tenses Definition

to make tense

to become tense

a distinction of form in a verb to express distinctions of time or duration of the action or state it denotes

a set of inflectional forms of a verb that express distinctions of time

an inflectional form of a verb expressing a specific time distinction

a verb tense expressing action or state in or as if in the past:

a verb tense expressive of elapsed time (such as wrote in "on arriving I wrote a letter")

a verb tense expressing action or state in progress or continuance or habitually done or customarily occurring at a past time (such as was writing in "I was writing while he dictated" or loved in "their sons loved fishing")

the tense of a verb that expresses action or state in the present time and is used of what occurs or is true at the time of speaking and of what is habitual or characteristic or is always or necessarily true, that is sometimes used to refer to action in the past, and that is sometimes used for future events