0
Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Present Tense of beat

What is the present tense of beat huh??\
  

Top answer

Today I beat the drum. Yesterday I beat the drum. I have beat the drum every day.

— Avangi

  • Today I beat the drum.
  • Yesterday I beat the drum.
  • I have beat the drum every day.
  • The dictionary should show present, past, and past participle as identical.
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

13 Answers
0
Today I beat the drum.

Yesterday I beat the drum.

I have beat the drum every day.

The dictionary should show present, past, and past participle as identical.
0
0
Really? I would have said it's beat (present), beat (past), and beaten (past participle). "I have beat" sounds really wrong to my ear.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beat shows both "beaten" and "beat" for the past participle.
0
0
Thanks for the correction, khoff. I should have included that option. Emotion: embarrassed

My present tense example was not the best
0
0
AvangiHow about an imperative sentence?
Beat the drum louder!
That's clearly present tense.
Oops! It's clearly present time, but not present tense! Imperatives have no tense. They are a mood. The difference is clear for the verb be.

Present tense: am, is, are He is ready. They are ready.

Imperative: be
0
0
Holy Mackerel!

Thanks, Jim!

I never thought about it before, but you're obviously right on!Emotion: nodding

Hmmm, but
0
0
Hi CJ,

"Imperatives have no tense. They are a mood."

Does a mood exclude a grammatical tense? Or, is this particular mood, the imperative, tenseless?
0
0
Avangiyou wouldn't say that the verb in an imperative sentence is a mood, would you?
No. The verb isn't a mood. The verb is ina mood - hopefully in a good mood.
0
0
Anonymous"Imperatives have no tense. They are a mood."

Does a mood exclude a grammatical tense? Or, is this particular mood, the imperative, tenseless?
As was already noted above, this was clumsily worded. It's not a matter of imperatives being a mood. It's that any verb may be presented in imperative mood, i.e., in its "command form". This form i
0
0
Imperative sentences use the base form of the verb / bare infinitive. -- I thought the practice was to consider that the imperative had an understood subject 'you'? Which would make it present tense second person...including the future form? Or 'non-past? – Wash the dishes now! Wash the dishes tomorrow! (X) Wash the dishes yesterday!
0
0
Hi, MrM,

CJ won me over on this one with his "be" example.

If I say, "[You] be brave," "be" is definitely not a finite verb, hence, in a sense, no tense.

Hey, does that rhyme?

Perhaps it is finite. I don't really know. But it's surely not inflected.

Regards, - A.

Edit.

I'm having second thoughts. We use "be" i
0

Related Questions