How many verb tenses are there in English? - Anna Ananichuk

Summary

This video script explains grammatical tense and aspect, highlighting how languages express time through verb modifications. It details the four aspects in English—continuous, perfect, perfect progressive, and simple—and demonstrates their application in various tenses across past, present, and future. The script contrasts English with other languages, such as Japanese, Mandarin, and Russian, which treat time differently. It raises thought-provoking questions about how these linguistic differences may reflect diverse worldviews and ways of thinking about time. Ultimately, it shows that while tense systems differ, all languages find ways to convey the same fundamental concepts of time.

Takeaways

• 😀 Grammatical tense refers to how languages convey time without explicitly naming time periods, using verb modifications.
• 😀 English has three main tenses: past, present, and future, but each can be divided further thanks to grammatical aspect.
• 😀 There are four types of grammatical aspect: continuous, perfect, perfect progressive, and simple.
• 😀 The continuous aspect describes actions that are still happening at the time of reference.
• 😀 The perfect aspect describes actions that are completed.
• 😀 The perfect progressive aspect combines the perfect and continuous aspects, describing a completed part of an ongoing action.
• 😀 The simple aspect is the basic form of past, present, and future tenses, without indicating whether an action is continuous or discrete.
• 😀 Example: Your friends might say they 'were sleeping' (past continuous), 'had departed' (past perfect), or 'have built' (present perfect).
• 😀 In future tense, there are various forms such as 'will depart' (future simple) or 'will have been voyaging' (future perfect progressive).
• 😀 Some languages, like Japanese and Mandarin, have fewer or no verb tenses and rely more on aspect or auxiliary words to express time.
• 😀 Other languages, like Yagwa, use multiple degrees of past tense, reflecting different time frames (e.g., hours, weeks, or years).

Q & A

What is grammatical tense?

Grammatical tense refers to how languages express the time of an action or event, not by explicitly naming time periods but by modifying verbs to indicate when the action occurs.

How does grammatical aspect affect tense?

Grammatical aspect divides the time periods of past, present, and future further, adding additional layers such as continuous, perfect, and their combinations to provide more specific information about the action's status.

What are the four kinds of grammatical aspect?

The four kinds of grammatical aspect are: continuous (or progressive), perfect, perfect progressive, and simple. Each one gives a different nuance about the action’s status in relation to time.

Can you explain the continuous or progressive aspect?

The continuous or progressive aspect indicates that an action is still happening at the time of reference, showing that the action is ongoing.

What does the perfect aspect describe?

The perfect aspect describes actions that have been completed, emphasizing that the action is finished relative to the time in question.

What is the perfect progressive aspect?

The perfect progressive aspect combines both the perfect and continuous aspects, describing an action that has been ongoing and is now completed, showing the action's duration up to the reference time.

What does the simple aspect indicate?

The simple aspect represents the basic form of past, present, or future tense, where the action is not specified as continuous or completed. It simply states that the action occurs or occurred at a certain time.

How can tenses be used to describe a past event, like the naval mission example?

Tenses in the past can provide different details: past simple for general information, past continuous for an ongoing action, past perfect for something completed earlier, and past perfect progressive for ongoing actions up to a point in the past.

How does the future tense work in the context of the naval mission?

In the future tense, actions are predicted or planned. For example, the future simple is used for actions that will occur, the future continuous for actions that will be ongoing, and the future perfect progressive for actions that will have been ongoing for a period of time by a future point.

How do other languages approach grammatical tense compared to English?

While languages like French, Swahili, and Russian approach grammatical tense similarly to English, others like Japanese, Buli, and Mandarin Chinese have simpler or different systems. Some only distinguish past from non-past, others focus on future versus non-future, and Mandarin uses aspect but no tenses.