Penggunaan at, on, dan in - Prepositions

Cara Menggunakan at on in?

Prepositions for Time, Place, and Introducing Objects

One point in time

On is used with days:

• I will see you on Monday.
• The week begins on Sunday.

At is used with noon, night, midnight, and with the time of day:

• My plane leaves at noon.
• The movie starts at 6 p.m.

In is used with other parts of the day, with months, with years, with seasons:

• He likes to read in the afternoon.
• The days are long in August.
• The book was published in 1999.
• The flowers will bloom in spring.

Extended time

To express extended time, English uses the following prepositions: since, for, by, from—to, from-until, during,(with)in

• She has been gone since yesterday. (She left yesterday and has not returned.)
• I'm going to Paris for two weeks. (I will spend two weeks there.)
• The movie showed from August to October. (Beginning in August and ending in October.)
• The decorations were up from spring until fall. (Beginning in spring and ending in fall.)
• I watch TV during the evening. (For some period of time in the evening.)
• We must finish the project within a year. (No longer than a year.)

Place

To express notions of place, English uses the following prepositions: to talk about the point itself: in, to express something contained: inside, to talk about the surface: on, to talk about a general vicinity, at.

• There is a wasp in the room.
• Put the present inside the box.
• I left your keys on the table.
• She was waiting at the corner.

Higher than a point

To express notions of an object being higher than a point, English uses the following prepositions: over, above.

• He threw the ball over the roof.
• Hang that picture above the couch.

Lower than a point

To express notions of an object being lower than a point, English uses the following prepositions: under, underneath, beneath, below.

• The rabbit burrowed under the ground.
• The child hid underneath the blanket.
• We relaxed in the shade beneath the branches.
• The valley is below sea-level.

Close to a point

To express notions of an object being close to a point, English uses the following prepositions: near, by, next to, between, among, opposite.

• She lives near the school.
• There is an ice cream shop by the store.
• An oak tree grows next to my house
• The house is between Elm Street and Maple Street.
• I found my pen lying among the books.
• The bathroom is opposite that room.

To introduce objects of verbs

English uses the following prepositions to introduce objects of the following verbs.

At: glance, laugh, look, rejoice, smile, stare

• She glanced at her reflection.
  (exception with mirror: She glanced in the mirror.)
• You didn't laugh at his joke.
• I'm looking at the computer monitor.
• We rejoiced at his safe rescue.
• That pretty girl smiled at you.
• Stop staring at me.

Of: approve, consist, smell

• I don't approve of his speech.
• My contribution to the article consists of many pages.
• He came home smelling of alcohol.

Of (or about): dream, think

• I dream of finishing college in four years.
• Can you think of a number between one and ten?
• I am thinking about this problem.

For: call, hope, look, wait, watch, wish

• Did someone call for a taxi?
• He hopes for a raise in salary next year.
• I'm looking for my keys.
• We'll wait for her here.
• You go buy the tickets and I'll watch for the train.
• If you wish for an "A" in this class, you must work hard.

Contributors:Chris Berry, Allen Brizee, Elizabeth Angeli.
Summary:

Source

Perbedaan Simple Past dan Present Perfect

CalifJim:
There is more than one difference between the simple past and the present perfect. The simplest difference is the grammatical difference that the simple past can be used with expressions which signify a definite, particular time in the past. 

I wrote a letter yesterday. 
I wrote a letter at 7 o'clock. 
I wrote a letter last Monday. 
I wrote a letter several weeks ago. 

The present perfect cannot be used with such expressions. (After all, it IS a "present" tense!) 

I have written a letter yesterday. (wrong!) 
I have written a letter at 7 o'clock. (wrong!) 
I have written a letter last Monday. (wrong!) 
I have written a letter several weeks ago. (wrong!) 

Being a "present" tense, the present perfect can be used with "now": 

I have now written a letter. 

Another difference is the way the two tenses "cut through time". Imagine time as a very, very long loaf of bread extending into infinity from where you are located. As you look into the distance at this long loaf of bread, let's say that you are looking into the past. The loaf ends at your feet and this is the present moment. 

When the simple past tense is used to report an event, it "cuts a slice out of time". To do this, somewhere along the bread loaf ( time ) you make two cuts, fairly close together. The cuts represent the beginning and the end of the event or action. Suppose you wrote a letter. It took, let's say, an hour. Then the thickness of the bread slice represents one hour of writing. If that hour took place this morning, the slice is located quite close to you: "I wrote a letter this morning". If that hour took place yesterday, the slice is located farther from you: "I wrote a letter yesterday." If it took only 15 minutes to write the letter, the bread slice is much thinner, but again the slice may be closer to or farther from the present (e.g., this morning or yesterday). 

When the present perfect tense is used to report an event, the "slicing" is different, because you don't know exactly where the slice is located along the loaf. If you say "I have written a letter", you know there were two cuts in the loaf to make the slice, but you don't know where. You only know that if you examine the loaf, you will discover a slice representing the letter writing somewhere along the loaf. Another feature of the present perfect is that you can limit how far back in time - how far back along the loaf - you want to go in your search. This is done with a "since" clause. In the sentence "Since Monday, I have written a letter", we know that the slice representing the letter writing will be found between the distance from us which represents Monday and the present moment (at our feet). But we still don't know exactly where within that more limited part of the loaf we will find the slice. 

Another way to look at it is that the simple past "singularizes", "individuates", or "particularizes" an action by focusing on a specific time. Whether the specific time is mentioned or not, the simple past, when used to report an event, always implies "at a certain time". In fact, it is this implication that particularizes the event. Even if the implication is "when it happened", the implication is still there. "Did you see that?" implies "Did you see that when it happened?" Another example: "Did you notice that John got nervous when we mentioned the missing cash?" The noticing we are referring to is the noticing of that specific instance of nervousness that occurred at the time we mentioned the missing cash. 

The present perfect, however, does not "singularize", "individuate" or "particularize" an action. With the present perfect, we don't even know exactly when the action happened! What is more important with the present perfect is that the action now has some felt effect on the present. When you say "I have written a letter", in a way you are pointing to that letter and saying, "And here it is. Here is the letter I have written" -- even though the pointing and saying may be only a mental pointing and saying! The important thing is having (hence the auxiliary "have") the letter now. 

Another way to look at the present perfect is that it is the "diary tense". It is as if everyone has an imaginary diary where his life experiences are written. With "I have written a letter" we are saying that we will find in your "diary" today, - if we look now - the notation: "Letter - written!" on some page of the "diary", but we don't know or don't care which page that might be. 

Becoming adept at the use of the simple past and the present perfect takes lots of practice. Don't be too disappointed if you find it difficult at first. Emotion: smile

Original Source:
http://www.englishforums.com/English/SimplePastPresentPerfect/krbh/post.htm

Verbs - What a verb is?

Verbs

1.     Formation of the Verb-Word (morphologically)

Verbs are the words that show the action in the sentences. Verbs can be divided into various kinds depending upon how they are formed. Grammarians would call this a morphological division.

·         Regular verbs

·         Irregular verbs

·         Compound verbs

·         Phrasal verbs

·         Regular verbs examples:

V¹             V²                    V³

Abase        abased             abased

Adjust       adjusted           adjusted

Admit        admitted          admitted

Advertise   advertised        advertised

Capture    captured          captured

·         Irregular verbs examples:

V¹             V²                    V³

Go                        went                 gone

Sleep         slept                 slept

See            saw                  seen

Drink        drank               drunk

Do                        did                   done

·         Compound Verbs

A compound verb is a combination of two verbs:

Examples:

The point that Joan was trying to make was lost on her audience.

Our boss has been talking for a very long time.

·         Phrasal Verbs

The Oxford English Grammar distinguishes seven types of prepositional or phrasal verbs in English:

§  Intransitive phrasal verbs (give in)

§  Transitive phrasal verbs (find out )

§  Mono transitive prepositional verbs (look after) 

§  Doubly transitive prepositional verbs (blame on )

§  Copular prepositional verbs. (serve as)

§  Mono transitive phrasal-prepositional verbs (look up to)

§  Doubly transitive phrasal-prepositional verbs (put down to )

2.     The Verb's Role in a Sentence (syntactically)

Verbs can be divided according to the job they do in a sentence. The grammar-expert's way of saying this is that we can divide verbs syntactically.

These are the divisions and sub-divisions according to syntax:

• Finite verbs
• Transitive verbs
• Intransitive verbs
• Linking Verbs
• Non-finite verbs (verbal)
• Infinitives
• Gerunds
• Participles
• Helping verbs (auxiliaries)
• Primary auxiliaries
• Modal auxiliaries

·         Finite verbs

-          Transitive verbs

The transitive verb has two voices:  active and passive.

Active: John drives a car

Passive: A car is driven by John

-          Intransitive verbs

Examples:

To sit – He sits in the front row.

To rise – The sun rises in the East.

To lie – He lays in bed all day.

-          Linking verbs

The linking verb is used to connect the subject with two kinds of complements:

1) An adjective that describes the subject;

She is beautiful

I feel bad

2) A noun or noun equivalent that means the same as the subject

John is a student

He became a pilot

·         Non-finite verbs (verbal)

-          Infinitive

Examples of infinitive forms:

Present infinitive                         : to work, to do

Present Continuous infinitive      : to be working, to be doing

Perfect infinitive                          : to have worked, to have done

Perfect continuous infinitive       : to have been working, to have been doing

Present infinitive passive             : to be done

Perfect infinitive passive             : to have been done

-          Gerund

Gerund-

As subject of a sentence: Dancing bored him

As complement of a verb: Her hobby is painting

After preposition: He was accused of smuggling

After certain verbs: I admitted taking the money

In noun compounds: It is a good diving board

-          Participles

Participles use to form the continuous tense.

The infinitive + ing        Examples: working, loving, sitting

She is working in the office

He is sitting on the table

·         Helping verbs (auxiliaries)

-          Primary auxiliaries

Primary Auxiliaries

The verbs ‘be’, ‘do’, ‘have’ used in sentences are categorized as Primary Auxiliaries

Examples:

John is sleeping in his room. (to be verb - acting as main verb)

David, have you seen Alan today? (have verb - helping the main verb 'see')

I was working out when you called me yesterday. (to do verb- acting as main verb)

I am sure that Susan does not know anything about this trick. (to be verb (am)-- acting as main verb in that clause -- to do verb (does)-- helping the primary verb 'know')

-          Modal auxiliaries

The verbs ‘can’, ‘could’, ‘will’, ‘shall’, ‘would’, ‘may’, ‘might’, ‘must’, and ‘should’ are Modal Auxiliaries or modals.

I can do this job. 

We must attend the party. 

You should have helped John in Maths. 

May I come in, Sir? 

Mr. Thomas will attend the meeting shortly. 

 

3.     Verbs According to Meaning

This division of verbs according to meaning explains what a verb is. We may call this division of verbs as semantic classification.

• action words (action verbs)
• being
• having

Sources:

http://www.english-language-grammar-guide.com/types-of-verbs.html

Some pages of http://www.wikipedia.org

Thomson, A.J – Martinet, A.V, A Practical English Grammar, Oxford University Press