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    Tenses

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    Prabha Karuppuchamy
    Tenses are grammatical categories that indicate when an action or event occurs. There are three main tenses in English - past, present, and future. Each tense can be further divided into simple and complex forms. For example, the present tense has simple present ("I sing"), present perfect ("I have sung"), present continuous ("I am singing"), and present perfect continuous ("I have been singing") forms. In total there are 24 tenses in English when considering both active and passive voices. Tenses are deictic, meaning their meaning depends on the context and time of an utterance.

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    Tenses

    Uploaded by

    Prabha Karuppuchamy
    97 views4 pages
    Tenses are grammatical categories that indicate when an action or event occurs. There are three main tenses in English - past, present, and future. Each tense can be further divided into simple and complex forms. For example, the present tense has simple present ("I sing"), present perfect ("I have sung"), present continuous ("I am singing"), and present perfect continuous ("I have been singing") forms. In total there are 24 tenses in English when considering both active and passive voices. Tenses are deictic, meaning their meaning depends on the context and time of an utterance.

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    basic grammar

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    Tenses are grammatical categories that indicate when an action or event occurs. There are three main tenses in English - past, present, and future. Each tense can be further divided into simple and complex forms. For example, the present tense has simple present ("I sing"), present perfect ("I have sung"), present continuous ("I am singing"), and present perfect continuous ("I have been singing") forms. In total there are 24 tenses in English when considering both active and passive voices. Tenses are deictic, meaning their meaning depends on the context and time of an utterance.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    97 views4 pages

    Tenses

    Uploaded by

    Prabha Karuppuchamy
    Tenses are grammatical categories that indicate when an action or event occurs. There are three main tenses in English - past, present, and future. Each tense can be further divided into simple and complex forms. For example, the present tense has simple present ("I sing"), present perfect ("I have sung"), present continuous ("I am singing"), and present perfect continuous ("I have been singing") forms. In total there are 24 tenses in English when considering both active and passive voices. Tenses are deictic, meaning their meaning depends on the context and time of an utterance.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    Tenses

    A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes
    place. In strict terms Tense is a form of a verb used to indicate the time, and sometimes the state of an
    action or event. A Tense in this way become a method that to refer to Time whether it is Past, Present
    or Future. Apart from English many languages also use tenses to talk about time but some dont have any
    tenses. They use different methods to indicate time. The number of tenses in any language may be
    disputed as the term Tense is often used to represent any combination of tense proper, aspect, and
    mood. In many texts the term Tense may erroneously indicate qualities of uncertainty, frequency,
    completion, duration or possibility.
    Common Tenses or Basic Tenses
    Tenses in English Language are broadly classified as:
    1. Present Tense A verb that refers to present time is said to be in Present Tense. Present Tense is
    also referred as Simple Present or Present Simple.
    I sing a song.
    He works.
    In the above examples the verbs in bold is said to be in Present Tense.
    2. Past Tense A verb that refers to past time is said to be in Past Tense. It is also referred as Simple
    Past or Past Simple
    I sang a song.
    He worked.
    In the above examples the verbs in bold is said to be in Past Tense.
    3. Future Tense A verb that refers to Future time is said to be in Future Tense. It is also referred as
    Simple Future or Future Simple
    I shall sing a song.
    He will work.
    In the above examples the verbs in bold is said to be in Future Tense.
    Since the Tense of a verb not only shows the time of an action but also the state of an action thus these
    Tenses can be further classified into four parts each as given below:-
    1. Simple Tense Also known as Indefinite Tense
    2. Perfect Tense Also referred as Simple Perfect, Perfect Tense (simple form)
    3. Continuous Tense Also referred as Progressive Tense
    4. Perfect Continuous Tense Also referred as Perfect Progressive
    For Past and Present, there are 2 simple tenses + 6 complex tenses (using auxiliary verbs). To these, we
    can add 4 "modal tenses" for the future (using modal auxiliary verbs will/shall). This makes a total of 12
    tenses in the active voice. Another 12 tenses are available in the Passive Voice. That totals to 24
    Tenses.
    24 Tenses PAST PRESENT FUTURE
    ACTIVE
    simple
    tenses
    past present future
    complex
    tenses
    formed with
    auxiliary
    verbs
    past perfect present perfect future perfect
    past continuous present continuous future continuous
    past perfect
    continuous
    present perfect
    continuous
    future perfect
    continuous
    PASSIVE
    past present future
    past perfect present perfect future perfect
    past continuous present continuous future continuous
    past perfect
    continuous
    present perfect
    continuous
    future perfect
    continuous
    Tenses are deictic in the sense that the time referred by the Tenses cannot be ascertained without
    context. The core of deixis may either be the time or moment of discourse - An absolute Tense- or
    moment under discussion- A relative Tense.
    Absolute tense indicates when the time of assertion, time of completion, or time of evaluation occurs
    relative to the time of utterance itself. Where as in Relative tense, the tense is relative to a given event.
    For Ex. If PM told his PA that "I will go to the Press Conference." but doesn't turn up, then the PA would
    report his words as "PM said that he would come." It is because the event took place in the past, all verbs
    must be in the past tense.
    The phrase "PM said that he will come" means something different: That the time of his expected arrival
    is in the absolute future, later than the time of reporting it.
    Tenses Chart
    Present Tense Example
    Simple Present Tense I do my work regularly.
    Present Perfect Tense I have done my work regularly.
    Present Continuous Tense I am doing my work regularly.
    Present Perfect Continuous Tense I have been doing my working regularly since morning.

    Past Tense Example
    Simple Past Tense I did my work regularly.
    Past Perfect Tense I had done my work regularly.
    Past Continuous Tense I was doing my work regularly.
    Past Perfect Continuous Tense I had been doing my work regularly since morning.

    Future Tense Example
    Simple Future Tense I shall do my work regularly.
    Future Perfect Tense I shall have done my work regularly.
    Future Continuous Tense I shall be doing my work regularly.
    Future Perfect Continuous Tense I shall have been doing my work regularly since morning.

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