390 The Loom of Langwzge

When Italians or Frenchmen use ESSERE or fiTRE to express
perfected action (i e. with the past participle of a reflexive verb or
a verb of motion) the participle takes a gender-number terminal
appropriate to the subject, e.g.:

?homme est verm lafemme est venue

the man came the woman came

les hommes se sont suicides les femmes se sont

the men committed suicide the women committed suicide

When coupled with AVERE the Italian past participle (masc. sing
form) is invariant The same is true of the French past participle when
conjugated with AVOIR

Grammar books often give the' rules, (a) it is invariant when the object
follows the verb, (b) it takes the terminal appropriate to the number and
gender of the object if the latter precedes the verb, e g fai recu une carte
(I have received a card) and la carte quefai recue (the card which I have

received)

In many common expressions our verb to be is not equivalent to
ŁTRE or ESSERE m French or Italian., nor as it equivalent to the
Spanish-Portuguese pan* SER and ESTAR The French for to be nght,
wrong, afraid., hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, sleepy, is avoir raison, avoir
torty avoir peur, avoir chaud, avoir froid, avoir faim, avoir mf9 avoir
sommeil In the Spanish equivalents tener takes the place of the
French avoir and English be tener razdn, no tener razdn, tener miedo,
tener color, tener frio, tener hanibre, tener sed, tener sueno When they
comment on the weather, Spanish and French people use verbs
equivalent to the L&tmfacere (French faire, Spanish hacer) which meant
to do or to make This usage is traceable to Vulgar Latin, e g .

it if cold it is fresh it « hot it is windy it is fine (ueather) it it daylight
il fait froid il fait frais il fait chaud il fait du vent il fait beau (temps) il fait jour
hacefrfo hace fresco hace calor hace viento hace buen tiempo hace luz

USE OF TTENSES
Anglo-Amencan3 like the Teutonic languages, has only two simple
tenses, present (e g. 7 have) and past (e g, / had). Otherwise, we indicate
time or aspect by particles, adverbial expressions, or compound tenses