In search for effective ways to help students understand the English verb system and use verb tenses correctly, I have come to realize that time-space analogies can be valuable tools. Since each culture expresses time and space idiosyncratically, verb tenses, as well as prepositions, are among the most challenging aspects to master in any foreign language. Some of the time relationships expressed by verb tenses involve abstract reasoning; students have, therefore, found it helpful to be able to visualize this underlying network of relationships.

In essence, the English verb system involves three major aspects--simple, progressive, and perfect tenses. An understanding of these basic notions and their relationship to tense, proper, are ultimately woven into a mental framework, enabling students to gain confidence in using all verb tenses.

The simple tenses are primarily used when the intention of the speaker is to state a fact, to define or explain something, or to report an event. It is important to point out that the simple tenses do not usually imply any space-time connotations beyond the meaning denoted. When it is relevant to show that a fact or event precedes (or follows) another, a perfect tense is used. The choice of a progressive tense is made by the speaker who wishes to create a dynamic mental picture within the mind of the listener; for this reason, the progressive tenses are often used in descriptions. A progressive tense also stresses duration, continuity, or development of an action. It opens, so to speak, a live scenic gap in the otherwise objective chronological ordering of events.
 

(1.a)	Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, had an extra finger on one hand.
(1.b)	At 82, Winston Churchill wrote A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.

(2.a)	Scientists have predicted that, by the year 2020, several new solar systems will have been discovered.
(2.b)	Joan of Arc had been dead for 24 years when, upon the reopening of her case by Charles VII, the court annulled the previous verdict.

(3.a)	While he was writing, Ernest Hemingway lived on rye crisps, raw green vegetables, and peanut butter sandwiches.
(3.b)	At 88, Pablo Casals was still giving cello concerts.
(3.c)	- Your bedroom light was on all night long. Did you forget to turn it off when you went to bed? - No, I was working on my term paper.

In sentences (1.a) and (1.b) what is important is the statement of a fact or the reporting of an event. Sentences (2.a) and (2.b) place an event or fact in a time perspective with another, whereas sentences (3.a), (3.b), and (3.c) aim at describing or stressing the duration or development of an action.

An interesting way of illustrating the description x action contrast regarding the progressive x simple tenses is by means of a short detective story (which does not necessarily need to be concluded, once the point has been made). The students first get involved in setting the scene and then go on to create the story. It may proceed as follows:
 

(3.d)

"A man was reading the evening paper, comfortably ensconced in his easy chair. His wife was cleaning up the kitchen and softly humming a tune to herself while their child was getting ready for bed. Suddenly, the door flew open and a man burst in, holding a gun. The robber ordered the family to stand against the wall, to put their hands up, and not to make any noise. He then asked where they kept their money ..."

Whenever the perfect and the progressive tenses are joined, their characteristics also merge. Thus, a perfect progressive tense can express the duration, continuity, or development of an action within an extension of time which moves toward or into the time of reference. Sentences (4.a), (4.b), and (4.c) will help illustrate this point:
 

(4.a)	When warned that coffee was a slow poison, Voltaire answered that it had to be, for he had been drinking 50 cups daily for 65 years and was not dead yet!
(4.b)	- I think the welfare clerk will finally be able to see us around 5 o'clock. - By then we will have been waiting in this office for well over an hour.
(4.c)	Phil has been studying Japanese ever since he fell in love with a Japanese girl.

As previously mentioned, the simple tenses aim at focusing the listener's attention on the fact or event communicated, usually denoting a simple, objective approach to this fact or event. In the case of the simple past or the simple future, this fact or event is placed at a definite time (which is either stated or implied), as in sentence (1.a) and (1.b). The simple present tense may either refer to the present time, as in sentence (5.a), or else express habits, uncontested assumptions or established facts, as long as they still hold true in the present, as shown in examples (5.b) and (5.c). As Heidegger and other philosophers have observed, the time span which could measure or define the present moment is quite relative.
 
 

(5.a)	I hear footsteps upstairs. Shall we call the police?
(5.b)	Although they are junk foods, Vanilla ice cream, carbonated soft drinks, and potato chips are popularly consumed by millions of Americans.
(5.c)	The Pacific Ocean, in fact, produces some of the roughest storms in the world.
(5.d)	The heath hen was commonly eaten in the Boston area and it was hunted to extinction. The last heath hen passed away on Martha's Vineyard in 1932.
(5.e)	Itaipú, which once displayed nature's power and beauty, is now a hydroelectric power station.

As examples (5.d) and (5.e) show, a fact or a habit which no longer holds true in the present is expressed by the simple past tense.

Students who think of the present perfect tense as referring to a past time have difficulties in using this tense properly. Once these students have understood the idea of priorness inherent to the use of every perfect tense, however, they will have no difficulty understanding that the present perfect refers to a fact or event preceding the present time, as examples (6.a), (6.b) and (6.c) illustrate. Likewise, both the future perfect and past perfect express priorness in regard to specific future or past times, respectively, as sentences (7.a), (7.b), (8.a) and (8.b) show.
 

(6.a)	Since Monday, he has spent over $1.000.
(6.b)	They have rehearsed all the songs for the concert.
(6.c)	Joe has seen that film four times.

 

(7.a)	He had spent all his money when he got to Las Vegas.
(7.b)	He spent all his money when he got to Las Vegas.

 

(8.a)	He will have spent all his money when he gets to Las Vegas.
(8.b)	He will spend all his money when he gets to Las Vegas.

In (7.a) and (8.a) the spending takes place at a time prior to that of the arrival in Las Vegas, whereas in (7.b) and (8.b) the spending takes place in Las Vegas.

In sentence (9.a), in addition to priorness, duration is implied. Contrastively, in (6.c), above, there is no implication of duration, but of frequency. Regarding the perfect tenses, whatever is implied beyond the idea of priorness is, in fact, expressed by the adverbial complement that may accompany the simple perfect tense.
 

(9.a)	She has lived in Jamaica for 6 years.
(9.b)	She has been living in Jamaica for 6 years.
(9.c)	She lived in Jamaica for 6 years - from 1971 to 1977.
(9.d)	She lived in Jamaica for 6 years, then she moved to Ibiza.

In example (9.a) we cannot ascertain whether or not she is still living in Jamaica, in contrast to sentence (9.b), which makes it evident that she is still in Jamaica. In other words, whereas the perfect progressive can actually bring an event into the time it is prior to [as sentences (4.a), (4.b) and (4.c) also illustrate], the simple perfect does not necessarily involve such a time relationship. Sentences (9.c) and (9.d) clearly show that her stay in Jamaica ended at a given time in the past.

Beyond the simple graphic interpretation of the general temporal and aspectual relationships involved, it is helpful to sketch on the blackboard the illustration of each sentence that students have difficulty with. That is to say, instead of the names of the tenses (as shown in the figures above), the very verbs used in the sentences should be placed onto the respective figures and the three-fold time axis running through them.

Restrictions on the uses of certain tenses, as well as special uses, are well beyond the scope of this paper. The visual aid here described aims at helping students create a clear mental framework which can then be used as a basis upon which whatever details, special cases, and restrictions may be safely built and further developed.

©1986-2005-LanGServices

AUTHOR's NOTES:

1.	Most of the historical and statistical information used in the examples above was obtained from: - Wallace, Amy; Irving Wallace; and David Wallechinsky; The Book of Lists, Bantam Books, New York, N.Y., 1978 - Wallace, Amy; Irving Wallace; Sylvia Wallace, and David Wallechinsky; The Book of Lists No. 2, Bantam Books, New York, N.Y., 1979
2.	An analogous type of visual approach can be successfully used in helping students understand the uses of prepositions, as well.
3.	As stated, the above rudimentary model for the English Tenses aims exclusively at being a practical aid to foreign learners. Such a neat simple model is made possible by the fact that the English Tense System bears a rather symmetrical nature.   In addition to the above, I have developed an original complex dynamical model, applicable possibly to most Western languages and covering special/exceptional uses of the tenses, as well. General reference to this model is available both in English and in Portuguese, in the form of a two-part article (approximately 40 pages). This article results from a long interdisciplinary research, the central theme of which has been human time. You are welcome to e-mail me, if the subject interests you. I will be happy to let you know how to access the version of your preference (English or Portuguese).
4.	Warm thanks to Paul A. Hallstein, both for the many discussions on the verb tense issue (amid which emerged a number of the examples above), and for his loving assistance, when the initial draft of this manuscript was put together.
5.	Warm thanks also to André Karwath, for the spontaneous helpfulness evident in his sending me a nicely html-formatted document (the one used as a basis for this page), in return for a rushedly scanned copy of the above manuscript, as it was once shared with him.

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