Tense & Aspect Chart

Each column is a tense, and the first verb of the phrase carries it. Each row is an aspect, and the helping verbs have and be build it. Every cell uses the same verb, speak, with the subject she. The helpers are in bold, and each name links to a section below about that form.

Under each form, a line of codes gives its verb tags. VBD is a past form and VBZ a present form. MD is a modal and VB the base form. VBN is a past participle and VBG an -ing form. The last line gives the British name when it is different.

With I, you, we or they, the present forms change: speak, have spoken, am or are speaking, have been speaking. The first verb is then tagged VBP, not VBZ. In the past progressive, I, he, she and it take was; you, we and they take were.

The names marked “British” are the ones in course books from Cambridge and Oxford. They put simple after the tense (past simple) and say continuous for progressive (present continuous). The forms are the same; only the names differ.

Two parts of a verb phrase decide its cell. The first verb gives the column. The pairs have + past participle and be + -ing give the row. The subject, the word order and the passive never change the cell.

The four aspects come from the two pairs. One is have + past participle, the perfect. The other is be + -ing, the progressive. With neither pair you get the simple aspect; with both, the perfect progressive. Read the square row by row and you get the order of the chart’s rows.

In has been speaking, been does two jobs. It is the past participle that have needs, and it is the be that the -ing form needs.

To make a negative, put not after the first verb. To make a question, move the first verb in front of the subject. The cell does not change. The simple present and the simple past of any verb except be have no helper to move. They add do, does or did, and the verb goes back to its base form. Be moves by itself: Was she at home?

In the diagrams, a question works as on the Modal Auxiliaries page. Reed-Kellogg undoes the question’s word order; the dependency tree keeps it.

A passive adds be + past participle at the end of the chain: it is spoken. The first verb still carries the tense, and the helpers before the passive be still give the aspect. So it has been spoken is a present perfect, like she has spoken.

The cells marked “not used” are not a mistake. In the passive voice, the progressive forms occur in the present and past tenses (is being shown, was being shown). English almost never uses the others, such as will be being spoken or has been being spoken.

The simple aspect shows an action as a whole. It does not say that the action is finished or in progress. The past and the present need no helper; the future adds will.

The perfect looks back from a moment. The action happened before that moment, and it still matters then. Only have changes with the tense: had, has, will have.

The progressive shows an action in progress at a moment, often for a limited time. Only be changes with the tense: was or were; am, is or are; will be.

The perfect progressive shows how long an action has been in progress up to a moment. Only have changes with the tense: had been, has been, will have been.

Traditional grammar lists six tenses: present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect and future perfect. They are the chart’s first two rows. On that count, the progressive is a form that each tense can take: progressive forms occur in all six tenses of finite verbs. They are the last two rows. So the traditional list and the chart describe the same twelve forms.

Traditional grammar also names an emphatic form: do, does or did + the base form (do see, did hunt). It has no row on the chart. The filters count it as simple, so She does speak French is a simple present.

Many linguists count only two tenses, past and present, because English verbs have no future ending. For them, will is a modal. Traditional grammar, most course books and the Tense filter count will or shall + verb as the future.

British course books use other names for nine of the forms: the past simple, the present continuous, the future perfect continuous. The three perfect forms keep the same names, so their cells show no British name.

The chart holds verb phrases whose first verb has a tense. Some verb phrases have no tense. Some phrases with to take their cell from their first verb. And some verb forms are not verb phrases at all.

can, could, may, might, must, should and would have no column. The same is true of ought to and had better. Their form does not fix a time. could is about the past in I could read at four, but not in Could you hold this bag? And had in We had better leave now is about now, not the past. So Grammify gives them no tense.

They still take all four aspects: must speak (simple), must have spoken (perfect), must be speaking (progressive) and must have been speaking (perfect progressive). See modals and aspect.

So should have hurried is the modal should with the present-perfect form of hurry. In the filters, Aspect = Perfect with no Tense finds it. Choosing any Tense leaves it out.

would speak and was going to speak point to a later time, seen from a moment in the past: Laura promised she would help. This is the future in the past. It fits neither the past column nor the future column, so Grammify gives it no tense, even though was is a past form. Its aspect comes from the verb after would or to.

The chart goes by form, not by time. Our train departs at seven is a simple present. I am meeting Camila on Friday is a present progressive. Both talk about the future. See tense and time.

These take the cell of their first verb. Grammify labels them like this:

have got, meaning “have” or “own”, looks like a present perfect, but Grammify counts it as a simple present too (see aspect look-alikes). So is have got to, like have to. The diagrams split most of these phrases in two: see the complementary infinitive phrase.

An infinitive or a participle has no tense, even with helpers: to have spoken, having spoken, being spoken. It is a verbal, not a verb phrase, so it has no cell.

The chart does not show mood. A form on it can also be subjunctive. In If Nina had studied more, she would have passed, had studied is a past perfect, and the Mood filter calls it subjunctive. Commands have no tense at all; see the imperative.

Reed-Kellogg writes the whole verb phrase in the verb slot. Every finite verb goes there, whatever its tense, voice, mood or form. So a diagram has the same shape for all twelve cells; only the words in the slot change.