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Facts!!! In actual sense tense is a way of using English verb in different times and situations.
Tense is the property of the main verb. The main verb may comprise one word only(simple verbs) or several words (compound/complex verbs).
For simple verbs it is the one word verb that indicates tense and complex verbs it is only the first word in the verb that indicates tense.
Tense is not the same thing as time. Time is an element of our experience of reality, but Tense is purely grammatical idea.
In that case present tense has nothing to do with present time as well as past tense has nothing to do with past time.
Eg:" We are travelling by bus tomorrow".Present tense but future time.
"Would you mind if i borrowed your pen". Past tense but present or future time.
The general perception of time shared by most people is that time is divided into Past( before now), Present(now) and Future(after now).
English language has only two tenses
1. The past tense; usually used to talk about past time as in reporting.
2.Present tense; usually used to talk about present time as in descriptions.
There is no Future tense in english, in that there is no one word verb form which can specifically be associated with future time. But it is always possible to talk about future time in English as you can see on the above examples.
SHALL and WILL in future predictions.
There is a belief that words WILL and SHALL belongs to future tense in English. While it is true that WILL and SHALL are uniquely associated with future time, they are not, for that reason, future tense verbs.
The reason for associating such verbs with future time is that these two verbs are convenient in expressing future intention or expectation plus decision to fulfil it.
Eg: We shall be leaving tomorrow. We will be leaving tomorrow.
These are not statements of facts but predictions. However the same predictions are also possible in other constructions such as:
1.We are going to leave tomorrow
2.We are to leave tomorrow
3.We are leaving tomorrow
Thus, SHALL and WILL are verbs in the present tense, their corresponding past forms are SHOULD and WOULD.
SHALL and WILL are commonly used for making reference to future, but they can also be used to make reference to present time.
Eg: Girls will be girls.
Similarly, the corresponding past tense SHOULD and WOULD can also be used to make reference to present time.
Eg: 1.We should stick together as a team 2. We would like to inform you that.....
SHOULD and WOULD can also be used to make reference to the future time.
Eg: 1.We should leave tomorrow(obligation) 2.We should/would like to see him this afternoon(wish)