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Firstly a brief explanation aimed at those who may have studied this area of the grammar of English
before. EFL tends to simplify and to teach things piecemeal so you may well find yourself teaching things
you know to be not quite correct. This is particularly true of the tense system. While most linguists would
agree that English does not actually have a future tense and that our 'tenses' are very badly named we do
not usually point either of these things out to the students, especially at lower levels. Please be tolerant.
Tense
Example
Present simple
Present Continuous
Present perfect continuous They have been seeing each other for some time now.
Future simple
Future continuous
He will have been working here for thirty years come the
end of next month.
Quiz 1: Using the examples in the table of tenses above answer the following questions:
What
What
What
What
What
form of the verb is used for the present simple - first, second or third?
form of the verb is used for the past simple?
two things do all of the perfect tenses have in common?
two things do all of the continuous tenses have in common?
do all of the future tenses have in common?
Aspects
An aspect is a grammatical category that helps us to understand the way the event described by a verb
should be viewed. Amongst other things it can indicate that the event is fleeting, habitual, repeated or if it
is in progress at the time of speaking. There are two aspects in English: progressive and perfect.
The progressive aspect is indicated by the presence of a form of the auxiliary verb be used in conjunction
with the '-ing' form of the following verb:
The perfect aspect is indicated by the presence of a form of the auxiliary verb have in conjunction with the
past participle (third form) of the following verb:
1. I live in Moscow.
2. I am living in Moscow.
Which of the above sentences gives the impression of a temporary situation, and which seems to have no
time limitation either in the past or the future?
The above question should present no difficulty but if you are uncertain try asking yourself to which
sentence do you feel most comfortable in adding the words 'at the moment'?
The answer is, of course, the second. Why? Well, because the progressive aspect adds the idea of limited
duration. Sentence 1 could be referring to the exact same speaker and circumstances as sentence 2. The
choice made by the speaker will depend on the context and how the speaker feels about the situation. If
the speaker has a definite idea of when he or she will move from Moscow, the 2nd sentence is more likely.
If there is no particular need to stress the temporary nature of the situation, then the 1st is likely.
Perhaps, for example, in response to questioning by police where their interest is clearly in the speaker's
current place of residence and not in the fact that this residence is expected to last for only one year.
Police officer: Where do you live?
Responder: I live in Moscow. (Far more likely than 'I am living')
Although the question 'Where are you living?' is possible, it presupposes some prior knowledge on the part
of the questioner as to the temporary nature of the responder's residential situation. So is limited
duration the only thing that the progressive aspect adds? No, but it is probably the most important.
Some verbs are rarely used in continuous tenses and some others are used in continuous tenses only
when the verb in question has certain meanings. Many of these are ' state' verbs such as believe, doubt or
know. Verbs used for the senses are also rare e.g. smell.
Quiz 3: Compare the following pairs of sentences and decide which are acceptable:
a) I am believing you.
b) I believe you.
The sentences in 3 above illustrate an interesting effect that the progressive aspect has on short action
verbs. Grammatically sentence 3a is correct. In terms of grammar there is little difference between these
two sentences:
When used with a 'state' verb such as 'live' we understand that the 'state' exist(s)(ed) up to a point in
time as the following examples demonstrate:
1. I was sent to school in Wales even though we'd been living in France for as long
as I could remember.
2. He has been going out with Emily since last August.
3. I will have worked for this company for ten years by next month.
Quiz 4: What are the two points in time related by the perfect verb forms in each of the
above sentences?
If we really wish to mention the agent in a passive sentence, we can do so by adding a phrase beginning
with 'by'.
'This tower was built in 1415, by Sir Henry Rumboldt.'
So why might we choose to use the passive in sentences like this? The fact that Sir Henry built the tower
is not obvious, unnecessary and it is certainly not unknown! Also computer grammar checkers are always
highlighting them as something undesirable. Well, let's look more closely at the active and passive
versions of the sentence.
Answer: The past but we don't know from this sentence exactly when. Even though this is one of the
'Present tenses', it is actually about the past.
Although the meaning of the tense is 'up to now' (see Aspects above), the link to 'now' does not have to
be closed by the action itself.
Quiz 7: Look at the present perfect and past simple sentences below:
Future perfect
Present perfect continuous
Past perfect continuous
Future perfect continuous