ipfv deic kānei tenseless hodiernal mortlockese nonfuture crastinal hesternal indef wuvulu imperfective pfv nonpast aspectual perfective adverbials pluperfect deictic hafford prec composé aorist tenses lagaw realis tunu perfectum naku subjunctive
how many tenses are in the english language
Grammatical tense - Wikipedia Grammatical tense Jump to : navigation , search Tense means `` any of the form of the verb that may be used to indicate the time of action or state expressed by the verb . '' For the guideline on grammatical tense in Wikipedia articles , see Wikipedia : Manual of Style § Verb tense . This article needs additional citations for verification . Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . ( October 2016 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message ) Grammatical categories Adjunct Affect ( linguistics ) Agent Agreement Animacy Branching ( linguistics ) Associativity Argument Aspect Associated motion Case Case stacking / Suffixaufnahme Classifier ( linguistics ) Clusivity Comparison Complement Contrast Contraction Construct state Conjugation Dative shift Definiteness Evidentiality Feature Focus Gender Honorifics Incorporation Markedness Mirativity Modality Genitive construction Mood Noun class Number Object Patient Politeness Person Polarity Possession Pluractionality Predicate Species Specificity Subject Suffix Telicity Tense Topic Transitivity Valency Voice Volition In grammar , tense is a category that expresses time reference with reference to the moment of speaking . Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs , particularly in their conjugation patterns . Basic tenses found in many languages include the past , present , and future . Some languages have only two distinct tenses , such as past and nonpast , or future and nonfuture . There are also tenseless languages , like Chinese , though it can possess a future and nonfuture system , which is typical of Sino - Tibetan languages . On the other hand , some languages make finer tense distinctions , such as remote vs. recent past , or near vs. remote future . Tenses generally express time relative to the moment of speaking . In some contexts , however , their meaning may be relativized to a point in the past or future which is established in the discourse ( the moment being spoken about ) . This is called relative ( as opposed to absolute ) tense . Some languages have different verb forms or constructions which manifest relative tense , such as pluperfect ( `` past - in - the - past '' ) and `` future - in - the - past '' . Expressions of tense are often closely connected with expressions of the category of aspect ; sometimes what are traditionally called tenses ( in languages such as Latin ) may in modern analysis be regarded as combinations of tense with aspect . Verbs are also often conjugated for mood , and since in many cases the three categories are not manifested separately , some languages may be described in terms of a combined tense -- aspect -- mood ( TAM ) system . Contents ( hide ) 1 Etymology 2 Uses of the term 3 Possible tenses 4 Tense marking 5 In particular languages 5.1 Latin and Ancient Greek 5.2 English 5.3 Other Indo - European languages 5.4 Other languages 5.5 Austronesian languages 5.5. 1 Rapa 5.5. 2 Tokelau 5.5. 3 Wuvulu - Aua 5.6 Mortlockese 6 See also 7 References 8 Bibliography 9 External links Etymology ( edit ) The English noun tense comes from Old French tens `` time '' ( spelled temps in modern French through deliberate archaisation ) , from Latin tempus `` time '' . It is not related to the adjective tense , which comes from Latin tensus , the perfect passive participle of tendere `` stretch '' . Uses of the term ( edit ) In modern linguistic theory , tense is understood as a category that expresses ( grammaticalizes ) time reference ; namely one which , using grammatical means , places a state or action in time . Nonetheless , in many descriptions of languages , particularly in traditional European grammar , the term `` tense '' is applied to series of verb forms or constructions that express not merely position in time , but also additional properties of the state or action -- particularly aspectual or modal properties . The category of aspect expresses how a state or action relates to time -- whether it is seen as a complete event , an ongoing or repeated situation , etc . Many languages make a distinction between perfective aspect ( denoting complete events ) and imperfective aspect ( denoting ongoing or repeated situations ) ; some also have other aspects , such as a perfect aspect , denoting a state following a prior event . Some of the traditional `` tenses '' express time reference together with aspectual information . In Latin and French , for example , the imperfect denotes past time in combination with imperfective aspect , while other verb forms ( the Latin perfect , and the French passé composé or passé simple ) are used for past time reference with perfective aspect . The category of mood is used to express modality , which includes such properties as uncertainty , evidentiality , and obligation . Commonly encountered moods include the indicative , subjunctive , and conditional . Mood can be bound up with tense , aspect , or both , in particular verb forms . Hence certain languages are sometimes analysed as having a single tense -- aspect -- mood ( TAM ) system , without separate manifestation of the three categories . The term tense , then , particularly in less formal contexts , is sometimes used to denote any combination of tense proper , aspect , and mood . As regards English , there are many verb forms and constructions which combine time reference with continuous and / or perfect aspect , and with indicative , subjunctive or conditional mood . Particularly in some English language teaching materials , some or all of these forms can be referred to simply as tenses ( see below ) . Particular tense forms need not always carry their basic time - referential meaning in every case . A present tense form may sometimes refer to the past ( as in the historical present ) , a past tense form may sometimes refer to the non-past ( as in some English conditional sentences ) , and so on . Possible tenses ( edit ) Not all languages have tense : tenseless languages include Burmese , Chinese and Dyirbal . Some languages have all three basic tenses ( the past , present , and future ) , while others have only two : some have past and nonpast tenses , the latter covering both present and future times ( as in Japanese , and in English in some analyses ) , whereas others such as Greenlandic and Quechua have future and nonfuture . Some languages have four or more tenses , making finer distinctions either in the past ( e.g. remote vs. recent past ) or in the future ( e.g. near vs. remote future ) . The six - tense language Kalaw Lagaw Ya of Australia has the remote past , the recent past , the today past , the present , the today / near future and the remote future . A historical past tense , used for events perceived as historical , is found in , for example , the Amazonian Cubeo language . Tenses that refer specifically to `` today '' are called hodiernal tenses ; these can be either past or future . Apart from Kalaw Lagaw Ya , another language which features such tenses is Mwera , a Bantu language of Tanzania . It is also suggested that in 17th - century French , the passé composé served as a hodiernal past . Tenses which contrast with hodiernals , by referring to the past before today or the future after today , are called pre-hodiernal and post-hodiernal respectively . Some languages also have a crastinal tense , a future tense referring specifically to tomorrow ( found in some Bantu languages ) ; or a hesternal tense , a past tense referring specifically to yesterday ( although this name is also sometimes used to mean pre-hodiernal ) . A tense for after tomorrow is thus called post-crastinal , and one for before yesterday is called pre-hesternal . Another tense found in some languages , including Luganda , is the persistive tense , used to indicate that a state or ongoing action is still the case ( or , in the negative , is no longer the case ) . Luganda also has tenses meaning `` so far '' and `` not yet '' . Some languages have special tense forms that are used to express relative tense . Tenses that refer to the past relative to the time under consideration are called anterior ; these include the pluperfect ( for the past relative to a past time ) and the future perfect ( for the past relative to a future time ) . Similarly , posterior tenses refer to the future relative to the time under consideration , as with the English `` future - in - the - past '' : ( he said that ) he would go . Relative tense forms are also sometimes analysed as combinations of tense with aspect : the perfect aspect in the anterior case , or the prospective aspect in the posterior case . Tense marking ( edit ) Tense is normally indicated by the use of a particular verb form -- either an inflected form of the main verb , or a multi-word construction , or both in combination . Inflection may involve the use of affixes , such as the - ed ending that marks the past tense of English regular verbs , but can also entail stem modifications , such as ablaut , as found in the strong verbs in English and other Germanic languages , or reduplication . Multi-word tense constructions often involve auxiliary verbs or clitics . Examples which combine both types of tense marking include the French passé composé , which has an auxiliary verb together with the inflected past participle form of the main verb ; and the Irish past tense , where the proclitic do ( in various surface forms ) appears in conjunction with the affixed or ablaut - modified past tense form of the main verb . As has already been mentioned , indications of tense are often bound up with indications of other verbal categories , such as aspect and mood . The conjugation patterns of verbs often also reflect agreement with categories pertaining to the subject , such as person , number and gender . It is consequently not always possible to identify elements that mark any specific category , such as tense , separately from the others . A few languages have been shown to mark tense information ( as well as aspect and mood ) on nouns . This may be called nominal TAM . Languages that do not have grammatical tense , such as Chinese , express time reference chiefly by lexical means -- through adverbials , time phrases , and so on . ( The same is done in tensed languages , to supplement or reinforce the time information conveyed by the choice of tense . ) Time information is also sometimes conveyed as a secondary feature by markers of other categories , as with the Chinese aspect markers le and guo , which in most cases place an action in past time . However , much time information is conveyed implicitly by context -- it is therefore not always necessary , when translating from a tensed to a tenseless language , say , to express explicitly in the target language all of the information conveyed by the tenses in the source . In particular languages ( edit ) Latin and Ancient Greek ( edit ) Latin is traditionally described as having six tenses ( the Latin for `` tense '' being tempus , plural tempora ) : Present ( praesens ) Imperfect ( praeteritum imperfectum ) Perfect ( praeteritum perfectum ) Future ( futurus ) Pluperfect ( plus quam perfectum ) Future perfect ( anterior futurus ) Of these , the imperfect and perfect can be considered to represent a past tense combined with imperfective and perfective aspect respectively ( the first is used for habitual or ongoing past actions or states , and the second for completed actions ) . The pluperfect and future perfect are relative tenses , referring to the past relative to a past time or relative to a future time . Latin verbs are conjugated for tense ( and aspect ) together with mood ( indicative , subjunctive , and sometimes imperative ) and voice ( active or passive ) . Most forms are produced by inflecting the verb stem , with endings that also depend on the person and number of the subject . Some of the passive forms are produced using a participle together with a conjugated auxiliary verb . For details of the forms , see Latin conjugation . The tenses of Ancient Greek are similar , but with a three - way aspect contrast in the past : the aorist , the perfect and the imperfect . The aorist was the `` simple past '' , while the imperfective denoted uncompleted action in the past , and the perfect was used for past events having relevance to the present . The study of modern languages has been greatly influenced by the grammar of the Classical languages , since early grammarians , often monks , had no other reference point to describe their language . Latin terminology is often used to describe modern languages , sometimes with a change of meaning , as with the application of `` perfect '' to forms in English that do not necessarily have perfective meaning , or the words Imperfekt and Perfekt to German past tense forms that mostly lack any relationship to the aspects implied by those terms . English ( edit ) English has only two morphological tenses : the present or non-past , as in he goes , and the past or preterite , as in he went . The non-past usually references the present , but sometimes references the future ( as in the bus leaves tomorrow ) . ( It also sometimes references the past , however , in what is called the historical present . ) Constructions with the modal auxiliary verbs will and shall also frequently reference the future ( although they have other uses as well ) ; these are often described as the English future tense . Less commonly , forms with the auxiliaries would and ( rarely ) should are described as a relative tense , the future - in - the - past . ( The same forms are used for the conditional mood , and for various other meanings . ) The present and past are distinguished by verb form , using either ablaut ( sing ( s ) ~ sang ) or suffix ( walk ( s ) ~ walked ) . For details , see English verbs . English also has continuous ( progressive ) aspect and perfect aspect ; these together produce four aspectual types : simple , continuous , perfect , and perfect continuous . Each of these can combine with the tenses to produce a large set of different constructions , mostly involving one or more auxiliary verbs together with a participle or infinitive : <Td_colspan="2"> <Td_colspan="4"> Tenses <Td_colspan="2"> Morphological <Td_colspan="2"> With auxiliaries Present Past Future Future - in - the - past Aspects Simple go ( es ) went will go would go Continuous am / is / are going was / were going will be going would be going Perfect have / has gone had gone will have gone would have gone Perfect continuous have / has been going had been going will have been going would have been going In some contexts , particularly in English language teaching , the tense -- aspect combinations in the above table may be referred to simply as tenses . For details of the uses of these constructions , as well as additional verb forms representing different grammatical moods , see Uses of English verb forms . Other Indo - European languages ( edit ) Proto - Indo - European verbs had present , perfect ( stative ) , imperfect and aorist forms -- these can be considered as representing two tenses ( present and past ) with different aspects . Most languages in the Indo - European family have developed systems either with two morphological tenses ( present or `` non-past '' , and past ) or with three ( present , past and future ) . The tenses often form part of entangled tense -- aspect -- mood conjugation systems . Additional tenses , tense -- aspect combinations , etc. can be provided by compound constructions containing auxiliary verbs . The Germanic languages ( which include English ) have present ( non-past ) and past tenses formed morphologically , with future and other additional forms made using auxiliaries . In standard German , the compound past ( Perfekt ) has replaced the simple morphological past in most contexts . The Romance languages ( descendants of Latin ) have past , present and future morphological tenses , with additional aspectual distinction in the past . French is an example of a language where , as in German , the simple morphological perfective past ( passé simple ) has mostly given way to a compound form ( passé composé ) . Irish , a Celtic language , has past , present and future tenses ( see Irish conjugation ) . The past contrasts perfective and imperfective aspect , and some verbs retain such a contrast in the present . Classical Irish had a three - way aspectual contrast of simple -- perfective -- imperfective in the past and present tenses . Persian , an Indo - Iranian language , has past and non-past forms , with additional aspectual distinctions . Future can be expressed using an auxiliary , but almost never in non-formal context . In the Slavic languages , verbs are intrinsically perfective or imperfective . In Russian and some other languages in the group , perfective verbs have past and future tenses , while imperfective verbs have past , present and future , the imperfective future being a compound tense in most cases . The future tense of perfective verbs is formed in the same way as the present tense of imperfective verbs . However , in South Slavic languages , there may be a greater variety of forms -- Bulgarian , for example , has present , past ( both `` imperfect '' and `` aorist '' ) and future tenses , for both perfective and imperfective verbs , as well as perfect forms made with an auxiliary ( see Bulgarian verbs ) . Other languages ( edit ) Finnish and Hungarian , both members of the Uralic language family , have morphological present ( non-past ) and past tenses . The Hungarian verb van ( `` to be '' ) also has a future form . Turkish verbs conjugate for past , present and future , with a variety of aspects and moods . Arabic verbs have past and non-past ; future can be indicated by a prefix . Korean verbs have a variety of affixed forms which can be described as representing present , past and future tenses , although they can alternatively be considered to be aspectual . Similarly , Japanese verbs are described as having present and past tenses , although they may be analysed as aspects . Chinese and many other East Asian languages generally lack inflection and are considered to be tenseless languages , although they may have aspect markers which convey certain information about time reference . For examples of languages with a greater variety of tenses , see the section on possible tenses , above . Fuller information on tense formation and usage in particular languages can be found in the articles on those languages and their grammars . Austronesian languages ( edit ) Rapa ( edit ) Rapa is the French Polynesian language of the island of Rapa Iti . Verbs in the indigenous Old Rapa occur with a marker known as TAM which stands for tense , aspect , or mood which can be followed by directional particles or deictic particles . Of the markers there are three tense markers called : Imperfective , Progressive , and Perfective . Which simply mean , Before , Currently , and After . However , specific TAM markers and the type of deictic or directional particle that follows determine and denote different types of meanings in terms of tenses . Imperfective : denotes actions that have not occurred yet but will occur and expressed by TAM e . Example : e naku mai te ' āikete anana'i IPFV come DIR INDEF teacher tomorrow ' The teacher is coming tomorrow . ' e mānea tō pē'ā ra IPFV pretty DEF woman DEIC ' That woman is beautiful . ' Progressive : Also expressed by TAM e and denotes actions that are currently happening when used with deictic na , and denotes actions that was just witnessed but still currently happening when used with deictic ra . Example : e ' āikete na ' ōna i te tamariki IPFV learn DEIC 3S ACC INDEFchild / children ' He is teaching some children . ' e kai na ou i kota'i kororio eika IPFV eat DEIC 1S ACC one small fish ' I am eating a small fish . ' e tunu na ou i te mīkaka tonga te pōpongi IPFV cook DEIC 1S ACC INDEFtaro all INDEF morning ' I cook taro every morning . ' e kaikai ra te kurī i te moa IPFV eat. continuously DEIC INDEFdog ACC INDEFchicken ' The dog is eating a chicken . ' e mate atu ra ' ōna IPFV die DIR DEIC 3S ' She has just died . ' Perfective : denotes actions that have already occurred or have finished and is marked by TAM ka . Example : ka ngurunguru te kurī PFV growl INDEFdog ' A dog growled . ' ka tākave tō tangata i te mango PFV kill DEF man ACC INDEFshark ' The man killed the shark . ' ka tunu na ou i te mīkaka tonga te pōpongi PFV cook DEIC 1S ACC INDEFtaro all INDEF morning ' I used to cook taro every morning ' In Old Rapa there are also other types of tense markers known as Past , Imperative , and Subjunctive . Past TAM i marks past action . It is rarely used as a matrix TAM and is more frequently observed in past embedded clauses i komo mātou PST sleep 1PlExcl ' We slept . ' e a'a koe i ' aka - ineine IPFV what 2S PST CAUS - ready ' What did you prepare ? ' Imperative The imperative is marked in Old Rapa by TAM a . A second person subject is implied by the direct command of the imperative . a naku mai IMP come DIR ' Come here . ' a kai tā - koe eika IMP eat INDEF. PossA - 2S fish ' Eat your fish . ' For a more polite form rather than a straightforward command imperative TAM a is used with adverbial kānei . Kānei is only shown to be used in imperative structures and was translated by the french as `` please '' . a rave mai kānei tō mea IMP take DIR PREC DEF thing ' Please take the thing . ' a omono kānei koe tō ka'u ra IMP dress PREC 2S DEF clothing DEIC ' Please dress yourself in those clothes . ' It is also used in a more impersonal form . For example , how you would speak toward a pesky neighbor . a naku kānei IMP go PREC ' Please leave now ! ' Subjunctive The subjunctive in Old Rapa is marked by kia and can also be used in expressions of desire kia naku ou i te ' are e kaikai ou SBJV come 1S PREP INDEFhouse IPFV eat. continuously 1S ' When I get to the house , I will eat . ' kia rekareka kōrua SBJV happy 2Du ' May you two be happy . ' Tokelau ( edit ) The Tokelauan language is a tenseless language . The language uses the same words for all three tenses ; the phrase E liliu mai au i te Aho Tōnai literally translates to Come back / me / on Saturday , but the translation becomes ' I am coming back on Saturday ' . Wuvulu - Aua ( edit ) Wuvulu - Aua does not have an explicit tense , but rather tense is conveyed by mood , aspect markers , and time phrases . Wuvulu speakers use a realis mood to convey past tense as speakers can be certain about events that have occurred . In some cases , realis mood is used to convey present tense -- often to indicate a state of being . Wuvulu speakers use an irrealis mood to convey future tense . Tense in Wuvulu - Aua may also be implied by using time adverbials and aspectual markings . Wuvulu contains three verbal markers to indicate sequence of events . The preverbal adverbial loʔo ' first ' indicates the verb occurs before any other . The postverbal morpheme liai and linia are the respective intransitive and transitive suffixes indicating a repeated action . The postverbal morpheme li and liria are the respective intransitive and transitive suffixes indicating a completed action . Mortlockese ( edit ) Mortlockese uses tense markers such as mii and to denote the present tense state of a subject , aa to denote a present tense state that an object has changed to from a different , past state , kɞ to describe something that has already been completed , pɞ and lɛ to denote future tense , pwapw to denote a possible action or state in future tense , and sæn / mwo for something that has not happened yet . Each of these markers is used in conjunction with the subject proclitics except for the markers aa and mii . Additionally , the marker mii can be used with any type of intransitive verb . See also ( edit ) Sequence of tenses Spatial tense References ( edit ) Jump up ^ `` Grammatical Features - Associativity '' . www.grammaticalfeatures.net . ^ Jump up to : Fabricius - Hansen , `` Tense '' , in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics , 2nd ed. , 2006 ^ Jump up to : Bernard Comrie , Aspect , 1976 : 6 : `` the semantic concept of time reference ( absolute or relative ) , ... may be grammaticalized in a language , i.e. a language may have a grammatical category that expresses time reference , in which case we say that the language has tenses . Some languages lack tense , i.e. do not have grammatical time reference , though probably all languages can lexicalize time reference , i.e. have temporal adverbials that locate situations in time . '' Jump up ^ Nick Huang , `` On syntactic tense in Mandarin Chinese '' `` Proceedings of the 27th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics '' , Los Angeles , 2015 . Jump up ^ tempus . Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short . A Latin Dictionary on Perseus Project . Jump up ^ Harper , Douglas . `` tense '' . Online Etymology Dictionary . Jump up ^ Comrie 1985 , pp. 50 - 53 . Jump up ^ Nancy L. Morse , Michael B. Maxwell , Cubeo Grammar , Summer Institute of Linguistics , 1999 , p. 45 . Jump up ^ Joan Bybee , Revere Perkins , William Pagliuca , The Evolution of Grammar : Tense , Aspect , and Modality in the Languages of the World , University of Chicago Press , 1994 , p. 101 . Jump up ^ Daniel Nettle , The Fyem Language of Northern Nigeria , LINCOM Europa 1998 Jump up ^ Earl W. Stevick , Adapting and writing language lessons , U.S. Foreign Service Institute , 1971 , p. 302 . Jump up ^ Rachel Nordlinger and Louisa Sadler , `` Tense as a Nominal Category '' Archived 2012 - 08 - 16 at the Wayback Machine. , Proceedings of the LFG00 Conference , Berkeley , 2000 . Jump up ^ Huddleston & Pullum 2002 , p. 51 . Jump up ^ See e.g. Tony Penston , A Concise Grammar for English Language Teachers , TP Publications , 2005 , p. 17 . ^ Jump up to : Walworth , Mary E. The Language of Rapa Iti : Description of a Language In Change . Diss . U of Hawaii at Manoa , 2015 . Honolulu : U of Hawaii at Manoa , 2015 . Print . Jump up ^ Tau Gana Tokelau . 1st ed . Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs , 2017 . Web. ( 1 ) Jump up ^ Hafford , James A ( 2104 ) . Wuvulu Grammar and Vocabulary ( PDF ) . p. 89 . Retrieved 6 March 2017 . Check date values in : date = ( help ) Jump up ^ Hafford , James A ( 2104 ) . Wuvulu Grammar and Vocabulary ( PDF ) . p. 90 . Retrieved 6 March 2017 . Check date values in : date = ( help ) Jump up ^ Hafford , James A ( 2104 ) . Wuvulu Grammar and Vocabulary ( PDF ) . p. 91 . Retrieved 6 March 2017 . Check date values in : date = ( help ) Jump up ^ Odango , Emerson Lopez ( May 2015 ) . Afféú Fangani ' Join Together ' : A Morphophonemic Analysis of Possessive Suffix Paradigms and A Discourse - Based Ethnography of the Elicitation Session in Pakin Lukunosh Mortlockese ( PDF ) . University of Hawaii at Manoa Dissertation . Bibliography ( edit ) Bybee , Joan L. , Revere Perkins , and William Pagliuca ( 1994 ) The Evolution of Grammar : Tense , Aspect , and Modality in the Languages of the World . University of Chicago Press . Comrie , Bernard ( 1985 ) . `` Tense '' . Cambridge University Press . ISBN 0 - 521 - 28138 - 5 . Huddleston , Rodney ; Pullum , Geoffrey K. ( 15 April 2002 ) . The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 43146 - 0 . Retrieved 10 February 2015 . Lay summary ( PDF ) ( 10 February 2015 ) . Guillaume , Gustave ( 1929 ) Temps et verbe . Paris : Champion . Hopper , Paul J. , ed. ( 1982 ) Tense -- Aspect : Between Semantics and Pragmatics . Amsterdam : Benjamins . Huang , Z.J. ( 2015 ) . On syntactic tense in Mandarin Chinese . In Proceedings of the 27th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics , ed . Hongyin Tao et al. , volume 2 , 406 -- 423 . Los Angeles : UCLA . `` Verb Tenses '' . Oxford Living Dictionaries . Oxford University Press . Retrieved 2017 - 01 - 25 . Smith , Carlota ( 1997 ) . The Parameter of Aspect . Dordrecht : Kluwer . Tedeschi , Philip , and Anne Zaenen , eds. ( 1981 ) Tense and Aspect . ( Syntax and Semantics 14 ) . New York : Academic Press . External links ( edit ) Tense Explained ( with diagrams ) Combinations of Tense , Aspect , and Mood in Greek Grammatical Features Inventory <Th_colspan="2"> ( hide ) Grammatical tenses <Td_colspan="2"> Future Crastinal Nonfuture Nonpast Present Hodiernal Past Hesternal <Td_colspan="2"> Future perfect Present perfect Pluperfect <Td_colspan="2"> Relative and absolute GND : 4059446 - 4 NDL : 00577078 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grammatical_tense&oldid=806475307 '' Categories : Grammatical tenses English grammar Time in linguistics Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links CS1 errors : dates Articles needing additional references from October 2016 All articles needing additional references Articles containing Latin - language text Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Български Brezhoneg Català Чӑвашла Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto فارسی Français Gàidhlig 한국어 हिन्दी Bahasa Indonesia Ирон Íslenska Italiano עברית Қазақша Latina Latviešu Lietuvių Magyar Македонски മലയാളം Nederlands नेपाली 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Polski Português Română Русский Davvisámegiella Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Suomi Svenska தமிழ் తెలుగు Тоҷикӣ Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt Walon 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 22 October 2017 , at 07 : 49 . 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