A Macro View of English

Point A

English can be divided into two basic parts:

1 - Older Anglo-Saxon - Generally smaller words that do not look familiar to Portuguese speakers. All irregular verbs, personal pronouns, most smaller adjectives, adverbs and prepositions are from Anglo-Saxon. Approximately 25% of the vocabulary.

2 - Newer Latin - Generally larger (polisyllabic) words that are familiar to Portuguese speakers. Prefix/suffix system. Approximately 75 % of modern vocabulary.

Point B

English uses 3 voices :

1 - Active - Used when the subject practices an action or experiences a state of existence.

2 - Passive - Used when the subject receives an action. Who or what did the action is not as important as who or what received it. Must have "to be" as the auxiliary verb.

3 - Imperative - Used to give orders. All verbs are infinitive (No verb tense conjugations). Subject is usually absent.

Point C

English has three different verb functions:

1 - Describe existence - "to be" and only "to be" is used to describe existence in English. It can correspond to "ser", "estar", "haver", "ter", "ficar", "fazer", and other verbs in portuguese.

2 - Describe action - 99% of all verbs are action verbs. "to do" is the generic action verb and can subsitute for any action verb or action verb phrase in short questions and answers.

3. - Auxiliary Verbs - Simple or modal. Used to form verb tenses, questions, negatives, and emphasis.

3a. - Simple auxiliary verbs:

3a 1. "be" - used in all continuous tenses and in all passive voice tenses.

3a 2. "do" - used to form questions, negatives, emphasis and short answers (only in simple present and simple past tense).

3a 3. "have" - used to form all perfect tenses.

3a 4. "will" - used to form all future tenses.

3b. - Modal auxiliary verbs:

3b 1. "can" - ability or permission

3b 2. "could" - past ability ou conditional permission

3b 3. "shall" - suggestions

3b 4. "should" - recommendability

3b 5. "would" - forms a conditional

3b 6. "may" - permission, possibility

3b 7. "might" - possibility

3b 8. "must" - obligation, strong recommendation

3b 9. "ought to" - recommendability

(note: all modal verbs are followed by an infinitive or present perfect verb)

Point D

English uses twelve verb tenses, divided into 4 categories, with a present, a past and a future for each.

12 Verb Tenses:

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