How do languages express the notion of time? Grammatical tense is the grammaticalized expression of the location in time of an action or state. Tense only roughly corresponds to actual time. Only two grammatical tenses exist in the English language: present and past. English can talk about the future but expresses futurity through modal verbs, auxiliary constructions, and the present tense.
The following posts provide more information about tense in English grammar.
Grammatical Tense
Grammatical Tense in English describes the two grammatical tenses of the English language.
Tense and Aspect of English Verbs explains the convergence of grammatical tense and grammatical aspect with visuals that illustrate the present and past tenses and simple, perfect, progressive, and perfect-progressive aspects of English verbs.
Present Tense
The Simple Present of English Verbs describes the simple present in the English language, which expresses a discrete action or event in the present or near future.
Third Person Singular Simple Present Verbs explains the formation and pronunciation of the third person singular form of English nouns in the simple present.
The Present Perfect of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the present perfect in the English language, which expresses and emphasizes a previous action or state that began in the past and continued up to the present and whose consequences have implications for the present.
The Present Progressive of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the present progressive in the English language, which expresses an incomplete or ongoing action or state that began in the past and continues in the present and into the future.
The Present Perfect-Progressive of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the present perfect-progressive in the English language, which expresses and emphasizes the consequences resulting from a previous but incomplete action or state that began in the past and continues into the present but may or may not continue into the future.
The Simple Present Passive of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the simple present passive in the English language, which expresses discrete actions or states in the present or near future while moving an object from an active sentence into the subject position.
The Present Perfect Passive of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the present perfect passive in the English language, which expresses and emphasizes previous actions with present implications that began in the past and continued up to the present while moving an object from an active sentence into the subject position.
The Present Progressive Passive of English Verbs explain the formation and use of the present progressive passive in the English language, which expresses ongoing or incomplete actions or states in the present or near future while moving an object from an active sentence into the subject position.
The Present Perfect-Progressive Passive of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the present perfect-progressive passive in the English language, which expresses incomplete or ongoing actions or states with present implications that began in the past and that may or may not continue into the future while moving an object from an active sentence into the subject position.
Past Tense
The Simple Past of English Verbs describes the simple past tense in the English language, which expresses a discrete, completed, noncontinuous action or event in the past.
Simple Past Tense of Regular English Verbs explains the conjugations of regular verbs into the simple past.
Simple Past Tense of Irregular English Verbs explains the conjugations of irregular verbs into the simple past.
English Irregular Verbs: Simple Past and Past Participles lists the simple past and past participles of the most common irregular English verbs.
The Past Perfect of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the past perfect in the English language, which expresses and emphasizes a previous action or state that began in the past and continued up to another point in the past and whose consequences have implications for that second point in time.
The Past Progressive of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the past progressive in the English language, which expresses an incomplete or ongoing action or state that began, continued, and ended in the past but over a longer period of time than the completed actions expressed by the simple past.
The Past Perfect-Progressive of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the past perfect-progressive in the English language, which expresses and emphasizes the consequences resulting from a previous incomplete or ongoing action or state that began in the past and continues up to a specific time.
The Simple Past Passive of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the simple past passive in the English language, which expresses discrete, completed, noncontinuous actions or events in the past while moving an object from an active sentence into the subject position.
The Past Perfect Passive of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the past perfect passive in the English language, which expresses previous actions or states with additional past implications that began in the past and continued up to another specific point in the past while moving an object from an active sentence into the subject position.
The Past Progressive Passive of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the past progressive passive in the English language, which expresses ongoing or incomplete actions or states in the past while moving an object from an active sentence into the subject position.
The Past Perfect-Progressive Passive of English Verbs explains the formation and use of the past perfect-progressive passive in the English language, which expresses incomplete or ongoing actions or states that began in the past until a specific point in time while moving an object from an active sentence into the subject position.
