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How many verb tenses are there in English? - Anna Ananichuk

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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.

In the sentence "They were sleeping when the creature attacked the boat," we use the Past Continuous form "were sleeping" to show that the heroes:

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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

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