-ed & -ing

I think that most of the confusion about verbs and tenses when learning any language is because different languages have radically different ways of expressing the time when something happened or will happen or might happen and, where one language has a very strict distinction between, say, things that happened a long time ago and are finished and done with and things that started in the recent past and may (or may not) be continuing now, another language may simply have no way of even understanding that distinction. It doesn't mean that one language is less expressive or less developed than another. It's just that they have developed in different ways to express whatever ideas that culture considers important. If it is important to know whether a man is your mother's brother or your father's brother, then your language will have two different words, both of which will be translated as 'uncle' in English (or will need some other qualification if the context and meaning depend on it). The same goes for the expression of time and many other things in verbs. In English, I can say that 'I taught', 'I was teaching', 'I did teach', 'I have taught', 'I have been teaching ...', 'I used to teach', all of which express slightly different things about the fact that I was a teacher in the past (and may or may not still be a teacher). Other languages may have many other fine distinctions which, in English, can only be translated in one way and, conversely, other languages may have no way of easily translating the subtle differences between the English expressions 'I taught', and 'I was teaching' or 'I did teach' and 'I used to teach'.

spasoo, The only reason I included that one was because I saw someone using the wrong form in their writing. I will look into providing information on those verbs when I get around to it. They are all just different tenses of the verb "to have". Perhaps what is needed is a lesson on conjugation of verbs. I will look into it.

Nice. I don't know why I couldn't think of that. I guess I'm getting chemo brain, and I haven't even started chemo yet. That is very interesting (no pun intended)! I learned something else new today!

I'm not sure that this would quite bring things home to a student. Try joking with them that you are boring [them] (or asking them if they think they are boring [you or their friends])! Once they have laughed about that, I suggest that they will more easily understand (and remember) the way that both 'to bore' and 'to interest' are used!

owlings, This is great! I find that I actually understand it better. Were you an English teacher at one point? Your description sounds very teacherly! I think I have used the joking method you describe at one point and I think that was what I was trying to do in my example but didn't use a very good word. Perhaps you can help me out here by looking at some of the other responses to other discussions in this interest area so other potential problems can be addressed. Thanks for your input!

I was never in the position of teaching English (officially, anyway). My family and friends always said that I should have been a teacher but I was never interested in that. After selling books for most of my life, I eventually became bored with that and, finding computers interesting, I took a course in Computer Studies and ended up teaching how to use computers to people who often found them boring and even frightening. My father was a writer and, I think, was responsible for interesting me in language in the first place. It was probably that, and some very good teachers, who fostered my interest in English, which I have never lost. I think I do look at many of the discussions in some of the Interests, such as 'English' and 'Learning English'. I do find that I am somewhat confused by the number of different Interests, all on similar subjects. I think that many people, indeed, would find them confusing. As you might have observed, I found some more interesting usages of the words we have discussed. I was always taught to identify the verb ('doing word') first in a sentence and then to ask 'what does what to whom and how', which helps to identify the subject, object (if there is one), any adjectives and adverbs and adjectival or adverbial clauses. This may not be the modern method but it works for me.