![]() ![]() For certain grammatical contexts where the present tense is the standard way to refer to the future, see conditional sentences and dependent clauses below. However the same forms are quite often also used to refer to future circumstances, as in "He's coming tomorrow" (hence this tense is sometimes referred to as present-future or non-past). Present tense is used, in principle, to refer to circumstances that exist at the present time (or over a period that includes the present time) and general truths (see gnomic aspect). In English, the only tenses are past and non-past, though the term "future" is sometimes applied to periphrastic constructions involving modals such as will. Verb tenses are inflectional forms which can be used to express that something occurs in the past, present, or future. In common usage, particularly in English language teaching, particular tense–aspect–mood combinations such as "present progressive" and "conditional perfect" are often referred to simply as "tenses". ![]() ![]() The tenses, aspects and moods that may be identified in English are described below (although the terminology used differs significantly between authors). In contrast to languages like Latin, though, English has only limited means for expressing these categories through verb conjugation, and tends mostly to express them periphrastically, using the verb combinations mentioned in the previous section. (For another type of combination involving verbs – items such as go on, slip away and break off – see Phrasal verb.)Īs in many other languages, the means English uses for expressing the three categories of tense (time reference), aspect and mood are somewhat conflated (see tense–aspect–mood). The uses of the various types of combination are described in the detailed sections of the present article. As the last example shows, the words making up these combinations do not always remain consecutive.įor details of the formation of such constructions, see English clause syntax. Such combinations are sometimes called compound verbs more technically they may be called verb catenae, since they are not generally strict grammatical constituents of the clause. The first verb in such a combination is the finite verb, the remainder are nonfinite (although constructions in which even the leading verb is nonfinite are also possible – see § Perfect and progressive nonfinite constructions below). In English, verbs frequently appear in combinations containing one or more auxiliary verbs and a nonfinite form (infinitive or participle) of a main (lexical) verb. Some forms of be and of certain other auxiliary verbs also have contracted forms ( 's, 're, 've, etc.).įor full details of how these inflected forms of verbs are produced, see English verbs. The verb be has a larger number of different forms ( am, is, are, was, were, etc.), while the modal verbs have a more limited number of forms. The -ing form ( going, writing, climbing), used as a present participle, gerund, and (de)verbal noun.The past participle ( gone, written, climbed) – this is identical to the past tense in the case of regular verbs and some irregular ones (here the first two verbs are irregular and the third regular).the past tense or preterite ( went, wrote, climbed).The -s form ( goes, writes, climbs), used as the present indicative in the third-person singular.The base form or plain form ( go, write, climb), which has several uses-as an infinitive, imperative, present subjunctive, and present indicative except in the third-person singular.For non-standard dialect forms and antique forms, see individual dialect articles and the article, thou.Ī typical English verb may have five different inflected forms: For certain other particular topics, see the articles listed in the adjacent box. For the grammatical structure of clauses, including word order, see English clause syntax. The uses considered include expression of tense (time reference), aspect, mood and modality, in various configurations.įor details of how inflected forms of verbs are produced in English, see English verbs. Combinations of such forms with auxiliary verbs, such as was going and would have gone.Nonfinite forms such as (to) go, going and gone.Finite verb forms such as go, goes and went.This article describes the uses of various verb forms in modern standard English language. ![]()
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