"I was photographed naked on a cushion very early in life, an insane, toothless smile slitting my face and pleats of fat overlapping me like an ill-fitting overcoat. Later, at the age of two, I was photographed again. This time in a lace dress, leaning against a garden roller and laughing hysterically. If these photographs can be found they will adorn this book." Thus begins the life story of one of the most celebrated characters in British theatrical history, in the first of Coward's autobiographies, first published in 1937. Displaying an early dedication to the theatre, Present Indicative hints at the success that would come to Coward as actor, playwright, novelist and performer. Each line is punctuated with his trademark effervescent wit, making this book a comic tour de force in it's own right, as well as a "must read" for anyone with an interest in the British stage. "He is simply a phenomenon, and one that is unlikely to occur ever again in theatre history" Terence Rattigan

Complete Handbook of Spanish Verbs: A Classic Reference is an invaluable reference for students, libraries, and anyone who communicates in Spanish. It provides • a quick and easy way to find the correct conjugation in all forms and tenses of the more than 4,500 Spanish verbs listed, verbs chosen as illustration of verbal changes and/or irregularities and for their frequency of usage, • the more than 5,500 irregular forms of those verbs identifying their infinitive, • a model for the full conjugation in all forms and tenses of every Spanish verb, including those not listed here, according to its category, • special charts to aid in understanding and mastering the Spanish verbal system. The book is organized in three parts. Section I: a list of more than 4,500 Spanish infinitives with one or more English equivalents and their more than 5,500 irregular forms to facilitate finding their infinitives. Each infinitive is followed by a reference number that indicates the chart giving its conjugation or that of the model verb whose pattern the infinitive follows. Sections II through X: a series of charts with • sample English translation possibilities for the various tenses and forms of Spanish verbs, • the formation, by stem and ending, of all regular verbal forms, • model verbs, each showing the full conjugation of the model verb and accompanied by a list, “Verbs of this Category,” with all the verbs in this book that follow that model. These include regular verbs, orthographic/spelling changing verbs, radical/stem changing verbs, verbs with accent shift, irregular verbs, and defective verbs. The table of contents provides, at a glance, a detailed outline of the various categories and subdivisions in these sections. Section XI: an alphabetical listing of the English translations given in the book for the Spanish infinitives found in the list at the beginning, in Section I. It must be noted that this is not intended to be a dictionary of English verbs. English verbs were not sought and then defined, rather the English equivalents given for the Spanish verbs were merely duplicated here, in alphabetical order in English.

French Verbs and Idioms offers an overview of essential grammatical terms (such as conjugation, mood, elision, gender, agreement, etc.) and categorizes the verbs. Extensive lists of useful idioms, proverbs, and sayings containing the verbs, tenses, and moods discussed fill the gaps in the knowledge of the advanced learner. Explanations are in English and all verbs, examples, idioms, proverbs, and sayings are translated into English for comparison purposes and comprehension.

A Stanford University Press classic.

This is the first edited volume that tackles the acquisition of the present (tense, aspect, temporality), an under-researched area, particularly compared to the acquisition of past temporality. The first two chapters focus on the L1 acquisition of English from the perspective of the Aspect hypothesis and the Verb-Island hypothesis Wang & Shirai) and the L1 acquisition of French from the perspective of the zero-tense hypothesis (Demirdache & Lungu). The remaining chapters tackle the L2 acquisition of English (Liszka, Al-Thubaiti, Vraciu), French (Ayoun, Saillard), Spanish (Gabriele et al.), Russian (Martelle) and Japanese (Shirai & Li) by learners of different L1s (French, English, Arabic, Chinese and Korean), testing various semantic and syntactic hypotheses. The last chapter presents a summary of the findings, and offers a few conclusions as well as broad directions for future research.

This is a collection of three decades of articles by the linguist Joan Bybee. Her articles argue for the importance of frequency of use as a factor in the analysis and explanation of language structure.