You are on page 1of 3

VERBAL MORPHOLOGY

PhD Lecturer Ionela Neagu


The Values of the Tenses

PRESENT TENSE SIMPLE

 General, scientific truths


 Habitual actions
 Permanent actions
 ‘Iterative’ Present Simple with frequency adverbs
 A sequence of short actions
 Explanations and instructions
 In demonstrations and experiments
 In announcements and newspaper headlines
 In stage directions
 The ‘historic’ or ‘dramatic’ Present Simple
 Future actions part of an official programme
 In Temporal Clauses
 In Conditional Clauses, type I

PRESENT TENSE CONTINUOUS

 An action happening now or ‘now’ in general, not necessarily at the moment of speaking
 Momentary actions
 Temporary actions
 To express transition from one state to another (to get, to grow)
 A frequently repeated action which annoys the speaker (always)
 Future actions part of our personal plan

PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE

 Recently completed actions


 Actions finished in an indefinite/ unspecified moment
 Actions occurring in an incomplete period of time (today, this week)
 Resultative Present Perfect – actions having visible results at present
 Present Perfect of Experience (ever, never)
 Actions that begin in the past and continue until or even past the moment of speaking (for,
since)

PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS

 Actions that begin in the past and are still continuing, extending up to the present moment
 Uninterrupted actions
 A continuous action which seems to have ended right before the moment of speech as it has
visible results

PAST TENSE SIMPLE

 Past actions finished in a definite past moment


 Past habits or repeated actions in the past
 An action that interrupts the development of another action

PAST TENSE CONTINUOUS

1
 Past actions seen in development in a past moment
 Simultaneous actions in progress in the past
 A casual, less deliberate action (as an alternative to the Simple Past)
 Future plans seen from a past perspective

PAST PERFECT SIMPLE

 A past action that started and ended before another past action
 A past action that occurred just for a moment only to allow another past action to occur
(Hardly/Scarcely…when; No sooner…than)
 In Time Clauses to express anteriority towards a past moment

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

 Past actions that begin before and extend up to other past actions
 Continuous, uninterrupted, but incomplete actions

FUTURE TENSE SIMPLE

 Future actions that will take place in a future moment


 Predictions, offers, requests, suggestions
 On-the-spot decisions (will)
 Intentions, planned actions (be going to)

FUTURE TENSE CONTINUOUS

 Future actions seen in development in a future moment


 Future actions that will happen as a matter of routine
 Future actions that will occur in the normal course of events

FUTURE PERFECT SIMPLE

 Future actions started and finished before a future moment/event

FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS

 Future actions in progress that started before a future moment and extend until that future
moment/event

FUTURE IN THE PAST

 Future actions seen from a past perspective

2
3

You might also like