, I am, he is, they are.
02:47And now, I require another volunteer.
02:50You, sir!
02:56Excellent!
02:57Now, perfect stranger, let us use the past tense to describe events from long ago.
03:05After you graduated from school, you joined the Foreign Service, where you rescued a princess from a rogue elephant.
03:14As a reward, she presented you with a 12-carat emerald in the shape of a panther.
03:19Am I correct?
03:25As you can see, the method for conjugating verbs in the past tense is effortless.
03:31Just add ed to the end of your verb, and by Jove, you've done it!
03:36The ed ending doesn't change whether you're describing an action taken by yourself, another person, or a group of people.
03:42I walked, you walked, he walked, they walked, we walked.
03:47But sadly, I must inform you that irregular verbs are far more common in the past tense than they are in the present tense.
03:55For example, you wouldn't say, I readed the complete stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
04:00Instead, you would say, I read the stories.
04:03And you wouldn't say, he fighted in the Crimean War.
04:06You would say, he fought in the war.
04:09If you desire a complete list of these irregular verbs, you can look them up in a book or on the World Wide Web when it's invented in 100 years or so.
04:18Speaking of the future, I shall need another volunteer.
04:21You, madam!
04:26My, what a charming lass!
04:28Now, allow me to conjure your secrets from the great beyond!
04:33Let me see.
04:35After this performance, you will board a train to Cambridge, and you are going to sit by the window.
04:44You will dine with a friend, and you are going to eat roast beef.
04:50To conjugate verbs in the future tense, you keep the infinitive form and add the word will in front of them.
04:57You may also use going to with the appropriate conjugation of to be.
05:03Thank you, thank you. And now, the great Timothy will take some questions.
05:13Ah, there are indeed other questions.
05:17Ah, there are indeed other tenses beyond the ones I described.
05:22Behold, if you will, this chart I have prepared.
05:26These perfect tenses describe events that don't neatly fit into the past, present, and future.
05:32For example, the present perfect tense often describes the actions from the past that affect the present.
05:40When I say, I have spent ten years studying magic, I'm indicating that I have studied magic in the past, and also continue to do so today.
05:49And the past perfect is often used alongside the past tense to describe events that occurred even further back in time.
05:57So, I never had met my volunteers before I walked on stage tonight.
06:02One final question, perhaps?
06:06No, hold on. You're saying that all three of my volunteers tonight were really the same robot in different disguises?
06:14You state that this robot and I have been friends for years, that I did not really read his mind, and that I am a complete fraud?
06:23Well, I would love to answer that question, but I'm afraid I've run out of time. Good night, everyone!
06:35Thanks for watching!