Tenses in English Language

Meaning of tense

The word tense can be defined in different ways including the following;

Tense is a set of forms taken by a verb to indicate the time of action in relation to the time of speaking.

Example Asha was eating food yesterday (the tense of this sentence is past continuous) because the action of eating was done in the past that is yesterday.

 

Or tense is the grammatical device which shows when the action was done, is done or will be done.

Or tense is the correspondence between the form of the verb and the concept of time.

 

What is time?

Time is the universal non linguistics term expressed in the continuation, past, present and future. In tenses time is very important because it helps to know the time when the action was done, is done or will be done.

TYPES OF TENSES

In English language there are three major types or kinds of tense, which are

a)      Past tense      

b)      b)Present tense                    

c)       c) Future tense

 

a)      Present tense

Present tense is the tense that expresses the action or state in the present time.

Present tense can be categorized into the following categories

i)                    Simple present tense

ii)                  Present continuous tense

iii)                Present perfect tense

iv)                Present perfect continuous tense

 

i)                    Simple present tense

Simple present tense is the tense that talks or expresses about actions which happens regularly to continually

In English language simple present tense is formed in two ways, which are

a)      Is formed by the base form the verb ( eg. Eat) and and the affixes s/es/ies when used with the subject in third person singular (he/she/it) and a name of a person (in singular form).

Example

·         She eats ugali every day.

·         Anna goes at the market everyday.

·         She works very hard.

·         They drink water every day in the evening

Summary S(he/she/it/asha) + verb + ies/es/s and other complement of the sentence.

b)      Also, simple present tense is formed by the base form of the verb only, that’s without adding s/es/ies when used with the subject in third person plural, second person singular and plural, first person in singular and plural and names of people ( I/we/they/you/Asha and Juma).

Summary S(I/we/you/they/Anna and Juma) + verb in the base form plus the other complement of the sentence.

Example

·         Students go to school on foot.

·         We catch things by our hands.

·         They dance very nice.

NOTE:

Therefore in short, simple present tense is formed by the base form of the verb only or by adding –s/-ies/es to the verb in base form depending on the subject.

 

More examples on simple present tense

      She understands English.

      She enjoys playing piano.

      They try very hard.

      My son lives in London.

      My teacher sometimes forgets his keys.

      The students wear their uniforms.

      They make the beds.

      It usually rains everyday here.

 

ii)                  Present continuous tense

Present continuous tense describes the actions which are happening now, that’s at the moment or time of speaking and may continue in the future.

In English language the present continuous tense is formed in the following ways

Ø  The main verb should be in present participle form that’s in –ing form or Gerund.

Ø  But the verb to be (is/am/are) should be added before the main verb which is in the -ing form.

Summary

S + verb to be (is/are/am) depending on the verb and the other parts of the sentence.

NOTE

ü  When the subject is one among the following (they/names of people/we/you) the auxiliary verb to be used is are.

ü  When the subject is I the auxiliary verb to be used is am.

ü  When the subject is among the following (he/she/it/ a name of a person) the auxiliary verb to be used is is.

Gerung (ing form) in English language is formed by adding -ing to the verb which is in base form, example

      Cook- cooking

      Take –taking

      Like-liking

 

Verbs which end with the vowel “e”, “e” is left /deleted before adding ing.

Examples

      Come-coming

      Abuse-abusing

      Bite-biting

      Dare-daring

      Wake-waking

      Measure-measuring

      Time-timing

 

Some verbs double the last letter (consonant)  before adding ing. Including the following:-

      Run-running

      Sit-sitting

      Cut-cutting

      Get-getting

      Shut-shutting

      Set-setting

      Put-putting

      Dig-digging

 

More examples on present continuous tense:-

v  Iam doing well.

v  You are studying hard, and then you will get good grade in the exam.

v  She is talking to you and you are not listening to her. This is really a shame.

v  You are not helping me, please stop it.

iii. Present perfect tense

This tense is used to talk about the actions which are completed. It is used to talk about actions occurred recently or began in that past and continued to present time.

 

Present perfect tense is formed in the following ways:-

ü  The main verb is in the past participle form.

Example. Go-gone,  eat-eaten.

ü  Auxiliary verb( has/have) is added to the main verb.

Have goes with (I/we/you/they)

Has goes with (he/she/it etc)

Examples

v  She has gone to school.

v  I have eaten food.

v  Anna has taken breakfast.

v  She has played football.

 

      iv. Present perfect continuous tense

This is the tense which shows that the action started in the past and has continued up to the present moment or time.

·         The main verb should be in -ing form and should be preceded by has been/ have been depending n the subject

·         If the subject is I/We/you/they/ we use “have been”.

·         And if the subject is he/she/it/ a name f a person we use has been.

 

Examples

                                                        i.            They have been eating food since morning.

                                                      ii.            She has been in the class from seven o clock.

                                                    iii.            She has been walking for three hours.

                                                    iv.            I have been writing articles on different topics since morning.

                                                      v.            He has been reading the book for two hours.

                                                    vi.            She has been finding the dress since morning.

                                                  vii.            He has been studying in the library.

                                                viii.            We have been watching a movie for two days.

 

 

c)      Past tense.

Past tense expresses the action which took place in the past time.

This also can be categorized into three parts or categories.

i.                    Simple past tense

ii.                  Past continuous tense

iii.                Past perfect tense.

iv.                Past perfect continuous tense

 

i.                    Simple past tense

Simple past tense is used to talk about actions which took place once in the past, such as yesterday, last week or ago. It is marked by –ed or –d in the regular verbs.

In simple past tense the main verb is changed into past form in all persons.

Examples

§  She went home.

§  They read the book yesterday.

§  She ate food last week.

Also, you should understand that in simple past tense, the auxiliary did is used to ask questions in all persons such as

ü  Did he go home yesterday?

ü  Did he come at home?

ü  Did I go?

ü  Did they read?

ii.                  Past continuous tense

Is used to talk about actions which were taking place in the past time such as  Last year, week or yesterday.

 

Past continuous tense is formed in the following ways in English language

Ø  The main verb is in present participle form, that’s gerund or -ing form.

Ø  The auxiliary verb which is in past form is added to the main verb which is in the -ing form or gerund. ( was/were)

Example

ü  She was eating food.

ü  They were playing football last week.

ü  He was reading the novel

ü  He was going home.

iii.                Past perfect tense

Past perfect tense is used to talk about actions which had been completed in the past.

The following are the ways in which past perfect tense is formed in English language.

ü  The main verb is in past participle form.

ü  The auxiliary verb (had) is added to the main verb which is in the past participle form.

Examples

·         I had gone home.

·         He had eaten food.

·         They had taken books.

 

 

iv.                Past perfect continuous tense

This is the tense which indicates something that started in the past, continued in the past and ended in the a defined point in the past.

In past perfect continuous tense

·         The main verb should be in gerund that is in ing form.

·         And the main verb should be preceded by had been.

 

Examples

v  She had been eating ugali for three days.

v  I had been working at the company for five years when I got the promotion.

v  The programme that was terminated had been working well since 1945.

v  Martha had been walking three miles a day before she broke her leg.

 

 

iii. Future tense

 

Future tense is the tense expresses the actions which will be done sometimes in the future. So, it expresses action that has not yet been done or happened.

Future tense is following categories:-

i.                    Simple future tense

ii.                  Future continuous tense

iii.                Future perfect tense

iv.                Future continuous perfect tense

 

i.                    Simple future tense

Simple future tense is used to talk about actions which will take place once in the future (coming time). such as tomorrow, next week, the future or coming day, next year or day or month.

Simple future tense is formed in the following ways

§  The main verb is in the base form. Eg eat, come etc.

§  The auxiliary verb (shall/will) is added to the main verb.

(I/we) when is used as the subject go with shall/will.

(you/they/he/she/it or a name of a person or animal) goes will only.

Examples

Ø  I shall go to school tomorrow.

Ø  She will read the newspaper tomorrow.

Note that, in simple future tense the auxiliaries shall and will are used to ask or to form questions.

Examples

ü  Shall I go?

ü  Will she come next year?

 

ii.                  Future continuous form

Future continuous tense is used to talk about actions which will be taking place in the future and continue for unexpected length of time. Example: We will be meeting tomorrow.

Future contiguous tense is formed in the following ways:-

·         The main verb is in the present participle form/ing form/gerund.

·         The auxiliary verb (shall be/will be) is added to the main verb.

 

Examples

I shall be going to school.

I shall be eating bananas.

She will be reading the book.

 

iii.                Future perfect tense

Future perfect tense is used to talk about actions which will be completed in the future. It expresses action or event that is expected or planned to happen before the time of, reference in the future. Example: I will have finished by tomorrow.

 

The following are the ways in which future perfect tense is formed in English language.

Ø  In future perfect tense, the main verb is in the past participle form.

Ø  The auxiliary verb (shall have/will have) is added to the main verb. Examples

ü  I will have gone to school.

ü  I shall have eaten food.

ü  I shall have taken food.

 

 

iv.                Future perfect continuous tense

Future perfect tense is the tense that shows that something will continue up or until a particular event or time in the future.

·         The main verb should be in the -ing form or gerund.

·         And the main verb should be preceded by will have been.

Examples

                                i.            I will have been working in my company for three years.

                              ii.            At five o’ clock I will have been waiting for thirty minutes.

                            iii.            When I turn thirty, I will be playing piano for twenty one days.

                            iv.            On Thursday, I will have been knowing you for a week.

                              v.            They will have been playing football in the field before you reach.

                            vi.            Bob will have been studying in the library before he comes to the class.

                          vii.            We will have been watching movies in the Cineplex before you come.

Prepared by Emily Mwambola 

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