How many tenses are there in English language?

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Jackson6612

#346334 Mon, 02 Apr 07 03:03 PM

I was told that there are twelve tenses in English:

1: Simple Present Tense

2: Present Perfect Tense

3: Present Progressive Tense

4: Present Perfect Progressive Tense

5: Simple Past Tense

6: Past Perfect Tense

7: Past Progressive Tense

8: Past Perfect Progressive Tense

9: Simple Future Tense

10: Future Perfect Tense

11: Future Progressive Tense

12: Future Perfect Progressive Tense

But I read somewhere that total number of tenses in English is six or seven. Is this true?

Jackson6612

Joined on Wed, Dec 27 2006

Senior Member (2,890)

NOTE: When you reply to my post, please look for mistakes in grammar, syntax or punctuation, and let me know of any suggestions you have. Thank you.

Simple present, Present progressive, Tenses, Numbers, Present tenses, Past perfect, Simple past, Present perfect, Past tenses, Perfect progressive, Future progressive

Bldudas

#346337 Mon, 02 Apr 07 03:07 PM

I think there are only six tenses: present, preterite, future, present perfect, past perfect, future perfect.

Bldudas

Joined on Mon, Apr 2 2007

Pennsylvania, United States

New Member (49)

I speak American English. Well, actually, a version of Philadelphia area English.

Tenses, Past perfect, Present perfect

Bird Of Paradise

#346939 Tue, 03 Apr 07 08:25 PM

There are TWO tenses in English language; present and past. There is no future tense. Let me clarify it.
What is tense? Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines tense as: Any of the forms of a verb that may be used to show the time of the action or state expressed by the verb.
Now what is time? Time is a universal concept with three divisions: present, past and future. Now look at the forms of the verb. Each main verb in English language has six different forms. e.g. Go:
1. Go = Base form
2. go = general present
3. goes = 3rd person singular
4. went = past
5. going = presnet participle
6. gone = past participle
All the above six forms refer either to present time or to past time. There is no form of the verb which can refer to future time. Then how can we say that there is future tense? There is no future tense, rather we show future aspect with certain auxiliary verbs or with the help of present tense.

Bird Of Paradise

Joined on Thu, Feb 15 2007

Junior Member (99)

I would appreciate it if anyone would correct my grammar mistakes if there are any. ( Even in this sentence.) TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE,

Verbs, Tenses, Auxiliaries, Present tenses

CalifJim

#346999 Wed, 04 Apr 07 12:08 AM

Strictly speaking there are only two tenses, but the idea of tense is usually extended to include aspect and voice.

Tenses: Present, Past.
Aspects: Simple, Perfect, Progressive, Perfect Progressive
Voices: Active, Passive

Each tense can be expressed in all four aspect possibilities, so there are 8 tenses, not considering voice. Each of these 8 can be expressed in two voices, so the total number of tenses (so far) is 16.

If we add combinations with the modals (will, would, can, could, ...), the number of tenses increases considerably! Each modal can be used with the 4 aspects and 2 voices. Typically only the modal will is included in the count (I don't know why! would seems equally useful, for example, in indicating time relationships.), so this adds 8 more tenses for a total of 24 tenses. If we extend the count by including the 8 tenses which can be formed with would, we have 32 tenses in all.

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (16,555)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Tenses, Numbers, Modals, Perfect progressive

Jackson6612

#347001 Wed, 04 Apr 07 12:24 AM

Each modal can be used with the 4 aspects and 2 voices. Typically only the modal will is included in the count (I don't know why! would seems equally useful, for example, in indicating time relationships.), so this adds 8 more tenses for a total of 24 tenses. If we extend the count by including the 8 tenses which can be formed with would, we have 32 tenses in all.

Please explain the above paragraph. Thank you.

Jackson6612

Tenses, Modals, Paragraphs

milky

#347010 Wed, 04 Apr 07 01:20 AM

There are two.

milky

Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004

Senior Member (3,149)

Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".

Tenses

Jackson6612

#350120 Thu, 12 Apr 07 11:11 PM

Please explain the above paragraph. Thank you.

Jackson6612

Tenses, Modals, Paragraphs

CalifJim

#350160 Fri, 13 Apr 07 01:55 AM

Please explain the above paragraph. Thank you.

will used with the 4 aspect combinations in active voice:

will take, will be taking, will have taken, will have been taking.

The same 4 in passive voice:

will be taken, will be being taken, will have been taken, will have been being taken.

so that adds 8 more tenses to the 16 previously explained. 16 + 8 = 24.

___________

If you substitute would for will in the 8 patterns shown above you'll get another 8.
If you substitute could for will in the 8 patterns shown above you'll get another 8.
If you substitute should for will in the 8 patterns shown above you'll get another 8.
And so on. It would be very unusual to see these extra patterns called tenses.

___________

As it is, 24 is the count usually given -- at least in some of the books I've seen that list them -- but these 24 'tenses" are 24 verb phrase patterns that include factors other than the two principal Tenses.

By the way, the 12 you mentioned in your first post in this thread are the 12 tenses of the active voice. All you need to do is add the same 12 patterns in the passive voice to get the total 24.

___________

You will find websites that use the term 'tense' quite loosely, giving the name 'tense' to constructions such as "used to", for example.

CJ

CalifJim

Verbs, Constructions, Tenses, Paragraphs

Jackson6612

#350274 Fri, 13 Apr 07 08:52 AM

CalifJim, I know you are absolutely correct but don't you feel it somewhat weird that there are only two tenses, Present and Past, in English language? Naturally when I think about the tenses in any language, I come to the conclusion that there should be at least three tenses Present, Past, and Future.

Jackson6612

Tenses

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