Past time expressions in english and their equivalents in vietnamese đặc ngữ chỉ thời điểm ở quá khứ trong tiếng anh và yếu tố tương đương trong tiếng việt (2017)

Thus, the translation of time expressions in English into Vietnamese in general and that of past time ones in particular needs to be dealt with flexibly, depending on the time of an acti

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE

DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ART OF ENGLISH)

BA THESIS IN ENGLISH

SUPERVISOR: ĐỖ TIẾN ĐỨC, MA

HANOI, 2017

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the process of implementing my graduation paper, I have received lots

of help, encouragement and experiences from my teachers and friends Especially, my graduation paper has now been completed successfully thanks to all teachers‟ support in the Faculty of Foreign Language of Hanoi Pedagogical University Nº2

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Do Tien Duc, who has generously given me invaluable assistance and guidance Without his help, my research would have never been successfully done

Besides, my sincere thank is also extended to the other of English for their lectures supporting this study Simultaneously, I would like to thank all the students who have participated in my study Their contributions are highly appreciated

Last but not least, I am grateful to my family and friends who have given

me a lot of encouragement during the time I carried out this paper

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP v

ABSTRACT vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Scope and design of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Participants of the study………3

6 Data collection and analysis… 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: GENERALIZATION ABOUT TIME EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLISH 4

1.1 The concept of time 4

1.2 Time expressions in English 4

1.2.1 Timing by tenses 5

1.2.1.1 Definition of tenses 5

1.2.1.2 Tense and reference points 5

1.2.1.3 Verb forms and time reference 7

1.2.1.4 Time-aspect expressions 9

1.2.2 Timing by adjuncts 10

1.2.2.1 Definition of time adjuncts 10

1.2.2.2 Timing by adjuncts 10

1.2.3 Timing by subordinate clauses 14

1.2.3.1 Definition of subordinate time clauses 14

1.2.3.2 Timing by subordinate clauses 14

CHAPTER 2: PAST TIME EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLISH 16

2.1 Timing by the past tenses 16

2.1.1 Stating a definite time in the past: the simple past 16

2.1.2 Accent on the past: the past continuous 17

2.1.3 The past in relation to the present: the present perfect 18

2.1.4 Events before a particular time in the past: the past perfect 20

2.1.5 Other uses of the past tenses 21

2.2 Timing by adjuncts 23

2.2.1 Time adjuncts referring to a specific time 24

2.2.2 Time adjuncts referring to a non-specific time in the past 29

2.2.3 Time adjuncts used for emphasis 32

2.3 Timing by subordinate clauses 33

2.3.1 Events in sequence 34

2.3.2 Repeated events 34

2.3.3 Indicating when a situation began 35

2.3.4 Indicating when a situation ended 35

CHAPTER 3: A COMPARISON BETWEEN PAST TIME EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN VIETNAMESE AND SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLATION 37

3.1 Past time expressions in Vietnamese 37

3.1.1 Time expressions in Vietnamese 37

3.1.2 Past time expressions in Vietnamese 39

3.1.2.1 By formal words 39

3.1.2.2 By adverbs of time 41

3.1.2.3 By subordinate clauses of time 42

3.2.A comparison between past time expressions in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese 42

3.3 Some common problems facing Vietnamese learners and suggested solutions 45

3.3.1 Some problems facing Vietnamese learners of English 46

3.3.1.1 In English – Vietnamese translation 46

3.3.1.2 In Vietnamese – English translation 49

3.3.2 Suggested solutions 50

PART III: CONCLUSION 51

1 Review of the study 52

2 Suggested for further studies 52

REFERENCES 54

APPENDIX 55

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that no part of the thesis entitled:

PAST TIME EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLISH

AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN VIETNAMESE

has been copied and reproduced from any other person‟s work without acknowledgements and this study is originally done by me under the serious guidance from my supervisor

Date submitted: April, 2017

Student Supervisor

Đỗ Thị Lan Hương Đỗ Tiến Đức, M.A

ABSTRACT

This paper is a linguistic study on past time expressions in English and some implications for translation More specifically, this study will be developed based on the overview of translation theories and methods written by famous authors

Vietnamese learners of English face a lot of difficulties in the translation process, since the two languages belong to different families of language Moreover, when we are making a statement, we usually need ways to indicate whether we are referring to a situation or event which exists now, existed in the past, or is likely to exist in the future The two languages, in fact, have different ways to refer to time

Thus, the translation of time expressions in English into Vietnamese in general and that of past time ones in particular needs to be dealt with flexibly, depending on the time of an action or event in the past is expressed in each situation This can be done by using “formal words” or adding adverbs of time referring to the past in the target language

By suggesting some implications for translating past time expressions, the study aims to help Vietnamese learners avoid making some common mistakes in their translation issue from English into Vietnamese and vice versa due to the interference of their mother tongue upon the source language

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Past time expressions in English and Vietnamese 42 Table 2: The differences between past time expressions in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese 45 Table 3: Common mistakes in translating past time expressions by Vietnamese learners of English 46

PART I

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

In recent years, Vietnam‟s open – door policy has brought about considerable achievements and enhanced the role of English language as an important means for professional and occupational promotion English is increasingly becoming a principal foreign language in Vietnam Apart from its predominance as an International language in finance and business, politics and arts, English language serves as a working language in ASEAN (the Association

of South East Asian Nations that Vietnam joined in 1995) English language skills are also more required to give greater access to foreign business and investment that Vietnam is badly in need

This situation has given rise to a demand for learning English Vietnamese learners of English, however, face a lot of difficulties in learning process since the two languages belong to different families of language Moreover, when we are making a statement, we usually need ways to indicate whether we are referring to a situation or an event which exists now, existed in the past, or is likely to exist in the future, and the two languages, in fact, have different ways

to refer to time In addition, I have been allowed to make a study for the graduation course of English, among many difficulties I find myself that it is a great problem facing most Vietnamese learners of English due to interference of their mother tongue when marking past time reference

2 Aims of the study

The study on past time expressions in English and some implications for translation is designed to:

+ Enable students to understand how past time is expressed in English that will help them mark past time reference

+ Make an initial step in drawing out some similarities and differences between the past time expressions in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese

+ Give some implications for indicating and translating past time expressions in English into Vietnamese and vice versa

3 Research questions

The research aims to answer the following questions:

- How are past time expressions formed in English and Vietnamese?

- How can past time expressions be transferred from English into Vietnamese and vice versa So that their meanings are preserved and they can still sound natural in the source language?

4 Scope and design of the study

Due to the limitation of time and other resources as well as lack of experience in doing research, I can‟t cover all things concerning time expressions in English So I only focus on past time expressions in English The study is carried out with three chapters

Chapter 1 is the generalization about time expressions in English Chapter

2 deals with the ways of expressing past time in English Chapter 3 is composed

of a comparison between the past time expression in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese and some implications for translating them into Vietnamese

5 Methods of the study

To carry out the study I have adopted the following methods:

+ Synthesizing and analyzing both theoretical and empirical materials related to the subject matter

+ Comparing and contrasting past time expressions in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese to find out some major similarities and differences between the two languages

+ Conducting a survey on past time expressions in English and in Vietnamese, then collecting and analyzing the data to find out some related

problems facing Vietnamese learners of English as well as some implications for translation

+ Consulting experts, writing and presenting the thesis

6 Participants of the study

This study is based on the data that is collected from 80 English language students in Foreign Languages Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 to find out some problems related to the transference of past time expressions facing Vietnamese learners of English The participant‟s selection is at random with no regards to their age, gender, or social status and also without taking any consideration of their knowledge about translational skills

6 Data collection and analysis

The survey includes two exercises: Exercise I consist of ten sentences using past time expressions in English and participants are asked translate them into Vietnamese Exercise II include ten sentences in Vietnamese, also with the use

of past time expressions and require students to translate them into English After the survey, the data (the questionnaires collected from the participants) was analyzed to compare the structures of past time expressions in the two languages, based on which some implications for finding their equivalents in the target language have been given

PART II DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 GENERALIZATION ABOUT TIME EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLISH

1. 1 The concept of time

To better understand time expressions in English, the concept of time should be worked out first

Time is a broad concept and there are, in fact, several notions about time

In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, time is defined as something that is measured in minutes, hours, years, etc using clocks

E.g It takes you two hours to travel to Hanoi by bus

Quirk and Greenbaum (1987:40) state that time is a universal, linguistic concept with three divisions: past, present, and future

non-Though the definitions vary, they together can tell what time is Accordingly, it is profitable to combine them in a semblance of a definition In this sense, time should be seen as something that is measured in minutes, hours, years, etc using clocks with three divisions: past, present, and future

1.2 Time expressions in English

Languages need ways to refer to time Events and situations are located in time, perhaps prior to our speaking about them, perhaps while we are speaking about them, perhaps at some time later Moreover, we may need to locate situations and events relative not just to the time of speaking but also to some other reference point In fact, different languages have different ways to refer to time Some languages use a tense system, adverbs and so forth for marking time reference whereas some others have no tense (language of this type is called tenseless language) However, it is important to emphasize that the fact that a language does not have tense does not mean that speakers of such languages cannot distinguish linguistically between present and past events or between present and future events

English itself has various ways to refer to time

Cobuild (1990: 245-246) indicates that the point in time that a statement relates to is usually indicated in part by the verb group used in the clause A set

of verb forms that indicate a particular point in time or period of time in the past, present or future is called a tense Sometimes, the point in time that a statement relates to is shown by an adjunct of time And sometimes, the point in time that

a clause relates to is not indicated by an adjunct, but by a subordinate time clause In conclusion, the point in time that a statement relates to is indicated by:

1 The tense of the verb group

And Jacobs (1995:187) describes tense as “the grammatical marking on verbs that usually indicates time reference relative to either the time of speaking

or the time at which some other situation was in force”

Although tense is given various definitions, they are, to some extent, described as a grammatical category indicating the relation between the form of

a verb and the time to which it refers It shows verb form that indicates whether

we are referring to the past, present, or future time

1.2.1.2 Tense and reference points

The major function of tense is to locate situations and events in time relative to some fixed reference point Typically, this reference point is “now” –

the time at which the sentences are uttered This kind of time reference is named

absolute time reference When the reference point is some other time, perhaps

some time prior to the time of speaking or perhaps some time after the time of

speaking, the term used is relative time reference Basing on the time reference

points, we can easily define which tense of the verb should be used to refer to past, present, or future events (Jacobs, 1995: 194)

 Absolute Time Reference ( relative to now)

E.g John met Ann yesterday

Lan was doing homework all last night

Here, the two examples are both referring to a time past relative to now, the interrogation time

 Relative Time Reference (relative to some time prior to now)

E.g Jane had already left when Susan telephoned

As “already” indicates, Jane‟s departure occurred in a past prior to the past time of Susan‟s telephone call, the reference point

 Relative Time Reference (relative to some time after now)

E.g The house will have been completed when the raining season comes next month

Here, the completion of the house will have occurred prior to the time of the raining season‟s coming next month

English is a tensed language and tense is defined as the grammatical location of an event in time In other words, through tense we can know the time

when actions or events happen In the sentence: “John bought the book”, the

verb used in the sentence is in the simple past tense, so that the event of buying the book is located in the past time Chung and Timberlake (1985) call this an

“event frame” This event frame is defined by a reference point and the two authors (Chung & Timberlake) describe the reference point as a “tense locus” The past tense used in the sentence means that the event frame stands before the

tense locus If it is the present tense (John buys the book) the event frame coincides with the tense locus And if it is the future tense (John will buy the

book), the event frame is likely to follow the tense locus This may be expressed

by the following diagram

The simple past tense: E R

The simple present tense: E, R

(The event frame coincides with the reference point or the tense locus) The future tense: R E

(E stands for the event frame; R stands for the tense locus or the reference point) 1.2.1.3 Verb forms and time reference

Verb forms

As we see in 1.2.1.1 in Chapter 1, tense is defined as the relationship between the form of a verb and the time to which it refers Therefore, to better understand how time is expressed through the form of a verb, we should study verb forms in English first As Quirk and Greenbaum (1980: 70) point out that normal English verbs have five forms:

The base form (verb), E.g Speak

The “S” form (Vs), E.g Speaks

The “-ing” participle (V-ing), E.g Speaking

The past form (Ved1), E.g Spoke

The “-ed” form (Ved2), E.g Spoken

With the regular lexical verbs, the past and the “ed” participle have the same forms, but with the irregular lexical verbs, their forms vary from three to eight

E.g put, puts, putting

give, gives, giving, gave, given

be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been

The auxiliary verbs have different forms

have, has, having, had

do, does, doing, did, done

be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been

The modal auxiliaries are defective in not having infinitive, -ing participle, -ed participle or imperative

Verb forms in reference to time

English is a variant language, so both the lexical meaning and the grammatical meaning can be found in a single word

be discussed in more detail in chapter 3)

For this very reason, forms of the verb vary greatly when they are used with different tenses to refer to past, present or future time The different forms

of auxiliaries in the verb group used in the clause are chosen according to factors relating to your message, for example whether you are talking about the past or the present

The base form is used for all the present tenses except the third person singular

E.g I/You/We/They learn English

The “s” form is used for the third person singular of the present tense

E.g He/She learns English

The past form is used for the simple past tense

E.g I/You/She/They learned English

The “-ing” participle is used for continuous tenses

E.g He/She is learning English

They were learning English

The “-ed” participle is used for perfect tenses

E.g They had done everything when I arrived

She/He has learnt English for 5 years

Note: Students should note, in any case, that the terms “verb form” and

“time” are not always to be regarded as synonymous in English Verb forms indicated by tenses refer to time, frequently but not always This will be discussed in some detail in 2.1.5 Chapter 2

1.2.1.4 Time-aspect expressions

According to Quirk and Greenbaum (1987) in the most extreme, tense and aspect impinge on each other In other words, the expression of the time past and present can‟t be considered separately from aspect

Jacobs (1995:187) emphasizes that aspect is the grammatical marking on verbs of the internal time structure of a situation Aspect is a grammatical category describing the nature an action Aspect is a term given to verb forms used to signify certain ways in which an event is described as a completed whole, as in progressive, or as being repeated intermittently

E.g I have been in the army for five years

She was working all last night

English has two aspects: perfect and progressive aspect

Perfect aspect characteristically presents an event as a completed action

Perfect aspect indicates either a single, stationary state of affairs that last from an earlier time to the time being focused on or a relation between the two

situations that occurred at different times In both, two times are referred to

E.g They have lived here for 5 years (1)

John was surprised when he checked his money on 15 th may 1995 Someone had stolen it (2)

In the first example it is clear that the situation of their living here began

in the past and continues up to present In the second one, two times, both past are involved – the time of the stealing of his money and the time when he checked his money The use of perfect aspect in the second sentence marks the past stealing event as being prior in time to the money checking event, even though the later is reported first

Unlike perfect aspect, progress aspect presents an event as an activity in progress rather than being bounded by a starting point and an end point

E.g When I arrived, she was singing

In this example no starting point or end point is indicated for the singing activity in the second sentence, the singing activity was in progress The two situations - her singing and my arrival - overlap in time The duration of the singing activity was from before my arrival until some unspecified time after my arrival

1.2.2 Timing by adjuncts

Sometimes, the point in time that the clause relates to is indicated not only

by the tense of the verb group but also by an adjunct of time We can also use an adjunct of time to draw attention to the time of the action

1.2.2.1 Definition of time adjuncts

According to Cobuild (1990), an adjunct of time is a word or group of words added to a clause or sentence to say something about the circumstances of

a situation or event, for example when it occurs, how much it occurs, or how long it lasts

E.g He stayed up late last night

She was awarded her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990

An adjunct of time can be an adverb, a noun group, or a prepositional phrase

E.g He recently had an accident (An adverb as a time adjunct) Shakespeare died in 1616 (A prepositional phrase)

He bought the book last year (A noun phrase)

1.2.2.2 Timing by adjuncts

With regard to timing by adjuncts, Cobuild (1990: 258) asserts that it is the adjunct of time rather than the tense of the verb group, which carries the time reference For this reason, many adjuncts of time can be used with more than one set of tenses, because they refer to time but not to tense

For example, a common use is to put adjuncts of time, which normally refer to future time with present tense when it used to refer to future actions, including habitual actions They can also be used with references to the future that are made in the past

E.g He celebrates his 20 th birthday tomorrow (Future time)

We arranged to meet in two weeks’ time (The future made in the past)

The adjuncts of time such as “now”, “today”, “tonight” are usually used with the present tense to refer to present time However, they are also used fairly commonly with all tenses This is because an event can be located before, during, or after the time indicated by the tense of the verb

E.g She wrote to me today

He will now have no choice but to go to the police station to tell the truth She is having a party tonight

 Relative time:

If we want to refer to a period of time in relation to another period of time, or in relation to an event, we can use an adverb such as “soon” or “later” to refer to time, which follows a particular event or period of time And we can use

an adverb such as “beforehand” or “earlier” to refer to time preceded particular

period of time or an event

E.g He came back home and soon started working

She was very nervous beforehand

Here is a list of adjuncts which are used to refer to time in a relative way

afterwards later the next month the year after

at once later on the next year beforehand

before long presently the following day early

eventually shortly the following week earlier

finally soon the following month in advance

immediately suddenly the following year later

in a moment the next day the day after one day

 Necessary time:

If we want to refer to a “necessary time” beyond which an event will no longer be relevant, useful, or successful, we can use “in time” as an adjuncts of

time or a complement

E.g He leaps back, in time to dodge the lashing hooves

If something happens before, after the necessary time, we can use “too early”, “too late” respectively

E.g It is too late to change the situation

It is too early to talk about that problem

 Emphasizing the unexpected: continuing, stopping, or not happen

If we want to comment on the existence of the relationship between past, present, and future situations, we can use one of the following adjuncts

already as yet still yet

any longer no longer up to now

any more so far up till now

“Still” for existing situations

If we want to say that a situation exists up to the present time, we use

“still”

E.g She still doesn’t know what to do

“Still” for expected situations

If we want to say that something has not happened yet, although it is expected to, or we feel that it should, we can also use “still” in front of a “to” – infinitive

E.g There are many problems still to be solved

“Yet” for expected situations

If we want to say that something has not happened up to the present time, but it is likely to happen in the future, we use “yet” with a negative

E.g She has not found out the answer yet

We can also use “yet” in affirmative statements to stay that something is expected has not happened up to the present time However, in this case “yet” is followed by a “to” – infinitive clause

E.g A house for orphans in the city is yet to be built

“Yet” is also used in affirmative statements with superlatives to indicate that the statement is relevant up to the present time, but may not be relevant in

the future

E.g This is the most violent scene I have witnessed yet

If we want to say a situation which has existed up to the present time may change in the future, we can use “as yet”, “so far”, “up till now”, “up to now”

E.g You have done well up to now / so far, John

If we want to say that a past situation does not exist in the present, we can use “no longer”, or a negative with “any longer”, “any more”

E.g I no longer smoke

“Already” for emphasizing occurrence

If we want to say that a situation exists, rather than not yet having occurred, we use “already”

E.g She had looked better already

Adjuncts of duration and frequency

Some verb forms are used to say that an event takes place continuously, or

is repeated several times We may also want to say how long something lasts, or how often it happens To do this adjuncts of duration and adjuncts of frequency

are used (Cobuild, 1990)

E.g She has always lived here

He is temporarily out of work

He insulted me last month and I have not spoken to him since

Committee meetings take place monthly

Nam phoned twice today

He normally got up before six

1.2.3 Timing by subordinate clauses

The point in time that a statement relates to is indicated not only by the tense

of the verb group, an adjunct of time but also by a subordinate clause of time

1.2.3.1 Definition of subordinate time clauses

As Quirk and Greenbaum (1980) state that a subordinate clause is a group

of words which contains a finite verb or non-finite verb but is not “a complete or independent human utterance” and can‟t stand alone Sometimes, the clause has

no verb at all, it is verbless clause The subordinate clause usually does the work

of adjective, adverb, or noun

E.g He said that he would come to the party

When tired of overworking, she goes to bed early

Quirk and Greenbaum (1980) also point out that subordinate clauses are classified according to the functions they do in the sentence We have adjective clauses, noun clauses, adverb clauses and so on Each class of subordinate clauses is subdivided into many types, for example adverbial clauses are subdivided into time clauses, place clauses, etc However, due to the scope of the study, adverbial clauses of time are focused on in this section

Subordinate clauses of time are those which indicate when something happens by referring to a period of time or to another event (Cobuild, 1990:344)

E.g After leaving school, he joined the army

John met Ann when he was in London

1.2.3.2 Timing by subordinate clauses

When we want to indicate when something happens by relating it to a period of time or to another event, we use subordinate time clauses, if finite, starting in one of subordinators in the list below

after before no sooner…than when (ever)

as directly (that) once while

as long as immediately (that) since

as soon as now (that) till/until

E.g He could not read and write until he was ten

When I arrived, she was singing

Subordinate time clauses are common in initial position In addition, -ing clauses without a subject are also used to express a temporal link

E.g Reaching the river, we pitched camp for the night

(When/as we reached the river, we pitched camp for the night)

When we want to express a temporal connection, we can use –ing clauses (non-finite) which may follow “after”, “before”, “since”, “when (ever)”, “while”

E.g We sometimes don’t realize our strength when dealing with children They had not spoken a word since leaving the party

We also use –ed clauses (non-finite) that may follow “once”, “until”,

“when(ever)”, “while”:

E.g Once published, the book caused a remarkable stir

Whenever punished, he asked his father for help

For some statements about time also, we can use verbless clauses preceded with one of the following subordinators: “as soon as”, “once”, “while”,

“when (ever)”

E.g He had known her while at Oxford

When ripe, these apples will be delicious

CHAPTER 2

PAST TIME EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLISH

2.1 Timing by the past tenses

As discussed in the chapter 1, the point in time that a statement relates to

is usually in part indicated by the tense of the verb group used in the clause The past time expressions in English, as Alexander (1988), Cobuild (1990), Swan (1986), Thomson et al (1986) point out, are shown frequently by the past tenses

In other words, we use the past tenses for marking past time reference

2.1.1 Stating a definite time in the past: the simple past

When we talk about an event or action that happened at a particular time

in the past, we use the simple past

E.g I received her letter yesterday (1)

She met him last week (2)

He didn’t go to work the day after yesterday (3)

Tense is defined in chapter 1, as the relationship between the form of a verb and the time to which it refers The simple past tense uses the past form of the verb The past forms of the verbs used in three examples above, including

the past forms of the regular lexical verb “to receive”, the irregular lexical verb

“to meet”, and the auxiliary “do” in the negative sentence all refer to past time

at which the events and actions mentioned above occurred

Note: There are, however, some exceptional cases in which the past tense with the past form of a verb does not refer to past time This will be discussed in some detail in 2.1.5, chapter 2

If we want to say that a situation or an action that existed over a period of time in the past, we can also use the simple past This can be expressed diagrammatically

Past Present Future

E.g He worked in the bank for two years

They lived in London for a long time

The two examples both suggest that the period of working in the bank and the period of living in London have come to an end and which admit the possibility that he might be dead or they might be dead

If we are talking about something happening in the past, and we mention a situation that existed at the time, we use the simple past We can do this whether the situation still exists or not

E.g When I was Sydney, people there were very friendly

About twenty miles from the university, there was a church

When we talk about an activity that took place regularly or repeatedly in the past, but which no longer exists, we use the simple past

E.g I always got up early in the morning

I swam a lot in my boy hood

“Would” and “used to” can also be used to indicate someone‟s behavior

or something that occurred regularly in the past but no longer does so

E.g He used to smoke a lot (but now he no longer smokes)

He would drink much

2.1.2 Accent on the past: the past continuous

When we talk about a past situation or activity which was in progress at some time in the past, we use the past continuous This may be expressed diagrammatically

Past Present Future

E.g She was doing homework all last night

She was wearing a blue shirt

The past form of “be” combined with the –ing form of a verb is used to

form the past continuous referring some time in the past at which past situations

or actions were in progress Often we do not know whether the actions were completed or not

If we want to talk about repeated actions which occurred in the past, we also use the past continuous

E.g He was begging me to give him some money

When he worked here, John was always making mistakes

If we want to contrast a situation with an event which occurred just after that situation existed, we use the past continuous to describe the first situation

We then use the simple past use to refer to the event which took place just after

it This may be expressed by the following diagram

the time when the event took place

Past Present Future

the time when during which the situation existed

E.g When I arrived, she was singing

In this example, no starting point or end point is shown for the singing activity in the second sentence, the singing activity was in progress The situation – her singing and the event – my arrival overlap in the time The duration of the singing activity was from before my arrival until some unspecified time after my arrival Some more examples of this use:

E.g I was watching television when the phone rang

As she arrived, I was reading books

2.1.3 The past in relation to the present: the present perfect

The present perfect tense relates past actions and activities to the present When we talk about something which occurred at an unspecific time in the past, we use the present perfect tense

E.g John had been arrested

We have raised $1000 for a motorbike

When we use the present perfect tense, we are often concerned with the

consequences “now” of something which took place in the past For this reason, all examples mentioned above can mean “any time up to now”, or “today”, or

“recently”, or “at last/finally”

Referring to an action in an incomplete period of time

When we talk about an action which occurred or did not occur at some undefined time during an incomplete period of time, we use the present perfect tense

E.g I have had breakfast this morning (It is still morning)

In this sentence it means up to present time: It is still morning

If it is after this morning, this morning becomes a complete period and the action occurring in it must be put into the simple past

E.g I had breakfast this morning (the morning has now passed)

This may be expressed diagrammatically

I have had breakfast this morning I had breakfast this morning 8.00 12.00 6.00

morning afternoon

When we talk about an activity or situation that began in the past, continued, and is still happening now, we use the present perfect or the present perfect continuous This may be expressed by the following diagram

Past Present Future

E.g David has lived in London for five years (1)

They have been living in London for five years (2)

The two examples entail that David is still alive; they are still alive and permit the residence on London to extent either to present time or to some time

event, we use the present perfect continuous) This may be expressed diagrammatically

Past Present Future

E.g - I have not seen him for ages (but now I see him)

- A: You look tired

B: Yes, I have been running

2.1.4 Events before a particular time in the past: the past perfect

The past perfect tense relates a past action to the past

When we talk about a past event or situation that began before a particular time in the past and was still continuing at that time, we use the past perfect This may be expressed by a diagram thus

Past R.P Present Future

[R.P stands for the reference point in the past – the particular time in the past]

E.g By the time I visited them in 1985, they had lived in London for 20 years and they planned to live there for five years more

In this example, it is clear that their living in London occurred in a past prior to the past time of my visit in 1985, the reference point

When we talk about a past event or situation that started before a particular time in the past and stopped at that time or just before it, we can also use the past perfect This may be expressed by the following diagram

Past R.P Present Future

[R.P stands for the reference point in the past]

E.g He had been in the army for 30 years when he retired

As soon as he had written the letter, he posted it straight away

If we want to mention that a past event or situation began before a particular time in the past and stopped some time before that time, we also use the past perfect This may be expressed by a diagram thus

Past R.P Present Future

[R.P stands for the reference point in the past]

E.g He had served in the army for 15 years, then he retired and married

 Emphasizing time and duration

If we want to emphasize the recentness and the duration of a continuous activity which occurred before a particular time in the past, we use the past perfect continuous

E.g He looked tired, he had been drinking too much

He had been painting the door (The paint was probably still wet.)

 Expectations and wishes

When we want to say that something was expected, wished for, or intended before a particular time in the past but it has not happened yet, we can use the past perfect or the past perfect continuous We can use the past perfect or the past perfect continuous with verbs like “expect”, “hope”, “mean”, “think”,

“suppose” to describe the expression

E.g - I had hoped to send him a card on his birthday, but I didn’t manage it

- The weather was not as nice as we had expected

2.1.5 Other uses of the past tenses

Typical contexts and past time reference

When we are talking or writing about the past, we can use the simple past together with other past tenses such as past continuous, present perfect, present perfect continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous The combination

of past tenses is used in story-telling, biography, autobiography, reports… and is especially useful for establishing the sequence of events

E.g When we returned from our holidays, we found that our house in a mess What had happened while we had been away? A burglar had broken into

the house and had stolen a lot of our things (Now that the time of the burglary

has been established relative to our return, the story can continue in the simple past.)…

Forward planning from a time in the past

When we talk about an event which was in the future at a particular time

in the past, or which was thought to be going to happen, we can use the past continuous, especially with some common verbs such as “ come” and “ go”

E.g He was going to Hanoi tomorrow

They were coming for Sunday party

We can also use structures such as “ be going to”, “ be about to”, “be due to” with the simple past of “be”

E.g You were going to write to me soon

The meeting was due to be held next week

He was about to give me his address

Past verb form with present or future meaning

It is important to understand that the term “past tense” is essentially only a convenient label for a particular form of a verb Tense and time are not always synonymous terms in English, and although a past tense frequently refers to the chronological past, it does not necessarily do so The past tenses of both modal and other verbs are frequently used with a present with a present or future time (Grave, 1977:6)

This is described below

 After “if”, “unless”, “supposing”, etc

After “if”, “unless” and words with similar meanings, we often use past

forms of verbs to refer to the present or future, not the past

E.g - If I knew the truth I would tell you (present)

(In fact, I don‟t know the truth.)

-You look as if you were about to cry (future)

- After “it’s time”, “would rather” and “wish”

After these expressions, too, past forms can have present or future meanings

E.g Ten o’clock- It’s time you got up

I would rather you washed the car

I wish I had a lot of money

 Distancing in questions, requests, etc

We can make questions, requests and offers less direct (and so more polite) by using past tense

E.g I wondered if you could help me

I thought they were a nice couple

Did you want to see me now?

 Past modals

The past modal forms “could”, “might”, “would” and “should” usually have present or future meaning They are used as less direct, “distanced” forms

of “can”, “may”, “will”, and “shall”

E.g Could you open the door, please?

Would you like a cup of coffee?

 Past focus on continuing situation

When we want to refer to past events or situations, we frequently use past tenses However, sometimes we also use past tenses to refer to things which are still true at present or situations which still exist

E.g She got a good job because she was good at English

I thought they were a nice couple

(In fact, she is still good at English, and they are now a nice couple)

2.2 Timing by adjuncts

Cobuild (1990) demonstrates that sometimes the point in time that the clause relates to is sufficiently indicated by the tenses of the verb group However, when we are using past tenses for marking past time reference, we normally use an adjunct of time to indicate that we are talking about the past

E.g + They was here last night

+ He recently moved into a new department

+ It was raining yesterday

+ I have made some poor decisions lately

+ By the time we arrived, she had already left

As we can see in chapter 1, adjuncts of time can be adverbs, prepositional phrases, or noun phrases Cobuild (1990) also concludes that adjuncts of time can refer either to a specific time, or to a more general indefinite period of time

2.2.1 Time adjuncts referring to a specific time

Clock times

Clock times are normally expressed in terms of hours and parts of an hour

or minutes, for example “two o’clock”, “ten minutes past one” The day is

usually divided into two sets of twelve hours, so it is sometimes necessary to

specify which set we mean by adding “a.m”, “p.m” or a prepositional phrases such as “in the morning” or “in the evening”

Time of the day

“Morning”, “afternoon”, “evening”, and “night” are the most frequently

used words for periods of the day There are also some words which refer to the rising and setting of the sun, and others referring to meal times Here is a list of words that are used to talk about periods of the day

morning drawn sunset breakfast-time dinner time

afternoon daybreak night fall break-time supper time

evening first light day time lunch time bed time

night dusk night time tea time

Naming days

The seven days of the week are proper nouns:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday

Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Saturday and Sunday are often referred to as “weekend”, and the other days as “weekdays”

A few days in the year have special names, for example