Profesora: Marina Córdoba- Asignatura: Idioma I- Participantes: Deneise Contreras, Nancy Zambrano, Franklin Lezama.

 

 

Present Tense, Past Tense and Future.

In English, there are three basic tenses: present, past, and future. Each has a perfect form, indicating completed action; each has a progressive form, indicating ongoing action; and each has a perfect progressive form, indicating ongoing action that will be completed at some definite time. Here is a list of examples of these tenses and their definitions:

 

 

Simple Forms

Present Tense

Present tense expresses an unchanging, repeated, or reoccurring action or situation that exists only now. It can also represent a widespread truth.

Past Tense

Past tense expresses an action or situation that was started and finished in the past. Most past tense verbs end in -ed. The irregular verbs have special past tense forms which must be memorized.

Future Tense

Future tense expresses an action or situation that will occur in the future. This tense is formed by using will/shall with the simple form of the verb.

The speaker of the House will finish her term in May of 1998.

The future tense can also be expressed by using am, is, or are with going to.

The surgeon is going to perform the first bypass in Minnesota.

We can also use the present tense form with an adverb or adverbial phrase to show future time.

The president speaks tomorrow. (Tomorrow is a future time adverb.)

 

Progressive Forms

Present Progressive Tense

Present progressive tense describes an ongoing action that is happening at the same time the statement is written. This tense is formed by using am/is/are with the verb form ending in -ing.

The sociologist is examining the effects that racial discrimination has on society.

Past Progressive Tense

Past progressive tense describes a past action which was happening when another action occurred. This tense is formed by using was/were with the verb form ending in -ing.

The explorer was explaining the lastest discovery in Egypt when protests began on the streets.

Future Progressive Tense

Future progressive tense describes an ongoing or continuous action that will take place in the future. This tense is formed by using will be or shall be with the verb form ending in -ing.

Dr. Jones will be presenting ongoing research on sexist language next week.

 

Perfect Forms

Present Perfect Tense

Present perfect tense describes an action that happened at an indefinite time in the past or that began in the past and continues in the present.This tense is formed by using has/have with the past participle of the verb. Most past participles end in -ed. Irregular verbs have special past participles that must be memorized.

Past Perfect Tense

Past perfect tense describes an action that took place in the past before another past action. This tense is formed by using had with the past participle of the verb.

By the time the troops arrived, the war had ended.

Future Perfect Tense

Future perfect tense describes an action that will occur in the future before some other action. This tense is formed by using will have with the past participle of the verb.

By the time the troops arrive, the combat group will have spent several weeks waiting.

 

Perfect Progressive Forms

Present Perfect Progressive

Present perfect progressive tense describes an action that began in the past, continues in the present, and may continue into the future. This tense is formed by using has/have been and the present participle of the verb (the verb form ending in -ing).

The CEO has been considering a transfer to the state of Texas where profits would be larger.

Past Perfect Progressive

Past perfect progressive tense describes a past, ongoing action that was completed before some other past action. This tense is formed by using had been and the present perfect of the verb (the verb form ending in -ing).

Before the budget cuts, the students had been participating in many extracurricular activities.

Future Perfect Progressive

Future perfect progressive tense describes a future, ongoing action that will occur before some specified future time. This tense is formed by using will have been and the present participle of the verb (the verb form ending in -ing).

 

The past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past.

In English, there are two distinct types of past tense:

 

Present perfect (see perfect tense)

Preterite (or simple past)

 

Each of these may also be found in the progressive (continuous) aspect.

Simple past is formed by adding –ed to the root of a word. Example: He walked to the store. A negation is produced by adding did not and the verb in its infinitive form. Example: He did not walk to the store. Question sentences are started with did as in Did he walk to the store?

 

Simple past is used for describing acts that have already been secluded and whose exact time of occurrence is known. Furthermore, simple past is used for retelling successive events. That is why it is commonly used in storytelling.

 

Past progressive is formed by using the adequate form of to be and the verb’s present participle: He was going to church. By inserting not before the main verb a negation is achieved. Example: He was not going to church. A question is formed by prefixing the adequate form of to be as in Was he going?

 

Past progressive is used for describing events that were just about to occur when a new event happened. The already occurring event is presented in past progressive, the new one in simple past. Example: We were sitting in the garden when the thunderstorm started.

 

Present perfect simple is formed by combining have/has with the main verb’s past participle form: I have arrived. A negation is produced by inserting not after have/has: I have not arrived. Questions in present perfect are formulated by starting a sentence with have/has: Has she arrived?

 

Present perfect simple is used for describing a past action’s effect on the present: He has arrived. Now he’s here. This holds true for events that have just been secluded as well as for events that have not yet occurred.

 

Present perfect progressive is formed by prefixing have/has before the grammatical particle been and the verb’s present participle form: We have been waiting. A negation is expressed by including not between have/has and been: They have not been eating. As with present perfect simple, for forming a question, have/has is put at the beginning of a sentence: Have they been eating?

 

Present perfect progressive is used for describing an event that has been going on until the present and may be continued in the future. It also puts emphasis on how an event has occurred. Very often since and for mark the use of present perfect progressive: I have been waiting for 5 hours / I have been waiting since 3 o’ clock.

 

Furthermore, there is another version of past tense possible: past perfect.

 

Past perfect simple is formed by combining the simple past form of to have with the simple past form of the main verb: We had shouted. A negation is achieved by including not after had: You had not spoken. Questions in past perfect always start with had: Had he laughed?

 

Past perfect simple is used for describing secluded events that have occurred before something else followed. The event that is closer to the present is given in simple past tense: After we had visited our relatives in New York, we flew back to Toronto.

 

Past perfect progressive is formed by had, the grammatical particle been and the present participle of the main verb: You had been waiting. For negation, not is included before been: I had not been waiting. A question sentence is formed by starting with had: Had she been waiting?

 

If emphasis is put on the duration of a concluded action of the past, since and for are signal words for past perfect progressive: We had been waiting at the airport since the 9 p.m. flight. / They had been waiting for 3 hours now

 

 

The present tense is the tense (form of a verb) that is often used to express:

 

• Action at the present time
• A state of being
• A habitual action
• An occurrence in the near future
• An action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present
•  

There are two common types of present tenses found in most Indo-European languages: the present indicative (in the indicative mood) and the present subjunctive (subjunctive mood

 

English present indicative tense

In English, the present tense is subdivided into the following forms:

 

• Present simple: "I go to school every day."
• Present progressive: "You are being rude." (at this moment)
• Present perfect: "I have had two computers."
• Present perfect progressive: "She has been living in London for a year."

 

In linguistics, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by a verb as not having happened yet, but expected to in the future.

Future tense in English

 

In English, as in most Germanic languages, there is no simple future tense. Futurity is expressed either by using words that imply future action ("I go to Berlin tomorrow.") or by employing an auxiliary construction that combines certain present tense verbs with the stem of the verb which represents the true action of the sentence.

 

The tradition that English has a future tense traces to the period of 300 years, from 1066 to about 1350, when Norman French was the official language of England. Norman French, unlike English, is a Romance language; and the Romance languages, unlike Germanic languages, do have a simple future tense.

 

The most common auxiliary verbs used to express futurity are will, shall, can, may, and must. Of these, "will" is the most neutral and it is the most commonly used. "Shall" implies obligation or commitment to the action contemplated. "Can" implies the ability to commit the action but does not presuppose obligation or firm commitment to the action. "May" expresses the least sense of commitment and is the most permissive; it is also a verb used in the auxiliary construction that suggests conditionality. "Must," by contrast, expresses the highest degree of obligation and commitment ("I must go") and is temporally nearest to present time in its expression of futurity ("I must go now.")

To wit:

 

• I will go
• I shall go
• I can go
• I may go
• I must go
•  

To express futurity in the negative, a negative adverb - such as "not" or "never" is inserted after the auxiliary verb, as in all other auxiliary constructions.

 

• I will not go
• I shall never go
• I cannot go
• I may never go
• I must not go

 

In all of these, action within a future range of time is contemplated. But in all cases, the sentences are actually voiced in the present tense, since there is no proper future tense in English. It is the implication of futurity that makes these present tense auxiliary constructions amount to a compund future quasi-tense.

 

This reality, that expression of futurity in English is a function of the present tense, is born out by the ability to negate the implication of futurity without making any change to the auxiliary construction. When a verbal construction that suggests futurity (such as "I will go") is subsequently followed by information that establishes a condition or presupposition, or the active verb stem itself contradicts a future indicative application of the construction, then any sense of future tense is negated - especially when the auxiliary will is used within its literal meaning, which is to voluntarily 'will' an action. For example:

• Person A says: "You will go now. You will not stay."
• Person B answers: "I will go nowhere. I will stay."
•  

Additional auxiliary constructions used to express futurity are labeled as follows:

 

• Future Habitual (or Future Continuous): Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Present Participle
• I will be going
• You will be singing
• He shall be sleeping
• We may be coming
• They may be travelling
• It will be snowing when Nancy arrives
• It will not be raining when Josie leaves
• Future Perfect: Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Past Participle

 

 

• I will be gone
• You will have sung
• He shall have slept
• We may have come ("We may be come" can still be used poetically, but it is obsolete in speech)
• They may have travelled
• It will have snowed
• It will not have rained

 

Future Perfect Habitual (or Future Perfect Continuous): Auxiliary + Verb Stem + Past Participle + Present Participle

 

• I will have been going
• You will have been singing
• He shall have been sleeping
• We may have been coming
• They may have been travelling
• It will have been snowing

It will not have been raining.

 

 

 

INFOGRAFIA

 

Grammatical tense

 

The exact number of tenses in a language is often a matter of some debate, since many languages include the state of certainty of the information, the frequency of the event, whether it is ongoing or finished, and even whether the information was directly experienced or gleaned from hearsay, as moods or tenses of a verb. Some grammarians consider these to be separate tenses, and some do not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_tense   [ Traduzca esta página ]

 

Using Verb Tenses

 

Un verbo indica la época de una acción, de un acontecimiento o de una condición cambiando su forma. Con el uso de una secuencia de tiempos en una oración o en un párrafo, es posible indicar la relación temporal compleja de acciones, de acontecimientos, y de condiciones

Hay muchas maneras de categorizar los doce tiempos posibles del verbo. Los tiempos del verbo se pueden categorizar según el marco de tiempo: tiempos pasados, presentes, y tiempos futuros.

 

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/usetense.html    [ Traduzca esta página ]

 

 

Exploring Language

 

As far as we know, verbs are a word class found in all languages. In Latin, the word verbum means "word", which shows the importance of verbs. Verbs have traditionally been called "doing words".

 

http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/resources/exp_lang/verbs.html

 

 

Verb Tense Consistency

 

Writing often involves telling stories. Sometimes we narrate a story as our main purpose in writing; sometimes we include brief anecdotes or hypothetical scenarios as illustrations or reference points in an essay. Even an essay that does not explicitly tell a story involves implied time frames for the actions discussed and states described. Changes in verb tense help readers understand the temporal relationships among various narrated events. But unnecessary or inconsistent shifts in tense can cause confusion.

 

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_tensec.html    [ Traduzca esta página ]

 

 

EnglishOntheRun-Grammar

 

In this section you will find some basic explanation of the the verb tenses in English. We have decided to include this section due to its importance in the English grammar. It is intended to serve as a reference. It is essential to note that not all the tenses are included in this page. Nevertheless, what we have considered the most useful ones are included. There are also some exercises that can be accessed by clicking on the title below each explanation. We hope this page contributes in some way to your process of learning English.

 

http://www.geocities.com/gob72/grammarverbtenses.html    [ Traduzca esta página ]

 

 

Verb Tense

 

Verb tenses give information about when an action took place. Choose the right tense to indicate your meaning in your sentences. Change verb tenses only when there is a real change in time. When you are writing about an idea, stay with the same tense.

 

http://www2.actden.com/Writ_den/tips/sentence/tense.htm    [ Traduzca esta página ]

 

 

Tenses in writing

 

Tense is a grammatical means of expressing temporal relations between various events and the time of speaking or writing. Tense signals to the listener or the reader how the writer or speaker views an event in relation to the speaking or writing situation. The temporal relations can be simultaneous, before and after, before but yet relevant, etc. If, for example, the writer wishes to indicate relevance of an event to the time of writing, he or she may use the present perfect tense.

 

http://depts.washington.edu/engl/askbetty/tenses.php   [ Traduzca esta página ]

 

 

Sequence of Verb Tenses

 

Although the various shades of time and sequence are usually conveyed adequately in informal speech and writing, especially by native speakers and writers, they can create havoc in academic writing and they sometimes are troublesome among students for whom English is a second language. This difficulty is especially evident in complex sentences when there is a difference between the time expressed in an independent clause and the time expressed in a dependent clause. Another difficulty arises with the use of infinitives and participles, modals which also convey a sense of time.

 

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sequence.htm    [ Traduzca esta página ]

 

 

Simple Present

 

Use the Simple Present to express the idea that an action is repeated or usual. The action can be a habit, a hobby, a daily event, a scheduled event or something that often happens. It can also be something a person often forgets or usually does not do.

 

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepresent.html    [ Traduzca esta página ]

 

 

Simple Present Tense

 

This page shows the use of the simple present tense to talk about general events. But note that there are some other uses for the simple present tense, for example in conditional or if sentences, or to talk about the future. You will learn about those later.

 

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present.htm   [ Traduzca esta página ]

 

 

Perfect Tenses

 

Simple Past, Present, and Future tenses are not the only tenses in English. They say that something happened, happens, or will happen, but they do not say anything about if the act is completed or not, if it continues, or if it is of historical interest only. Sometimes you need to give just a little bit more information about an action or state...and that is where the perfect tenses come in.

 

http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/gslj/perfecttenses.html    [ Traduzca esta página ]