A verb has different forms by which it can indicate the time of action. These forms are called tenses ("times").

I see you. (Present tense, marking present action).

I saw you. (Past tense, or preterit, marking past action).

I shall see you. (Future tense, marking future action).

In order to show the completeness of an action at the time of speaking, we use perfect tenses.

Now I have caught you. (Present perfect, or perfect, marking action completed at the present time).

We spoke to him after he had spoken to us. (Past perfect, or pluperfect, marking action completed in past time).

We shall have climbed the mountain before you reach the spring. (Future perfect, marking action that will be completed in future time).

Of the six tense forms only two are simple, the present and the past. The others are combinations of the auxiliary verbs (will, shall, have, be, or do) with infinitives and participles.

Exercises

258. Point out the time, or tense, of each verb in the following sentences. Explain the meaning of each term which you use.

1. He did not consider that "he laughs best who laughs last."

2. He admits that he has often said he does not like the new way of playing football. Now that the season is over, however, and he has given a good deal of thought to the matter, he has decided that most of the changes are for the best.

3. He admitted that he had often said he did not like the new way of playing football. After the season was over, however, and he had given a good deal of thought to the matter, he decided that most of the changes were for the better.

4. It is probable that the burglar entered at the front window, for it was found open, and it has no lock.

259. In what tense should each verb in the following sentences be? Why? Rewrite correctly.

1. First the tramp goes in search of food and knocks at the doors of the different houses. At last he found a house where a lady gives him some money and sends him off. After she shut the door, he took a piece of chalk from his pocket and marked a letter K at the right of the door.

2. In some places the railroad up Mt. Washington is so steep that it looked more like a ladder than a railroad.

3. I do not know whether he came yesterday or whether he just came this morning.

4. He had never known what serious illness was.

260. In copying these sentences, insert the present, the past, or the present perfect tense of the verbs within parentheses.

1. When December (come), we do not hear the singing of birds, for they (fly) south.

2. I (lead) the horses to water, but they would not drink.

3. We (drive) thirty miles, and the horse was so tired that he (lie) down.

4. The boy (lie) in bed so long that he will have to go to school without his breakfast.

5. When the sun (rise) that morning, I (see) the light strike the hilltops.

6. When the boys (go) into the meadow, they (run) to see who would reach the brook first.

7. He (go) to that camp every summer for ten years, for he (choose) to do so.

8. I know that I (lay) this hatchet here every time I have finished using it.

9. He (write) four letters last night, and he (write) four more tonight.

10. About an hour before the launching of a battleship men are at work under her, knocking out the spurs that (keep) the boat upright while building.

11. Dick (speak) to me about the matter every day, but I (do) nothing about it until now.

12. I had learned from my brother that a cygnet (be) a young swan.

261. Rewrite the following sentences, changing such tenses as need correction:

1. If we went the way we knew, we should have been able to take the earlier train.

2. Although Sam had been brought up on a farm, he never had a task like this before.

3. If, a generation ago, a girl tried to practice law, she would have been laughed at.

4. Uncle told me this was not the first time he was caught in snow drifts.

5. The captain praised his rescuers, who in the hour of danger showed great presence of mind.

6. If the feat could have taken place in some stadium, and in the presence of the thousands of telephone subscribers directly concerned, it would meet with merited plaudits.

262. In the following sentences, insert either the past or the past perfect tense of the verb within parentheses:

1. Phoebe (look) out of the window and (see) a rosebush in the garden. Alice Pyncheon (plant) it nearly two hundred years before.

2. The room (be) in an old mansion, which at one time (be) occupied by a member of George Washington's staff.

3. We (reach) home about half past eight, two hours later than we (plan).

4. They (be) school boys together and, after many years of separation, (meet) again at a summer hotel.

5. I (find) some things in my box which I (forget) I ever owned.

6. After they (eat) something, they (spend) the evening playing games.

7. In the middle of the night he (awake) and realized that he (have) a very strange dream.

8. When we started, the sun (shine), but now we (see) threatening clouds.