Thepresent tense (abbreviatedPRES orPRS) is agrammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time.[1] The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present tense, it is useful to imagine time as a line on which thepast tense, the present and thefuture tense are positioned. The termpresent tense is usually used in descriptions of specific languages to refer to a particular grammatical form or set of forms; these may have a variety of uses, not all of which will necessarily refer to present time. For example, in theEnglish sentence "My train leaves tomorrow morning", the verb formleaves is said to be in the present tense, even though in this particular context it refers to an event in future time. Similarly, in thehistorical present, the present tense is used to narrate events that occurred in the past.
There are two common types of present tense form in mostIndo-European languages: the presentindicative (the combination of present tense and indicativemood) and the presentsubjunctive (the combination of present tense and subjunctive mood). The present tense is mainly classified into four parts or subtenses.
Simple present : The simple present tense is employed in a sentence to represent an action or event that takes place in the present regularly.
Present perfect : The present perfect tense is utilized for events that begin in the past and continue to the moment of speaking, or to express the result of a past situation.[2]
Present continuous: The present continuous tense is used to describe an action that is happening right now.
The present indicative of most verbs in modernEnglish has the same form as the infinitive, except for thethird-person singular form, which takes the ending-[e]s. The verbbe has the formsam,is,are. For details, seeEnglish verbs. For the present subjunctive, seeEnglish subjunctive.
A number of multi-word constructions exist to express the combinations of present tense with the basic form of the present tense is called thesimple present; there are also constructions known as thepresent progressive (or present continuous) (e.g.am writing), thepresent perfect (e.g.have written), and thepresent perfect progressive (e.g.have been writing).
Use of the present tense does not always imply the present time. In particular, the present tense is often used to refer to future events (I am seeing James tomorrow;My train leaves at 3 o'clock this afternoon). This is particularly the case incondition clauses and many other adverbial subordinate clauses:If you see him,...;As soon as they arrive... There is also thehistorical present, in which the present tense is used to narrate past events.
InModern Greek, the present tense is used in a similar way to the present tense in English and can represent thepresent continuous as well. As with some other conjugations in Greek, some verbs in the present tense accept different (but equivalent) forms of use for the same person. What follows are examples of present tense conjugation in Greek for the verbsβλέπω (see),τρώω (eat) andαγαπώ (love).
InFrench, the present tense is used similarly to that of English. Below is an example of present tenseconjugation in French.
parler
perdre
finir
partir
je
parle
perds
finis
pars
tu
parles
perds
finis
pars
il/elle/on
parle
perd
finit
part
nous
parlons
perdons
finissons
partons
vous
parlez
perdez
finissez
partez
ils/elles
parlent
perdent
finissent
partent
The present indicative is commonly used to express the present continuous. For example,Jean mange may be translated asJohn eats,John is eating. To emphasise the present continuous, expressions such as "en train de" may be used. For example,Jean esten train de manger may be translated asJohn is eating,John isin the middle of eating.On esten train de chercher un nouvel appartement may be translated asWe are looking for a new apartment,We arein the process of finding a new apartment.
The present tenses ofPortuguese andSpanish are similar in form, and are used in similar ways. What follows are examples of the present indicativeconjugation in Portuguese.
InBulgarian, the present indicative tense of imperfective verbs is used in a very similar way to the present indicative in English. It can also be used as present progressive. Below is an example of present indicative tense conjugation in Bulgarian.
The present tense inMacedonian is expressed using imperfective verbs. The following table shows the conjugation of the verbswrite (пишува/pišuva),speak (зборува/zboruva),want (сака/saka) andopen (отвaра/otvara).
^Comrie, Bernard (1985).Tense. Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-23652-5.
^Chalker, Sylvia; Weiner, Edmund; Weiner, Edmund S. C. (1998).The Oxford dictionary of English grammar. Oxford paperback reference (Reissued, with corr., in new covers ed.). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.ISBN978-0-19-280087-9.
^Qian, Nairong (錢乃榮) (2010).《從〈滬語便商〉所見的老上海話時態》(Tenses and Aspects? Old Shanghainese as Found in the Book Huyu Bian Shang). Shanghai: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.
