| Tense/Aspect System
Verb Tense
Verb tense in English lets you know when the event or action has taken place. English has three verb tenses: present, past, and future tense.
- Present tense examples: be, clean, drive ,eat
- Past tense examples: was, cleaned, drove, ate
- Future tense examples: will be, will clean, will drive, will eat
- Verb tense has a relationship with aspect. Aspect describes the action or event’s duration, repetition, completion, quality, or state.
Combined, tense & aspect make up the 12 verb tenses as seen in the chart below:
|
Simple |
Perfect
have + been |
Progressive/Continuous
be + -ing |
Perfect/Progressive
have + been + -ing |
Present |
write/talk |
has/have written/talked |
am/is/are writing/talking |
has/have been writing/talking |
Past |
wrote/talked |
had written/talked |
was/were writing/talking |
had been writing/talking |
Future |
will write
will talk |
will have written/talked |
will be writing/talking |
will have been writing/talking |
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