what is tense? how many types of tense
Answers
Answer:
Relating to human nature and behaviour, I first recall Tense as a situation which makes us worried. For example…I am tense today because my result is going to be declared. This tense relates to Tension खिंचाव…
With academic point of view, in broader term,Tense relates to three section of time..
1..the one which is passed and we call it past tense
2..the one which existing or still in regular practice and we call it present tense
3..and the one which we have not seen but expect that it may happen in coming times and we call it future tense.
Now, no sentence is complete without denoting the time of action, be it past, present or future and so tense relates to action which in parts of speech known as VERB.
Any action is either done, or is being done or will be done. With this logic, the tense forms the words of action (VERBs) with the same word in different form, which are called past form, present form and future form for example:
Ate is the past form of Eat and means …Eating action in past
Eat is the present form of Eat and means ….eating is still in regular action
Will eat is the future form of Eat and means ….Eating action is expected in coming time.
This the basics behind tense, but when we speak, we classify the time of past, future and present also to clear our sentences and there comes the divisions in Past, present and future tenses.
If I have eaten something in recent past, it will be simple Past tense like.I ate.
But if I had eaten in past and I am narrating the same with another past incident, before which I ate, then it will Past of past and called past participle. For example…I had eaten before he came
Further, i want to narrate some incident of past while I was eating , it comes under Past continuous e.g. I was eating, when he came.
And so, each tense is subdivided in four forms ..indefinite, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous….
Same logic follows with Present and future tense also. Tense can be understood from any good grammar book but to learn it perfectly, you have to practice exercises as much as possible. It is like maths, more you practice it, more you learn it.
And so even simple tense has been divided in many subdivisions.
You will get a lot of matter in grammar books. I have just given the basic understanding and requirement or importance of Tense.
But please don’t get Tensed with tense, its important and easy if you practice regularly