Adverbs of Time

Question

is it true that certain time adverbs can only be used with certain tenses?

1. simple present : with frequency adverbs, on Sundays..., in the mornings..., everyday, every Sunday/summer...

2. present continuous: now, at the moment, at present, currently,

3. simple past: freuency adverbs, yesterday, last week..., two days...ago, in 1999, at 7 o'clock, for, lately, recently

4. present perfect: frequency adverbs, now, just, already, yet, since, for, recently, lately, so far, up to/till now, as yet, to date, for the past two weeks..., in the last two weeks...,

5. simple future: tomorrow, next week...on Monday,

is there anything wrong or anything to add?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

is it true that certain time adverbs can only be used with certain tenses?

I think you should look at each adverb and think a little more carefully about whether you can use it with another tense. Try to make some sentences. I just went through and thought of the following examples. Maybe you can think of more.

Best wishes, Clive

1. simple present : with frequency adverbs, on Sundays..., in the mornings..., everyday, every Sunday/summer... Last year, I called my mother every day.

2. present continuous: now, at the moment, at present, currently, Last year, I called my mother every day. Now, I don't call her.

3. simple past: freuency adverbs, yesterday, last week..., two days...ago, in 1999, at 7 o'clock, for, lately, recently I was watching TV yesterday, ewhen my mother called.

4. present perfect: frequency adverbs, now, just, already, yet, since, for, recently, lately, so far, up to/till now, as yet, to date, for the past two weeks..., in the last two weeks..., I had just gone to bed when my mother called.

5. simple future: tomorrow, next week...on Monday, I called my mother on Monday.

Anonymous · Answer

Grammatically, you can mix them up.  For instance, "I am writing this reply 3 weeks ago."  However, such combinations would only be used in time-travel science fiction (and often are).  What constrains the combinations is not grammar, but how we ordinarily experience time.

Anonymous · Answer

0 How about "Tomorrow  he started a new job  as a front office manager". When can  we say like that? It is absolutely  incorrect  according to the grammar?!  0-

Anonymous · Answer

is nearly adverb of manner

Anonymous · Answer

well, i think nearly is adverb of manner as see the example, Nearly, all the members agreed that they would allow membership to the new people.

Anonymous · Answer

Regarding the optimum number of word-classes, most scholars nowadays regard the traditional view as not just unwieldy but unworkable. May I refer you to what I consider/ed the best treatment of the debate: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/linguistics/doc ... speech.pdf [This may have been bettered in the last few years.]
These professional linguists have given the subject a lot more thought than many who hold 8 classes as being sacrosanct.

If we restrict the definition of an adverb to its agreed fundamental, central role - a word (or, I'd allow, multi-word lexeme) that modifies - adds detail to the actual operation described by - a verb, then nearly in nearly all the members fails to fulfil this role - it is a determiner modifier (all being a determiner - see Wikipedia article). Compare over in over half the members.

The problem is more subtle when nearly is positioned just before a main verb, for instance: He nearly finished the course. In the isomorphic He rapidly finished the course, all would agree that rapidly is an adverb modifying finished. However, nearly doesn't similarly modify finished - you wouldn't paraphrase as He finished the course in a nearly way or similar (except perhaps for comic effect). Nearly in this example is best put in the small class of limiting modifiers (I can think of only, even, almost, nearly, hardly, merely, scarcely, barely, simply, and just). As an obvious example showing the difference between the roles of adverb (I'm using the narrow definition) and limiting modifier, contrast the two roles displayed by simply in these two sentences:

I explained the problem simply to him. (ie made it as clear as possible) (simply may be placed at the end instead here)

I simply explained the problem to him. (ie that's all I did) (here, simply = just)

Anonymous · Answer

what about future continuous time adverbs?
please answer as fast as you can

Anonymous · Answer

Can you post time signal for past future and future perfect too? Thanks!

Fivejedjon · Answer

Anonymous How about "Tomorrow he started a new job as a front office manager". When can we say like that? It is absolutely incorrect according to the grammar?!

It's just about possible in a very contrived context:

"Well the plan was simple. He resigned from his last job at the end of June, and took a couple of week's holiday. Tomorrow he started work as a front office manager. That was the plan, but then his wife died, ...."

Here the past simple forms were intended, and almost certainly interpreted, to give the idea of 'was due to...'

So, it's possible, but, as i said, rather contrived. i do not recommend trying it.

Fivejedjon · Answer

This thread is becoming rather confused/confusing. Could we restrict comments and questions to the original Adverbs of Time (Original post), please?

Questions and comments about 'nearly' and other adverbs would be better dealt wiith in a fresh thread.

Adverbs of Time

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