Tense, Aspect & Mood

Aspect

Aspect is how a verb phrase presents an action: as a whole, as completed before a certain moment, or as still in progress. English builds it with helping verbs, so you can read the aspect from the words of the verb phrase.

What you’ll learn

Tell aspect apart from tense
Read the aspect of a verb phrase from its helping verbs
Say what each aspect shows about an action, using a reference point
Tell the perfect and the progressive from the passive and from -ing or -ed look-alikes
Give the aspect of a modal verb phrase, which has no tense

Aspect: how the action is viewed

Most verb phrases have a tense, and it is in the form of the first verb (see Tense). Every verb phrase also has an aspect: how the sentence views the action. Is it one complete action? Was it finished before a certain moment? Was it still going on?

That moment is the reference point: the time the sentence looks from. In the table below, the reference point is the moment Omar arrived. All four sentences are in the past tense, so only the aspect changes. Each verb phrase has its own aspect: arrived is simple in every row, and only Marta’s verb phrase changes.

Aspect	Example, and how the action is viewed
Simple	When Omar arrived, Marta painted the kitchen. As a whole, from start to finish. Here the painting came after he arrived.
Perfect	When Omar arrived, Marta had painted the kitchen. Completed before the reference point. The kitchen was already painted.
Progressive	When Omar arrived, Marta was painting the kitchen. In progress at the reference point. She was in the middle of it.
Perfect progressive	When Omar arrived, Marta had been painting the kitchen for hours. In progress up to the reference point. It started earlier and was still going on.

A timeline shows the same four views. The aspect is the shape of the action. The reference point is in the past here, because all four sentences are in the past tense.

The four aspects on a timeline. The dashed line is the reference point, the moment Omar arrived. A cross is a whole action; a wavy line is an action in progress.

Read the aspect from the helping verbs

English builds aspect with helping verbs. Each helper also decides the form of the next verb. After have comes a past participle (VBN). After a progressive be comes an -ing form (VBG).

Aspect	Helpers	Examples
Simple	none (or do, does, did)	paints, painted, did paint, will paint
Perfect	have + past participle	has painted, had painted, will have painted
Progressive	be + -ing form	is painting, was painting, will be painting
Perfect progressive	have + been + -ing form	has been painting, had been painting, will have been painting

Each aspect joins each of the three tenses, which makes twelve forms. The Tense & Aspect Chart puts them side by side. Here, work through one example: Priya has been learning Korean.

Find the verb phrase
The verb with all its helpers: has been learning.
Look for have + a past participle
has been: been is the past participle of be. So the phrase is perfect.
Look for be + an -ing form
been learning: a form of be, then an -ing form. So the phrase is also progressive.
Put the answers together
Perfect and progressive make the perfect progressive. With only one of the two, the phrase is perfect or progressive; with neither, it is simple. The first word, has, is a present form, so the full name is the present perfect progressive.

“Priya has been learning Korean.”

Reed-Kellogg — every helper stays in the verb slot

nsubj Nominal subject
aux Auxiliary
ROOT Root of the sentence
dobj Direct object

Dependency — has and been both hang from learning as aux

Comparing the two views

Reed-Kellogg writes has been learning as one text in the verb slot. It does this with every verb phrase, so the diagram never shows aspect. The tree splits the phrase: has and been both hang from learning as aux, but it does not name the aspect either. Read the aspect from the words and their tags: has + been (VBN) is perfect, and been + learning (VBG) is progressive.

The tree shows the two jobs of been. Above, been comes before the -ing form learning, and it is aux. Below, it comes before the past participle sold, and it is auxpass, the passive helper.

“The tickets have been sold.”

det Determiner
nsubjpass Passive nominal subject
aux Auxiliary
auxpass Passive auxiliary
ROOT Root of the sentence

Dependency — been before a past participle is auxpass, the passive helper

A passive can be progressive too. In The museum is being renovated, is being is be + an -ing form, and being renovated is the passive: present progressive, passive. The Tense & Aspect Chart shows every passive form.

Simple: the action as a whole

A simple verb phrase has no have + past participle and no be + -ing form. Usually it is one word: Pedro drinks coffee every morning. The plane landed at six. It presents the action as a whole: one event, a habit, a fact or a state.

Some simple verb phrases have a helper that adds no aspect. The helpers do, does and did form questions and negatives: Did Carlos cook dinner? In a positive statement, do, does or did + a base form adds emphasis: But Carlos did cook dinner! This is called the emphatic form.

The helper will adds no aspect either. With only the main verb after it, the phrase is simple: The pharmacy will open at nine is in the simple future (see the future). With have or be after will, read those helpers as usual: will have painted is perfect, and will be painting is progressive.

In the chips on this page, only the verbs keep their tags, and a ring marks the word to look at. Here cook is a base form (VB), not a past participle or an -ing form, so the aspect is simple. The tense is on did (VBD).

Carlosdid (^VBD)notcook (^VB, ringed)dinner.

Perfect: completed before a reference point

The perfect is a form of have + a past participle (VBN): has stopped, had left, will have read.

The perfect looks back from the reference point at something that came before it. Usually that is a completed action. With since or for, it can also be a situation that started earlier and is still true. The tense of the first verb places the reference point:

present perfect, before now: The rain has stopped. We can go out.
past perfect, before a past moment: By eight, the guests had left.
future perfect, before a future moment: By Monday, Luis will have read the whole book.

Therainhas (^VBZ)stopped (^VBN, ringed).

The present perfect looks back from now. So it is not used with a finished past time, such as yesterday, last year or two days ago. Use the simple past there: Andrés visited Popayán last year, not ✗ Andrés has visited Popayán last year. With no finished time, the perfect is right: Andrés has visited Popayán twice.

Traditional grammar calls these forms the present-perfect, past-perfect and future-perfect tenses. Here the perfect is an aspect that joins any tense. The Tense & Aspect Chart shows how the two ways of counting match.

Progressive: in progress at a reference point

The progressive is a form of be + an -ing form (VBG): is writing, were having, will be driving. Many textbooks call the progressive the continuous.

The action is in progress at the reference point, and it is often temporary:

present progressive, now: Nina is writing an email.
past progressive, at a past moment: At eight, we were having dinner.
future progressive, at a future moment: At noon tomorrow, I will be driving to Medellín.

Ninais (^VBZ)writing (^VBG, ringed)anemail.

A present progressive can also talk about the future: We are visiting Cartagena next week. The filters go by form, so this is still the present progressive (see tense and time).

Perfect progressive: in progress up to a reference point

The perfect progressive joins both patterns: have + been + an -ing form. In have been walking, have been is the perfect and been walking is the progressive. Textbooks also call it the perfect continuous.

The action has been in progress up to the reference point. The sentence often says for how long:

present perfect progressive, up to now: We have been walking for an hour.
past perfect progressive, up to a past moment: When Omar arrived, Marta had been painting the kitchen for hours.
future perfect progressive, up to a future moment: By July, Andrés will have been working here for a year.

In the chips, the ringed been does two jobs. It is the past participle after have, and it is the be before walking.

Wehave (^VBP)been (^VBN, ringed)walking (^VBG)foranhour.

Look-alikes that are not perfect or progressive

The perfect needs have + a past participle in the same verb phrase. The progressive needs be + an -ing form. A sentence can contain has, an -ing word or an -ed word and still have neither. Every verb phrase in this table is simple:

Sentence	Looks like	Why it is simple
Sofia has two sisters.	perfect	has is the main verb, with an object. No past participle follows it.
Nina has got a new bike.	perfect	have got means have. The app reads it as simple present.
Luis keeps losing his phone.	progressive	There is no be, and losing is a participle that completes keeps.
Cooking relaxes my father.	progressive	Cooking is a gerund: a noun, and the subject.
Nobody woke the sleeping baby.	progressive	sleeping is a participle that describes baby.
The film was boring.	progressive	boring is an adjective, like long or sad.
I am tired.	perfect or passive	tired is an adjective, like sleepy.

Several earlier pages practise with the sentence Santiago has a nice watch. It works the same way: has is the main verb, so the verb phrase is simple present.

Tags alone cannot decide. Below, losing is VBG, the same tag as a progressive -ing form, but it is not progressive: no be comes before it. The whole verb phrase is keeps, and losing his phone is a participial phrase that completes it (see Participles).

Luiskeeps (^VBZ)losing (^VBG, ringed)hisphone.

Modal verb phrases: an aspect but no tense

A modal such as can, could, may, might, must, should or would gives its verb phrase no tense in this app (see Tense). The modals will and shall are different: they make the future tense.

The helpers after the modal still build an aspect, read exactly as above:

must leave: simple
must have left: perfect
must be leaving: progressive
must have been leaving: perfect progressive

So They should have hurried has the modal should with the present-perfect form of hurry. With ought to, read the helpers after to: ought to have called is perfect.

Theymust (^MD)have (^VB)heard (^VBN, ringed)thenews.

Commands and base-form subjunctives also have an aspect but no tense. See Mood.

Quick check

Compare Ana washed the car with Ana was washing the car. Do the two verb phrases differ in tense or in aspect?
Answer
In aspect. Both are in the past tense, because washed and was are past forms. The first is simple: the whole action. The second is progressive: the action in progress.
What does the perfect add? Compare When the bell rang, the students left with When the bell rang, the students had left.
Answer
In the first sentence the students left after the bell, and the simple past presents the whole action. In the second they were already gone when it rang: the past perfect is completed before the reference point, the moment the bell rang.
Which of these sentences has a perfect progressive verb phrase: The baby has been crying since six, The match has been postponed, or Marco keeps calling me?
Answer
Only the first: has been crying is have + been + an -ing form. In has been postponed, been comes before a past participle, so it is the passive helper: the verb phrase is perfect, passive. In Marco keeps calling me, no be comes before calling. The verb phrase is only keeps, which is simple, and calling me is a participial phrase.
What are the tense and the aspect of must have been joking in Paula must have been joking?
Answer
No tense, because must is a modal. The aspect is perfect progressive: have been + joking. In the filters, Aspect = Perfect progressive with Tense left empty finds it.

Key terms

Aspect: How a verb phrase presents an action: as a whole, completed before a reference point, in progress, or in progress up to a reference point. Helping verbs build it. Marta painted the kitchen. Marta was painting the kitchen.
See: Tense · Tense & Aspect Chart
Reference point: The moment a sentence looks from. The perfect is completed before it, and the progressive is in progress at it. When Omar arrived, Marta had painted the kitchen. At eight, we were having dinner.
Simple aspect: No perfect helper and no progressive helper: the action as a whole. Verb phrases with do, does, did or will + only the main verb are simple too. Pedro drinks coffee every morning. Carlos did not cook dinner.
Perfect aspect: have + a past participle: completed before a reference point, or true from an earlier time up to it (with since or for). The rain has stopped. By eight, the guests had left.
See: Tense & Aspect Chart
Progressive aspect: be + an -ing form: in progress at a reference point. Also called the continuous. Nina is writing an email. At eight, we were having dinner.
See: Gerunds · Participles
Perfect progressive aspect: have + been + an -ing form: in progress up to a reference point. Also called the perfect continuous. We have been walking for an hour. Priya has been learning Korean.
See: Tense & Aspect Chart
Stative verb: A verb that names a state, not an action, such as know, own, like or want. It rarely takes the progressive. I know the answer. Diego owns two bikes.

Practice on a real sentence

Box the three verb phrases in the Roles exercise. Which one is perfect, and which word tells you? In the Tags exercise, hurt could be a base form, a past form or a past participle: which one is it here?

Loading the practice sentence…