Tenses-of-English-Language (An Introduction)

Tenses

The word “tense” is derived from Latin work “tempus”, which means time. There are three (3) kinds of tenses in English language and each kind has further four sub kinds.

  1. Present                               2. Past                         3. Future

Present Simple                     Past Simple               Future Simple

Present Continuous              Past Continuous       Future Continuous

Present Perfect                     Past Perfect             Future Perfect

P. P. Continuous                    P. P. Continuous      F. P. Continuous

In each tense, you will come across helping verbs. These verbs are also called auxiliary verbs. So, before starting the tenses, it is necessary that we must know about the helping verbs, subject, object and verb.

Question: What is helping verb (Auxiliary Verb)?

Answer: Helping verbs (Auxiliaries): They help main verb to form a sentence according to the tense/time of an action.

Question: What is sentence?

Answer: A group of words which make complete sense called ‘sentence’.

Examples.

1. I am studying law.

There are four (4) words in the above sentence.

2. She is beautiful.

There are three (3) sentences in the above sentence.

Question: What is a subject?

Answer: In sentence doer of action or the person, thing or place which we are

talking about called ‘subject’.

Examples.

1. He is writing a letter.

‘He’ is the subject in the above sentence.

2. She is a good girl.

‘She’ is the subject in the above sentence.

Question: What is an object?

Answer: Affected thing or person of a sentence is called ‘object’.

Examples.

1. He is beating him.

‘Him’ is the affected person in the above sentences, so it’s the object of the above

sentence.

2. She must help you.

‘You’ is the affected person, so it’s the object of the above sentence.

Question: What is a verb?

Answer: Verb is a word which shows an action or tells us the status or condition of a person or thing.

Examples.

1. She reads a novel.

“read” is a verb in the above sentence, because it is an action.

2. He is going to Market.

‘He’ is a verb in the above sentence, because it is also an action.

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