Tense and aspect

What is tense?

Tense refers to the way a verb may change to show its setting in time.

For example:
    She travels to London
shows that we are talking about a repeated habit of hers. The -s ending on the verb tells us that this is a present simple tense.
    John escaped
shows that we are talking about the past and that is signalled by the -d ending on the verb. It is a past simple tense.
    The train will arrive at 6.09
refers to the future but the verb itself does not, in English, change so some will say it is not a proper tense at all. What English does is to insert the auxiliary verb, will, before the main verb, arrive, to signal the future. Many languages will change the verb itself.

Tense is not the same as time.

Time: is the fourth dimension and can be past, present or future. It refers, non-grammatically, to when an event or state is situated temporally.
Tense: is a grammatical concept and refers to the changes we make to a language to represent when something happens or exists. Sometimes, in all languages, a tense which we would expect refers to past, present or future actually does not. For example:
    It would be better if you left early tomorrow
contains the past form of the verb leave but refers to the future
    Speak to him about it tomorrow when you see him
contains two verbs which are present forms but both refer to the future
    I am having lunch with Mary later
contains a present tense form (am having) but refers to the future
    She didn't take the bus because she walks to work
contains a present form of walk but it refers to the past and the present (and, usually, to the future as well).

What is aspect?

Aspect, by contrast, does not show us the time of an event but shows us how we see the event or how we see the event is related to other events.
There are two main types of aspect in English that you need to know about now (although there are a number of others which you will need to learn about later).

The Perfect Aspect
Relates two times to each other.
For example:
    She has often travelled to London
shows that we are talking about a past which has immediate reference for the present. The assumption is that she is in London now or that her experience of travelling there is relevant to now. It is called the present perfect because we see the event has significance for the present. Often something like this is followed by a present form such as
    ... so she knows how long it usually takes.
Event 1 is in the present perfect; situation or event 2 is in the present.
To do that, in English, we insert the auxiliary verb, have in the correct form (have, has, had etc.) and use the past participle form of the verb.
The past participle is sometimes called the third form of the verb or the -ed / -en form. It is the underlined form in these examples:
    go went gone
    come came come
    do did done
    see saw seen
    smoke smoked smoked
    lift lifted lifted
etc. With regular verbs, the past participle always ends with -ed or -d and looks exactly the same as the second form, the past simple.
Now, in:
    John had escaped
we are talking about the past but that we are relating it to something later in the past, such as
... but was caught at the station
and this is signalled by the use of the auxiliary verb, had. It is called a past perfect tense in English because it relates together two events in the past.
Event 1 is past perfect; event 2 is past simple.
And:
    The train will have left
refers to the future but the insertion of the auxiliary verb, have, shows that we are relating the arrival of the train with another future event that comes before it such as
    ... before John can get to the station.
Event 1 is in the future perfect; event 2 is a simple future.
The Progressive Aspect
Indicates how the speaker / writer sees the event in terms of duration.
For example:
    She is learning French
does not necessarily mean that she is in a classroom or studying a dictionary now. It shows that the learning is happening in the background of everything else that is happening.
However,
    She was reading when I came in
shows that the action of reading started before I came in and (possibly) continued afterwards. (I may have interrupted her or she may have continued reading and ignored me.)
    They will be having dinner in Margate
refers to the fact that I imagine they will take some time to eat (so it's a progressive event) and that it is possible that they will be interrupted during the event.

The progressive aspect is sometimes referred to as 'continuous' and both words apply in many cases and can be used interchangeably. There is, in fact, a technical difference which is explained elsewhere on this site. Very briefly, a continuous event is one which remains true whatever the time frame so, for example:
    I like rice pudding
is continuous insofar as it applies always and
    She is performing with the orchestra
is also continuous insofar as the action is seen as a background and may not be in progress now.
Notice that the verb form for continuous events can be simple (the first example) or with be + an -ing form (the second example).
A progressive event is slightly different insofar as it refers to something in progress and ongoing (hence the name) so, for example:
    June was watching television while Mary was was sitting in the garden
contains two examples of a progressive aspect of the verbs because both refer to actions ongoing at the time in question.

Naming tenses and aspects

What follows applies to English. Because tense forms and their meanings vary very considerably across languages, it is not always possible to translate the names of tenses accurately. The examples of the tense form are in black bold type.

Simple tenses
- Present simple, e.g.:
  I like chocolate
  I feel ill
  These forms look the same and have the same name but the reference is either to something that is always true (therefore a timeless event or state) as in the first example or to something that is only true right now as in the second example.
- Past simple, e.g.:
  I arrived
  Mary cried
  This tense refers usually to completed actions or states occurring before the time of speaking.
- Future simple (also called the will future):
  I will arrive
  It will rain, I think
  which refer to the future after the time of speaking
Perfect aspects with these tenses:
- Present perfect, e.g.:
  I have finished
  We have spoken
  These forms relate a past state or event to the present.
- Past perfect, e.g.:
  I had finished before the clock struck ten
  We had spoken so I knew what she thought
  These forms relate two past events to each other and indicate which one came first.
- Future perfect, e.g.:
  I will have finished the work before 6
  They will have left London before you arrive
  These forms relate two future events or states.
Progressive aspects with these tenses (sometimes called continuous aspects although there is a technical difference):
- Present progressive, e.g.:
  I am sitting on the train
  They are studying Biology
  These forms refer either to what is happening now or what is happening in the background and may not be happening right this minute.
- Past progressive, e.g.:
  I was sitting on the train
  They were studying Biology
  These forms do the same but in the past showing what was happening then or in the background to then.
- Future progressive, e.g.:
  I will be sitting on the train
  They will be studying Biology
  These forms do the same for the future showing what will be happening then or in the background to then.
Other labels. Some verb forms and structures are used to refer to particular times (and, therefore, qualify as tenses) but have names which represent their structures. The two most common ones in English are:
- The going to future, e.g.:
  I am going to talk to the boss when she gets in
- The used to form for discontinued habits, e.g.:
  We used to take our holidays in May

It is possible to combine aspects so we allow, in English, for example:
The had been studying
They will have been studying
and so on. The names of these tenses are logical. The first is the past perfect progressive and the second is the future perfect progressive.

Here is a chart of all the tenses in English.

Click on an area of the chart to go to guides to each form.

You do not need to know all about all the tenses before you start your course but it will help a lot if you are at least familiar with the names of the forms.
If you need to teach a particular tense form, this is a good place to begin a little research.

all tenses

Implications for teaching

English tense structures are quite complicated, often more so than the structures in your learners' first languages, so it is very important that you know what you are talking about before you try to teach tense forms and patterns.

Know your subject.
Before daring to teach a tense form, make sure you do some research. This site is a good place to start and you can use the table above to locate the forms that concern you.
Be aware of differences between languages.
Many languages do not chop time up or view it in any way similar to the way English speakers view time. Some, for example, do not have any way of distinguishing aspect from tense so
    I arrived
and
    I have arrived
are functionally identical.
The English concept of a relational aspect is hard for learners with these language backgrounds to grasp.
Other languages do not have anything like an equivalent of progressive forms so there is no obvious difference in these languages between a translation of
    She was speaking
and
    She spoke
and, again, the concepts will be hard for some learners to understand.
Use time lines to make things clear.
There is a guide to using time lines on this site, linked below, which will help you understand what they are and how to construct them. A visual image of the relationships that perfect and progressive aspects imply is particularly helpful.
Here's an example which is intended to make a difference between:
She was cycling to work when she had the idea
and
She was cycling to work when she had the accident

In the first line the cycling continues (the yellow line) and having the idea occurs in the middle of that (the red cross).
In the second line, the red cross denotes the accident and the cycling clearly did not continue.
Present tense forms in context.
If you present a tense or aspect form, you need to be very clear about the concept it represents.
For example:
    I have seen the film
in English, implies that the film is part of my present understanding of the world and I am prepared to talk about it.
In other languages, however, such as German, French or Dutch, the form may simply refer to a past event which is finished and has no present reference. A better translation from those languages may often be:
    I saw the film
By the same token, the meaning of something like:
    I will have finished
is not possible to see unless the event is set in the context of other future events clearly marked for time (such as by six o'clock and then I'll go home).
Do not assume that accuracy is the same as understanding.
If a learner produces something like:
    He is being difficult
it may only be evidence that he or she can form the tense properly. The learner may mean either:
    He is difficult
or
    He persists in being difficult
and you don't know if the context is not clear.

This has been a short and severely edited guide to a complex set of topics and ideas. It is enough to get you started but you will need to know more very soon.
From here, you can look at some other issues with tense and aspect (and voice, active and passive). Use this menu:

tense and aspect

tenses

verbs

voice

using time lines