About tenses in English

Can you please tell me exactly how many tenses are there in English language? I was told that there are 16 but i want to be sure. Thank you

[Pete]

Originally Posted by laskin

Can you please tell me exactly how many tenses are there in English language? I was told that there are 16 but i want to be sure. Thank you

Unfortunately, linguists differ on the definition of tense, and the number of tenses you count depends on how you define the term. The most common classification of tenses of English verbs is the following:

There are 3 basic tenses: past, present, and future.

Each of those tenses has 4 possible aspects: simple, progressive (also called continuous), perfect, and perfect progressive.

That makes a total of 12 tense-aspect combinations, which some people count as 12 tenses.

English also has a set of "modal auxiliary verbs" and "modal-like verbs" that are combined with other verbs to give a number of shadings to the basic meaning; they show features like probability, obligation, etc. The use of these modal verbs is not generally called a distinct tense.

Some linguists note that future in English is generally denoted by using the modal auxiliary verb will or a modal-like phrase like "is going to"; they use this fact to claim that English has no true future tense. They would count only 8 true tense-aspect combinations. For someone to get the count of 16 tenses that you asked about, they must be thinking of a 4th basic tense, one in addition to past, present, and future. My most likely guess for such a tense is conditional, formed with the modal auxiliary would. While someone trying to show a systematic classification of English verb usage can do it in any way he wants, considering a 4th basic tense is not common or standard.

(I hope this helps. I'm sorry I could not give you a simple number to answer your question.)

Yes, thank you very much, this helped me a lot.
Just a few more questions. Isn't also future in past a tense? Or maybe conditionals include it.
I also would like to ask about this kind of sentences: "I should have done this." Which tense is this?

[Pete]

Originally Posted by laskin

Yes, thank you very much, this helped me a lot.
Just a few more questions. Isn't also future in past a tense? Or maybe conditionals include it.

You express "future in the past" by using modal auxiliary verbs rather than by using a tense. For instance, at some point in time, Joe made a statement about the future: "I'm going to attend college after I graduate." Now someone tell us about his statement (this is an example of indirect statement or reported speech):
- Joe said he would attend college after he graduated.
This sentence uses the modal auxiliary verb "would". It is not one of the named tenses.

Originally Posted by laskin

I also would like to ask about this kind of sentence<strike>s</strike>: "I should have done this." Which tense is this?

The word should is a modal auxiliary verb, and like other modal auxiliaries, it is used with an infinitive (without the particle to). This infinitive can be either the ordinary infinitive (the base form of the verb) or the perfect infinitive, which is formed with the infinitive have and a past participle. You use the perfect infinitive to speak of actions that have been completed, which are generally past actions.

However, even though these forms do tell us much about the times involved, we don't call them distinct tenses. They are still modal auxiliary verbs used with either the ordinary or perfect infinitive.

Your sentence, "I should have done this," uses the modal auxiliary should with the perfect infinitive, have done.

Hi,
1. I should have done this (by) yesterday.
2. I should have done this (by) tomorrow.
These are both possible, aren't they?
Thanks a million.
Ann

Thank you very much, Pete.
Ann, I think I should have done is used only for the past, not the future. Perhaps it would be correct to say I should do that tomorrow.

But I am not sure...

[plin]

"Ann, I think I should have done is used only for the past, not the future. Perhaps it would be correct to say I should do that tomorrow."

Hi,

Laskin, like you, I am not sure about this. It woud seem though that in the first sentence there is no need for the preposition "by." In the second sentence the preposition does look optional.


1. I should have done this (by) yesterday.
2. I should have done this (by) tomorrow.


About the second sentence, I suppose I could say something like, "I should have done this (by) tomorrow afternoon but my boss came and said that I had to finish it today." :evil:

But let's Rusty or Pete clarify things for us.


Plin.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Ann

Hi,
1. I should have done this (by) yesterday.
2. I should have done this (by) tomorrow.
These are both possible, aren't they?
Thanks a million.
Ann

I agree, Ann. Both of your sentences sound ok, but #2 sounds much more natural with by. The basic meaning is different, however. In #1, you are saying that you ought to have done it, but you didn't. In #2, you are saying that you intend to have done it by then. (Of course with a future event, you can't say with complete certainty whether you will really do it or not.)