Representing time: Tense and Temporal Adjuncts

Grupos verbais 1 - They arrived 2 - They have arrived 3 - They had arrived

 Grupos verbais 1 - They arrived Absolute tense = passado 2 - They have arrived 3 - They had arrived

 Grupos verbais 1 - They arrived at 3 P.M., on the 31st of Agust 2 - They have arrived 3 - They had arrived

 Grupos verbais 1 - They arrived 2 - They have arrived 3 - They had arrived

Past in the present

 Grupos verbais 1 - They arrived 2 - They have arrived 3 - They had arrived

Past in the past

Relative future A noo de futuro relativo pode ser expressa, dentre outras formas, por formas verbais como be+going to. Exemplo.: Future in present He is going to walk. Future in past was going to walk.

Relative future A noo de futuro relativo pode ser expressa, dentre outras formas, por formas verbais como be+going to. Exemplo.: Future in present He is going to walk. Future in past was going to walk.

Relative future A noo de futuro relativo pode ser expressa, dentre outras formas, por formas verbais como be+going to. Exemplo.: Future in present He is going to walk. Future in past was going to walk.

 Tense and Modals Could, might, should and would Can, may, shall and will

Ex.: I can't move it. He told me that he couldn't move it.

He may not come I knew that he might not come I'll help you He said that he would help us.

Ex.: I can't move it. He told me that he couldn't move it.

He may not come I knew that he might not come I'll help you He said that he would help us.

Ex.: I can't move it. He told me that he couldn't move it.

He may not come I knew that he might not come I'll help you He said that he would help us.

Ex.: I can't move it. He told me that he couldn't move it.

He may not come I knew that he might not come I'll help you He said that he would help us.

 Tense and Modals Could, might, should and would

Tenses in Context
Tense selections in narratives Narratives are typically associated with past tenses

Simple past
Last week I saw something very funny at the zoo. A man walked up to a cage and looked at a monkey inside. Suddenly, the monkey snatched the mans glasses and put them on...

Past perfect
In light of the figure he was to become, it was a small irony that he almost hadnt made it to Vietnam. The plane he should have taken in March 1962, with ninety-three other officers and men, had disappeared over Pacific...

Past continuous
When I set out the sun was shining and I didnt have a care in the world. I was trembling and aware of being overwhelmed by a familiar feeling...

Tenses selections in descriptions

Descriptions of people, places, and things...

Simple present
The best known of New Zealands birds is the Kiwi... Kiwis have no wings... Present perfect Now it has been discovered by the world. Now officially a part of the French patrimony, it has been classified as a monument historique...

Present perfect
After the bottles have been thoroughly washed, they are dried and...

Tense selections in predictions

Texts which are centrally concerned with prediction of future events are typically associated with the future tenses.

 By the end of the century, text retrieva l Will have become a relatively stable computer technology, and the information community will be grappling with the management of image databases...

Tense selections in conversation

Conversation is a rather loose term for various kinds of interactive informal spoken language and is here used to also include dialogue quoted within narratives.

Present continuous Theyre still trying to figure out what it all means. Simple present: Yes, dont worry about it. The use of going to (or gonna) to refer to future events (future in present) According to the program, Apache Indians gonna be on about eight.

Learning and teaching tenses

Many learners have considerable difficulty whith the English tense system. As with other areas of the grammar, difficulties may arise from the nature of the system itself or from differences betweem English and the learners mother tongue.

 Chinese is one of the languages which has only aspect and no tense. For exemple, the sentence:
They come PERFECTIVE after what all alright PERFECTIVE Tamen lai le yihou shemme dou tuodang le.

After he comes itll be okay or after he came, it was okay

Italian tends to extend the use of the passato prossimo to any process located in the relatively recent past. Yesterday (I) have drunk too much wine Ieri ho bevuto troppo vino.

Yesterday I drank too much wine.

Some learners also tend to use continuos tense inappropriately with mental and relational processes, for example:
*I am seeing a dog and two cats. (describing a picture)

Circumstancial Adjuncts of time

Duration in Tme: Ex.: For many years, as he worked in the monastery gardens, he carried out...

Location in time: Ex.:Peggy arrived at about 8:30. Frequence in time: Ex.: Meng and I found ourselves in the same class every year.

Conjunctive Adjuncts of time

First she tasted the porridge from Papa Bears great big bowl. But is was too hot for her.

Interpersonal Adjuncts of time

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty we are free at last!