Lesson 3: Verbs—Tenses
In 2.1.4, we said almost all verbs change in form based on tense. This is the relation between verbs and tenses.
3.1 What is Tense?
Tense is a method that we use in English to refer to time - past, present and future. It is a form of a verb used to indicate the time, and sometimes the continuation or completeness of an action in relation to the time of speaking.
Some languages have no tenses, but of course they can still talk about time, using different methods.
In English, we talk about time with verb tenses, with some exceptions:
3.1.1 We can also talk about time without using tenses. For example, (be) going to is a special construction to talk about the future. It is a verbal phrase, not a tense. Eg.
· I am going to go on holiday next month.
3.1.2 One tense does not always talk about one time.
3.1.2.1 Such as a present tense does not always refer to present time, eg.
· I hope it rains tomorrow.
(rains is present simple, but it refers here to future time [tomorrow] ).
(cf. I hope it will rain tomorrow.)
3.1.2.2 Or a present continuous tense does not always refer to what is happening exactly now, eg.
· Jane is taking her exam next month.
(is taking is present continuous but it refers here to future time [next month] ).
(cf. Jane will be taking her exam next month; or, Jane will take her exam next month.)
3.1.2.3 Or a past tense does not always refer to past time, eg.
· If I had some money now, I could buy it.
(had is past simple but it refers here to present time [now] ).
3.1.3 There are some terms in English grammar that are used when discussing verbs
and tenses, such as voice (active / passive), mood (interrogative / imperative
/ subjunctive) and aspect. We are not going into details of them except active and
passive voices. The other terms are just ways of describing what we naturally
communicate in English. You may already know how to communicate properly but
may not know that what you do carries a technical term.
3.2 The 12 English Tenses
There are 12 basic tenses in the present, past and future groups.
Simple Present
I do do, I do
Present Continuous Tense
I am doing, I am doing tomorrow
Present Perfect Tense
I have done
Present Perfect Continuous Tense
I have been doing
Simple Past
I did do, I did
Past Continuous Tense
I was doing
Past Perfect Tense
I had done
Past Perfect Continuous Tense
I had been doing
Simple Future
I will do
Future Continuous Tense
I will be doing
Future Perfect Tense
I will have done
Future Perfect Continuous Tense
I will have been doing
Another 12 tenses are available in the passive voice. So we have 24 tenses in active and passive voices.
3.3 Conditional Tenses
In addition to the 12 basic tenses, there are the 2 conditional tenses used in the second conditional sentence and the third conditional sentence.
3.3.1 Present conditional tense (would + base form verb) used in the second conditional sentence, eg.
· If I had a billion dollars, I would quit my job and would do something else.
3.3.2 Perfect conditional tense (would have + past participle) used in the third conditional sentence, eg.
· If I had won the lottery, I would have bought a car.
· If he had been more careful, he would have succeeded.
3.3.3 Use Present conditional tense and Perfect conditional tense to refer to the present or future (not the past) situations.
The (would + base form verb) and (would have + past participle) usually refers to past situations, as are the cases in 3.3.1 and 3.3.2. But sometimes they can be used to refer to present or future situations. In such situations, there is no difference whether one uses (would + base form verb) or (would have + past participle), and they often refers to something that either could not be so or could not have been so now or in the future. Eg.
· It would be / would have been nice to go to France this summer, but there's no way we can do it. (future)
· If my father hadn't bumped into my mother on that rainy afternoon twenty-five years ago, I wouldn't be / wouldn't have been here now. (present)
· Let's assume that the developers would build / would have built the flats anyway, even without the condition that they can only be sold to Hong Kongers. (future)
3.4 Uses of the 12 Tenses*
3.4.1. Simple present tense
We use the simple present tense to talk about:
3.4.1.1 general events that happen all the time, in the past, present and future,
eg.
· Sara likes to eat chocolate.
3.4.1.2 personal habits, eg.
· She washes her hair every day.
3.4.1.3 group traditions, rituals, customs, eg.
· Chinese like to eat moon cakes at Mid-Autumn Festival.
3.4.1.4 the statement that is always true, eg.
· Triangles have three sides.
3.4.1.5 to give instruction, commands, directions, eg.
· Go down the road and turn left.
3.4.1.6 used with future time markers to convey a future sense, eg.
· The last train leaves at 9 pm this evening.
3.4.1.7 used in first conditional sentence, eg.
· If I make this recipe again, I'll use more brown sugar.
3.4.1.8 Historical present, dramatic present / narrative present, reportorial present.
In linguistics and rhetoric, historical present, dramatic present (also called narrative present), and reportorial present refer to the employment of the present tense when narrating past events. Besides its use in writing about history, especially in historical chronicles (listing a series of events), it is used in fiction, for 'hot news' (as in headlines), general news reporting, and in everyday conversation. In conversation, it is particularly common with 'verbs of communication' such as tell, write, and say (and in colloquial uses, go).
Literary critics and grammarians have said that the historical present has the effect of making past events more vivid. More recently, analysts of its use in conversation have argued that it functions, not by making an event present, but by marking segments of a narrative, foregrounding events (that is, signaling that one event is particularly important, relevant to others) and marking a shift to evaluation.
3.4.1.8.1 Verbs in the 'historic present' describe something that happened in the past. The present tense is used because the facts are listed as a summary, and the present tense provides a sense of urgency. In describing a historical event about Abraham Lincoln, Peter W. Rodman in Presidential Command (Vintage, 2010) wrote:
· "There is a famous story of President Abraham Lincoln, taking a vote in a cabinet meeting on whether to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. All his cabinet secretaries vote nay, whereupon Lincoln raises his right hand and declares: 'The ayes have it.'"
3.4.1.8.2 In an excerpt from Dickens' David Copperfield (Chapter IX), we can see the shift from the past tense to the historical present gives the sense of immediacy, as of a recurring vision:
· “If the funeral had been yesterday, I could not recollect it better. The very air of the best parlour, when I went in at the door, the bright condition of the fire, the shining of the wine in the decanters, the patterns of the glasses and plates, the faint sweet smell of cake, the odour of Miss Murdstone’s dress, and our black clothes. Mr. Chillip is in the room, and comes to speak to me.
'And how is Master David?' he says, kindly.
I cannot tell him very well. I give him my hand, which he holds in his.”
十一月二十一日貴欄所載法王路易十四故事，同一故事為什麼第一段用過去式動詞，第二段卻用現在式？
答：英文小說或故事之中，偶然會有一段或幾句雖然和上下文一樣說同一件過去的事，但轉用現在式動詞。那是因為現在式動詞習慣用來說目前發生的事，可以給讀者「如在目前」的感覺。這手法叫做 dramatic narrative（戲劇式描述），一般用來突出較為重要或精彩的情節。
3.4.1.8.3 Used in critiquing and reviewing literature or others' writings. This is followed even when the original is written in past tense. Summaries of the narratives (plots) of works of fiction are conventionally presented using the present tense rather than the past tense. At any particular point of the story, as it unfolds, there is a now, and hence a past and a future, so whether some event mentioned in the story is past, present, or, future changes as the story progresses; the entire plot description is presented as if the story's now is a continuous present. Eg.
· "Manette is obsessed with making shoes, a trade he learned while in prison." (summarizing the plot of A Tale of Two Cities)
· "Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety," says Shakespeare in Henry IV (Part 1: Act 2, Scene 3). (notice that the verb "says" should not be changed to "said.")
· In Animal Farm (Chapter 2): "...Jones was expelled, and the Manor Farm was theirs..." When one writes about this development of the story in his review, he should write like "The Manor Farm is now in the animals' control...," using "is" rather than "was."
3.4.1.8.4 Used when we write about what someone did that is mentioned in a book, even when that someone is dead. Eg.
· Gandhi advocates vegetarianism and fasting in his autobiography.
* Then of course, when we are not talking about the content of someone's writing, or about someone's style of writing, but simply reporting actions or things that were in the past, we should use simple past tense. Eg.
· Shakespeare wrote Henry IV in 1597.
· Gandhi advocated vegetarianism and fasting when he was alive.
3.4.1.8.5 Reportorial present: This historic present tense is also found in news bulletins and news reporting. The announcer may say at the start, eg.
· Fire hits a city centre building,
· The government defends the new minister,
· In football City United loses.
3.4.1.9 留意假期如果已經安排好，一般會用現在式動詞來表示
例如：For your information, I am off on leave tomorrow morning或I would like to inform you that I am taking leave tomorrow morning。未來式動詞則可表示現在才下的決定，例如：I am feeling very tired, so I will take leave tomorrow. I will be back on Wednesday（我很疲倦，明天會放假，星期三才回來）。
3.4.2. Present continuous tense
Present continuous tense is used to talk about:
3.4.2.1 action happening exactly now, eg.
· I am eating my lunch.
3.4.2.2 action happening around now, eg.
· John is going out with Mary.
3.4.2.3 action in the future, eg.
· I am taking my exam next month.
3.4.3. Present prefect tense
Present perfect tense is used to show a connection of the past and the present. There are basically three uses for the present perfect tense:
3.4.3.1 experience or action in the past without mentioning time, eg.
· I have seen the movie The Godfather.
3.4.3.2 change or action in the past that has an effect in the present, eg.
· John has broken his hand and he is still wearing a cast.
3.4.3.3 continuing situation (a state that started in the past and continues in the present, and will probably continue into the future. We usually use for or since with this structure.), eg.
· I have worked here since June.
3.4.4. Present Perfect Continuous
There are basically two uses for the present perfect continuous tense:
3.4.4.1 an action that has lasted some time but has just stopped or recently stopped, eg.
· I'm tired because I've been running.
3.4.4.2 an action continuing up to now, eg.
· I have been reading for 2 hours.
We often use for and since with the present perfect continuous tense. Eg.
· I have been studying for 3 hours.
· I have been watching TV since 7 pm.
3.4.5. Simple Past Tense
We use the simple past tense when:
3.4.5.1 the event is in the past or is completely finished, eg.
· I lived in that house when I was young.
3.4.5.2 we say (or understand) the time and/or place of the event, eg.
· I watched the movie last year.
3.4.6 Past Continuous Tense
3.4.6.1 we use past continuous tense to say what we were in the middle of doing at
a particular moment in the past. The action started before that moment but
has not finished at that moment. Eg.
· Yesterday I watched a film on TV. The film started at 7 pm and finished at 9 pm. So at 8 pm, I was in the middle of watching TV.
3.4.6.2 to say what we were doing within a set limit of time in the past, eg.
· I was watching TV between 7 and 9 last night.
3.4.6.3 we often use the past continuous tense to “set the scene” in stories. We use
it to describe the background situation at the moment when the action
begins. Often, the story starts with the past continuous tense and then
moves into the simple past tense. Here is an example:
· “James Bond was driving through town. It was raining. The wind was blowing hard. Nobody was walking in the streets. Suddenly, Bond saw the killer in a telephone box...”
(Mok: another way to do it is to “set the scene”—describing the background situation at the moment when the action begins with simple past tense, and then moves into the present tense. As the way used by J.D. Salinger at The Catcher in the Rye, when Holden describes a movie: “It was about this English guy, Alec something, that was in the war and loses his memory in the hospital and all. He comes out of the hospital…” (pp. 138-139))
3.4.6.4 Past Continuous Tense + Simple Past Tense
We often use the past continuous tense with the simple past tense. We use
the past continuous tense to express a longer action, and we use the simple
past tense to express a shorter action that happens in the middle of the
longer action. We can join the two ideas with when or while. Eg: