Table of Contents

1.0 INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................1
2.0 PERSON:........................................................................................................1
2.1First Person...................................................................................................1
2.2 Second Person:............................................................................................1
2.3 Third Person................................................................................................1
3.0 NUMBER.......................................................................................................1
3.1 First Person Singular (I, me, my, mine)......................................................2
3.2 First Person Plural (we, us, our, ours).........................................................2
3.3 Second Person Singular (you, you, your, yours).........................................2
3.4 Second Person Plural (you, you, your, yours).............................................2
3.5 Third Person Singular (he/she/it, him/her/it, his/her/its, his/hers/its),.........2
3.6 Third Person Plural (they, them, their, theirs).............................................3
4.0 TENSE............................................................................................................3
4.1 Past Tenses..................................................................................................3
4.1.1 Simple Past tense...................................................................................3
4.1.2 Past progressive or Continuous tense....................................................3
4.1.3 Past Perfect tense...................................................................................4
4.1.4 Past Perfect progressive or Continuous tense........................................4
4.2 Present Tenses.............................................................................................4
4.2.1Simple Present tense...............................................................................4
4.2.2 Present progressive or Continuous tense...............................................4
4.2.3 Present Perfect tense..............................................................................5
4.2.4 Present Perfect progressive or Continuous tense..................................5
4.3 Future Tenses...............................................................................................5
4.3.1 Simple Future tense...............................................................................5
4.3.2 Future progressive or Continuous tense................................................5
4.3.3 Future Perfect tense...............................................................................6
4.4.4 Future Perfect progressive or Continuous tense....................................6
5.0 CONCLUSION...............................................................................................6
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................7

i.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Verbs convey a lot about the actions they describe. Grammatical concepts such
as person, number, tense, aspect, mood, and voice are all ways of categorizing
this information. A verb must agree with its subject in number and person.
Verbs, like substantives, have two numbers (singular and plural) and three
persons (first, second and third). The inflections of person and number in verbs
may be seen by framing sentences with the personal pronouns as subjects.

2.0 PERSON:
Person refers to the relationship between the subject of the verb and whomever
is speaking. There are three types of grammatical person:
2.1First Person
The person(s) who is the subject of the verb is the same one who is speaking, in
other words the speaker or the group that includes the speaker (I, me, my, mine,
we, us, our, ours)
For example,
“I am telling you about her.” Here, ‘I’ is first person
2.2 Second Person:
The person speaking is referring to another person(s), assumed to be present,
who is the subject of the verb, this is the person to whom the speaker is
speaking, i.e. the speaker’s audience (you, you, your, yours)
For example,
“I am telling you about her.” Here, ‘you’ is second person.
2.3 Third Person
The subject of the verb is not directly related to the speaker; the subject is not
assumed to be present as "part of the conversation", this signifies everybody
else (he/she/it, him/her/it, his/her/its, his/hers/its, they, them, their, theirs)
For example,
“I am telling you about her.” Here, ‘her’ is third person.

3.0 NUMBER
With respect to number, each person has two aspects – singular and plural.
Therefore, there are a total of six persons as follows:

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3.1 First Person Singular (I, me, my, mine)
For example,
I got the bag.
The bag belongs to me.
This is my bag.
The bag is mine
3.2 First Person Plural (we, us, our, ours)
For example;
We got the bag.
The bag belongs to us.
This is our bag.
The bag is ours.
3.3 Second Person Singular (you, you, your, yours)
For example;

You got the bag.

The bag belongs to you.
This is your bag.
The bag is yours.
3.4 Second Person Plural (you, you, your, yours)
For example;

You got the bag.

The bag belongs to you.
This is your bag.
The bag is yours.
3.5 Third Person Singular (he/she/it, him/her/it, his/her/its, his/hers/its),
For example;

He/she/it got the bag.

The bag belongs to him/her/it.

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This is his/her/its bag.
The bag is his/hers/its.
3.6 Third Person Plural (they, them, their, theirs)
For example;

They got the bag.

The bag belongs to them.
This is their bag.
The bag is theirs.

4.0 TENSE
In English, verb tenses provide information about action and time.
Past Tense: shows a state, condition, or event that has already happened. (I
went)
Present Tense: shows a state, condition, or event that is happening right now. (I
go)
Future Tense: shows a state, condition, or event that will happen. (I will go)
Of course, it is difficult to think about time differences that do not exist in our
native language. Each of these three tenses have four aspects – simple,
continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous, resulting in twelve tenses
4.1 Past Tenses

4.1.1 Simple Past tense

Simple past tense represents facts and situations that exist in the past
Formula;
Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ Past Tense Verb+ Rest of the sentence.
For example,
i. I went
ii. I wrote an essay yesterday.
4.1.2 Past progressive or Continuous tense
We use progressive or continuous tenses to talk about unfinished events.
Formula;

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Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ Was/Were+ Verb+ing+ Rest of the sentence.
For example
i. I was going
ii. I was reading a book when you came.
4.1.3 Past Perfect tense
Past Perfect represents the fact that one event occurs before another.
Formula;
Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ Had+ Past Participle+ Rest of the sentence.
For example
i. I had gone
ii. I had already read that book in the past.
4.1.4 Past Perfect progressive or Continuous tense
Past Perfect progressive tenses means duration, or how long? Perfect
progressive tenses are usually used with for or since.
Formula;
Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ Had+ Been+ Verb+ ing + Rest of the sentence.
For example
i. I had been going
ii. I had been reading this book for three hours before I lost it
4.2 Present Tenses

4.2.1Simple Present tense

Simple present tense represents facts and situations that exist in the present.
Formula;
Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ Verb-s, es ies+ Rest of the sentence.
For example
i. I go
i. I write an essay every day.
4.2.2 Present progressive or Continuous tense
We use progressive or continuous tenses to talk about unfinished events.
Formula;
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Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ Is/Are/Am+ Verb +ing+ Rest of the sentence.
For example
ii. I am going
iii. I am reading a book now.
4.2.3 Present Perfect tense
Present Perfect represents the fact that one event occurs before another.
Formula;
Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ has/have+ Past Participle+ Rest of the sentence.
For example
i. I have gone
ii. I have read that book.
4.2.4 Present Perfect progressive or Continuous tense
Present Perfect progressive tenses means duration, or how long? Perfect
progressive tenses are usually used with for or since.
Formula;
Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ has/have+Been+Verb+ing+ Rest of the sentence.
For example
i. I have been going
ii. I have been reading a book since this morning.
4.3 Future Tenses

4.3.1 Simple Future tense

Simple future represents facts and situations that exist in the future.
Formula;
Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ Will/Shall+ Verb+ Rest of the sentence.
For example
i. I will go
ii. I will write an essay later.
4.3.2 Future progressive or Continuous tense
We use progressive or continuous tenses to talk about unfinished events.
Formula;
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Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ Will be/Shall be+ Verb+ ing+ Rest of the sentence.
i. I will be going
ii. I will be reading a book when you come.
4.3.3 Future Perfect tense
Future Perfect represents the fact that one event occurs before another.
Formula;
Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ Will /Shall Have+ Past Participle+ ing+ Rest of the
sentence.
For example
i. I will have gone
ii. I will have read this book tomorrow
4.4.4 Future Perfect progressive or Continuous tense
Future Perfect progressive tenses means duration, or how long? Perfect
progressive tenses are usually used with for or since.
Formula;
Subject (Noun or Pronoun)+ Will /Shall+ Have+Been+Verb+ ing+ Rest of the
sentence.
For example
i. I will have been going
ii. I will have been reading for five hours by the time I arrive

5.0 CONCLUSION
English learners sometimes try to speak using complex verb tenses. In
conclusion, we often choose multiple verb tenses and compose sentences that
are not clear to the listener. But we should always choose the simplest tenses
and be less likely to make a mistake

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REFERENCES
Morenberg, Max (2010). Doing Grammar (Third ed.). Oxford University Press
Jackendoff, R. (2002). Foundations of Language. Oxford University Press.
Palmer, F. R., (2001). Mood and Modality, Cambridge Univ. Press,
Klaiman, M. H., (1991). Grammatical Voice (Cambridge Studies in
Linguistics), Cambridge Univ. Press,