Discuss the Tense System of English.English lanuage and grammar

As the word tense means
time, Modern English has 6 tenses (3 are simple tenses and 3 are
compound), with 3 forms of these tenses.  These tenses are formed from the 4 principal
parts of verbs: 

1. the infinitive (often called
   the present form)   e.g. to see, to walk


2. the present
   participle   e.g. seeing, walking


3. the past
   form             e.g. saw, walked


4. the past
   participle       e.g. seen, walked ( the auxiliary verbs has, have,
   had, or will have are used with the past
   participle)

In the BASIC form, the 3 simple
(meaning one verb is used) tenses
are

1. Present tense
   (formed by using the infinitive minus "to"-principal part #1) is used to express what
   occurs at the moment [Susie reads well], used to express what one does on a regular
   basis [Susie rides the bus to school],
   and sometimes used to express future action when accompanied by a time word [You know,
   Susie goes to the dentist
   tomorrow.]


2. Past tense -
   (formed by using the past form -principal part #3) is used to express an action that has
   been completed in the past. [Susie
   went to the
   dentist.]


3. Future tense -
   (formed by using principal part #1 plus the auxiliary (helping) verb
   shall or will) is used to express an action
   that will be completed at a later time. [Susie
   will not
   be home
   Tuesday.]

The three compound tenses (the Latin
word perfect means completed)
are

1. Present Perfect
   - (formed by using the past participle (principal part #4 and the auxiliary verb
   has or have) is used to express an action that
   began in the past, but is completed in the present [Susie has
   finished her
   homework]


2. Past Perfect -
   (formed by using principal part #4 and had) is used to express an
   action that occurred and was completed prior to another in the past. [Susie
   had just
   opened the door as the phone
   rang.]


3. Future Perfect -
   (formed by using principal part #4 and will have) is used to
   express an action that will be completed in the future. [By June, Susie
   will have
   completed junior high
   school.]

The PROGRESSIVE form for all the 6
tenses uses the auxiliary verb to be, conjugated in the appropriate
tense, with the present participle.  Thus for the verb to run the 6
tenses would look like this:

1. I am
   running                Present Progressive Tense


2. I was
   running               Past Progressive Tense


3. I will be
   running            Future Progressive Tense


4. I have been
   running      Present Perfect Progr.Tense


5. I had been
   running        Past Perfect Progr. Tense


6. I will have been
   running   Future Perfect Progr. Tense

The
EMPHATIC form is only in the Present tense and the simple Past Tense.  The auxiliary
verb do/does is used with the present form of the main verb for the
Present tense, and the auxiliary verb did is used with the present
form of the main verb for the Past tense.

Present: 
Susie does speak well.  Susie
did speak clearly on the stage.   [Do
not confuse the use of do and did in questions for the Emphatic form.  They are just
auxiliary verbs in those cases in the Basic Form.  e.g.  Didn't Susie speak well
yesterday?]