How many tenses are there in English language?

[Tdol]

I'm a two-tense chap.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by tdol

I'm a two-tense chap.

Indeed! :wink:

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by Casiopea

In all, there are close to thirty tenses, in English, marked by auxiliaries.

:D

Are youincluding passives as separate tenses? If not, I'm not sure how you get that number.

[scoobert]

There are 16 tenses in english. I'll list them ...
1. Present Simple - I play
2. Present Continuous - I am playing
3. Present Perfect - I have played
4. Present Perfect Continuous - I have been playing
5. Past Simple - I played
6. Past Continuous - I was playing
7. Past Perfect - I had played
8. Past Perfect Continuous - I had been playing
9. Future Simple - I will play (including "be going to + infinitive" form) I am goint to play
10. Future Continuous - I will be playing
11. Future Perfect - I will have played
12. Future Perfect Continuous - I will have been playing
13. Future Simple in the past - I would play (including the "was/were going to + infinitive" form)
14. Future Continuous in the past - I would be bathing
15. Future Perfect in the past - I would have played
16. Future Perfect Continuous in the past - I would have been playing

:))

[Soup]

There are just the two, actually.

1 Present Tense
1. Present Simple - I play
2. Present Continuous - I am playing
3. Present Perfect - I have played
4. Present Perfect Continuous - I have been playing

2 Past Tense
5. Past Simple - I played
6. Past Continuous - I was playing
7. Past Perfect - I had played
8. Past Perfect Continuous - I had been playing

Aspect
9. Future Simple - I will play (including "be going to + infinitive" form) I am goint to play
10. Future Continuous - I will be playing
11. Future Perfect - I will have played
12. Future Perfect Continuous - I will have been playing
13. Future Simple in the past - I would play (including the "was/were going to + infinitive" form)
14. Future Continuous in the past - I would be bathing
15. Future Perfect in the past - I would have played
16. Future Perfect Continuous in the past - I would have been playing

[kiranlegend]

Originally Posted by Soup

There are just the two, actually.

1 Present Tense
1. Present Simple - I play
2. Present Continuous - I am playing
3. Present Perfect - I have played
4. Present Perfect Continuous - I have been playing

2 Past Tense
5. Past Simple - I played
6. Past Continuous - I was playing
7. Past Perfect - I had played
8. Past Perfect Continuous - I had been playing

Aspect
9. Future Simple - I will play (including "be going to + infinitive" form) I am goint to play
10. Future Continuous - I will be playing
11. Future Perfect - I will have played
12. Future Perfect Continuous - I will have been playing
13. Future Simple in the past - I would play (including the "was/were going to + infinitive" form)
14. Future Continuous in the past - I would be bathing
15. Future Perfect in the past - I would have played
16. Future Perfect Continuous in the past - I would have been playing

There are only two

What about Future tense family then?

[engee30]

Originally Posted by kiranlegend

There are only two

What about Future tense family then?

Look back at Soup's post. THERE ARE ONLY TWO TENSES AS SUCH IN ENGLISH; the other ways of talking about time are called the ASPECTS!

[poorboy_9]

TDOL, thanks for putting in your two tense; hey....... that nun with the ruler in gradeschool has some 'splainn' to do!!
I agree with the two tenses, but three is the "norm" when most of my class was asked their response to the question(secret ballot-no mob theory). It's tough to teach "aspects" when they have Past, Present, Future in their heads from their own language.--Any ideas on how i might broach the subject, or "go along to get along"??
B.

[Rafaella]

Guys, please, read it and maybe it'll make the learning of tenses easier.
There are 4 groups of tenses: Simple, Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous.
Meanings.
Simple Tenses: simple regular actions, something that is always true.
Eg. I read books every day.
Continuous Tenses: action in progress, action that is happening at the moment of speaking.
Eg. I am reading a book now.
Perfect Tenses: actions which have results.
Eg. I have read three books this month.
Perfect Continuous Tenses: actions that combine result+action in process.
Eg. I have been reading a book from the moment I came home.

And: each of this tenses has forms of the present, past and future which makes altogether 12 tenses!!!

Hope it will help. It's fun to learn tenses. Good luck to everybody.

[konungursvia]

To me, there are five tenses and five aspects, for twenty-five total possibilities. However, some are logically impossible, so we only have a few, about half of those:

Here's my explanation in a pdf I made about 5 years ago:
www.chass.utoronto.ca/french/as-sa/timezonesfortenses.pdf