TEMA 5 The verb part three tenses

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AULA 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ESTUDOS AVANÇADOS DE 
LÍNGUA INGLESA – ESTUDOS 
GRAMATICAIS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Prof. Leonardo Felipe Salmoria 
 
 
 
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INTRODUCTION 
The verb part three – tenses 
 It is a common sense to outlook time, apart from any philosophical 
abstraction, as a straight line, where the central point represents the present time, 
now, and whatever is ahead of it represents the future, and what lays behind this 
central point represents the past (Quirk et al., 2005). There are, though, other 
imaginary points in between past points, for example, and the relation that is 
stablished between these points we call it the Perfective aspect. 
 In this lesson, you will understand the movements of this imaginary timeline, 
and how it reflects the way we understand ongoing past situations, or past 
situations ended up before another place in time. You will also understand the 
different ways to refer to the future, and the complex sentences to refer to any 
place in time, considering our imaginary timeline. 
THEME 1 – THE SIMPLE ASPECT 
 We refer to as the Simple aspect the verb tenses that express direct relation 
with the present point in the timeline. One being the ‘now’ point, and the other being 
the point before the ‘now’. 
1.1 The present simple 
 The present simple tense is usually referred to as the unmarked tense, 
once the morphology of its base form does not change when inflected, like ‘I live’, 
as opposed to ‘I lived’ in the past tense. There are three meanings of the present 
simple with reference to the present time: The State present, the Habitual present, 
and the Instantaneous present. 
 The State present is represented by the stative verbs because there is no 
reference to any specific time, or limitation on the extension of the state in the 
future or the past. This category also refers to general timeless statements, or fixed 
truths (Quirk et al., 2005). 
 [1] “And now, the final frame. Love is a losing game.” 
 In the art of reflecting about the meaning of ‘love’ countless artists have 
been coming across with different conclusions, being “Love is a losing game” [1] 
 
 
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Amy Winehouse’s. Most of State present sentences refer to proverbs, or any 
scientific statement. 
 When referring to Habitual present, we tend to use dynamic verbs, usually 
followed by adverbs, to express a whole sequence of events, which are repeated 
over an unrestricted time span. 
 [2] “The Smiths go to Italy every year.” 
 Some Habitual present sentences can also be scientifical, but the meaning 
expresses the time movement represented by the adverbials, like ‘Water boils at 
100ºC.’, where time plays an important role as the heat increases the temperature 
of the water slowly up to the boiling point. 
 Finally, the Instantaneous present expresses a single action begun and 
completed at around the time of the speech. Since the events have small durations, 
there are specific contexts of use, like demonstrations or self-commentaries ‘I pick 
the mop and dip it into the bucket.’; special exclamations such as ‘Off you go!’; and 
for commentaries, like in football: 
 [3] “Maddison passes the ball to Son… Son shoots and scores! Goal!!!” 
 This kind of statement holds a deliberate dramatic charge, because even 
though the action described in [3] could have been written or uttered in the present 
continuous tense, the dynamic movements performed by the football players and 
described by the commentators would lose its discourse style. 
1.2 The past simple 
 The past simple tense morphology has been scrutinised in the previous 
lesson about Irregular and regular verbs; as you remember, the regular verbs 
usually receive the suffix -ed, like ‘love=loved’, ‘dance=danced’, etc.; whilst the 
irregular verbs change part or the whole of their morphology, like ‘go=went’, 
‘leave=left’. 
 This tense usually follows two features of meaning: The event has 
happened in the past with an interval between this event and the present; and the 
time when this event took place must be definite. 
[4] “This is the story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world.” 
 In the song “Absolutely (story of a girl)” in [4], by the 1990’s pop band Nine 
Days, the sad girl described by the composer is someone he knows at the present 
 
 
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time, but he is referring to a past situation, in a metaphorical figure, of how bad she 
used to cry. 
 Simple past sentences are also used in interrogative or/and negative form, 
with the auxiliary verb flexed into the past form, referring to immediate past 
situations, like ‘Did you lock the door before leaving?’, or ‘Did(n’t) you know?’. And 
also, for historical or biographical statements, like ‘Queen Victoria died in 22 
September 1901.” 
THEME 2 – THE CONTINUOUS ASPECT 
 The Continuous aspect is also referred to as Progressive aspect, once it 
indicates a situation in progress at a given time (Quirk et al., 2005). When 
compared to the simple aspect, there is a substantial change in meaning: 
 [5] “She dances very well.” 
 [5a] “She is dancing very well.” 
 As [5] refers to an inherent talent, [5a] implies that the woman has been 
improving her talents quite recently, or that in a specific season she dances better 
than previous seasons. Basically, the morphology of the Continuous is the verb 
‘be’ + the gerund form of the main verb. 
2.1 The present continuous 
 In the three senses of State, Event, and Habit, we have many restrictions 
for stative verbs in the State Continuous, like the change in meaning of the verb 
‘live’, in ‘I live in Glasgow.’, meaning permanent residence, while ‘I’m living in 
Glasgow.’ means temporary residence. The main restriction lies in the realm of 
semantics, once stative verbs do not imply progress, or any kind of continuous 
movements. 
 In the sense of Event Continuous, the progressive refers to the duration of 
an event or situation that has not yet ended, or to temporary situations as a contrast 
to the present simple sense of permanent, or long-term situations. 
[6] “Every shattered limb repeatedly reminding us of what we're searching 
for.” 
 The Villagers song “Cecilia and her selfhood” in [6], is a narrative of revenge 
for a statue which was vandalised, and the two progressive movements described 
 
 
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is the search for the culprits, and the constant reminder of the statue’s broken 
pieces scattered around the streets. 
 In the sense of Habit Continuous, the progression occurs as the event is 
repeated over a limited period of time, and generally it is accompanied by an 
adverbial of time, position or frequency. 
 [7] “Don't you know I'm still standin' better than I ever did?” 
 In the stretch [7] from Elton John’s classic “I’m still standing” we can see the 
continuous ‘standing’ referring to the action of being alive and able to take care of 
oneself, after the adverb ‘still’; in this sense, the habit, which implies a repetition 
over a limited period of time, is not being reckless about one’s health and becoming 
more conscious of self-love. 
2.2 The past continuous 
 Considering our imaginary timeline, we explain the Past continuous as an 
event happening, for a limited period of time, at a place in time in the past. 
Sometimes it is accompanied by the adverbs ‘when’ and ‘while’. 
 [8] “I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met you.” 
 In the above stretch from the British Electro-pop band Human League song 
“The don’t you want me”, the singer Susan Ann Sulley refers to the continuous 
action of her position waiting tables at a bar somewhere in the past ‘when’ she had 
met Philip Oakley and their doomed relationship had started. 
 Another usage of the Past Continuous is to express uncompleted actions 
[9], and also to express the different meanings of the three verb senses of State 
[10], Event [11], and Habit [12]. 
 [9] “Last timeI saw Richard, he was cutting down Christmas trees.” 
 [10] “I was being honest when I told you all about it.” 
 [11] “Finally, the bus was arriving, late though.” 
 [12] “The students were texting while the professor was talking.” 
 The examples above consider specific meanings of sense verbs when 
combined with the progression in which these actions take place in the imaginary 
timeline (Quirk et al., 2005). 
 
 
 
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THEME 3 – THE PERFECT ASPECT 
 As you might already know, the English language has only two tenses, 
being one the present, and the other the past. For that reason, the perfect aspect 
of the present tense is used to refer to past situations or events that still continue 
to happen or has not come to an end. While the perfect aspect of the past tense 
usually refers to a ‘past-in-the-past’ situation or event (Quirk et al., 2005). 
3.1 The present perfect 
 The present perfect aspect form occurs by adding the auxiliary verb ‘have’ 
+ the past participle. The basic function of this aspect is to express a past situation 
or event that is still relevant to the present moment. 
 [13] “Step into the soul serene, where have you been all my life?” 
 The example above is a stretch from the song “The soul serene” by Irish 
band The Villagers, and in the context, Conor O’Brien discovers a calmness of the 
soul as he walks along the shores of Dublin on a rainy day, and for being such a 
mundane action to trigger intimate cathartic emotions, he asks himself where this 
calmness have been his entire life, when he needed the most. 
 When compared with the Simple past, the Perfect aspect of the past tense 
has a change in meaning for the time being of the particular situation or event 
mentioned. 
 [14] “Have you seen the art exhibition at the British Museum?” 
 [14a] “Did you see the art exhibition at the British Museum?” 
 In [14] it is implicit, by a time zone reference, that there is a special art 
showcase still in exhibition in London, while the past simple construction in [14a] 
implicates that the referred exhibition is no longer available at the British Museum 
and there is no other chance to see it in London for the time being. 
3.2 The past perfect 
 The form of the past perfect is basically the past form of the auxiliary verb 
‘have’ + past participle verb. Still considering the imaginary timeline, this aspect 
refers to a situation or event that happened at some point in the past before another 
past situation or event, in a chronological sequence. 
 
 
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 [15] “I had hoped you'd see my face.” 
 In Adele’s song “Someone like you” she uses the Past Perfect to establish 
a timeline of past events; before confronting her ex-lover, in which it is a situation 
described in past simple, she was hopeful that he would remember her with the 
same tenderness she is feeling towards their past. 
 In a broader sense, the Perfect Aspect is not so usual in American English 
as it is in British English. Americans tend to use the past simple to stablish a 
timeline of past events by using the adverbials ‘before’, ‘after’, and ‘then’, which 
makes the Past Perfect, depending on the context, quite redundant. 
 [16] “I had my lunch after my sister had come back from work.” 
 [16a] “I had my lunch after my sister came back from work.” 
 Both [16] and [16a] keep the same meaning, even though they use different 
aspects; however, if we try to do the same in Adele’s song, a complete rephrasing 
would be necessary to stablish the timeline using the Past Simple and adverbials 
of time position. 
THEME 4 – THE PERFECT CONTINUOUS ASPECT 
 When we have a combination of the Perfect Aspect and the Continuous 
Aspect, we also combine all of their features, naming a new aspect: The Perfect 
Continuous. However, there is also a semantic change up to an extent, which 
makes it not so easy to predict as most features in meaning from their separated 
aspects (Quirk et al., 2005). 
4.1 The present perfect continuous 
 The Present Perfect Continuous form is the auxiliary verb ‘have’ + the 
past participle of the verb ‘be’ + the -ing form of the main verb. We use this aspect 
to express a continuous action which started sometime in the past and is still 
happening up to the present or has not ended yet. We can use it with the adverb 
‘since’ and the adverbial use of the preposition ‘for’. 
 [17] “Well I've been sitting here for hours, baby.” 
 In the song “You’re my waterloo” by the Libertines, in [17], Pete Doherty 
puts the Waterloo station as the very heart of London, bombing the other 
 
 
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underground lines around the city as a metaphor for the love he feels for his 
beloved one. It also depicts a long time waiting before his girlfriend finally arrives. 
 [18] “heat waves been faking me out.” 
 In the song “Heat waves” by the British band Glass Animals, we can see a 
very common phenomenon of spoken language, with the elimination of ‘have’ 
before ‘been faking’ due to a natural contraction of ‘v’ sounds, especially the 
previous word having the same final sound ‘waves’. The phrasal verb ‘fake out’ 
means to deceive or play tricks on someone’s head; in the context of the song, the 
late-night heat waves confuse Dave Bailey’s thoughts, but as a progression which 
started in the past, when Summer started, and it still goes on up to the present, 
and eventually the future. 
 Another feature of this aspect is to express a continuous or repeated action 
that happened quite recently, and generally had just finished. 
[19] “These aren’t tears of sadness because you’re leaving me, I’ve just 
been cutting onions, I’m making a lasagna, for one.” 
In the highly satirical song “I’m not crying”, originally composed by the New 
Zealander duo Flight of the Conchords for their homonymous HBO show, the 
Present Perfect Continuous is used to explain why Jermaine Clement has teary 
eyes, to avoid the shame of crying in front of the person who had just broke up 
with him. The allegedly just finished continuous action to explain the tears in his 
eyes is the act of cutting onions, part of the process to prepare a lasagna, the 
perfect excuse. 
4.2 The past perfect continuous 
 The Past Perfect Continuous structure is basically the auxiliary verb ‘have’ 
in the past form + the auxiliary verb ‘be’ in the past participle + the main verb in the 
gerund form. We use this aspect to express an action which happened up until a 
certain time in the past (Frodesen; Eyring, 2000). 
 [20] “When the police caught him, he had been running for months.” 
Considering the imaginary timeline, the main event happens for a period of 
time, as a repeated or continuous action, and has come to an end at some point 
in the past, before the secondary past event, which is closer to the present. 
 [21] “Waiting, I'd been waiting so long for this.” 
 
 
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 In Pet Shop Boys’ song “Hit and miss”, we can find a very clear example of 
the usage of this aspect; in the context of the song, Neil Tennant refers to a past 
relationship, when he fell deeply in love for the first time, so the continuous past 
event was his long time waiting for love, being the secondary event the very 
beginning of his relationship with his now ex-boyfriend. 
 In a general manner, the Past Perfect Continuous refers to incomplete or 
interrupted events happening before another past event. Like in [21] where the 
primary past event is interrupted by the secondary past event, which is the arrival 
of Tennant’s longing love. 
THEME 5 – FUTURE FORMS 
 Considering what you have seen so far, the verb tenses in English are only 
two: the past, roughly expressed by the suffix -ed, and the present, roughly 
expressed by the suffix -ing. When we want to express the future, we use different 
forms, like the auxiliary verb will before a bare infinitive, or the verbal phrase be 
going to, and we can include even the forms -ed and -ing in the present tense of 
thesimple and the continuous aspect (Quirk et al., 2005). 
5.1 The future with ‘will’ and ‘be going to’ 
 The most common way to express the future is by using the auxiliaries ‘will’, 
‘shall’, or the contracted form ‘’ll’. The negative contracted form of ‘will’ and ‘shall’ 
is ‘won’t’ and ‘shan’t’, respectfully. This construction is often referred to as the 
Future Simple, and we generally use it to express rough predictions about the 
future, or dim opinions about the probability of future situations or events, and also 
plans and decisions, made without due consideration, or promises (Ducksworth, 
2011). 
[22] “but if I make the pearly gates, I'll do my best to make a drawing of God 
and Lucifer.” 
 In [22], the song “The trapeze swinger” by the American performer Iron & 
Wine, presents the contracted future form ‘will’ to express a conditional, once 
Samuel Beam imagines what will happen soon after his death, considering the 
possibility of going to heaven, implied by the expression ‘pearly gate’, where he 
previously in the song have suggested is full of graffiti made by newcomers, and 
 
 
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he makes a promise that he will try his best artistical feats to include his own graffiti 
to the pearly gate’s wall. 
 Another way to express the future is by using the construction ‘be going to’, 
usually in informal speech, which happens in two possible situations; being one 
[21] for future fulfilment of a present intention, and the other [22] for future results 
of a present cause (Quirk et al., 2005). 
 [21] “We’re going to get married next year.” 
 [22] “Look at those dark clouds, I think it’s going to rain.” 
 The basic difference in meaning between ‘will’ and ‘be going to’ to talk about 
future plans and predictions, is that for ‘be going to’, the future plan suggests full 
preparations and considerations, like the wedding in [21], and the prediction occurs 
only with the presence of an evidence that can be seen of felt at the moment, like 
the dark clouds in [22]. 
5.2 The future with present simple 
 After the auxiliaries ‘will’ and ‘shall’, the Present Simple to express the 
future is one the most usual, and, unlike ‘be going to’, generally happens in 
conditional clauses [23], and also to express plans and schedules (Quirk et.al., 
2005). 
 [23] “If you eat too much sugar, it will be bad for your health.” 
 [24] “Tomorrow morning I can’t come because I have piano lessons.” 
 The piano lessons in [24] were previously booked by the speaker and 
cannot be cancelled. This tense is also used to describe future immutable events 
or situations that sometimes are not determined by human planning. 
 [25] “Here comes the rain again, falling on my head like a memory.” 
 The upcoming rain in Eurythmics hit “Here comes the rain” is actually a 
metaphor for the act of crying copiously but it is still an immediate future unplanned 
situation. 
 
 
 
 
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5.3 The future with present continuous 
 Like ‘be going to’, the main aspect of the Present Continuous to express 
the future is that the event or situation is imminent, unless it is marked by a time 
clause specifying the distant future: 
 [26] “They are travelling to Rome in a year or two.” 
 Generally, this tense, in a future context, is used to determine a future which 
has been planned, arranged, or programmed, and hardly ever is used with stative 
verbs, as you might remember from previous lessons. 
 [27] “I’m leaving you for the last time, baby.” 
 In Duffy’s hit “Warwick Avenue” in [27], she is planning a meeting with her 
boyfriend, at the Warwick Avenue Station in London, because she wants to break 
up with him, once their relationship is far from healthy, and now she is resolute 
about her decision as she is doing it ‘for the last time’. 
5.4 The future with the perfect aspect 
 Other forms, though less usual, are also acceptable to describe the future: 
one being the Future Perfect, and the other being the Future Perfect 
Continuous. 
 The Future Perfect is basically the auxiliary verbs ‘will’ and ‘have’ before a 
past participle, and it is used to describe a future action that will be finished before 
some other time in the future: 
 [28] “By the time I’m 35 I will have met the man of my dreams.” 
 The Future Perfect Continuous, which is formed with the combination of 
the auxiliaries ‘will’ and ‘have’ + the past participle of the auxiliary verb ‘be’ + a 
main verb in the gerund form, is used to describe a continuous action that will 
continue up until a point in the future: 
 [29] “Next year, I will have been teaching English for five years.” 
 The Future Perfect and the Future Perfect Continuous, for a rhetorical 
purpose, lay in the field of Pragmatics, once they are less usual in everyday 
communication, but flourish in literature. The next lesson will provide you with 
useful information about it. 
 
 
 
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