How many verb tenses are there in English? - Anna Ananichuk
885,060 Views
35,935 Questions Answered
TEDEd Animation
Let’s Begin…
How many different verb tenses are there in a language like English? At first, the answer seems obvious — there’s past, present, and future. But it isn't quite that simple. Anna Ananichuk explains how thanks to something called grammatical aspect, each of those time periods actually divides further.
When we use reported speech to talk about what other people told us in the past, we tend to change Past Simple verbs to Past Perfect. For example: “I saw Laura yesterday,” he told me vs. He told me he had seen Laura the day before. How would you explain that?
Sign in to answer questionAbout TED-Ed Animations
TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »
Meet The Creators
- Educator Anna Ananichuk
- Director Luke Rotzler
- Script Editor Alex Gendler
- Sound Designer Sam Bair
- Associate Producer Jessica Ruby
- Content Producer Gerta Xhelo
- Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
- Narrator Pen-Pen Chen
