English
March 04, 2018
Tense 2 (Past vs present tense)
Past vs present tense
Comparing past tense with present tense
Affirmative
|
Negative
|
Integrative
|
|
Present
|
You live in Spain.
|
You don’t live
in Spain.
|
Do
you live in Spain?
|
Past
|
You lived
in Spain.
|
You didn’t
live in Spain.
|
Did you live in Spain?
|
Present
|
He lives in Spain.
|
He doesn’t live
in Spain.
|
Does
he live in Spain?
|
Past
|
He lived
in Spain.
|
He didn’t
live in Spain.
|
Did he live in Spain?
|
An approach to understanding classification of tense
An easy way to understand progressive or perfect progressive
is adding -ing with the previous type. So, for now let’s focus on the following
line.
Present Tense: I write
Past Tense: I wrote
Future Tense: I shall write
Present Perfect Tense: I have written
Past Perfect Tense: I had written
Future Perfect Tense: I shall have written
Examples of present tense:
In case of regular verb:
First person
|
Second person
|
Third person
|
|
Singular
|
I write
|
You write
|
He/She/It writes
|
Plural
|
We write
|
You write
|
They write
|
For a few verbs:
First person
|
Second person
|
Third person
|
|
Singular
|
I go
|
You go
|
He/She/It goes
|
Plural
|
We go
|
You go
|
They go
|
Similarly, in case of to
be verb:
First person
|
Second person
|
Third person
|
|
Singular
|
I am
|
You are
|
He/She/It is
|
Plural
|
We are
|
You are
|
They are
|
What do past tense deal with?
Simple past
|
Events started and finished in the past
|
Progressive past (Past continuous)
|
Events that were in progress in the past
|
Past perfect
|
Event happened before a mentioned event
|
Past perfect progressive (Past perfect continuous)
|
Events continued till a mention time.
|
Examples of past tense:
Simple past
|
Two years ago, I studied English in England.
|
Progressive past (Past continuous)
|
Events that were in progress in the past
|
Past perfect
|
Event happened before a mentioned event
|
Past perfect progressive (Past perfect continuous)
|
Events continued till a mention time.
|
What do present tense deal with?
Simple present
|
General facts
a. Habits
b. Repeated
actions / unchanged situations
c. Emotions
and wishes
d. Instructions
and directions
Regular actions
a. General
truth
b. Fixed
arrangements
c. Future
time, after some conjunctions
|
Progressive present (Present continuous)
|
Continuous action in progress now
Plans or arrangement for future
|
Present perfect
|
Time unspecified past event
Past event continued till present
Never occurred event
|
Present perfect progressive (Present perfect continuous)
|
Past event continuing
|
Examples of present tense:
Simple present
|
I smoke (habit).
I work in London (unchanged situation).
London is a large city (general truth).
Walk for two hundred meters, then turn left (instruction or
direction).
Your exam starts at 9:00 (fixed arrangement).
He’ll give it to you when you come next Saturday (future time, after
some conjunction).
|
Progressive present (Present continuous)
|
|
Present perfect
|
|
Present perfect progressive (Present perfect continuous)
|
Common verbs in Simple Present tense
Infinitive
|
I, You, We, They
|
He, She, It
|
||
Assertive
|
Negative
|
Assertive
|
Negative
|
|
To ask
|
Ask
|
Do not ask
|
Asks
|
Does not ask
|
To work
|
Work
|
Do not work
|
Works
|
Does not work
|
To call
|
Call
|
Do not call
|
Calls
|
Does not call
|
To use
|
Use
|
Do not use
|
Uses
|
Does not use
|
To have
|
Have
|
Do not have
|
Has
|
Does not have
|
Observe:
A) Ex: she studies English every day.
In the example A, the verb expresses an idea of regularity.
So, in this case and pretty much no other cases, you will be
able to say that the present simple tense expresses an action that is happening
now.
I can understand that future tense is different but can’t grasp how?
As you can see, future tense has a faded difference with the
other two tenses. This is because English language explains time with respect
to past and present. Future time in English was developed later. Thought
English is not as developed in future as it is in past and present, it is still
very developed compared to some languages that do not have the use of tense at
all.
Md.Kazal Mia