Transilvania University of Brasov

Faculty of Product Design and Environment

Technical English_S1

Seminar 1: The English Verb System

I. Tense vs. Time

Tense is the linguistic reference to objective time (extra-linguistic concept). In other words, tense
belongs to LANGUAGE, while time belongs to reality. Tense is the grammatical expression of
location in time: it expresses time relation with respect to the Speech Time (NOW). For example, Past
tense refers to an action/event previous to the moment of speaking (NOW), Present tense refers to an
action/event simultaneous with the moment of speaking (NOW), whereas Future tense refers to an
action/event subsequent to the same moment of speaking.

II. Tense vs. Aspect

Aspect reflects the status of the action with respect to duration (continuous/noncontinuous) and/or
result (perfect/non-perfect). It is the subjective point of view relative to time. On the contrary, tense
reflects the exact, objective position in time of an action/state expressed by the verb. As a consequence,
the English verb cannot exist without tense or aspect information, the same way as a coin cannot be
possibly imagined without its heads or tails.
Remember
TENSE → external/objective time
ASPECT → internal/subjective time

Depending on the presence/lack of information displayed by the verb relative to duration and/or result,
the English language identifies four distinct aspects:
a. simple [- duration/ - result]
● (no information about the action)
Form: V/V-s, V-ed/V2, will/would V
b. continuous [+ duration/ - result]
(action in progress)
Form: BE + V-ing
c. perfect [- duration/ + result]
(looking back at an action)
Form: HAVE + V-ed/V3

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d. perfect continuous [+ duration/ + result]
(looking back at an action in progress)
Form: HAVE + BEEN + V-ing

III. Tenses in English

As there are three tenses (1. present, 2. past, 3. future) and four aspects (a. simple, b. continuous, c.
perfect, d. perfect continuous), and a verb is a combination of these two grammatical categories (as
seen above), it follows that the English verb system displays 3 x 4 = 12 distinct forms (or tenses):
1.a. Present simple
V/V-s (3rd pers. singular)
e.g. you write, he writes
1.b. Present continuous
BE (present) + V-ing
e.g. you are writing, he is writing
1.c. Present perfect
HAVE (present) + V-ed/V3
e.g. you have worked, he has written
1.d. Present perfect continuous
HAVE (present) + V3/BE/BEEN + Ving
e.g. you have been writing, he has been writing
2.a. Past simple
V-ed/V2
e.g. you worked, he wrote
2.b. Past continuous
BE (past) + V-ing
e.g. you were writing, he was writing
2.c. Past perfect
HAVE (past) + V-ed/V3
e.g. you had worked, he had written
2.d. Past perfect continuous
HAVE (past) + V3/BE/ BEEN + Ving
e.g. you had been writing

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 3.a. Future simple
will V
e.g. you will write
3.b. Future continuous
BE (future) + V-ing
e.g. you will be writing
3.c. Future perfect
HAVE (future) + V-ed/V3
e.g. you will have written
3.d. Future perfect continuous
HAVE (future) + V3/BE/ BEEN + Ving
e.g. you will have been writing
4.a. Future-in-the-past simple
would V
e.g. he said/ you would write
4.b. Future-in-the-past continuous
BE (future-in-the-past) + V-ing
e.g. he said/ you would be writing
4.c. Future-in-the-past perfect
HAVE (future-in-the-past) + V-ed/V3
e.g. he said/ you would have written
4.d. Future-in-the-past perfect continuous
HAVE (future-in-the-past) + V3/BE/BEEN + Ving
e.g. he said/ you would have been writing
Remember
The English verb system observes a specific rule called The Sequence of Tenses (Corespondenţa
timpurilor), which states that if the verb in the main clause (=propoziţie principală) is in the past, then
the verb in the subordinate clause (=propoziţie subordonată) referring to a future event MUST be in the
future-in-thepast (viitor din perspectiva trecutului - timp inexistent în limba română!). The auxiliary
for future-in-the-past is will + -ed = would
Now, the English verb system has gained another four tenses for a total of 16 distinct forms. Below you
can see a diagram of the English verb system, intended to serve you as a visual aid in your learning

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process, and to offer you an instant, overall picture of the relationships established among tenses. For
didactic reasons (the diagram would be too complicated), the continuous aspect has been left out.

You should notice that HAVE, DO and WILL are the three major auxiliaries which position the
action/state in time relative to the speech moment (now). Another major auxiliary, BE, is responsible
for either presenting the action in progress, or turning a statement into the passive (i.e. switching
position between the subject and the object of the sentence, as in the example above: the furniture,
object in the active [what?], becomes subject in the passive [who?]). Also, it is important to remember
that you cannot use WILL (the auxiliary of future) in time and condition clauses (= subordonate
temporale și condiționale), introduced by any of those words in parentheses. Instead, you must always
use the tenses in the diagram indicated by the arrows.

IV. Grammar practice

4.1 Translate the following text into English. Note that the verb write is used extensively. In fact,
it should take all the forms (tenses & aspects) presented in the diagram above.
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Tom este scriitor. El scrie toate tipurile de literatură.
Tom is a writtee. He write all types of literature.

El a scris deja cinci pagini din primul său roman. Destul pentru azi!
He already write five pages of his nivel. Enough for today!

El speră că va scrie încă cinci pagini mâine.

He’hoping that he will write another five pages tommorow.

Deci, conform planului său, el va fi scris zece pagini până mâine.

So, according to his plan, he will be written ten pages till tommorow.

Anul trecut a scris o piesă de teatru.

Last year he wrote a play.

Dar înainte de asta, scrisese deja câteva poezii.

But before that, he already written a few poems.

După ce a terminat piesa, a hotărât că va scrie un roman.

After he finished the play, he decided that he will write a novel.

Ba chiar a promis că îl va fi scris până la Crăciun.

Better yet he promise that he will be written it till Christmas.

Acum e octombrie, și dacă (va) scrie cinci pagini pe zi, își va ține promisiunea.
It is october now and if he will writes five pages a dat, he will keep his promise.

V. End-of-unit test
5.1. Match the words in column A with those in column B to form collocations
as they appear in the reading passage:
A B
1. _f_ aluminium a. specification
2. _h_ degrees b. resistance
3. __e engineering c. surrounds
4. _c_ magnetic d. steel
5. _a_ heat e. bronze
6. _i_ engine f. treatment
7. _d_ corrosion g. point
8. _b_ high-strength h. centigrade
9. _g_ melting i. properties

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5.2. Translate into English:
Tom este la masa de scris. A început să scrie la ora 8 dimineața. Acum este ora
11 dimineața. Iată ce are de spus:
Tom is at writting table. He started to write at 8 o’clock. Now is eleven o’clock. Here's what he has to
say :

Scriu un roman acum.

Now I write a nivel.

Scriu de la ora 8/ de 3 ore.

I’ve been writting for 3 hours.

Mâine pe vremea asta voi scrie ca de obicei.

Tommorow on this time I will write like usually.

Până la ora 2 voi scrie timp de 6 ore. (La ora 2 vor fi 6 ore de când scriu.)
Until 2 o'clock I will write for 6 hours.

Ieri dimineață scriam de asemenea.

I was also writing yesterday morning

Scriam de 2 ore când prietenul meu Jim a trecut pe la mine.

I've been writing for 2 hours when my friend Jim visited me.

El este poet. A zis că va scrie următoarea sa poezie peste 2 zile.

He is a poet. He said he would write his next poem in two days.

Eu i-am spus că până atunci voi scrie la primul meu roman timp de o săptămână.
(Eu i-am spus că atunci va fi o săptămână de când scriu la primul meu roman.)
I told him that by then I would be writing my first novel for a week.

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