Types of Tenses

This article will outline the types of tenses and discuss its significance in writing. There are three forms of a verb: present tense, past tense, and future tense. The present tense is used to talk about something happening now or that happened in the recent past; the past tense refers to an event that occurred before now or one that ended in the distant past; and the future tense refers to something expected to happen in time unknown by a speaker. 

What are Tenses?

A tense is a way of indicating a time or time period in the past, present or future. The present tense indicates an ongoing state and describes actions that have not yet occurred. For example, “He  is playing guitar”  indicates that the speaker is observing him while he holds or plays an instrument. The past tense refers to something that happened before now. Thus, in the sentence “He  was playing guitar,” we are observing him while he held or played an instrument but did not stop playing; this describes a situation in the past.

What are Determiners?

A determiner is a word or phrase that acts as a main word or phrase in a sentence but separates it from the main clause, object clause or subject clause.

A determiner is usually one of the following:

• The   article A, an, or the (singular they)
•  A   (masculine) singular word meaning “a”
• A (feminine) singular word meaning “the”
•  Singular and plural words for some collective nouns. Examples include: company and committee, family and team, public and audience. Determiners are always followed by non-specific nouns (except for the articles).

Uses of Tenses

For narration:

This can be used in a story to tell a story.

Example: It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.             (George Orwell, 1984)

For description:

Description is used to define an object. This can be achieved using the present tense. Example: He is thin and tall with broad shoulders and light brown hair that is cut short and shines like silk under the light of the sun. The description can be made longer by describing his or her clothing, accessories etc.

To forecast future events or situations:

Future tense is used to indicate what will happen in future but this may not happen always. Example:

To indicate a general truth for all time.

Example: How to go about writing a formal letter?

For narrating action that did not occur in real time.

Example: He was running fast as he could but failed to catch the bus.

Types of Tenses

The verb tenses can be further divided into simple and compound tense depending upon the way they are formed and used. In simple tenses, the time reference is built in to the tense itself, whereas in compound tenses, there is more than one word used to show when an action happened or will happen. 

Present Tense:

Sentences whose verb is in the present tense shows actions taking place at the time of speaking; for example, I walk, you drive and he flies. There are a few important facts about present tense.

• The present tense can be used to talk about past events. This is known as the historical present which is used in narrative to make the story seem more immediate and vivid.

Example: They publish a newspaper every day even though their country is still under dictatorship. (Shows how newspapers are published even during dictatorial rule. )

• The present tense is also used to describe future events. To use the present tense for future events is known as the conditional or contingent present, which refers to events that might, or might not happen in the future.

Example: They will publish a newspaper every day even though their country is still under dictatorship. (Shows how newspapers would be published even during dictatorship)

• Past Tense:  Past tenses are used to talk about past events before now. The past tense indicates an action that finished at some time earlier than now; for example, He ran, you drove and she flew.

Example: He ran, you drove and she flew.

• Future Tense : The future tense is used to indicate events that will happen sometime in the future. A future event could or might not happen; for example, if I go to the market tomorrow and buy some vegetables, I could also buy some apples too; this means that the vegetables could be bought in a hypothetical context as well as we are talking about who/what is going to do it.

Example: The headline of the newspaper is : “The Daily Star” is publishing a special edition to announce the death of King George V. (This could mean that the article is going to be published in The Daily Star, or it could mean that the King has just died and this announcement will come from The Daily Star. )

Conclusion

Tenses are vital to how a sentence is expressed and interpreted by other people on an article. They are also an effective way to show how events were happening over a certain substantial period of time. A writer can use tenses to give a sense of continuity or as a way to express the action as happening in real time; for example, the present tense can be used for actions that happened in the past but have not yet finished (for example, I run each day before going home), past tense can be used for actions which have finished (for example, I ran yesterday at five thirty); and future tense is used for events that will start soon (for example, I plan to go to the market tomorrow).