Editing Grammatical aspect (section)

====English====

The [[Uses of English verb forms#Tenses, aspects and moods|English tense–aspect system]] has two morphologically distinct tenses, [[Past tense#English|past]] and [[Nonpast tense|non-past]], the latter of which is also known as the ''present-future'' or, more commonly and less formally, simply the ''present''. No marker of a distinct future tense exists on the verb in English; the futurity of an event may be expressed through the use of the [[auxiliary verb]]s "[[will future|will]]" and "[[shall]]", by a non-past form plus an [[adverb]], as in "tomorrow we go to New York City", or by some other means. Past is distinguished from non-past, in contrast, with internal modifications of the verb. These two tenses may be modified further for [[progressive aspect]] (also called ''continuous'' aspect), for the [[perfect (grammar)|perfect]], or for both. These two aspectual forms are also referred to as BE +ING<ref>See, for example, {{cite journal | title=Why ''swimming'' is just as difficult as ''dying'' for Japanese learners of English | last1=Gabriele | first1=Allison | year=2003 | url=https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/tionin/www/MyDownloads/gabriele_2003.pdf | last2=McClure | first2=William | journal=ZAS Papers in Linguistics | volume=29 | page=1 | doi=10.21248/zaspil.29.2003.170 }} {{Dead link|date=May 2010}}</ref> and HAVE +EN,<ref>See, for example, {{cite journal | title=Some Structural Analogies between Tenses and Pronouns in English | last=Partee | first=Barbara H | journal=Journal of Philosophy | volume=70 | issue=18 | pages=601–609 | year=1973 | jstor=2025024 | doi=10.2307/2025024}}</ref> respectively, which avoids what may be unfamiliar terminology.

Aspects of the present tense:
* [[Present simple]] (not progressive, not perfect): "I eat"
* [[Present progressive]] (progressive, not perfect): "I am eating"
* [[Present perfect]] (not progressive, perfect): "I have eaten"
* [[Present perfect progressive]] (progressive, perfect): "I have been eating"
(While many elementary discussions of English grammar classify the present perfect as a past tense, it relates the action to the present time. One cannot say of someone now deceased that they "have eaten" or "have been eating". The present auxiliary implies that they are in some way ''present'' (alive), even when the action denoted is completed (perfect) or partially completed (progressive perfect).)

Aspects of the past tense:
* [[Past simple]] (not progressive, not perfect): "I ate"
* [[Past progressive]] (progressive, not perfect): "I was eating"
* [[Past perfect]] (not progressive, perfect): "I had eaten"
* [[Past perfect progressive]] (progressive, perfect): "I had been eating"

Aspects can also be marked on [[non-finite verb|non-finite]] forms of the verb: "(to) be eating" ([[infinitive]] with progressive aspect), "(to) have eaten" (infinitive with perfect aspect), "having eaten" ([[present participle]] or [[gerund]] with perfect aspect), etc. The perfect infinitive can further be governed by [[English modal verbs|modal verbs]] to express various meanings, mostly combining modality with past reference: "I should have eaten" etc. In particular, the modals ''will'' and ''shall'' and their subjunctive forms ''would'' and ''should'' are used to combine future or hypothetical reference with aspectual meaning: 
* [[Simple future]], [[simple conditional]]: "I will eat", "I would eat"
* [[Future progressive]], [[conditional progressive]]: "I will be eating", "I would be eating"
* [[Future perfect]], [[conditional perfect]]: "I will have eaten", "I would have eaten"
* [[Future perfect progressive]], [[conditional perfect progressive]]: "I will have been eating", "I would have been eating"

The uses of the progressive and perfect aspects are quite complex. They may refer to the viewpoint of the speaker:

:I was walking down the road when I met Michael Jackson's lawyer. (Speaker viewpoint in middle of action)
:I have traveled widely, but I have never been to [[Moscow]]. (Speaker viewpoint at end of action)

But they can have other [[illocutionary act|illocutionary forces]] or additional modal components:

:You are being stupid now. (You are doing it deliberately)
:You are not having chocolate with your sausages! (I forbid it)
:I am having lunch with Mike tomorrow. (It is decided)

English expresses some other aspectual distinctions with other constructions. ''[[Used to]]'' + VERB is a past [[Habitual aspect|habitual]], as in "I used to go to school," and ''[[going to]] / gonna'' + VERB is a [[prospective aspect|prospective]], a future situation highlighting current intention or expectation, as in "I'm going to go to school next year."