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       3.5a2 - Tenses

Time can be thought of as a straight line, with the present instant being a point moving forward along it.

However, present tenses do not necessarily pinpoint instants; in most statements they refer to periods of time instead. Events and activities are viewed as "present" as long as they are ongoing, and are moved to the past only after completion.

"My niece studies Chinese" does not mean that she is actually studying it right now. It means that her learning that language is in progress.

• Our parents live in Bulgaria.
  They might actually be in Greece on holidays. Nonetheless, their permanent home is in Bulgaria; they'll eventually return to that country.
  Indicative mode is used because facts are reported - no psychological overtones implied.
  Click on  to see the present indicative conjugation.
• We suggest that she forget about such a suitor.
  "That she forget ..." is not a matter-of-fact statement, it is a recommendation. So subjunctive mode is used⁽¹⁾. 
• Peter always carries an umbrella to shelter himself in case of rain,
  Here we have an infinitive mode in the present tense. The term "present" differentiates this form from "to have sheltered", which is the past tense of the infinitive (also named perfect infinitive in Alexander, p. 299). It is found in sentences like:
    I remember to have sheltered⁽²⁾ the flowers before the storm started.

  In spite of infinitive forms being termed present and past, the infinitive mode is not directly linked to the time flow. The clause is set in past, present or future forms by the verb in indicative mode which supports the infinitive. In the foregoing example the supporting verbs are "I remember" and "the storm started": the sheltering of the flowers took place before the storm, hence the past infinitive.

• He said that he would take the job for a salary higher than the one on offer.
  This is a multi-clause statement - discussed in Part 4, with would take in conditional mode / present tense. 

  The sentence is framed in the past: the job offer was made some time ago ("said" as opposed to "says"). Yet the conditional segment would take is present tense (past conditional is would have taken) because the willingness to accept a higher offer stays latent: the job is agreed with, but inadequate pay prospects get in the way of full acceptance.

  But, more generally, something happening in the past may display a present conditional because, in a multi-clause sentence, the baseline for viewing time as past, present, or future is set by verbs within the main clause, with verbs in subordinate clauses adjusting their tenses to the baseline perspective.

• The winning horse was 2 years old.
  "Winning" is participle mode, present tense of verb "to win" .

  Participle mode has two tenses:

  • present ("winning", "singing", "walking" ...)
  • past ("won", "sung", "walked").
• The winning of a minor scuffle restored the morale of the troops.
  Although the word is the same, here "winning" is the present tense of the gerund mode.
  This sentence could be re-written in past gerund:
    Having won a minor scuffle restored the morale of the troops.

  Beyond being verbs performing as nouns, gerunds do sometimes give birth to full-fledged nouns. In:

  1. "They thought of undertaking a new project".

  "undertaking" is a gerund, but in:

  2. "This is a worthy undertaking which benefits all of us".
  "undertaking" is a noun bundled with article "a" and qualifier "worthy".
  Past Tense

  Past indicative diversifies into:

  1. simple past
     Example:

     Your children played with mine in the park.

     Rule: add "-ed" to verb root

  2. present perfect
     Example:

     Your children have played with mine in the park.

     Rule: use present tense of "to have" and add past participle

     This past form still has some impact on how things are now. For example, "I have had tea" may imply that it is to early for me to drink another tea. With "I've learned Greek", an enduring difference was produced in me: now I have a knowledge or an expertise that before I lacked.
  3. past perfect
     Example:

     Your children had already played with mine in the park ... [when the rain began to fall].

     Rule: take the simple past of "to have" and add the past participle

     This tense can't stand alone. You can't just say, "I had phoned Marvin"; you must add something like "... long before hearing the news".
     A sequence is established: FIRST something happened, THEN something else did.

  In b) and c) "to be" may be employed instead of "to have" - or both "to be" and "to have" may apply, possibly resulting in different meanings. Consider these examples:

  • Present perfect with both "to have" and "to be":
    • I have done ...
      an object is expected: I have done ... the dishes
    • I am done.
      No object is expected (intransitive use).
  • Past perfect with both "to have" and "to be":
    • I had done...
      in a two-clause sentence: When Mathilda came to see us, I had already done the dishes
    • I was done.
      When she came to see us, I was already done [with whatever I was busy doing].

  When "to be" and "to have" support the construction of compound⁽³⁾ past forms, they don't function as self-standing verbs but rather as auxiliary verbs (see 3.5b).

  The table below presents past forms for the remaining modes (click on green dots for details.)

  	Tenses		PRESENT	PAST
  	Modes
  	Infinitive		To play	To have played
  	Participle		Playing	Played
  	Gerund		Playing	Having played
  	Subjunctive		Play	Played
  	Conditional		Would play	Would have played
  	Imperative		Play!	--none

  Future Tense

  In indicative, statements on future events / situations make use of the following tenses:

  1. simple future
     Example:

     Your children will certainly play with ours at Sue's party.

     Rule: add "shall" or "will" to verb root
     [see Alexander p. 178 to discriminate between "shall" and "will", to see how "will" contracts to "'ll" in spoken and informal written language. Other contractions are found at p. 189 ("aren't, "isn't""), p. 203 ("he's", "he'd"), 280 ("I'd have").
     In a nutshell, "shall" can be used only with the persons "I" and "we". "Will" can be used with all persons ("I" and "we" included).]

  2. future perfect
     Example:

     By the time the party is over, your children shall have played with ours.

     (You know children: they are shy at the beginning.)

     Rule: add simple future of "to have" to past participle of verb to be set to future perfect. [Alexander, p. 181]

  3. round-about ways
     Examples:

     Our children are going to play with yours [... or else, no TV for them today!]
     Our children are about to play with yours.
     Our children are to play with yours.
         [For more on this, see Alexander, p. 183.]

  Finally, if you wonder whether modes and tenses are similar in all languages, the short answer is no.

  Matter-of-fact reporting (indicative mode) is quite different from impassioned utterances (imperative mode, subjunctive mode). Virtually all languages recognise this.

  Tenses - broadly defined as "past", "present" and "future" - can also be detected in any language.

  But nuances and sub-tenses vary greatly. Subjunctive mode has two tenses (present & past) in English and four in Italian:

  • "(Lei) crede che (io) nasconda il suo giornale."
    [congiuntivo presente — Meaning: "She believes that I'm hiding her newspaper"]
  • "Credeva che nascondessi il suo giornale."
    [congiuntivo imperfetto — Meaning: "She was believing that I was hiding her paper"]
  • "Crede che abbia nascosto il suo giornale."
    [congiuntivo perfetto — Meaning: "She believes that I have hidden her paper"]
  • "Credeva che avessi nascosto il suo giornale."
    [congiuntivo più che perfetto — Meaning: "She believed that I had hidden her paper" ]

  Note that Italian subjunctive forms are rendered in indicative by the translations above, because subjunctive is rarely used in English.

  Latin, Spanish and Italian have convoluted rules (called consecutio temporum - sequence of tenses) for linking tenses in subordinate clauses depending on a main clause.

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  FOOTNOTES
   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  (1) — In English, subjunctive mode is often just an option. Alternative expressions are available.
  Using modals:
    "We suggest that she should forget about such a suitor"
  Using plain indicative:
    "We suggest that she forgets about such a suitor".

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  (2) — Note that, after some verbs (e.g. to help), the "to" particle may be removed from the infinitive and after some other verbs (modals, let) it must be. Examples:

    She helps me arrange the flowers. [instead of "to arrange"]

    Philip lets me take his car to go to work. [instead of "to take"]

  This form is called bare infinitive and Alexander deals with it on p. 299.

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  (3) — "Compound" (or "composite") verbal forms join a fundamental verb and an auxiliary verb.
  In I have done, the basic verb ("to do") joins the auxiliary "to have".

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