User:Robbiemuffin/The tenses/The Absolute tenses
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the Past[edit]
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Any time, and all time, before now.
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the Present[edit]
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Now, and habitually or repetitively or by necessity of state, religion or fact.
Note that this is distinguished (not only from english in the formal sense but) from the everyday english sense where the near-future is now (and even farther from the spanish version where now is basically indeterminate). |
the Future[edit]
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Strictly after the current moment.
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NonPast[edit]
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From now on. The opposite of the past. In english, past tense typically have verbs conjugated like "swore" or "travelled". The other tense is this tense: "swear" or "travel".
Language with a NonPast (by inflection) English |
NonFuture[edit]
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At or before now. The opposite of the future.
Note this is a fairly rare tense, linguists had hypothesized languages might have this tense but they had to actually discover examples. |
Not-Yet[edit]
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The not-yet tense expresses when something has not happened in present or past (nonfuture), but often with the implication that it is expected to happen in the future. (As such, is both a tense and a modality). In English, it is expressed with "not yet", hence its name..
Language with a Not-Yet (by inflection) Luganda |
Still[edit]
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Indicates a situation held to be the case, at or immediately before the utterance.
Language with a Still (by inflection) Luganda |