About Tenses

About Tenses

In English Grammar Tense is considered to be the most important and vital factor. I like to light upon the importance of Tense in English Grammar.

From the very beginning of learning English, a learner has to know that Tense is the main factor of English and if any body knows the 12 forms of Tense, he is good at English. For this reason, it is often found that all the learners of English try to memorize the 12 forms of Tense. They never learn Tenses logically. So often they do variety of mistakes in using Tense in a Sentence. We should remember that Tense is one of the tools of English Grammar. I like to call it a Language tool.

But, practically, Tense is nothing but the pragmatic use of different forms of Verb to indicate the time of an action as well as the condition of the action simultaneously. In different Tenses we use different forms of verb. With the variation of Tenses, the verb always varies and all other elements like Subject and Object remain the same. With the variation of Tenses always the form of Verb is changed but the Subject and Object or any other element of the Sentence is never changed. So Tenses and Forms of Verb are inter-related, closely related and also depend on each other.

We can say that before learning Tenses it is obligatory to have a good knowledge about different forms of Verb. In my observation I found that most learners do not learn the forms of Verb well and properly. As a result they cannot be skill in using Tenses. They only memorize the form of Tenses and use them illogically.

Most learners know that in Future Indefinite Tense the Present form of Verb is used with an Auxiliary Verb like ‘shall’ or ‘will’. Or, they learn the structure of the Future Indefinite Tense as: Subject + Shall/Will + Present form of the Verb.

We know Present form is used in Present Tense because Present Form always indicates the present time of the action. How can we indicate futurity with the Present form of the Verb? On asking such types of questions they probably have the answer that ‘shall’ or ‘will’ here indicates futurity of the action.

‘Shall’ and ‘Will’ are Modal Auxiliaries. We know modals always take a Verb of Infinitive form. So the Verb after ‘shall or will’ must be an Infinitive. How can we call the Verb after ‘shall or will’ a Present form? It’s not logical at all.

On the other hand, we know that what is not definite is Indefinite. And we can say if there is an Indefinite Tense, consequently, there should be a Definite Tense. Learners are not aware of Definite Tenses. So there must be a big gap in learning Tense.

Many of the grammarians, now-a-days, prefer to call it Simple Future instead of Future Indefinite. In that case, there shall rise another controversy like what they will explain abut Complex Future and Compound Future. If there is a Simple Tense, there must, also, be Complex Tense as well as Compound Tense and that is logical consequence.

So if a learner, so long, does not know or understand the logic of using any grammatical tool, he can’t be able to use that tool properly and confidently. English will be difficult to learn well for him. But if he knows every thing logically, English will be very much easy to him to learn and also will be very much interesting.

Most learners can’t distinguish the Present Perfect Tense and the Past Indefinite Tense properly. To do that they, often, become very much confused because they can’t recognize even the Present Tense well. They don’t have the clear and logical conception about Present Time or Present Tense.

In fact, Present time is too little to count. Maybe it is a fraction of a moment. In respect of vast pan of time present moment is quite negligible. Practically there’s no existence of Present Tense. Despite, in Grammar Tense has a class of Present Tense. Tense is divided into three classes according to the time of an action, e.g. 1. Present Tense 2. Past Tense 3. Future Tense.

We can experience the Past and the Future well and vividly because they exist in vast pans but what about the Present?

We can define the Past as the time already passed across the Present time and the Future can be defined as the time that is yet to be Present. Which is now Present was Future before few minutes ago and will be Past after few moments because time is not still rather a constantly changing procedure.

We detect Past and Future in respect to or in comparison to Present but we are often confused about Present. Time is a relative factor, never constant or still. So we must be confused of Past and Future too.

In Grammar when we study Tense, we see that Present Tense also include past time too. In the Sentence: ‘He has been reading for three hours’ the action of the verb ‘to read’ happened to start in past that means three hours ago. But still the Sentence is in Present Perfect Continuous Tense. So Present Tense does not always indicate present time but also includes past time. So Present Tense is confusing to the learners and very much difficult to define for them.

But in reality, we can define Present time as the partial moment when Futurity ends and Past gets started, a junction between the Past and Future.

But still there is a class of Present Tense and it includes Past time as well as Future time. However past it may be but if it is linked to the present moment with no break, or however future it may be but it is linked to the present moment without happening any break, the wide span of time is treated as Present Tense. In fact, it is imaginary.

That is why we consider the above mentioned Sentence in Present Tense. A portion of the action is already finished and that’s why the condition of the action is perfect and the rest of the action is still continuing and that’s why the condition of the action is Continuous. As a result the Sentence is in Present Perfect Continuous Tense.

So the Tense of a Verb mainly depends upon two factors: Firstly, the time when the action is performed and secondly, the state or phase or the condition of the action. Condition of an action may be either Perfect or Continuous, or may be both or may be none. It seems to be funny but it’s very much logical.

 In the Sentence: ‘I drink tea’ the time of the action is Present but the condition of the action is not definite. So it is in Present Indefinite Tense.

In the Sentence: ‘I’m drinking tea’ the time of the action is Present and the condition of the action is still continuing. So it is in the form of Present Continuous Tense.

In the Sentence: ‘I’ve drunk tea’ the time of action is Present because Present includes past time too without any break. And the condition of the action is perfect because the action is already finished. So it is in the form of Present Perfect Tense.

On the other hand, in the sentence: ‘I drank tea’ the time of action is past and not linked to present time. So it is in the Past Tense.

So Tense must be decided judging two factors simultaneously such as the time of an action and the other is the condition of the action.

Thanks all.

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