TENSES BY BUSUNGU JOSEPH

 TENSES

A tense expresses the time at which an event takes place (e.g., past, present, future).

Klein (1994) describes tense as the relation between reference time (the time that is relevant in the conversation) and speech time (the time when the utterance takes place).

CATEGORIES OF TENSES

Various scholars categorized tenses into two or three main categories namely;

               i.    Present tense

              ii.  Past tense and

             iii.Future time

Other scholars believe that there are only two categories of tenses namely; present tense and past tense but we can still talk about future time. They do not consider future time as a tense because there is no any inflection that is added to mark future tense as it is in other tenses. However, other scholars categorize tenses into three categories namely present, past and future tenses respectively.

Each tense is divided into four aspects as follows;

A.   Present tense

ü Present simple

ü Present progressive/continuous

ü Present perfect

ü Present perfect progressive

B.  Past tense

ü Simple past

ü Past progressive

ü Past perfect

ü Past perfect progressive

C.Future time

ü Simple future

ü Future progressive

ü Future Perfect

ü Future perfect progressive

PRESENT TENSE

We use the present tense when the reference time coincides with the speech time.

When the verb is used to show that an action takes place at present, it is known as a present tense. There are four aspects of the present tense. These are discussed as follows;

A.SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE

 It is used to express habitual actions that are always true, things that    we do regularly and to talk about our likes and dislikes.

In forming sentences with simple present tense, we add ‘s’, ‘ies’ or ‘es’ to the verb if the subject is a third person singular (he, she, it and singular nouns)

For example,

ü He speaks English well

ü She goes to school

ü It rains in the evening

ü David tries to be humble

We do not add anything to the base form (verb) if the subject is a first person (I and we), second person (you), third person plural (they) and plural nouns.

For example,

ü I cook food everyday

ü We eat fruits

ü You walk to school daily

ü They cheat in the examinations

ü Students dance in every graduation

USES OF SIMPLE PRESENT

         i.         To express habitual actions

ü Adela gets up early in the morning

ü My friend enjoys dancing

ü We clean our class daily

ü He brushes his teeth at 6.00 am.

ü She takes tea early in the morning

ü I take shower every morning

       ii.       To express general truths

ü The earth revolves around the sun

ü Magnet attracts iron

ü Water boils at 100⁰C

ü Unlike poles attract each other while unlike poles repel

ü Honest is the best policy

ü The earth rotates on its axis

     iii.      Used in exclamatory sentences beginning with here or there

ü Here comes the ambassador!

ü There leaves the helicopter!

ü There the bus stops!

ü Here celebrates the queen of Silla!

      iv.      To express planned actions or activities

ü The president visits Simiyu tomorrow

ü He arrives today from Mombasa

ü The troupe dances tonight

ü We start election campaigns next month

ü The Prime Minister addresses the parliament next week

 

        v.       To introduce quotations

ü Busungu says, “Competence and performance are equal and opposite”.

ü Shakespeare says, “Love is not a time’s fool”

      vi.      Used in games to commentate

ü Fabrice Ngoma receives a pass from Che Malone, he dribbles a ball and kicks a long pass to Jean Baleke, Baleke scores a wonderful goal.