Aspect and tense of the English verb in theoretical grammar

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на тему: «Aspect and tense of the English verb in theoretical grammar»

Алматы 2013



Introduction

In the English language, the verb is one of the main and most important word classes. The term originates from Latin where it meant “word”. Verbs are used to express actions, processes, states or events. Verbs tell us what happens in a situation involving the noun (the subject of the sentence) and provide us the grammatical information. In the sentence verb is usually used as a predicator, and it also plays central role in the clause. None of the grammatically correct English sentences can exist without a verb. The verb indicates the necessity and the role of the other elements of the clause; it shows the connection between the discourse and the event in objective reality.

The aim of the present work is to show the peculiarities of modern English verbs, connected with their tense and aspect grammatical categories, and to detect their justification in the whole history of the English language. The main task of the work is to analyze the structure and usage of English verbs in different tenses and aspects. The methods used in the present work are analysis, comparative method and similitude.

The verb possesses the ability to define a process proceeding in time. The difficulty of this part of speech is not only in the structure of its various grammatical categories, but also in its subclass divisions and falling into two sets of different forms: the finite and non-finite forms. The verb holds the grammatical categories of tense, aspect, finitude, voice, person, mood, number and phase. These categories may be expressed either synthetically (within the word itself with the use of affixes and inflections) or analytically (within the sentence using prepositions).

In the present work the two main grammatical categories are examined. Tense is a grammatical category that locates an event or a process in time, to show when the situation occurs. It denotes the relation of the event to the moment of speech. Aspect is a grammatical category that expresses how an action, event or state, denoted by a verb, relates to the flow of time^[1]. This concept is based on distinction between perfective and imperfective aspects. The interrelation between tense and aspect is obvious. The tenses are classified according to the idea of duration or completeness of the action expressed by the verb.

The complex structure of the verb in grammar accompanies English during the long existence of this language. Its roots can be found in old history of the English language.

english verb strong



1. Aspect and Tense of the English Verb in Theoretical Grammar

1.1 The history of the English verb

During the Old English period, the system of the English verbs as well as the systems of all the rest Germanic languages possessed five main categories:

1) the category of number. Here we can distinguish two types of number - singular (e.g. cat, school, way) and plural (cats, schools, ways).

2) the category of person. The structure of this category remained unchanged, though we can notice some development of the expression of the category. Since the ancient times there are three persons in the system of the verbs (first, second and third - in singular and plural forms).

3) the category of mood. Three moods were developed in Old English - indicative, imperative and conjunctive. The categories of tense and aspect are mostly used in indicative mood.

4) the category of tense. In Old English the tenses were divided into two large groups - past and present (non-past). The present tense could function as the future tense in special conditions (with the adverbs, which indicate the future). The separate form of the future tense and other complex forms expressing the time reference started to develop in the end of Old English period.

5) the category that stands apart from finite forms. There are three impersonal forms of the verb: infinitive, gerund and participle. Infinitive is the basic form of the verbs that possesses no information about mood, number, tense or person of the verb but is able to show its lexical meaning. It can be used either with or without the particle `to'. Gerung is a non-finite verb form that is used to create a verb phrase. We can recognize it by the -ing inflection. Participle serves to modify a noun or noun phrase; it has the -ed inflection.

During the Old English period Germanic languages including English itself had one more peculiarity: they were divided into two groups according to the usage of different grammatical means that compose various forms of the past tense: so-called strong verbs, which possessed the alternation of the root vowel, and weak verbs that were modified with the help of affixation (-d or -t inflection). During the process of development of the system of verbs, weak verbs became regular, and strong verbs - irregular verbs. Regular/weak verbs are characterized by invariability of their root morphemes. Irregular/strong verbs form the past participle with the help of alteration of their roots.

Strong verbs are more ancient than weak ones. Their existence is considered to have begun in the era of Proto Indo-European language. The proof of this theory may be found in the similarity of Old English and Latin form, whose common ancestor was Proto Indo-European. For example:

Old English	Latin	Modern English
etan	edo	to eat
sittan	sedeo	to sit
beran	fero	to bear

Strong verbs were divided into seven main groups

Group	Infinitive	Past tense	Participle II	Modern form
		Singular	Plural
I (i-class)	*i + i = о wrоtan	*a + i = *ai > в wrвt	0 + i = i writon	0 + i = i writen	to write
II (u-class)	*i + u = iu > зo cзosan	*a + u = *au > Зa cзas	0 + u = u curon	0 + u = u > o coren	to choose
III	*e(i) + sonorant + consonant swimman	*a + sonorant + consonant swamm	u + sonorant + consonant swummon	u + sonorant + consonant swummen	to swim
IV	e + l (r) stelan	ж + l (r) stжl	вз + l (r) stвзlon	o+ l (r) stolen	to steal
V	e + noise consonant sprecan	ж + noise consonant sprжc	вз + noise consonant sprвзcon	e + noise consonant sprecen	to speak
VI	a scacan	ф scфc	ф scфcon	a scacen	to shake
VII	alternation of long diphthongs blфwan	alternation of long diphthongs blзow	alternation of long diphthongs blзowon	alternation of long diphthongs blфwen	to blow

As we can see, in Proto Germanic and Old English the choice of vowels in the past forms of the verbs depended on the sounds that followed the root vowels. The group VII had different vowel alterations, but diphthongs stood in for all of them in the past simple tense and past participle form.

Weak verbs are typical only for Germanic languages - they didn't exist in Proto Indo-European. The verbs that accept affixation originated from the strong verbs or ancient roots. The choice of inflections didn't depend on root vowels, so the affixation simplified greatly the process of forming the past tenses. That is why the weak verbs became the main and basic type of verb morphogenesis in English nowadays. All the new verbs that appear in English accept the affixational type of conjugation.

According to the type of base-forming affix, the weak verbs could be classified into three groups. The first group had the base-forming affix -i- (after consonants) or -б- (after vowels). Later this affix acquired the form -e-. For instance, the verb dфmian (to judge) acquired the past form dфmida (I judged), which later became the form dзm(e)de. Past participle form of this verb was dзm(e)d.

If the stem of the verb ended in voiced consonant, then it acquired the past tense affix -d-. If the stem of the verb ended in voiceless consonant, then it acquired the past tense affix -t-. For example, the verb cept (voiceless “p” + voiceless “t”), which meant “saved”, and the verb hвзld (voiced “l” + voiced “d”) that meant “healed”.

The second group of weak verbs possessed the base-forming affix -фi-. During the process of development of English, this affix disported into two different affixes: -i- and -o-. The second affix was commonly used with the past forms of the verbs. For example, luf-o-d-e (scheme root+ base-forming affix+past tense affix+personal inflection) meant “I loved”. We can notice that this Old English form is still recognizable and is close to the modern form. The main difference is the absence of personal inflection in nowadays English, except the inflection of third person in the Present Simple tense ( -s / -es ). This inflection was based on Old English personal inflection “-ю” (this sign is called “thorn”; later it was replaced by the combination of the letters “th”) that was pronounced as [?].

In all the Germanic languages there was a special group of verbs called Praeterio praesentia (lat. “Past of the present”). These verbs expressed the result of the previous action, which is recognized as the present. These were the verbs like to know, to need, to have, to present, to understand, to can, etc. There were only twelve verbs in Old English that fit this category. Most of them had no past participle form because they did not need to express it.

One more group of verbs was so-called suppletive verbs. These verbs could generate their different grammatical forms from different roots. In Old English there were two of these verbs: to be - bзon and to go - ?вn. We should notice that these verbs are still suppletive not only in Modern English, but in Modern Russian as well (rus. “быть/есть” и “идти/шел”).

The forms of suppletive verbs in English are the following

Tense	Person and number	Old English	Modern English
Present	Singular, I person	eom / bзo ?в	am go
	Singular, II person	eart / bist ?взst	are go
	Singular, III person	is / biю ?взю	is goes
	Plural, I person	sint / sindon / bзoю ?вю	are go
	Plural, II person
	Plural, III person
Past	Singular, I person	was ?в	was went
	Singular, II person	wвзr ?в	were went
	Singular, III person	wжs ?в	was went
	Plural, I person	wвзron ?вn	were went
	Plural, II person
	Plural, III person

At the end of the Old English period, analytical forms of verbal tenses began to appear. It was also the beginning of individualization of the future tense forms. Some main verbs lost their lexical meaning and became the auxiliary verbs for creating different tenses. For instance, the verb willen (to want) became the expression of the future form (modern form - will).

The verb bзon was used in Old English to express the state in the present: ic eom cumen - “I am in the state of coming” (“I have come”). This structure became a source of the perfect forms. The verb habban - “to have” was the other source of the perfect forms.

At the same time, the passive forms were also developing in Old English. And again their base was the verb bзon - “to be”. During the Middle English period the passive constructions accepted their modern form.

1.2 The characteristic of the Modern English verbs

Many peculiarities of the English verbs were developed during the Old English period and fixed in Middle English. The verbs were falling into two subclasses: finite and non-finite. The verb in its finite forms could possess the categories of person, number, tense, aspect voice and mood. The non-finite forms (Verbals) are the Infinitive, Participle I, Participle II and the Gerund. Verbals do not function as true verbs. ^[3] Verbals can function as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.

English verbs are also classified into notional and structural. Notional verbs are so-called main verbs; they possess a lexical meaning on their own. Structural verbs (modals, link verbs and auxiliary verbs) do not have an independent syntactic function or lexical meaning. They are always connected with other words. Usually grammarians also distinguish so-called semi-notional verbs. These verbs can be used either on their own or as auxiliaries (start, stop, must, may, can).

Verbs are the base of any English sentence, so they are used frequently in the discourse. Aida Saakyan, Modern English grammarian, claims that the most frequent notional verbs of the English language are “to say” (4500 uses per million words), `to get”(3400 uses) and “to go” (3300 uses). Though the structural verbs are used more often. The diagram of English notional verbs' frequency by Saakyan is given in Appendix 1.

We can see from the history of English that verbs have fallen into two groups according to their conjugation - weak regular verbs and strong irregular verbs. In Modern English the regular verbs is the largest group. The Past Simple form and Past Participle of these verbs are formed with the help of suffix -ed that originated from the fusion of two Old English affixes: base-forming -i- (-e-) and past tense forming -d- (-t-).

There are nearly 500 irregular verbs in Modern English including the archaic ones. Online-source UsingEnglish.com even claims that there are 620 irregular verbs in total. ^[4] But in fact we use actively no more than 200 of them. Irregular verbs compose the past form according to the traditional patterns.

Though irregular verbs are said not to obey the general rules, they can be subdivided according to the patterns of their modification. In the present work I tried to divide them by convention into 13 groups:

· Group 1. The verbs that belong to this group have one and the same form in the Infinitive, Past Simple and Participle two. Here are some examples from this group:

burst	burst	burst
hit	hit	hit
put	put	put

More examples are available in Appendix 2.

We can see that some words of this group, like, for example, to burst, nowadays accept the regular conjunction also ^[1]:

burst	bursted	bursted



· Group 2. The Past Tense and Past Participle forms of these verbs are composed with the help of the flexion “-ought” (rarely - “-aught”).

buy	bought	bought
teach	taught	taught
think	thought	thought

The verb “to buy” also has an archaic form of Participle II - “boughten”.

· Group 3. The final consonant “-d” in the stem changes into “-t” in both forms.

bend	bent	bent
lend	lent	lent
spend	spent	spent

Here some of the verbs can also accept the affix “-ed” in Modern English.

bend	bended	bended

· Group 4. The root vowel “-i-“ changes into diphthong “-ou-”.

find	found	found
grind	ground	ground
wind	wound	wound

The words from this group have one more peculiarity - the letter “-i-“ is read here as [ai], though the syllable is closed. This helps, for example, to distinguish the verb “to wind” ([waind]) from the noun “wind” ([wind]).

The verb “to grind” accept the “-ed” inflection in Past Simple form.

grind	grinded	ground



· Group 5. The root vowel before “-ng” changes into “-u-“. Usually the root vowel is “-i-“.

cling	clung	clung
dig	dug	dug
sting	stung	stung

Some verbs of this group are also becoming regular.

dig	digged	digged

The verb “to sting” can accept two forms in Past Simple:

sting	stang	stung

Thus, it can be also classified to Group 10 (see below).

· Group 6. The long [i:] changes into the short [e]. Some verbs of these group also accept the consonant “-t” or “-d-“ at the end of the stem.

flee	fled	fled
keep	kept	kept
kneel	knelt	knelt

The verb “to kneel” can also be used as a regular verb

kneel	kneeled	kneeled

· Group 7. The verbs save their vowel but accept the consonant “-t” (rarely - “-d-“) at the end of the stem. In some cases we can notice the reduction of vowels.



burn	burnt	burnt
dwell	dwelt	dwelt
learn	learnt	learnt

Most of these verbs can also be used as regular ones. In Group 7 this variation is more frequent than in the other groups.

burn	burned	burned
dwell	dwelled	dwelled
learn	learned	learned

· Group 8. The Past Simple and Participle II forms do not obey the principles of the Groups 1-7, but they still coincide.

lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
strike	struck	struck

The verb “to strike” can also have another form in Past Participle. So it can be also classified as the verb of the Group 12.

strike	struck	striken

· Group 9. One of the forms coincides with the infinitive. It can be either Past Tense, or Past Participle.

come	came	come
run	ran	run
beat	beat	beaten

The verb “to beat” can also be treated as the verb of Group 1.



beat	beat	beat

· Group 10. The root vowels change according to the pattern:

“-i- > -a- > -u-“. This group is the closest descendant of Germanic/Old English strong verbs (i-class).

begin	began	begun
drink	drank	drunk
spring	sprang	sprung

· Group 11. In the Past Simple form the verb changes the root vowel. Participle II has “-n-“ at the end of the stem; it also usually changed the root vowel.

bear	bore	born
blow	blew	blown
draw	drew	drown

Group 12. The Past Simple form does not coincide with the infinitive and with the Participle II. Participle II has “-en-“ at the end of the stem; its root vowel coincides with the infinitive's root vowel.

arise	arose	arisen
bite	bit	bitten
break	broke	broken

Group 13. The Past Simple and Participle II forms do not obey the principles of any patterns. Here suppletive verbs can be found.

be	was	been
do	did	done
go	went	gone
lie	lay	lain

We can come to the conclusion that the structure of verb conjugation in Modern English aims at simplification. The verbs from six groups of thirteen show their tendency to accept affixation instead of root vowels alternation.

The most common pattern is the one of Group 8. Out of 140 words analyzed 20 verbs (14,29%) belong with this group. The frequency of patterns used for creating the past forms of the irregular verbs is shown in Appendix 3.

1.3 Tense of the English Verbs

The information above was given to facilitate understanding of the use of English verbs in the Indicative Mood. This mood represents actions or events as real facts. The Indicative Mood contains the category of tense.

Each utterance demands an indication if the event is happening at the moment of speech, or it has happened earlier, or it is expected to happen later. Grammatical tense is the set of the verb forms that determines the definite point in time or a certain period in past, present or future. We receive the set of forms referent to the definite tense by adding the inflections to the basic form of the verbs or including auxiliary and modal verbs into the verb group. ^[5]

If you want to emphasize the time of an event, you should used a time adjunct - an adverb, a noun group or a prepositional phrase that indicates the time of the action. Adjunct usually takes place in the end of the sentence, but it can either be put in the beginning to accent the time. Every grammatical tense in English has its own adjuncts that help us to define the tense, e.g., adjunct tomorrow shows us that the Future Tense is used in the phrase.

There are different approaches in classification of the English grammatical tenses. Traditionally, 12 tenses are distinguished in English Grammar. But this classification does not include all the Passive tenses and the category of Future-in-the-Past. Russian grammarian Yury Golitzinsky distinguished 16 tenses of the Active voice and 10 tenses of the Passive voice (to sum up - 26 tenses). ^[6] According to the point of view of B.A. Ilyish the time is represented in English by the three tenses (past, present and future), each of which can appear in the common and in the continuous aspect. He also distinguishes future-in-the-past as a separate form. ^[7] A. A. Rivlina says that the English tense system consists of four verbal tense forms: the present, the past, the future, and the future-in-the-past.

As it was mentioned, in Old English the tenses were divided into two big groups - past and present. Later the Future forms appeared, though they are composed only with the help of auxiliaries and modal verbs and they do not possess special verb forms or inflections. Each group of tenses - Present, Past and Future - are used in four aspects.

Present Tenses

If we discuss the current deals, we usually use the verb in the form of the Present tense. The simplest tense of this group is Present Indefinite (Simple) - it is used to describe the present activities or to talk about routines or habits.

We use it in the following cases:

· to express statements, facts or habitual actions in the present: My father works in Moscow.

· to state the universal truths: The sun sets in the West.

· to describe the current feelings, emotions or abilities: I hear approaching feet.

· to express the Future simple after certain conjunctions (when, after, before, etc.): If he gets a good rest, he'll be his usual self tomorrow.

· in timetables: The plane arrives at 6-30.

· to express the action with non-progressive verbs: I believe I understand her.

The Present Simple is formed in the following way:

The Subject + Infinitive without “to” + -s/-es inflection in 3rd person.

These are the adjuncts of the Present Simple: always, ever, every day, generally, never, occasionally, often, seldom, rarely, regularly, sometimes, usually.

The next tense of this group is Present Progressive (Continuous). The Present Continuous is mainly used to express the idea that something is happening at the moment of speaking.

It is used in the situations below:

· an action is going on at the moment of speaking: I am reading my lectures now, don't disturb me.

· an action is going on at the present period of time: I'm slimming (not just now, but at present).

· changing situations and processes: The story is getting more and more interesting.

· expressing irritation: You are always cheating on exams!

· near future: He is returning on Tuesday.

The Present Continuous is formed in the following way:

The Subject + auxiliary verb to be + Participle I

These are the adjuncts of the Present Simple: now, at the moment, still, constantly, always.

Next tense is the Present Perfect Simple. It is used to express actions that happened at an indefinite time or that began in the past and continue in the present. This tense is also used when an activity has an effect on the present moment.

The following actions are used with the Present Perfect:

· Actions which happened at an indefinite (unknown) time before now: I have already been to Paris.

· Actions in the past which have an effect on the present moment: I have already eaten the dinner, so I'm not hungry.

· Actions which began in the past and continue in the present: Mary has worked as a teacher for over 25 years.

The Present Perfect is formed in the following way:



The Subject + auxiliary verb to have + Participle II

These are the adjuncts of the Present Perfect: ever, already, just, before, never, yet, so far.

The last form of this group is the Present Perfect Progressive. The Present Perfect Continuous (Progressive) Tense expresses the actions that have started in the past and are still continuing. We use it:

· when the action or progress has started in the past and continue in the present: He has been painting the house for 5 hours already.

· when the action has recently stopped: Look at her eyes! I'm sure she has been crying.

· with the temporary actions and situations: I have been working as a waitress for the past week.

The Present Perfect Continuous is formed in the following way:

The Subject + auxiliary verb to have + auxiliary verb to be in Past Participle + Participle I of the main verb

Past Tenses

When we speak about the past, we need the adjunctions of the peat tenses to point out the exact time that we mean. The simplest tense of this group is Past Indefinite (Simple) - it is used to describe the activities that happened in exact time of the past.

We use it to express the following:

· Events in the past are now finished: I went to college 3 years ago.

· Situation in the past: In happened in the 19^th century.

· A series of actions in the past: He entered a room, lit a cigarette and smiled at the guests.

The Past Simple is formed in the following way:

The Subject + The Past Simple form of the main verb / -ed inflection

These are the adjuncts of the Past Simple: yesterday, a year ago, last week, just now, the other day.

The next tense of this group is Past Progressive (Continuous). The Past Continuous is mainly used to express the idea that something was happening during some time in the past.

It is used to express:

· Duration in the past: I was learning my French from 8 till 9 yesterday.

· Interrupted actions in progress: The door suddenly opened when she was taking a shower.

· Actions in progress at the same time in the past: I was watching TV and Barbara was reading a book.

· Irritation: He was always disturbing me!

· Polite question: I was thinking you might help me with this problem.

The Past Continuous is formed in the following way:

The Subject + auxiliary verb to be in the Past Simple form + Participle I

Next tense is the Past Perfect Simple. It is used to emphasize that an action in the past finished before another action in the past started. This tense is also used in reported speech, third conditional sentences, or to show dissatisfaction with the past.

The following actions are used with the Past Perfect:

· Completed action before another action in the past: I had just finished my homework when John came in.

· Third conditional sentences: If I had known about it before I would have never made this mistake.

· Reported speech: He told me he had read this book already.

· Dissatisfaction with the past: I wish I had taken more food. I'm hungry now.

The Past Perfect is formed in the following way:

The Subject + auxiliary verb to have in the Past Simple form + Participle II

These are the adjuncts of the Past Perfect: ever, already, just, before, never, yet, so far.

The last form of this group is the Past Perfect Progressive. The Past Perfect Continuous (Progressive) Tense is used to talk about actions or situations that were in progress before some other actions or situations. There are also other uses.

· Duration of a past action up to a certain point in the past: The boys had been quarreling for half an hour when we arrived home.

· Showing cause of an action or situation: I had to go on a diet because I had been eating too much sugar.

· Third conditional sentences: If it hadn't been raining, we would have gone to the park.

· Reported speech: She said she knew Charlie had been lying to her.

The Past Perfect Continuous is formed in the following way:

The Subject + auxiliary verb to have in the Past Simple form + auxiliary verb to be in Past Participle + Participle I of the main verb

Future Tenses

We cannot talk about the future with the same sureness as if we talk about the past or the present. The Future Tense in English expresses your plans or ideas about what will happen. The simplest tense of this group is Future Indefinite (Simple) - it is used to describe the present activities or to talk about routines or habits.

We use it in the following cases:

· to express action that will take place in future: He will finish his work tomorrow.

· to express spontaneous decisions: I will close the door.

· to express repeated actions in the future: He will stay after the lessons every Monday for two weeks.

The Future Simple is formed in the following way:

The Subject + auxiliary verb will/shall + the Infinitive without “to”

These are the adjuncts of the Future Simple: tomorrow, in a day, next week.

The next tense of this group is Future Progressive (Continuous). The Future Continuous is mainly used to express the idea that something will be happening during exact time in the future.

It is used in the situations below:

· an action will be continuing in the future: He will be studying tomorrow at eight.

· an action predicted by the speaker: I must hurry, my mom will be worrying about me.

The Future Continuous is formed in the following way:

The Subject + auxiliary verb will/shall + auxiliary verb to be + Participle I

Next tense is the Future Perfect Simple. It is used to express actions that will happen by an exact moment in the future: She will have learned the news before this letter reaches her.

The Future Perfect is formed in the following way:

The Subject + auxiliary verb will/shall + auxiliary verb to have + Participle II

These are the adjuncts of the Future Perfect: by that time, by then, by Sunday, by now, by the end of the year, by summer.

The last form of this group is the Future Perfect Progressive. This form is used very rare but it still exists. The Future Perfect Continuous (Progressive) Tense expresses the actions that have started in the past, were continuing for some time and will be in a process until the certain moment of time in the future: They will have been working for this firm for twenty years next May.

The Future Perfect Continuous is formed in the following way:

The Subject + auxiliary verb will/shall + auxiliary verb to have + auxiliary verb to be in Past Participle + Participle I of the main verb

1.4 Peculiarities of Aspect in English

The concept of aspect is often conflated and mixed up with the concept of tense. Although English largely separates tense and aspect formally, its aspects (neutral, progressive, perfect and progressive perfect) do not correspond very closely to the distinction of perfective vs. imperfective that is common in most other languages. ^[8] The division between aspect and tense in English is not really strict. For example, you can either say - "Have you eaten yet?" as well as - "Did you eat yet?" The second form is frequently used in the USA, though it is not grammatically correct, but it still can be applied. There are two different types of aspect - lexical and grammatical. The aspect expressed formally is called grammatical aspect. Lexical aspect usually is not marked formally. They are given by the situation itself, not by the forms of the verbs. Lexical or situation aspect is called Aktionsart. One of the factors in situation aspect is telicity. Telicity is an ability of the verbs to possess the natural endpoint. For these verbs there a time when the process or the action is completely finished. For instance, the verb to eat implies that the object of the action will some time be totally eaten. The other factor in situation aspect is duration. In some languages, aspect and time are easily distinguished. The tenses can be expressed with the help of direct modifications of verbs. The verbs may be further modified by the progressive aspect, the perfect aspect, or both. Each tense is named according to its combination of aspects and time.

The progressive aspect is expressed with the help of the auxiliary verb to be and the Participle I of the main verb. The perfect aspect is recognizable by the auxiliary to have and the Participle II of the main verb.

Here is the list of aspects which correspond with the tenses.

For the present tense:

· Present Simple (not progressive, not perfect): "I do"

· Present Progressive (progressive, not perfect): "I am doing"

· Present Perfect (not progressive, perfect): "I have done"

· Present Perfect Progressive (progressive, perfect): "I have been doing"

For the past tense:

· Past Simple (not progressive, not perfect): "I did"

· Past Progressive (progressive, not perfect): "I was doing"

· Past Perfect (not progressive, perfect): "I had done"

· Past Perfect Progressive (progressive, perfect): "I had been doing"

For the future tense:

· Future Simple (not progressive, not perfect): "I shall do"

· Future Progressive (progressive, not perfect): "I shall be doing"

· Future Perfect (not progressive, perfect): "I shall have done"

· Future Perfect Progressive (progressive, perfect): "I shall have been doing"

Another aspect that exists in English, but is no longer productive, is the frequentative, or multiple. It expresses continuously repeated action; it is ignored from most discussions of English linguistics, as it suggests itself only by Scandinavian suffixes no longer heard independently from the words to which they are affixed (e.g., "chatter" for "chat", "crackle" for "crack", etc.).



Conclusion

The present work was an analysis of two important English grammatical categories: tense and aspect. I tried to formulate the history of the development of these categories and systematize the knowledge about them and their main elements that are used for expressing tenses and aspects - the Past Tense and Past Participle of the regular and irregular verbs.

Also in this work I indicated the tendency to increasing the number of regular, and, accordingly, the reduction of irregular verbs in Modern English. I also tried to divide the most common patterns of irregular verbs' conjugation into 13 groups according to their past forms and Participles. The term “aspect” and its peculiarities were described in the last chapter.

Appendixes attached show the frequency of the usage of English verbs and of irregular verbs patterns.

The system of the English verbs has been in existence for centuries and it is still developing now. The number of verbs in English increased by 20 times and it is still growing. Now there are more than million words in English lexis, and the number of verbs is enormous, too. That is why the examination of the system of the verbs is important in modern linguistics.



Works cited

1. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

2. Аракин В.Д. История английского языка для педагогических ВУЗов. Издание третье. - Москва, Физматлит, 2009. - 303 стр.

3. Саакян А.С. All About English Grammar. Английская грамматика: базовый теоретический курс. - Москва, Эксмо, 2013. - 336 стр.

4. Using English. English as a Second Language tools & resources for students.

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/irregular-verbs/

5. Collins Cobuild. English Grammar. - Москва, Астрель, 2008. - 703 стр.

6. Голицынский Ю. Английский язык. Грамматика. - Санкт-Петербург, КАРО, 2011. - 576 стр.

7. Ильиш Б.А. Строй современного английского языка. - Ленинград, Просвещение, 1971. - 370 стр.

8. Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias online. http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/7728



Appendix 1

The most common lexical (notional) verbs in Modern English and the frequency of their usage according Saakyan



Appendix 2

List of Irregular verbs Group 1. Verbs that have the same form in Infinitive, Past Tense and Past Participle

burst	burst	burst
cast	cast	cast
сost	сost	сost
cut	cut	cut
hit	hit	hit
hurt	hurt	hurt
let	let	let
put	put	put
read	read	read
set	set	set
shed	shed	shed
shut	shut	shut
split	split	split
spread	spread	spread

Group 2. The Past Tense and Past Participle forms are composed with the help of the flexion “-ought”

bring	brought	brought
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
fight	fought	fought
seek	sought	sought
teach	taught	taught
think	thought	thought

Group 3. The final consonant “-d” in the stem changes into “-t” in both forms

bend	bent	bent
lend	lent	lent
spend	spent	spent
send	sent	sent



Group 4. The root vowel “-i-“ changes into diphthong “-ou-”

bind	bound	bound
find	found	found
grind	ground	ground
wind	wound	wound

Group 5. The root vowel before “-ng” changes into “-u-“

cling	clung	clung
dig	dug	dug
fling	flung	flung
hang	hung	hung
sting	stung	stung
swing	swung	swung

Group 6. The long [i:] changes into the short [e]

bleed	bled	bled
breed	bred	bred
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
flee	fled	fled
keep	kept	kept
kneel	knelt	knelt
lead	led	led
leave	left	left
sleep	slept	slept
speed	sped	sped
sweep	swept	swept
weep	wept	wept

Group 7. The verbs save their vowel but accept the consonant “-t” at the end of the stem

burn	burnt	burnt
deal	dealt	dealt
dwell	dwelt	dwelt
hear	heard	heard
learn	learnt	learnt
lean	leant	leant
leap	leapt	leapt
mean	meant	meant
smell	smelt	smelt
spell	spelt	spelt
spill	spilt	spilt

Group 8. The Past Simple and Participle II forms do not obey the principles of the Groups 1-7, but they still coincide

lose	lost	lost
meet	met	met
get	got	got
have	had	had
lay	laid	laid
light	lit	lit
make	made	made
pay	paid	paid
say	said	said
sell	sold	sold
tell	told	told
shine	shone	shone
shoot	Shot	shot
sit	sat	sat
spit	spat	spat
stand	stood	stood
stick	stuck	stuck
strike	struck	struck
slide	slid	slid
win	won	won

Group 9. One of the forms coincides with the infinitive

become	became	become
come	came	come
run	ran	run
beat	beat	beaten



Group 10. The root vowels change according to the pattern:“-i- > -a- > -u-“

begin	began	begun
drink	drank	drunk
spring	sprang	sprung
ring	rang	rung
swim	swam	swum
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
shrink	shrank	shrunk
spin	span	spun

Group 11. In the Past Simple form the verb changes the root vowel. Participle II has “-n-“ at the end of the stem

bear	bore	born
blow	blew	blown

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