... Tense of Verbs - Thì của Động từ The word tense comes from the Latin word, tempus, which means "time." The tense of a verb shows the time when an ... the tense also may provide emphasis and may determine whether or not an action or condition was continuous or repetitive. There are fourteen tenses in modern English. There are three basic tenses: ... condition occurred, occurs, or will occur in the past, present, or future. There are three perfect tenses: past perfect, present perfect, and future perfect. They show whether an action or condition...