Grammar Grumble #2

As promised, here it is:

Friends--I say this lovingly--there is a difference between the word when and the word whenever!!

Whenever refers to repeated events or an uncertain date.

Whenever we go to to the store, we buy gumballs. (Repeated event--We buy gumballs every time we go to the store.)


When refers to a specific, one time event.

When I went to the store last week, I bought gumballs. (I don't buy gumballs every time I go to the store; I bought them on this one occasion.)


I find sentences like these, irksome:

Whenever I went to the store yesterday, I bought gumballs.

Whenever I was a kid, I rode the bus to school.

Can you tell what's wrong with those sentences???

And, yes, my fellow grammar snobs,  I know there are some instances in which when and whenever can be interchangeable, but that's not the point of this post. :-P

Grammar Grumble #1

Disclaimer: I can say what I'm about to say because I'm not a Northerner. . . I'm a Midwesterner. :-P

Since moving to the South, I have noticed two grammar atrocities that drive me absolutely crazy. While I know that these atrocities are not specific to the South, I seem to notice them a lot more down here than I ever have anywhere else I've lived.

First of all, people, have you ever ever heard of what we call a past participle?? (Pause) Yeah, that's what I thought. Let me give you an example of what I hear on a daily basis:

"I had went to the store . . . ."

"I had ran across the street . . . ."

"I have chose . . . ."

"I  have gave three dollars to . . . . "

"I had ate five grapes. .  .  ."

AAAGGGGHHHHH!!! Okay. Quick grammar lesson, people. Here we go:

All verb tenses can be formed from one of the three principal verb parts. We have the first principle part, also called the present. There's the second principal part, also called the past. And there's the third principal part also called the past participle. (It's important to realize that principal parts are NOT tenses; they are merely the parts we use to form the tenses.)

Most verbs are regular verbs. That means the 2nd and 3rd principal parts can be formed by adding a -d or -ed to the end of the 1st principal part. For example:

Present (1st)                Past (2nd)                    Past Participal (3rd)
walk                             walked                           walked
bake                              baked                              baked
jump                             jumped                          jumped

Now, to form the simple tenses from these principal parts is quite easy:

Present tense = 1st principal part (walk, bake, jump)
Past tense = 2nd principal part (walked, baked, jumped)
Future tense = will/shall + 1st principal part (will walk, will bake, will jump)

You probably noticed that the 3rd principal part, the past participle, isn't even used when forming the simple tenses. Pretty easy, huh?

Okay, what about the perfect tenses? (What on earth is a perfect tense?!?!?) Glad you asked. A perfect tense shows an action or state of being that has been completed or was true before a certain point in time.

For example, in the sentence, "We had studied nine authors by the time we reached the end of our literature books last year," the verb had studied shows an action that was completed before the time we reached the end of the literature book. It's like the past of the past. We call that the past perfect tense.

In the sentence, "We have studied twelve different authors this year," the verb have studied shows an action that has been completed during the present time period (this year). It's like the past of the present. We call that the present perfect tense.

In the sentence, "By the end of the year, we will have studied 17 authors," the verb will have studied shows an action that will be completed by a certain point in the future (the end of the year). It's like the past of the future. We call that the future perfect tense.

Perfect tenses are easy to form. They are always formed by using the auxiliaries have, has, or had and the 3rd principal part, or the past participle, of the verb.

Past perfect = had + 3rd principal part (had walked)
Present perfect = have/has + 3rd principal part (have walked)
Future perfect = will have/shall have + 3rd principal part (will have walked)

Seems simple enough, right? Of course it does! So where does the problem lie? Well, you may have noticed that with a regular verb, the 2nd and 3rd principal parts are identical. This leads some people to unwittingly believe that the perfect tenses are formed using the 2nd principal part, and they will use the 2nd principal part to form their perfect tenses. This isn't really a problem until we get into our irregular verbs. That's right, folks, irregular verbs.

An irregular verb means that the second and third principal parts can't be formed by just adding a -d or -ed. Therefore, there's going to be a difference between the 2nd and 3rd principal parts.  Let's take a look at the principal parts of some irregular verbs.

Present (1st)                       Past (2nd)                            Past Participle (3rd)
go                                        went                                      gone
run                                       ran                                        run
choose                                 chose                                    chosen
give                                     gave                                      given
eat                                       ate                                         eaten
fly                                       flew                                      flown

So to form the perfect tenses of these verbs, we would have the following:

Past perfect = had + 3rd principal part (had gone, had run, had chosen, had given, had eaten, had flown)
Present perfect = have/has + 3rd principal part (have gone, have run, have chosen, have given, have eaten, have flown)
Future perfect = will have/shall have + 3rd principal part (will have gone, will have run, will have chosen, will have given, will have eaten, will have flown)

This means that you should NEVER say had ate, will have ran, has gave, etc.
That, my friends, is Grammar Grumble #1. Stay tuned for Grammar Grumble #2 . . . .