Tense / time

Question

Hello What is the difference between "tense" and "time"? Thanks

Andrei · Accepted Answer

The word tense in this context is a verb form. This is the way you should understand the difference between the two words.

The present tense is alluded to present time.

[ I am writing an answer to your quesion.] This verb form is the present tense as it implies the time of writing.

However, the word tense has the meanings. The situation is tense.

I am sure you know those differences.

An attempt · Answer

I should like to add to the previous answer.
Perhaps tenses are not exactly about the physical time of the action in the sentence; they rather refer to how we look at it. In the following pairs of sentences
1a) “I finished the task at 5 o’clock.”
1b) “When he arrived I had already finished the task.”
or
2a) “He told me he would arrive on Wednesday.” (it is Saturday now; he said this on Monday)
2b) “He arrived on Wednesday.” (and it is still Saturday now)
the grammatical tenses are different, however the physical time of the action could be just the same.

Casi · Answer

The word "tense" comes from Latin tempus, meaning time. In grammar, "tense" refers to the form of the verb itself:

Verb: to go
present tense: go, goes
past tense: went
continuous tense: going

Tense indicates completeness or continuance. If the event is complete, it's past; if the event isn't complete, it's non-past.

Add a word to the verb and we get aspect or modality. For example, add a form of "have" and we get aspect:

present perfect aspect: have gone
past perfect aspect: had gone
indicate completeness or continuance

Add "will" and we get future:

Future aspect: will go

Add a modal and we get modality:

Modality: may go, might go, should go, could go, and so on.

"Tense" refers to the form of the verb itself. Add to the verb, and we get aspect or modality.

Tense / time

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