http://www.englishforums.com/English/EslGeneralEnglishGrammar-Questions/Forum12.htmAsk your questions on grammar and get your sentence checked. We answer lots of different types of general English grammar questions here. <font color=red>DO NOT post paragraphs and compositions here. Post them in our <a href="http://www.englishforums.com/English/EssayReportCompositionWriting/Forum9.htm"><b>Essay, Report and Composition Writing Forum</b></a>.</font>enXMOD (Build: 3616.28671)http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#889858Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:25:05 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:889858CalifJim0http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#889858http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-889858.xmlThere is no future tense in English because we can not know the future. The Romans, on the other hand, were considerably more clairvoyant, because Latin has a future tense. CJhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#888971Sun, 06 Sep 2009 04:52:53 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:888971bettina_tragen1http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#888971http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-888971.xmlThere is no future tense in English because we can not know the future. We can only predict or expect it - based on our knowledge/understanding of the world and events/actions in a time not yet experienced - we express this future in aspects,voices and moods .http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#888956Sun, 06 Sep 2009 04:44:50 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:888956bettina_tragen2http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#888956http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-888956.xmlI&#39;m having to answer an exam question on this and the truth is very simple - there are 2 tenses in English - the past and the present - this subject has been covered many times on the site and many people are &quot;muddying the waters&quot; or seem to be confused re. definition (in linguistic terms) of the word Tense as it relates to verb usage.http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#693447Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:48:51 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:693447Anonymous3http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#693447http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-693447.xmlThere are 12 active tenses. Imperatives and the use of going to are not tenses they are uses of the verbs. There are a similar number of passive tenses where applicable. So all in all there should be 24 tenses 12 active and 12 passive. The rest is all a smoke screen.http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#581699Wed, 27 May 2009 07:37:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:581699Anonymous4http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#581699http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-581699.xmlThere are only TWO basic tenses in the English language, present and past, we do not have a future tense so we use modals. SRhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#551053Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:37:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:551053Anonymous5http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#551053http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-551053.xmlI believe 3 tenses. There is only 1. Past 2. Present 3. Future If you add perfect, progressive etc, it gets too complicated.http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#478229Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:37:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:478229Anonymous6http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/3/brxx/Post.htm#478229http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-478229.xmlPaco is right, there are only two tenses in English, the 13 combinations that you suggested are not tenses, but tense+aspect(s).http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#470316Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:37:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:470316Anonymous7http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#470316http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-470316.xmlthere are 12 tenses. and most important is 7 tenses....starting 6.....then Future Simple.http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#151446Wed, 27 May 2009 07:37:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:151446CalifJim8http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#151446http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-151446.xmlHow many tenses are there in English? Two: Present and Past. Everything else is aspect (progressive, perfect), voice (active, passive), and modality (will, would, ...). In an alternate point of view, all variants of aspect and voice and of the modals "will" and "would" are considered tenses. 2 "Tenses" x 4 aspects (simple, progressive, perfect, perfect progressive) x 2 voices x 2 modalities ("will", "would") = 32 tenses. takes, is taking, has taken, has been taking, took, was taking, had taken, had been taking, will take, will be taking, will have taken, will have been taking, would take, would be taking, would have taken, would have been taking, is taken, is being taken, has been taken, has been being taken,...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#151337Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:37:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:151337Anonymous9http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#151337http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-151337.xmlThere are 12 tenses in englishhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#128875Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:37:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:128875Anonymous10http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#128875http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-128875.xmlDear Sir, There are four types of tenses in English. Yours, Arvindhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#116569Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:37:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:116569viognier11http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#116569http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-116569.xmlHi paco again. Thank you Very Much! As to Future tense in Old English I'd like to study later as it's not my long suit (not even my short suit). As to the description in , I find it quite difficult to argue against it. But as I said I take a typological standpoint. It has different criteria. Please let me introduce a part of its criteria (although my quote needs further explanation and means absolutely nothing as it stands...I know it very well). The following is the definition of of an arbitrary language L: for preciseness' sake I quote it in French translation (original was in Russian): --------------------------------------------------------- D&#233;finition I.30: cat&#233;gorie flexionnelle Soit une cat&#233;gorie C...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#116532Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:37:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:116532paco200412http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#116532http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-116532.xmlHello Here is some information I got online Future Tense in Old English And now finally a few irregular verbs, which used several diffefrent stems for their tenses. These verbs are very important in Old English and are met very often in the texts: wesan (to be), béon (to be), gán (to go), dón (to do), willan (will). Mind that there was no future tense in the Old English language, and the future action was expressed by the Present forms, just sometimes using verbs of modality, willan (lit. "to wish to do") or sculan (lit. "to have to do"). http://www.helsinki.fi/~mpalande/meaning_of_tense_and_aspect.html" target="_blank" title=" http://www.helsinki.fi/~mpalande/meaning_of_tense_and_aspect.html"> English Tenses and Aspects...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#116516Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:37:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:116516viognier13http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#116516http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-116516.xmlHi paco First of all, from your previous posts I reckon you as a linguistic expert. I was just interested in your view. And second, I'm not a linguistic expert. I was into Mel'čuk's theory .. kind of.. It's a consistent system of terms, clearly defined by meta-language (according to the author). I made a comment above, just out of curiosity, interest; plus I wanted to make my thought clearer. That's all. But actually I know almost nothing about historical development of the English language. And as an afterthought I think: Mel'čuk and Bybee (among others) take a typological standpoint toward grammatical categories. I'm afraid it would be off-topic here. I'm telling myself: what's wrong with Pemmican's list..?http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#116490Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:37:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:116490paco200414http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#116490http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-116490.xmlHello Viognier First of all, please understand I am not a linguistic expert. So I have no intention to contest with you about this kind of professional subject. As you also know, there are many opinions about the concept of "tense" among experts. Some experts take the term "tenses" as grammatical categories expressed by verbal morphemes. But other experts think English tenses are partly made by verbal morphemes and partly by the use of auxiliary verbs. To me, the two-tense concept is convenient to understand the historical development of the English language. The theory seems to be good to give reasons to the question why English has developed a variety of collocations to describe future events. pacohttp://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#116483Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:37:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:116483viognier15http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/2/brxx/Post.htm#116483http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-116483.xmlHi paco. I would be pleased to explain to you what I wrote. It is entirely based on Mel'čuk (+Bybee et all 1994)'s theory, though. I find it rather complicated, so can I ask you some question about your view first? You wrote: ........................................................................ 　If one defines it as morphemes of verbs, English has only two tenses: past and present. ........................................................................ From this I thought you took "tense" as an opposition of inflectional forms of verb. Don't you accept that English has a future 'tense' (I mean in particular will+inf. form here) ?? (As you know, this question is far more complicated than it looks. Please give me...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#116476Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:37:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:116476paco200416http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#116476http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-116476.xmlHello Viognier viognier wrote: Dealing with some grammatical category of verb, we not necessarily have to confine "morphological (=grammaticalized) forms in "inflectional" one, I think. I'm sorry but I couldn't get well what you are saying. Could you explain it in a more detailed way? pacohttp://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#116411Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:37:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:116411viognier17http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#116411http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-116411.xmlThank you Very Much, Eimai_Anglos. Writing this sentence, I wasn't sure at all about its correctness ：）, so I'm really glad to get your kind help! Very cheery day or evening to you ;-)http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#116374Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:37:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:116374Eimai_Anglos18http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#116374http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-116374.xmlQUOTE: we not necessarily have to... We do not necessarily have to... (No idea why, but that's how we would say it!)http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#116063Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:37:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:116063viognier19http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#116063http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-116063.xmlHi Pemmican ;-) You could add: m') Going-to-Future in the past ....................... was/were going to + infinitive m) Going-to-Future ...................................... am/is/are going to + infinitive m'') Going-to-Future in the future .................... will be going to + infinitive We may add: n)Habituality in the past ...............................used to + infinitive Hi paco ：） I agree with your first sentence. As to second one, I respectfully and faithfully disagree with you. Dealing with some grammatical category of verb, we not necessarily have to confine "morphological (=grammaticalized) forms in "inflectional" one, I think. And my argument is based on "Cours de morphologie g&#233;n&#233;rale."...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#115995Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:37:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:115995paco200420http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#115995http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-115995.xmlThe number of English tenses depends on how one defines "tense". If one defines it as morphemes of verbs, English has only two tenses: past and present. pacohttp://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#115944Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:37:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:115944Anonymous21http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#115944http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-115944.xmlPemmican wrote: As far as I know, there are these 13 tenses: a) Past Perfect Progressive ........................had been + present participle b) Past Perfect ..........................................had + past participle c) Past Progressive ...................................was/were + present participle d) Simple Past ..........................................past tense form e) Present Perfect Progressive ...................have/has been + present participle f) Present Perfect .....................................have/has + past participle g)Present Progressive .................................am/is/are + present participle h)Simple Present ........................................present tense form = almost same form as...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#5192Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:37:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:5192moijelesuis22http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#5192http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-5192.xmlgood answer pemmican regarding the conditionals... the same can be said for the all but (sadly) extinct subjunctive in english (which is present tense, except for "were", the past subjunctive of "to be")http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#5184Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:37:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:5184Pemmican23http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htm#5184http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-5184.xmlAs far as I know, there are these 13 tenses: a) Past Perfect Progressive ........................had been + present participle b) Past Perfect ..........................................had + past participle c) Past Progressive ...................................was/were + present participle d) Simple Past ..........................................past tense form e) Present Perfect Progressive ...................have/has been + present participle f) Present Perfect .....................................have/has + past participle g)Present Progressive .................................am/is/are + present participle h)Simple Present ........................................present tense form = almost same form as infinitive...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htmFri, 27 Feb 2009 08:37:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:5165Guest24http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowManyTensesInEnglish/brxx/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-5165.xmlhow many tenses are there in english?