Tenses and Aspects in English

Here’s a quick review of tenses and aspects in English, presented in an easy-to-understand notes format with emojis and practice questions:

📝 Tenses and Aspects - A Quick Review

Understanding tenses and aspects is crucial for speaking and writing English accurately and confidently. They help us describe not just when an action happened, but also its state or nature.

• Tense ⏰: Provides information about the time of an action. It tells us when an event or action takes place (e.g., now, in the past, or in the future).
• Aspect 🧘‍♀️: Describes the state of an event. It tells us how an action or event unfolds over time – whether it’s habitual, ongoing, completed, or a combination. Aspect talks about the state and requires a verb.

Tenses in English ⏰

There are three primary tenses:

1. Present Tense ➡️

   • Function: Indicates an action happening now or generally true.
   • Marker: Often uses auxiliary verbs like ‘is’, ‘am’, ‘are’.
   • Examples:
     • “Ramu is in Chennai”.
     • “He reads a book”. (Here, ‘reads’ carries the present tense marking).

2. Past Tense ⏪

   • Function: Indicates an action that happened before the current moment.
   • Marker: Often uses auxiliary verbs like ‘was’, ‘were’. Regular verbs add ’-ed’ (e.g., ‘acted’, ’lived’, ‘hoped’). Irregular verbs change their form (e.g., ‘see’ becomes ‘saw’, ‘go’ becomes ‘went’).
   • Examples:
     • “Ramu was in Chennai”.
     • “Ravi gave a book to Deepa”.
     • “I saw a car in front of that building”.

3. Future Tense ⏩

   • Function: Indicates an action that will happen sometime from now.
   • Marker: Typically uses ‘will’ or ‘shall’. Note that future tense markers often need another verb to complete the idea.
   • Examples:
     • “Ramu will come to Chennai”.
     • “Ramu will be in Chennai”.
     • “We shall meet tomorrow”.

Aspects in English 🧘‍♀️

Aspects describe the state of an action or event. There are four main aspects:

1. Indefinite / Habitual Aspect 🔁

   • Function: Describes actions that are habitual, general truths, or completed events without focusing on their duration or completion.
   • Present Indefinite: Often has no specific marking on the verb, especially when the subject is not third person singular (e.g., ‘I read’, ‘You play’). For third person singular, an ‘-s’ is added (e.g., ‘She reads’).
     • Example: “I read a book”.
   • Past Indefinite: The verb changes form to indicate past tense, but there’s no additional aspect marking.
     • Example: “I saw a car in front of that building”.
   • Future Indefinite: Uses ‘will’ or ‘shall’ + base verb.
     • Example: “We will meet tomorrow”.

2. Continuous / Progressive Aspect 🔄

   • Function: Indicates an action that is ongoing or in progress at a particular time.
   • Markers: Uses forms of the ‘be’ verb (auxiliary) + ‘-ing’ on the main verb. The ‘be’ verb carries the tense marking.
   • Present Continuous: is/am/are + V-ing
     • Example: “He is reading a book”.
   • Past Continuous: was/were + V-ing
     • Example: “I was typing a mail”.
   • Future Continuous: will be + V-ing
     • Example: “I will be typing a mail”.

3. Perfective / Perfect Aspect ✅

   • Function: Describes an action that is completed or “perfected” at a specific point in time (past, present, or future). It focuses on the completion of the event.
   • Markers: Uses forms of the ‘have’ verb (auxiliary) + the past participle (V3) of the main verb. The ‘have’ verb carries the tense marking.
   • Present Perfect: have/has + V3
     • Example: “The girls have played effectively”. This indicates completion in the present.
   • Past Perfect: had + V3
     • Example: “The girls had played effectively”. This indicates completion at a remote point in the past.
   • Future Perfect: will have + V3
     • Example: “The girls will have played effectively”. This indicates a possibility of completion in the future.

4. Perfect Continuous Aspect ⏳

   • Function: Describes an action that began in the past and continues up to a certain point, highlighting both its completion and ongoing nature. It’s considered one of the most complex descriptions of an event’s state.
   • Markers: Uses forms of the ‘have’ verb + ‘been’ + V-ing. The ‘have’ verb carries the tense marking.
   • Present Perfect Continuous: have/has + been + V-ing
     • Example: “Girls have been playing effectively”.
   • Past Perfect Continuous: had + been + V-ing
     • Example: “The girls had been playing effectively”.
   • Future Perfect Continuous: will have + been + V-ing
     • Example: “Girls will have been playing nicely”.

✍️ Practice Questions

Identify the tense and aspect of the verb in the following sentences:

1. She goes to the gym every morning.
2. The students were writing essays when the bell rang.
3. By next year, I will have completed my degree.
4. He had been waiting for an hour before his train arrived.
5. We are planning a trip to Scotland next month.

✅ Answers

1. goes - Present Indefinite (or Present Simple/Habitual)
2. were writing - Past Continuous (or Past Progressive)
3. will have completed - Future Perfective (or Future Perfect)
4. had been waiting - Past Perfect Continuous
5. are planning - Present Continuous (used for a future arrangement, as supported by sources that note the present continuous can refer to future plans)