Tense, Aspect and Mood in English

Tense

Tense refers to the relationship between the time of some event and the time of another event (the tense locus-either the event of speaking or some other event). We have only two genuine tenses in English (present and past), although the future is also frequently referred to as a tense.

Tense	Manifestation
Present	-s for third person singular, base form for other persons and numbers
Past	-ed for weak verbs, vowel change or base form for strong verbs
Future	Use of modal auxiliary will

Mood

Mood refers to grammatical manifestations of the way the speaker views the reality of the sentence: is it an expression of fact, an expression of desire, of doubt, etc.? The grammatical category of mood must be kept separate from the semantic category of modality. Modality may be expressed by auxiliary verbs called modals rather than by mood.

English has two moods, indicative and imperative, used by all speakers, and a third rather marginal mood used by some speakers, the subjunctive (a present subjunctive can be distinguished from a past subjunctive on the basis of form). Examples of these moods:

He was there on time (indicative mood)

Be there on time! (imperative mood)

We insist that he be there on time ((present) subjunctive mood, c.f. He must be there on time,

where a modal verb and indicative mood is used instead.

Remember that mood refers to form, not meaning. The past subjunctive is identical the past indicative in English with all verbs except be: compare I had a million dollars (indicative), if I had a million dollars (subjunctive) with I was a rich woman (indicative), if I were a rich woman (subjunctive). If you say if I was a rich woman, you have no distinction between the past indicative and the past subjunctive in your grammar, therefore the past subjunctive is not a grammatical category for you.

Aspect

Aspect refers to the perceived temporal structure of the event itself, rather than to the temporal relationship between one event and another.

We can distinguish between inherent and grammatical aspect. Grammatical aspect is encoded in the morphology of the verb. Inherent aspect is inherent to the verb or to the combination of the verb and some other parts of the sentence. Some understanding of inherent aspect is essential to understanding some of the restrictions on grammatical aspect.

Four major classes of verbs can be distinguished on the basis of their inherent aspect:

Type of verb	Aspectual Meaning	Examples
Activity	Activity extends over time, with no definite boundaries specified	run, push a cart, pay attention to, scan, look, watch, think about, pull. Focus one’s eyes on, follow with one’s eyes, consider
Accomplishment	Activity extends over time, but necessarily has a definite end point	run a mile, draw a circle, read a book, play a game of chess, grow up, watch the passage of Venus across the sun, paint a picture, die
Achievement	Action does not extend over time, but occurs at a moment in time	die, reach the summit, win a race, know, understand, see, get married, lose, realise, recognise, kick the bucket
State	States of affairs that do not change over time, but extend over time	be X, believe, know, have, see, want, possess, love, dominate

The difference between the stative type and the other three types is particularly important in the grammar of English. Non-stative verbs are often referred to as dynamic.

A particular verb can have more than one possible inherent aspect:

Jim ran (activity)

Jim ran to the shops (accomplishment)

Mary amuses me (state)

Mary amused the guests while John cooked dinner (activity)

Tests for inherent aspect:

Activity verbs

•Consist of successive phases

•Are consistent with the question ‘for how long?’ (The cat killed mice for two hours)

•If one stops Xing, then one did X

•Call for periods of time that are not definite or unique

•Go on in time in a homogeneous way

•Cannot be finished

•Often volitional (but not always)

Accomplishment Verbs

•Are consistent with the question ‘how long did it take?’

•Have a logically necessary terminal point or ‘climax’

•Do not go on in a homogeneous way

•If one stops Xing, then one did not X

•If one Xs in an hour, then at any time during the hour, one is Xing

Achievement Verbs

•Are predicated for a single moment

•Are consistent with the question ‘at what time?’

•Do not occur in the continuous form (without an interative interpretation)

•If one takes an hour to X, then at any time during the hour, one is not Xing

•As soon as one Xs, one has Xed

Stative Verbs

•Do not normally occur in the continuous grammatical aspect

•Are consistent with the question ‘for how long?’

•Not consistent with the question ‘at what time’, because they must extend over time

•Often name abilities, qualities, and habits

•Not usually under the subject’s control, so they cannot be used in the imperative

Many pseudo-auxiliary verbs also have inherent aspect, such as begin (inceptive aspect), cease (terminative), keep (durative), etc.

In English, grammatical aspect is encoded by the use of auxiliary verbs or by the lack of any auxiliary. The same aspect may be encoded in different ways in different tenses, and a given form may encode more than one aspect.

The aspects encoded in English grammatically are progressive and perfect.

Aspect	Basic Meaning	Manifestation
Progressive	Action is in progress within a particular time frame with some sort of boundaries	Be plus present participle (-ing form) of verb
Perfect	The time frame of the action includes both some time in the past and the present. The action started in the past and may be completed, but relevant to the present	Have plus the past participle (usually –ed or –en) of the verb

In English, the simple present tense often has a habitual meaning to it. However, what is really being marked grammatically is whether the event is progressive or non-progressive. If it is not marked as progressive, then it is non-progressive, which in the case of a dynamic (i.e. non-stative) verb gives it a habitual reading (if something dynamic is seen as belonging to the present but non-progressive, that must mean it is a habit which belongs to the present). Note that the habitual reading disappears when the present tense has future time reference, as in my ship sails at dawn tomorrow. Note also that the simple past tense, unlike the simple present tense, carries no implication of habitual activity-John ate dinner at 7:00 could be a habit or a one-off event. The asymmetry with the present tense is due to the fact that that the only way an action can belong to the present but not be in progress is if it is a habit of the present-but it is perfectly possible for a one-off event to belong to the past. But it is sometimes useful to focus on the habitual nature of an action in the past, and if we wish to do so, we can use used to to do this. Used to can be seen as the grammaticalization of an aspectual verb. We do not use it in the present tense because the simple present tense already has a habitual reading by virtue of being non-progressive.

Progressive

The baby is eating breakfast (right now).

The baby was eating breakfast (when the smoke alarm went off).

Perfect

The baby has already eaten breakfast this morning.

The baby had already eaten breakfast by the time the high chair collapsed.

Some restrictions on the use of aspects

Inherent and grammatical aspect interact in important ways. Certain combinations of inherent and grammatical aspects results in ungrammaticality. Aspect and tense also interact. Note particularly:

•Progressive aspect is normally incompatible with stative verbs, because the progressive indicates change, while stativity denotes lack of change:

*John is loving Mary

*I am knowing the answer

However, I am loving every minute of this wonderful course is possible because the course is not going to last forever (fortunately!). Here, love is being presented as an activity rather than a state.

Many people learning English as a second language make the mistake of using an inherently stative verb in the progressive aspect. This is because their first language uses a different aspectual system in which progress through time is not an important parameter.

•Perfect aspect is incompatible in the present tense with any indication that the time frame of the action is completely in the past:

*Have you brushed your teeth last night? But:

Have you brushed your teeth this morning? (said in the morning)

•Progressive aspect is incompatible with habitual aspect, unless the habit is presented as some sort of change:

*I am jogging at 6:00 a.m. each day.

This is bad unless this indicates a change or temporary state of affairs as in:

I am jogging at 6:00 a.m. each morning during this heat wave.