5.The use of auxilliary, link, notional verbs

lost their original lexical meaning (to be, to get). partly lost their lexical meaning (to remain, to become, to grow, to turn, to look, to seem). preserved their lexical meaning used in the passive voice: to elect, to call, to leave, to keep, to make. Link verbs of being: to be, to feel, to sound, to smell, to taste, to look, to appear, to seem. Link verbs of becoming: to become, to grow, to turn, to get, to make. Link verbs of remaining: to remain, to continue, to keep, to stay.

6.The rules of the sequence of tenses

The sequence of tenses is a dependence of the tense form of the predicate in a subordinate clause on the tense form of the predicate in its principal clause. The rules are as follows: 1) a present (or future) tense in the principal clause may be followed by any tense in the subordinate object clause. 2) a past tense in the principal clause is followed by a past tense in the subordinate object clause. The rules of the sequence of tenses concern subordinate clauses dependent not only on the predicate of the principal clause but also on any part expressed by a verb or verbal: She smiled again, sure that I should come up. In complex sentences containing more than two subordinate clauses the choice of the tense form for each of them depends on the tense form of the clause to which it is subordinated: As far as I can see he did not realize that very soon all would be over. The rules of the sequence of tenses are not observed in the following cases: 1) when the subordinate clause describes the so-called general truth, or something which the speaker thinks to be one. She was very young and - and ignorant of what life really is. 2) when the subordinate clause describes actions referring to the actual present, future, or past time, which usually occurs in dialogues or in newspaper, radio, or TV reports. I did not know he will be here tomorrow. 3) when the predicate verb of the subordinate clause is one of the modal verbs having no past tense forms. She said I must come at once.

Sentences with reported speech are complex sentences with object subordinate clauses, and the rules of the sequence of tenses govern them in the same way as in other sentences of this type. If the verb in the main clause is in the present or in the future, the tense in the subordinate clause doesn't change. If the verb in the main clause is used in the past tense, the verb in the object subordinate clause in indirect speech should also be used in one of the past tenses. "today" is replaced with "(on) that day";"this morning, this afternoon, tonight" are replaced with "that morning, that afternoon, that night";"now" is replaced with "then"; "tomorrow" is replaced with "the following day"; "next week, next month" are replaced with "the following week, the following month";"in a few days" is replaced with "a few days later";"yesterday" is replaced with "the day before";"last week, last month" are replaced with "the week before, the month before";"three days ago, a week ago" are replaced with "three days before, a week before";"here" is replaced with "there".

If a general truth is expressed in the object subordinate clause, the present tense is normally used in the subordinate clause. The teacher said that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.

Statements She said, "I live here." – She said that she lived there. General questions (use the interrogative if / whether) He asked, "Do you know this man?" – He asked me whether I knew that man. Special questions He asked, "What's the matter?" – He asked what the matter was. Commands She said, "Go to your room." – She told me to go to my room. Suggestions He said, "Let's go to the lake." –He suggested going to the lake.