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Some languages, like English, mark their verbs to indicate the time at which events that are spoken about
took place. We use a sequence of tenses to indicate how close the action were speaking about is to the time
at which we speak.
Present
Future
Time of Speaking
On this time line, actions that take place at the time of speaking (now) are in present tense (I write this
handout), actions that precede the time of speaking (back then) are in past tense (I looked at articles about
tense and aspect), and actions that happen after the time of speaking (in the future) are in the future tense
(I will go to lunch).
If we put these three sentences written in different tenses together, we have a sequence of tenses. I will go to
lunch after I write the handout, which I started after I looked at articles about tense and aspect.
Adding Aspect
All three of these tenses are called simple tenses: they express information only about when the actions take
place, not whether or not they are finished or ongoing. Aspect tells us whether an action is ongoing,
completed, or describes a state.
Aspect has nothing to do with time, so we cant use a time line to explain it. But we can use a diagram to
help explain aspect. There are three aspects: indefinite (simple), complete (perfect), and continuous
(progressive). The combination of tense and aspect in English creates what are often called compound
tenses.
Since aspect describes the nature of an action, English speakers use aspect to help mark actions that are
ongoing or complete. The combination of aspect and tense helps us to express when weve done something
and whether or not it is complete or continuing.
Undergraduate Writing Center | The University of Texas at Austin | http://uwc.utexas.edu | FAC 211 | 512.471.6222
Last revised by Tamara Smith, March 2009