The grammatical categories of verbs.

In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. 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 non-past, or future and non-future. There are also tenseless languages, like Chinese, which do not have tense at all. 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 relativised 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.

Aspect describes how a speaker feels about the action they are describing. In English there are generally accepted to be 3 aspects and they change how the verb‏‎ is formed:

1. simple (aka indefinite)

2. continuous (aka progressive)

3. perfect

Aspect is a grammatical category that expresses how an action, event or state, denoted by a verb, relates to the flow of time.

A basic aspectual distinction is that between perfective and imperfective aspects (not to be confused with perfect and imperfect verb forms; the meanings of the latter terms are somewhat different). Perfective aspect is used in referring to an event conceived as bounded and unitary, without reference to any flow of time during ("I helped him"). Imperfective aspect is used for situations conceived as existing continuously or repetitively as time flows ("I was helping him"; "I used to help people"). Further distinctions can be made, for example, to distinguish states and ongoing actions (continuous and progressive aspects) from repetitive actions (habitual aspect).

Certain aspectual distinctions express a relation in time between the event and the time of reference. This is the case with the perfect aspect, which indicates that an event occurred prior to (but has continuing relevance at) the time of reference: "I have eaten"; "I had eaten"; "I will have eaten".

3. The Category of Person

In English, only the third person present tense singular form expresses

person grammatically; therefore, the verb forms are obligatorily associated with

personal pronouns. Special mention should be made of the modal verbs and the

verb be. Modal verbs, with the exception of shall/should and will/would, do not

show person grammatically.

The verb be is more grammaticalized in this respect: it takes an exception to

the other verbs.

As can be seen, it has two grammaticalized persons in the singular – first and third

person – and no grammaticalized persons in the plural. In the past tense, the verb

be does not distinguish person – without a personal pronoun we cannot say which

person the form expresses.

To sum up, the category of person is represented in English by the two-

member opposition: third person singular vs. non-third person singular. The

marked member of the opposition is third person; the unmarked member is non-

third person (it includes the remaining forms – first person, second person forms –

singular and plural). The opposition is privative both in the plane of content and in

the plane of expression.