Description of the english verb system

1. Mihai ION ● Basic English Morphology
The English Verb System
Tense vs. Time
Tense is the linguistic reference to objective time (extra-linguistic concept). In other words,
tense belongs to LANGUAGE, while time belongs to REALITY. Tense is the grammatical
expression of location in time: it expresses time relation with respect to the Speech Time
(NOW). For example, Past tense refers to an action/state prior to the moment of speaking
(NOW), Present tense refers to an action/state simultaneous with the moment of speaking
(NOW), whereas Future tense refers to an action/state subsequent to the same moment of
speaking.
2.
Tense vs. Aspect
Aspect reflects the status of the action with respect to duration (continuous/non-continuous)
and/or result (perfect/non-perfect). It is the subjective point of view relative to time. On the
contrary, tense reflects the exact, objective position in time of an action/state expressed by
the verb. Consequently, the English verb cannot be conceived without either tense or aspect
information, the same way as a coin cannot be possibly imagined without either heads or
tails.
Depending on the presence/lack of information displayed by the verb relative to duration
and/or result, the English language identifies four distinct aspects:
REALITY
time
tense
LANGUAGE
Remember
TENSE → external/objective time
ASPECT → internal/subjective time

2. Mihai ION ● Basic English Morphology
a. simple [- duration/ - result]
● (no information about the action)
Form: V/V-s, V-ed/V2, will/would V
b. continuous [+ duration/ - result]
(action in progress)
Form: BE + V-ing
c. perfect [- duration/ + result]
(looking back at an action)
Form: HAVE + V-ed/V3
d. perfect continuous [+ duration/ + result]
(looking back at an action in progress)
Form: HAVE + BEEN + V-ing
Tenses in English
As there are three tenses (1. present, 2. past, 3. future) and four aspects (a. simple, b.
continuous, c. perfect, d. perfect continuous), and a verb is a combination of these two
grammatical categories (as seen above), it follows that the English verb system displays 3 x 4
= 12 distinct forms (or tenses):
1.a. Present simple
V/V-s (3rd pers. singular)
e.g. you write, he writes
1.b. Present continuous
BE (present) + V-ing
e.g. you are writing, he is writing
1.c. Present perfect
HAVE (present) + V-ed/V3
e.g. you have worked, he has written

3. Mihai ION ● Basic English Morphology
1.d. Present perfect continuous
HAVE (present) + V3/BE + Ving
BEEN
e.g. you have been writing, he has been writing
2.a. Past simple
V-ed/V2
e.g. you worked, he wrote
2.b. Past continuous
BE (past) + V-ing
e.g. you were writing, he was writing
2.c. Past perfect
HAVE (past) + V-ed/V3
e.g. you had worked, he had written
2.d. Past perfect continuous
HAVE (past) + V3/BE + Ving
BEEN
e.g. you had been writing
3.a. Future simple
will V
e.g. you will write
3.b. Future continuous
BE (future) + V-ing
e.g. you will be writing
3.c. Future perfect
HAVE (future) + V-ed/V3
e.g. you will have written
3.d. Future perfect continuous
HAVE (future) + V3/BE + Ving
BEEN
e.g. you will have been writing
4.a. Future-in-the-past simple
would V
e.g. he said/ you would write
4.b. Future-in-the-past continuous
BE (future-in-the-past) + V-ing
e.g. he said/ you would be writing
Remember
The English verb system observes a specific rule called The Sequence of Tenses
(Corespondenţa timpurilor), which states that if the verb in the main clause (=
propoziţie principală) is in the past, then the verb in the subordinate clause (=
propoziţie subordonată) referring to a future event MUST be in the future-in-the-
past (viitor din perspectiva trecutului - timp inexistent în limba română!).
The auxiliary for future-in-the-past is will + -ed = would

4. Mihai ION ● Basic English Morphology
4.c. Future-in-the-past perfect
HAVE (future-in-the-past) + V-ed/V3
e.g. he said/ you would have written
4.d. Future-in-the-past perfect continuous
HAVE (future-in-the-past) + V3/BE + Ving
BEEN
e.g. he said/ you would have been writing
Now, the English verb system has gained another four tenses for a total of 16 distinct forms.
Below you can see a diagram of the English verb system, intended to serve you as a visual
aid in your learning process, and to offer you an instant, overall picture of the relationships
established among tenses. For didactic reasons (the diagram would be too complicated), the
continuous aspect has been left out.
You should notice that HAVE, DO and WILL are the three major auxiliaries which position
the action/state in time relative to the speech moment (now). Another major auxiliary, BE, is
responsible for either presenting the action in progress, or turning a statement into the passive
(i.e. switching position between the subject and the object of the sentence, as in the example
above: the furniture, object in the active [what?], becomes subject in the passive [who?]).
Also, it is important to remember that you cannot use WILL (the auxiliary of future) in time
and condition clauses (= subordonate temporale şi condiţionale), introduced by any of those
words in parentheses. Instead, you must always use the tenses in the diagram indicated by the
arrows.