Claudia Parra B. Business Communication Skills School of Business Administration Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso 2003

2 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Verbs  Verbs describe actions – what has happened, what is happening, or what will or might happen – or a condition  Transitive verbs take an object  Intransitive verbs do not take an object  Verbs must always agree with their subjects

3 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Verbs, with the addition of auxiliary verbs, sometimes express  Tense (do, did, will,)  Mood  Voice  Verbs can be modified (described) by adverbs

4 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Transitive and Intransitive Verbs  Verbs can be divided into two categories, transitive and intransitive.  Transitive verbs are followed by direct objects.  Intransitive verbs do not have a direct object.  One requires and object and the other cannot take an object: raise/rise.

5 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs Transitive Verbs ( Verbs which do not have an object) increase rise go up decrease- decline go down - drop fall Intransitive Verbs ( Verbs which have an object) increase raise decrease reduce drop

6 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs Transitive Verbs ( Verbs which do not have an object) 1.The population of the world is increasing. 2.The prices of electric goods have fallen. Intransitive Verbs ( Verbs which have an object) 1.The government has increased income tax. 2.We have reduced our prices by 10%

7 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Simple Present Tense  Use the simple present tense to express facts, states of being, or actions that are occurring or that occur regularly.  As more companies enter the market, competition increases.  Our company raises salaries once every year.

8 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Simple Present Tense  The simple present tense can also express future actions that are scheduled to occur.  The spring term begins in January next year.  The next flight to Tokyo leaves tomorrow al 6:00 am.

9 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Simple Past Tense  Use the simple past tense to express actions completed at a specific time in the past. To form the past tense add the ending –ed to the base form of the regular verb.  US and Chilean officials signed the first Free Trade Treaty between the United States and a South American country, on June 6,  Goods trade between the United States and Chile in 2002 amounted to 6.4 billion dollars..

10 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Simple Future Tense  Use the future tense to indicate action that will occur at some point after the present. You can express future tense by using a verb in the simple present with a future adverb, by using the auxiliary will, or by using the expression is going to or are going to.

11 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Simple Future Tense  Once the agreement comes into effect, we shall develope a stronger trade relashionship with USA.  The agreement with Chile will slash tax barrieres, protect investors, and ensure the competitiviness of American companies in the global market.

12 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Present Perfect Tense 1.Actions which started in the past and are still continuing  The present perfect is often used for an action which started at some time in the past, and are still continuing now. Often, the words for (with a length of time) and since (with a starting time) are used along with the present perfect.  He has lived in Canada for five years.  (He started living in Canada five years ago, and he's still living there now.)  She has worked at the University since  (She started working at the University in 1994, and she's still working there now.)

13 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Present Perfect Tense  To form the present perfect, use the present tense form of the auxiliary have and the past participle of the main verb. The present perfect is commonly used with the following adverbs: already, always, ever, just, lately, never, recently, since, still, and yet.

14 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Present Perfect Tense  The issuing bank has released the documents of credit to the importer  After six rounds of negotiations, our workers still haven’t gotten to a final agreement.

15 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Past Perfect Tense  Use the past perfect tense to express states or actions that began and came to an end before a specified point in the past. To form the past perfect, use the past tense form of the auxiliary have and the past participle of the main verb.

16 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Past Perfect Tense:  The negotiators realized another meeting would be necessary, because they had not reached an agreement.  When I left the office, the building was empty, because everyone had gone home.

17 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Future Perfect Tense  Use the future perfect tense to express states or actions that will have come to an end before a specific point in the future. To form the future perfect, use the auxiliaries will have and the past participle of the main verb.  By the end of the semester, the technical  interest group will have completed its report.

18 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Progressive Form  Use the progressive form (sometimes called the continuous form) in conjunction with any verb (present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, future perfect) to express an action that is ongoing with respect to a point in time or another action.  To make the progressive form, use a form of the auxiliary verb be and the present participle of the main verb.

19 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Progressive Form  The Internet is revolutionizing the way we communicate.  Among the younger generation, letter writing was disappearing even before the Internet.  Letter writing will be disappearing even more rapidly in the next ten years.

20 Business English.School of Business Administration Pntificia Universidad Catòlica de Valparaìso Verbs  Progressive Form  Do not use the progressive form with states of facts; use the simple present tense or simple past tense instead.  Some verbs that commonly describe such states are appear, appreciate, be, believe, belong, care, compromise, consider, contain, cost, desire, dislike, doubt, fear, forget, have, hear, love, look, resemble, think, want.