Poll: How many tenses are there in English?

Comments:

willbut - 8th October 2003 23:10

Just goes to show there is no consensus on this.

willbut - 7th December 2003 14:05

I presume the votes for two would say there's a present and a past tense. Those who chose three, believe there is a past, a present and a future tense. The ten or more would include every progressive and perfect progressive form as a separate tense. However, I'm not sure about those who voted for 6. Which tenses are they talking about?

nasir - 23rd February 2005 06:21

where are two main tenses in english .present and past future is a tense but it is emiginative we do not know will an actin happens or not we are not sure about that and every one of them has four forms ?

MrTrilby - 31st January 2006 21:08

Future is just the present with modifiers.

Asim - 29th July 2006 11:27

The people who r saying that thr is no concept of future tense, its just an imaginary tense are absolutely wrong from my point of view because if v talk about present progressive so it also gives us the sense of future sometimes.....so according to this comment present progressive is also not a tense.....

ali sarýca - 14th October 2006 17:31

everything

Stryfe - 9th February 2007 22:01

People voting six are likely familiar with Latin or another Romance language with six tenses: Present (I do) Imperfect past (I was doing) Future (I will do) Perfect past (I did) Pluperfect (I had done) Future perfect (I will have done)

Jerry - 23rd April 2007 12:34

Why is the imperfect past a tense and the other forms not? If that's a tense then shouldn't all the other progressive/imperfect forms be tenses?

muhammad shoaib - 30th May 2007 05:24

more than 10

EnglishTeacher - 19th August 2007 12:27

There are fourteen tenses used in English, most of which have an active and passive application.

Scooby - 8th September 2007 22:58

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

Doo - 30th October 2007 14:30

Scooby, Your list only shows two. The future is not a tense, and the present and past are the two, with different aspects.

Sean - 25th November 2007 19:27

there are four: past (it was, it had been) present (it is, they are) conditional (it could be, it could...) future (it will...)

wafaa - 19th March 2008 12:05

I agree with scooby that there are 16 tenses in English.... the future is a tense indeed....In Arabic for example the future is a tense....the same in English in terms of the future tense....

Lawrence - 21st March 2008 09:28

The comparison to Arabic is irrelevant. Different languages do things differently, so the existence of the future tense in Arabic doesn't prove anything about English.

12 - 9th April 2008 12:23

IF YOU GIVE US THE COMPLETE IN FORMATION

agus hery - 25th July 2008 11:38

i think there are 16 tenses in english language. they are simple present,present continous,present perfect,present perfect continous,simple past,past continous,past perfect,past perfect continous,simple future,future continous,future perfect continous,simple past future,past future continous,past future perfect,and past future perfect continous.

Estella Eng - 26th September 2008 13:48

Wow! I did not noe tat there were so many tenses! Thank you!

neda - 25th October 2008 20:01

18

josef - 30th October 2008 15:41

i also agree that there are 16 tenses.. ^_^

anwar - 20th November 2008 08:00

i think english is very difficult,,, i starting to like Japanese

hafidzs - 18th December 2008 15:02

i think it is good for the begenner

agus budiyono - 13th January 2009 02:52

Simple Past Tense Simple Present Tense Simple Future Tense Simple Future Past Tense Past Continuous Tense Present Continuous Tense Future Continuous Tense Future Continuous Tense Past Perfect Tense Present Perfect Tense Future Past Perfect Tense Past Perfect Continuous Tense Present Perfect Continuous Tense Future Perfect Continuous Tense Future Past Perfect Continuous Tense There are sixteen tenses in English language.

Hind - 27th January 2009 06:06

I think there is only 3 tenes in English past present future

razka gesya - 7th February 2009 13:10

I understand 16 tenses in english because I always read 16 tenses book.I'm very happy and I want you should buy panduan menguasai 16 tenses book in gramedia or book shops.forget my advice okey...

luciana - 19th March 2009 14:18

12

Mark - 18th April 2009 10:49

It doesn't really matter whether you say with differnt aspects, or count possible each aspect and tense combination as a tense. What is important is that you are able to identify them. I believe that there are twelve tenses because the last four "tenses" I would see as structures that we use when we use conditionals. They don't add information about tense or aspect, but add the conditional concept. If these "tenses" then any expression or vocanulary that has unuual grammar associted with it would be a new tense, wouldn't it? All the other tenses relect a time and a state (aspect). The last four do not add any information about tense or aspect.

Mark - 18th April 2009 11:13

It is true that different languages have differnet numbers of tenses. However, I am pretty sure all languages are able to tell us about the future. When they do this through inflexion, or by adding a word or a group of words that mean "future" then I would consider that to be a future tense. From my understanding, in Indonesian they might say something like: "I play tennis now" "I play tennis tomorrow" I would say that this is not a future tense, because there is no set way to express the future, they add a time in the future to show it is the future. In Japanese: "I go to school every day." "I am going to school now" "I go to school tomorrow" So in Japanese the future tense and the tense they would use for the habitual action are the same, but these are different from the tense that indicates things that are happening now. Would it be fair to say there is no future tense? Well, if that means that there is no unique future tense then I would say that is correct. In English if I say" I am going to go to...." then you know I am taling about the future.. If you wanted to say that I was using the progressive aspect of the present tense with "go" then that is fine, however, everyone will agree that this use of "be going to" marks the future. If it did not then how would you know I was talking about the future? So, if you believe that a "tense" is a set of markers in a sentence which indicate a time, and possibly an aspect then surely this is a tense. If it does not mean "future" then waht does it mean? Whether it is based on the structures of the progressive aspect of the present tense or not is irrelevant. That combination marks the future. If you disagree, then you are basically saying that markers that don't look like anything else can be tenses, or that tenses must be shown by inflexions on the verb, or some other rule that you have decided exists although noone else is aware of it. If there is such a rule, what is it? Otherwise "be going to +verb" is a future tense.

EON - 22nd April 2009 10:36

English was very nice an make my self confidence when I am talking with my friends whether from England, Australia,America, India, Japan, and Korea. Really...by learning English I have got many new friends....and I am happy....Hajimemashite watashiwa Leona desu...Sayonara...

Heather - 17th June 2009 02:05

English has: Two tenses: present and past Four aspects: simple, progressive, perfect, perfect-progressive Three moods: indicative, subjunctive, imperative Two voices: active and passive

Lord Felipe - 29th June 2009 20:49

Heather is right.

kikih mulyanto - 3rd July 2009 09:37

16 tenses

aspic - 6th July 2009 12:12

Since when has the 'simple' been an aspect. There are normally said to be two- prefect and progressive, you could argue that prefect-progressive is a third, but how dod simple get included?

soso - 4th October 2009 22:00

16

...^_^.... - 22nd October 2009 13:24

....really.....but my teacher said there's 6 verb tenses....i'm confused....

azhar - 5th November 2009 06:36

In english there are 12 tenses.

azhar - 5th November 2009 06:36

In english there are 12 tenses.

Damira - 14th January 2010 09:28

there are 16 tenses!!!!!

Alex - 11th May 2010 17:38

there are 14 simple present,past and future (3) prefect present , past and future(3) progressive present, past and future (3) prefect progressive present, past and future (3) conditional and conditional prefect (2)

Alex - 11th May 2010 18:05

I was wrong there are 16. 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 playing 15. Future Perfect in the past - I would have played 16. Future Perfect Continuous in the past - I would have been playing Note the continous tense is also known as the Progressive tense the future tense in the past is also known as the conditional tense the Past Perfect is also known as the Pluperfect the Past Continous is also known as the Imperfect past or Imperfect Plus Playing is the present participle and played is the past participle

nafisa abbas - 12th May 2010 14:19

There only 2 main tenses,The present tense and the past tense, future tense is an extended present tense .it is not oroot tense as the other two.

Luigi - 5th June 2010 13:44

This shows you why teaching English is so difficult . Even English teachers don't know how many tenses there are, How do teachers go about teaching grammar tenses is a big problem causing much confusion in the minds of foreign language learners. The focus for English is on time, tense and one's perspective. Do not compare English to a tense based language, big mistake.

i.q. - 7th July 2010 21:27

:D i`ve just read the discussion and i find it hilarious! on the one hand there are people how try to prove their point (like mark did). and on the other hand there are people who simply comment "no, there are only two tenses" :D i speak russian and german and english and i am surprised that anyone is denying a future tense in english language. if there were no future tense, how could you express your mind about things that haven´t happened yet? there is definately a future tense in english, to me thats obvious..

sokhom - 9th July 2010 15:11

There are 24 tenses in English language, but I'm not sure to list it down

kaka - 11th July 2010 18:33

i think tenses in English are 12

udeme - 2nd September 2010 17:31

they are 6 tenses in english

bill hamilton - 10th September 2010 11:21

At least 16 trenses in common use for everyday communications

chris - 30th October 2011 06:32

English has 2 tenses. 'will' is not an inflected form of the verb, nor is it compulsory in all situations where we express the future. It is actually a modal auxiliary verb, just like 'may, can, should' etc. Continuous, simple, perfect etc are not tenses, they are aspects. Verbs have only two inflected forms: past and non-past. e.g eat / ate Just because we can add extra words to express different aspects or futurity, does not mean we have more than two grammatical tenses.