Section 10.5 Tense: Locating Events in Time
Ask most people how many tenses English has and they will say three: past, present, and future. That intuition makes sense—we can certainly talk about past, present, and future events—but it reflects an understanding of time, not of tense. Tense and time are related but not the same thing, and getting this distinction right is one of the most important conceptual moves in this chapter.
Tense is a grammatical category that locates situations in time, typically marked by verb inflection.
Tense vs. Time.
Tense is grammatical—a form of the verb.
Time is conceptual—when something actually happens.
English has only two morphological tenses: present and past. Future time is expressed through modals and aspect, not a distinct verb form.
The table below shows what is actually marked on English verbs. Notice that "future" requires a modal—there is no future inflection the way there is a past -ed:
| Tense | Marked by | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present | base form or -s | walk, walks |
| Past | -ed or irregular form | walked, went |
| Future | modal will (no inflection) | will walk |
