"Tense mood & voice"

• Simple Present: eternal states/frequent events
• Present Progressive: action happening right now/don't use for general definition/don't use to indicate future action
• Verbs that expresses general states do not normally take progressive form
•  Keep all verb tenses consistent, unless the meaning clearly dictates otherwise
• Use past progressive to describe a background event, while using simple past to describe a more important event in the foreground: She was playing with her friends when the babysitter arrived.
• Present perfect tense is used for actions that started in the past but continue into the present
• Present Perfect = have/has + past participle
• Present Perfect: Continued action or Continued effect
• Don't use present perfect for specific, completed time periods
• If two actions in a sentence occurred at different times in the past, we often use the Past Perfect tense for the earlier action and Simple Past for the later action
• Past Perfect = had + past participle
• A sequence of verb with the same subject does not require PAST perfect
• Clauses linked by and or but do not require the PAST Perfect as a general rule
• The use of words such as before and after indicate the sequence of events clearly and emphatically enough to make the use of Past Perfect unnecessary
• Do not use Perfect Tenses when Simple Tenses will do
• Reporting
• Simple Present becomes Simple Past
• Simple Past becomes Past Perfect
• Simple Future becomes Conditional Tense (would+base form of verb)
• The usual sequences in reporting are: Present + Future / Past + Conditional
• Moods
• Indicative Mood express facts
• Imperative Mood express command
• Subjunctive Mood
• Hypothetical Subjunctive: Unlikely or unreal condition (usually after if or similar word)
• this form occurs after if, as if, as though
• The basic form of the Hypothetical Subjunctive is equivalent to the simple past of every verb, with one exception
• exception: for the verb to be, the form were is always used
• IF-THEN Constructions
• no uncertainty- if present, then present - equivalent to whenever
• some uncertainty - if present, then can/may
• case in future with no uncertainty - if present, then future
• unlikely case (in the future) - if hypothetical subjunctive, then conditional(would) - could can be used to indicate improbability as well
• case that never happened (in the past) - if past perfect, then conditional perfect
• The helping verbs would and should should never go in the if part of the sentence
• Command Subjunctive: Proposals, desires, and requests formed with certain verbs and the word that. It is used with certain Bossy Verbs, such as require/propose.
• The verb form used is known as Bare Form: the infinitive (to be, to disband) without the to. The bare form is like the simple present with 2 exceptions
• there is no s on the end for 3rd person singular
• to be is always be not is, are, or am
• Subjunctive construction: Bossy Verb+THAT+subject+Command Subjunctive - We propose that the school board disband
• Bossy Verb want, cannot use Command Subjunctive, but rather an infinitive (to + the bare form)- The president wants her to go to the retreat
• Common verbs that take only the command subjunctive: demand, dictate, insist, mandate, propose, recommend, request, stipulate, suggest
• Verbs that take only the infinitives: advise, allow, forbid, persuade, want
• Verbs that take either the command subjunctive or the infinitive: ask, beg, intend, order, prefer, urge, require
• prohibit takes other construction altogether: The agency prohibited Gary from working on weekends
• command subjunctive can also be used with nouns derived from Bossy Verbs, such as a demand/ a request
• A command subjunctive is possible with It is Y, in which Y is an adjective, such as essential, that conveys urgency(advisable, crucial, desirable, fitting, imperative, important, mandatory, necessary, preferable, urgent and vital - infinitives can also be used in these constructions)
• avoid command subjunctive after whether
• Active and Passive Voice 
• In active voice, the subject performs the action and in passive voice, the subject has an action performed on it by someone/ something else
• Passive voice is formed with a form of the verb to be, followed by the past participle.
• Whoever actually performs the action may follow the verb headed by the preposition by
•  Use by for the actual doers, use through/ because of when you want to describe any instrument or means, which might be an awkward subject in active voice
• Only Transitive verbs(that take direct objects) can be written in passive voice