Present and Past Tenses

Tense is frequently described as the properly that relates to the time a verb’s
action is performed. In traditional grammar study, there are twelve tenses. For
example:
Traditional Analysis of English Verb Tenses
Common forms
Present Tense: I go, you go, she goes….
Past Tense: I went, you went. . . .
Future Tense: I will go. . . .
Present Perfect Tense: I have gone. . . .
Past Perfect Tense: I had gone. . . .
Future Perfect Tense: I will have gone. . . .
Progressive Forms

Present Progressive Tense: I am going. . . .

Past Progressive Tense:
Future Progressive Tense:
Present Perfect Progressive Tense:
Past Perfect Progressive Tense:
Future Perfect Progressive Tense:
I was going. . . .
I will be going. . . .
I have been going. . . .
I had been going. . . .
I will have been going. . . .
• Every English very has a present and a past
form. For the majority of verbs, known as
regular (or weak) verbs, the past is formed by
adding –d or –ed to the present form.
• Our revised grammar will include these phrase
structure rules:
VP Aux (NP) (AdvP)
Aux Tense
Tense Present
Past
According to this hypothesis, the grammar produces the following deep
structure in order to derive the sentence, Pete went to Chicago:

NP VP

Pete Aux VP AdvP

Tense to Chicago

Past GO

Notice that the verb GO is written in capital letters. You will remember that in
earlier chapters we wrote certain deep structure elements in capital letters to
indicate that they represented concepts and not the words as actually spoken
in surface structure. We list in its basic form (also called its infinitive form).
This deep structure, a transformational rule will then assign the proper form of the
verb in the surface structure. The various forms a word takes are called its inflections,
so we will call this rule the inflection-assigning transformation or T-Infl.
In diagramming sentence derivations, we have always drawn a second tree to
show the operation of transformational rule. We will draw the surface structure
changes underneath the deep structure tree, separated from it by a broken line. The
entire derivation of Pete Went to Chicago:
S

NP VP

Pete Aux VP AdvP

Tense to Chicago

Past GO

T-Infl --------------------------

went
For example of a sentence with a verb in the present tense, consider the derivation of
Ingrid loves anchovies.
S

NP VP

Ingrid Aux VP AdvP

Tense anchovies

Present LOVE

T-Infl ------------------------

loves
 Modal Auxiliaries
Although we sometimes use the present tense to describe future action, usually we
indicate the future by using the words will or shall. Will and shall are sometimes called
“helping verbs”. They are better described as modal auxiliaries. Here are modals in
their present- and past-tense forms:

MODAL AUXILIARIES

PRESENT PAST
will would
shall should
can could
may might
must (no past tense form)
The Aux rule in 2 will then need to be revised to include it:
Aux Tense (M)
M WILL
SHALL
CAN Ø
MAY
MUST

The null symbol Ø indicates that the verb that follows a modal will not take an
inflectional ending in the surface structure but will instead remain in its uninflected
form. We can now derive sentences with modal auxiliaries, such as:
a. Myra will retire
b. Gordon might need a bandage
a. Myra will retire.
S

NP VP

Myra Aux V

Tense M

Present WILL Ø RETIRE

T-infl - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - -

will retire
b.
S

NP VP

Gordon Aux V NP

Tense M a bandage

Past May Ø NEED

T-Infl --------------------------------------

might need
Inflection-assigning Transformation (T-Infl): starting with the tense maker
and moving to the right, pair off all the constituents of the Aux and V
categories, and then assign to each pair the appropriate surface verb form
 Perfect and Progressive Auxiliaries

There are other auxiliaries precede verb, such as forms of HAVE and
BE. Thus we have verb phrases such as is taking and have taken, not to
mention those with combinations of auxiliaries such as could have been
taking. We can now list the various forms that each verb can take:

VERB INFLECTIONS

UNINFLECTED PRESENT PAST PERFECT –en PROGRESSIVE

Ø -ending ending –ing ending
TAKE take(s) took taken Taking

SPEAK speak(s) Spoke spoken speaking

EAT eat(s) ate eaten eating

JUMP jump(s) jumped jumped jumping

BE am/is/are was/were been being

HAVE have/has had had Having

They model the rules you o’ serve as you produce these same grammatical forms.
VP Aux V (NP) (AdvP)
Aux Tense (M) (Perf) (Prog)
Tense Present
Past
M WILL
SHALL
CAN Ø
MAY
MUST

Perf HAVE –en

Prog BE -ing
Example:
S

NP VP

The gamblers Aux V NP

Tense Perf Prog Sam

Past HAVE -en BE -ing CHEAT

T-Infl -------------------------------------

had been cheating

 The Emphatic Auxiliary
The auxiliary DO is called the emphatic auxiliary (abbreviated Emph)
because its purpose is to emphasize the statement being made, as in I do
respect you and You did try hand. Example:
S

NP VP

Wanda Aux v NP

Tense Emph an effort

Past Do Ø MAKE

T-Inf - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

did make