Tense and Aspect

English for Graduate

Studies: Class 4
 Before we start
• Is tense about reality or expression?
• How many tenses are there in English
language?
• How many aspects are there in English
language?
• Which tense is used to indicate action
underway at a past moment?
• Which aspect most often describes events or
states taking place during a preceding time?
 Before we start
• Which of the following is ‘correct’?
• We studied ‘clauses’ last week.
• We were studying ‘clauses’ last week.
• We have studied ‘clauses’ since last week.
• We have been studying ‘clauses’ since last
week.
• Let’s try this
 Tense & Aspect
• Tense
• the absolute location of an event or action in
time, either the present or the past
• marked by an inflection of the verb
e.g. David walks/walked to school.
• Since the expression of future time does not
involve any inflection of the verb, we do not
refer to a "future tense"
e.g. David will walk to school tomorrow.
 Tense & Aspect
• Aspect
• how an event or action is to be viewed with
respect to time, rather than to its actual location
in time
• e.g. David fell in love on his eighteenth
birthday.
David has fallen in love.
David is falling in love.
 Tense & Aspect
• David fell in love on his eighteenth
birthday.
• took place in the past
• David has fallen in love.
• took place in the past
• still relevant at the time of speaking
• David is falling in love.
• the action of falling in love is still in progress
The twelve tenses in English
The twelve tenses in English
 The twelve tenses in English
• Forms, functions, and sample adverbials
• Excellent source for further study
• Remember, tense is about expression, NOT
reality. It doesn’t really matter what
happened in reality.
• So, more than ONE tense can be ‘correct’!