Tense

Tense1

Tense is a set of forms taken by a verb to indicate the time of the action in relation to the time of of the utterance. A tense is like a soul and a verb is it’s body. Such as souls need body to inhabit, tense needs a verb to be expressed. A verb is an action, an action can be accomplished in many ways, such as it can be a habitual or routine action in past, an action in progress in past, an action before another action both in past, an action happened continuously for a long time in past, an action that happens daily as a routine or habit in present, an action that is in progress  at present, an action that has just been completed though some effects of the action is still alive, an action that started in a certain time in past and is still progressing or an action that is under progress during a long time started in the past,  an action that is supposed to happen as a routine, habit or an ordinary happening In future, an action that will progress in future at a certain point of time, an action that will be still relevant in future though the action will be completed at a certain point of time in the future only, an action that will be under progress from a long time started in future and continuing to a certain point in future with all the chances to continue further in future.

From the passage above I guess you understand that the tense in a sentence deals in the time of the action in respect of the utterance of the verb in a sentence. Therefore we can roughly say that TENSE means TIME.

As per our concept, time can be divided in three broad categories, the time that has passed, the time that is passing and the time that is yet to pass. Time is like the flow of a river, however the flow of river can be bound by dams but the flow of time is boundless. Time waits for none. It goes on goes on goes on without any stoppage. Here we are not philosopher, we are grammarian, therefore we aont discuss about the boundlessness of time, rather our focus will be to discuss TENSE, that is a form of time in learning language. Time is boundless, time has countless aspects, and here in this chapter we will focus to bind time in language.

TENSE

See the table below.

PAST	PRESENT	FUTRE
SIMPLE OR INDEFINITE	SIMPLE OR INDEFINITE	SIMPLE OR INDEFINITE
PROGRRESIVE OR CONTINUOUS	PROGRRESIVE OR CONTINUOUS	PROGRRESIVE OR CONTINUOUS
PERFECT	PERFECT	PERFECT
PERFECTCONTINUOUS	PERFECTCONTINUOUS	PERFECTCONTINUOUS

From the table above, it is clear that there are 4 (four) classifications all in PAST, PRESENT and FUTRE tense. These classifications are

a.      Simple or indefinite

b.      Progressive or continuous

c.       Perfect

d.      Perfect continuous

Simple or indefinite tense express a habitual action, general facts etc in present past or future.

Progressive or continuous tense expresses an action under progress I present, past or future.

Perfect tense expresses immediately completed activity leaving side effect, in present, past or future.

Perfect continuous tenses expresses an action which began some time ago and is still continuing with all the possibilities to continue further, in present, past or future tense.

We3 will be soon back with much more clarification in this topic, stay with us, see TENSE2 that is going to be posted here at the soonest. Here in this chapter we tried to make a clear concept of the tense and action used in language, see you soon. Have a good day, Merry Christmas.

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