Tense - Verbs & Verbals - Parts Of Speech-ESL/Learn English Grammar

TENSE

[Sidenote: _Definition._]


233. _Tense_ means _time_. The tense of a verb is the form or use
indicating the time of an action or being.


[Sidenote: _Tenses in English._]


Old English had only two tenses,--the present tense, 
which represented present and future time; and the past tense. 
We still use the present for the future in such expressions as,
"I _go_ away to-morrow;" 
"If he_comes_, tell him to wait."


But English of the present day not only has a tense for each of the
natural time divisions,--present, past, and future,--but has other
tenses to correspond with those of highly inflected languages, 
such as Latin and Greek.


The distinct inflections are found only in the present and past
tenses, however: the others are compounds of verbal forms with
various helping verbs, called auxiliaries; such as _be_, _have_,
_shall_, _will_.


[Sidenote: _The tenses in detail._]


234. Action or being may be represented as occurring in present,
past, or future time, by means of the present, the past, and the
future tense. It may also be represented as _finished_ in present or
past or future time by means of the present perfect, past perfect, and
future perfect tenses.


Not only is this so: there are what are called definite forms of
these tenses, showing more exactly the time of the action or being.
These make the English speech even more exact than other languages, 
as will be shown later on, in the conjugations.