Lesson 5: Tense

Twelve Tenses

The concept of tense involves time and aspect.

Time can be divided into three zones: present, past and future. It is said that time flows, and it flows from instant to instant in one direction from past to present and future. “Now” is the “instant” when the speaker speaks or the writer writes. Any instant of time before the “now” instant is in the past, and any instant of time after the “now” instant is in the future.

The concept of aspect pertains to the action of verbs in terms of factuality, continuity, repetition or completion of action. The three time zones, present, past, and future, coupled with the four classifications of aspects: simple, perfect, continuous, and perfect continuous, yield a total of twelve tenses as follows:

Time-Line, Instant of Time and Interval of Time

To help understand tenses, we use the following diagram to introduce relevant concepts:

(1) Time-Line – The straight line with an arrow head in the figure above directed from left to

right is the time-line. It symbolizes the incessant flow of time from past through

present to future.

(2) Instant of Time – Any point on the time-line, such as a, b, c, d, e, f, etc., represents consecutively different instants of time. The concept of “instant of time” is relevant to the three simple tenses and the three continuous tenses.

(3) Now - The point “d” designated as “now” on the time-line in the diagram above has the

following significance:

(a) It is a precise moment of time, and synonymous with this point in time or this moment in

time.

(b) It varies with the speaker’s reference of time. For instance, it can mean this second, this

minute, this hour, this day, this week, this month, this year, etc.

(c) It marks the instant of time between the past and the future. the instant when the speaker

speaks or the writer writes.

(4) Interval of Time – Interval of time is the intervening time between two instants of time on the

time-line. The concept of “time interval” on the time-line is relevant to the three perfect

tenses. There are three different types of time intervals. Depending on the locations of the

two end points of as follows:

The following is a description of all twelve tenses:

The concept of time and aspect exists in all languages, but different languages handle tenses differently. In Chinese, appropriate time words or adverbs have to be used to denote tenses because Chinese verbs do not conjugate and have only one form.

Verb Elements for Simple Tenses

The verb element of any (A)1 simple present tense sentences is realized by the base form or the s-form. The verb element of (A)3 simple future tense is realized by the verb phrase

· VP = AV_mod + BMV,

in which, the modal auxiliary AV_mod = will is used as the auxiliary verb for simple future tenses and BMV is the acronym for “base form of main verb”. The reason why there are two finite verb forms, (1) base form and (2) s-form, assigned to the simple present tense (A1) is that the verb form must be in agreement with the person and number of the subject. This is referred to as the subject-verb agreement.

The verb elements for the three simple tenses are summarized as follows:

In the following table, we use the intransitive verb “work” to illustrate subject and verb combinations associated with the three simple tenses.

Beside the modal auxiliary verb “will” that is used as the auxiliary verb for all future tenses, there are others modal auxiliary verbs such as can, could, would, may, might, should, etc. All modal auxiliary verbs form verb phrases in the same way as “will” above, i.e., modal auxiliary verb + base form of main verb.

The following sentences are examples of the three simple tenses：

Three Different Scenarios of Future Events

The modal auxiliary verb “will” has been used as an auxiliary verb for future tenses. However, depending upon circumstances, future events may have three scenarios A, B and C. For these three scenarios, four different grammatical form (1), (2), (3) and (4) of verb element can be used.

Verb Elements for Continuous Tenses

The verb element VP = AV_1f + RVP of continuous tenses are realized as follows:

· For present and past continuous tenses, AV_1f = AV_conf = am/are/is/was/were, i.e., the finite continuous tense auxiliary verb “be”, and RVP is the present participle of main verb.

· For the future continuous tense, AV₁ = AV_mod = will, RVP = AV_con (base form be) + present participle of main verb.

In the following table, we use the verb “work” to illustrate the verb phrases for each of the three continuous tenses:

The following sentences are examples and their analyses：

Verb Elements for Perfect Tenses

The verb element VP = AV_1f + RVP of perfect tenses are realized as follows:

· For present and past perfect tenses, AV_1f = AV_perf = have/has/had, and RVP is the past participle of main verb.

· For the future perfect tense, AV₁ = AV_mod = will, RVP = AV_per (base form have) + past participle of main verb.

The following table illustrates the verb elements of the 3 perfect tenses by using the verb “work” as an example:

The following sentences are examples of the three perfect tenses：

Verb Element for Perfect Continuous Tenses

The verb element for present and past perfect continuous tenses consists of

· AV_perf = have/has/had, and

· RVP = been + present participle of main verb.

The verb element for future perfect continuous tense consists of

· AV_mod = will, and

· RVP = AV_perf (have) + AV_connf (been) + present participle of main verb.

Summary

The verb elements for the twelve tenses are summarized below:

N/A means “not applicable”.

In the following table, the verb “give” is used as example:

Modal Auxiliary Verbs and Modal Verb Phrases

Modal auxiliary verbs do not vary with person or number as main verbs do and have only two forms: base form and past tense. For instance:

However, the past tense of modal verbs does not necessarily denote past time as other auxiliary verbs do. They are used to express mood, such as politeness, necessity, suggestion and possibility. For instance:

· Making a polite request:

(1) May I have a cup of tea?

(2) Could I borrow your pen?

(3) Could we invite him to the party?

(4) Would you please let me through?

(5) Would you mind if I did not go?

· Expressing possibility and necessity or making a suggestion:

(c) 2019 Augustine C. Chen