Tense

A tense is a form of the verb. Nina works at night and Nina worked at night differ in one form only, and that form is the tense. Time is a meaning: when the event happens. The two are related, but they are not the same thing.

Usually they agree. But a present form can point to the future, and a past form can describe something that is not real now. In each sentence below, the verb in bold has one tense (its form) and talks about another time (its meaning).

Grammify names a tense by its form. The Practice Lab’s Tense filter works the same way. It finds We are leaving tomorrow under Present, and If I worked from home under Past. The mood of that worked is subjunctive, which the Mood page explains.

Tense belongs to the verb phrase: the verb with its helping verbs. However long the phrase is, only its first word shows the tense. Compare has been studying, had been studying and will have been studying. The start changes, and been studying stays the same.

The past tense uses the past form of the first verb. Regular verbs add -ed: open → opened, walk → walked. Irregular verbs change in their own way: go → went, write → wrote, be → was and were. Both kinds have the same tag, VBD.

A longer verb phrase is past when its first helper is past: was writing, had written, had been writing. Used to and had to are past as well, because used and had are past forms.

Questions and negatives need the helper did. Then did carries the past tense, and the main verb goes back to its base form (VB): Did Santiago call you? Santiago did not call. With be there is no did: Was Santiago at home? Santiago wasn’t at home. In a positive statement, did + a base form adds emphasis: But Santiago did call! This form, did call, is called the emphatic past.

The present tense has two forms. With he, she, it or a singular noun, the verb ends in -s: opens, watches, has, is, does. Its tag is VBZ. With I, you, we, they or a plural noun, there is no ending: open, watch, have, am, are, do. Its tag is VBP.

As in the past, the first helper decides: is sleeping, has slept and has been sleeping are all present. So are has to and is about to.

Questions and negatives use do or does, which then carries the tense: Does Mateo work on Sundays? He does not work on Sundays. With be there is no do: Is he at work today? He is not at work today. In a positive statement, do or does + a base form adds emphasis: But he does work on Saturdays. This form, does work, is called the emphatic present.

English builds its future with a helper: will or shall + a base form: Marta will arrive late. The short forms count too: We’ll call you later, It won’t rain today.

By its form, will is a modal. Its tag is MD, it never takes -s (she will, not she wills), and the verb after it is a base form. English has no future ending like Spanish llegará, so a helper always carries the future.

The second future is am, is or are + going to + a base form: Diego is going to buy flowers. It works like Spanish ir a + an infinitive (Diego va a comprar flores). Coursebooks teach it beside will, and the Tense filter reads all four words, is going to buy, as one future. Its aspect comes from the verb after to: is going to be working is progressive.

Reed-Kellogg and the Roles exercise split these words in two. Their verb phrase is only is going, and to buy flowers is a complementary infinitive phrase. So the exercise shows the parts, and the filter names the tense of the whole.

Going to is a future only when a verb follows to. In She is going to the market, going is the main verb and to the market says where she is going. That is the present progressive, not the future.

Among the modals, only will and shall give a verb phrase a tense. A verb phrase that starts with can, could, may, might, must, should or would has no tense. This car can carry five people. You should call your grandmother.

Could and would look like the past forms of can and will, and sometimes they talk about the past: Pablo could ride a bike at the age of five. But Could you help me? asks about now, as Can you help me? does. Could only makes the question more polite. So a modal’s form does not show a clear tense, and the app gives these modals no tense.

The same is true of ought to, and of need or dare used as helpers: You needn’t worry. It is also true of had better (or ’d better), although had is a past form. Its had never changes (there is no has better), and it gives advice about now or later: You’d better charge your phone. So it works like a modal.

Questions that begin with Shall I or Shall we make an offer or a suggestion. They count as modals too, with no tense: Shall we start?

These verb phrases still have an aspect: the helpers after the modal give it. The printer must have run out of paper is perfect, with no tense.

The future in the past is a later event seen from a past moment: The forecast said it would rain. Ana was going to join us. Its forms are would + a base form and was or were going to + a base form. Was is a past form, but the app reads was going to join as one unit, as it reads is going to buy. That unit has no tense, so the Tense filter puts it under neither Past nor Future.

Two more kinds of verb phrase have no tense: a command (Wash your hands) and the base-form subjunctive (The doctor insists that he rest). Their verb is the base form, so there is no past or present form to read. The Mood page explains the imperative and the subjunctive.

The tags can mislead you here. In that he rest, the tagger marks rest VBP, a present tag. In Don’t touch the oven, it marks Do VBP too. The Tags exercise grades those tags, but the tense comes from the clause: a command or a base-form subjunctive has no tense.

Tense belongs to verb phrases, not to whole sentences. A sentence has one verb phrase per clause, and each one has its own tense. In Priya knows that the shop closed early, knows is present and closed is past.

A compound predicate has one verb phrase per verb. Omar locked the door and left has two, locked and left, and both are past.