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Linguistics & Grammar vocabulary · Tense, Aspect and Verb Forms

Tense

Meaning in linguistics & grammar, with examples

/tens/nounCore term

In linguistics & grammar, tense means: A grammatical category, shown by the form of the verb, that places an event in time relative to the moment of speaking, such as present or past.

In Turkish: zaman, dilbilgisel zaman

How it is used

Teachers use tense for all the verb patterns in a coursebook (the present perfect tense, the twelve tenses). Many linguists say English marks only two tenses on the verb, present and past, and treat the rest as aspect or modality.

Example sentences

  1. 'She walked' and 'she walks' differ in tense: past versus present.

  2. English has no future tense ending; it uses will, be going to or the present continuous instead.

Common collocations

  • past tense
  • present tense
  • tense and aspect
  • verb tense
  • sequence of tenses
  • aspectA grammatical category that shows how an action unfolds in time, for example whether it is ongoing, completed or repeated, rather than when it happens.
  • present perfectA verb form made with have or has plus a past participle, used to link a past action or state to the present, as in 'I have lost my keys'.
  • progressive aspectThe verb form made with be plus the -ing form, used to show that an action is in progress, temporary or unfinished at a certain time, as in 'She is working'.
  • verbA word that shows an action, event or state, such as run, become or know; in English it changes its form to show tense and agreement.
  • auxiliary verbA verb used with a main verb to form tenses, questions, negatives and the passive, mainly be, have and do, plus modal verbs such as can and will.

More terms: Tense, Aspect and Verb Forms

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