英文一問:TENSES等

The indefinite article (a or an)
To refer to something (that is singular and countable) for the first time in a conversation or piece of text:
She's got a dog and a cat.

With job titles, professions or to explain what people do:
She's an artist.
Alice is a nurse.
Helen's a student.

With expressions of quantity:
a pair of, a few, a little, a piece of, a bit of, a hundred, a thousand, a million, an hour, a day, a week

The definite article (the)
To refer to something (that is singular or plural, countable or uncountable) when both the writer and reader, or speaker and listener, know which thing is being referred to:
She's got a dog and a cat. The dog is friendly but the cat always scratches me.
Do you want to see a film tonight? Yes, let's see the new Harry Potter one.

With rivers, seas and mountain ranges:
the Thames , the Atlantic , the Alps

Where there is only one of these things or people:
the White House, the moon, the UN, the EU, the president

With superlative adjectives:
She's the best in the class at English.
They're the fastest team in the race.

The zero article (when we don't use any article)
To refer to something (that is plural or uncountable) when talking about things in general:
France makes very good cheese.
She hates that kind of music.
That shop sells fantastic cakes, sweets and chocolates.

With streets, cities, countries and mountains:
Fifth Avenue, Beijing, India, Mount Fuji

With some places and some modes of transport:
at home, to/at work, at/to school/college/university


We use the present perfect to talk about something that happened before now but we don't say exactly when it happened.

Alice says, ‘She has gone for a break'. The doctor isn't in the room now because she left the room for her break some time before now.
The father says, ‘ He's stopped breathing'. The patient isn't breathing now because he stopped breathing at some unknown time in the past.

If we refer to the time when the doctor left the room or when the patient stopped breathing, then we use the past simple.

She went for her break at midnight.
He stopped breathing 1 minute ago.

The present perfect has two parts – the main verb and the auxiliary verb.

The form - the main verb

He has stopped breathing.
She has gone for her break.

In these examples, the main verbs are ‘to stop' and ‘to go'. We use the past participle of the main verb. Some verbs are regular – you add ‘ed' to the infinitive without ‘to', while others are irregular. You have to learn the past participle e.g.
go – gone take – taken find – found see – seen give – given buy - bought

The auxiliary verb is ‘to have'. When we make the present perfect we use the present simple form of ‘to have':
I/you/we/they have …
he/she/it has…

There are some adverbs of time that are commonly used with the present perfect.

Just – This means it happened recently, not a long time ago
She's just gone for a break.

Never – This means it has not happened, not even once.
I've never given mouth to mouth.

Already – This emphasises that something has happened before now
I have already called the doctor. She is coming.

The adverb goes between the auxiliary verb and the main verb