Verbs have been called the “action words” in an English sentence, and they actually have 5 separate characteristics:

 .      Number - how many perform the action, one or more?

2.     Person – who performs the action (“I” – “you” – “They”)

3.     Voice – active or passive (more on this in a later column)

4.     Mood – a statement (indicative mood), a question (interrogative mood), a command (imperative), or a hypothetical (subjunctive mood)

5.     Tense – the time and nature of an action (completed or ongoing)

 In this month’s column, I’ll discuss verb tense.

At first, it seems simple.  The action in a sentence can occur in only three time frames: past, present, or future.  Therefore, a verb has only 3 “core” tenses.

Past: “Yesterday I played tennis.”

Present: “Today I play tennis.”

Future: “Tomorrow I will play tennis.”

Indeed, these basic verb structures are called the “Simple” family of tenses.  They certainly indicate time, but they tell us nothing about the NATURE of the action.   For example, we cannot tell if I am still playing tennis or if I’ve finished the game!  To convey this sort of information, we must use one of the other tense “families”:

1     1. Simple family - as discussed above

2.  2. Perfect family – indicates completed action

3.  3. Progressive family (also called the Continuous family) – indicates ongoing action

4.  4. Perfect Progressive family – indicates an action that was begun in the past but completed in the present or future.

The technical name for what I’ve called verb “families” is actually the ASPECT of a verb.  Note that each aspect (or “family”) has 3 possible time frames: past, present, or future.  SO, THIS ACTUALLY RESULTS IN A TOTAL OF 12 VERB TENSES IN ENGLISH (4 “aspects” X 3 time frames for each aspect = 12).

I’ve written a concise 2-page guide to verb tense.  This guide gives a brief description of each of the 12 tenses with accompanying example sentences.  I’ll be happy to share it with any Cafetalk student at no charge.  Simply contact me on SKYPE at aheff97 to request your copy.  Of course, you can also contact me directly through Cafetalk.  

 For now, here’s an example sentence that utilizes the Future Perfect Progressive Tense:

 “Next Thursday, I will have been working here for ten years.”

Note that:

1.       the action occurs in the future (next Thursday) - FUTURE

2.       the action will be completed (I will complete 10 years of working) - PERFECT

3.       the action is ongoing (I’m still working here) - PROGRESSIVE

      Thus, "will have been working" is an example of the Future Perfect Progressive tense!  

       I hope you've found this useful.  See you next month!

        Art