Pengungkapan suatu kejadian/aktivitas atau fakta baik melalui tulisan (writing) maupun percakapan (speaking) pada umumnya mengikuti pola sebagai berikut:
Subject + Verb/Predicate + Object + Modifier |
Dalam bahasa Inggris, pengungkapan kejadian/aktivitas atau fakta tersebut selalu berpatokan pada tensis. Dengan tensis, pembaca atau pendengar akan mengetahui kapan kejadian/aktivitas atau fakta tersebut terjadi; Apakah sedang berlangsung pada saat sekarang (present continuous tense), apakah terjadi di masa lampau (past tense), apakah sedang berlangsung di masa lampau (past continuous tense), apakah akan terjadi di masa yang akan datang (future tense), dan seterusnya.
Ada 16 tensis dalam bahasa Inggris, yaitu:
- Simple present tense
- Present continuous tense
- Simple past tense
- Past continuous tense
- Present perfect tense
- Present perfect continuous tense
- Past perfect tense
- Past perfect continuous tense
- Simple future tense
- Future continuous tense
- Future perfect tense
- Future perfect continuous tense
- Past future tense
- Past future continuous tense
- Past future perfect tense
- Past future perfect continuous tense
Pada tabel di bawah secara berturut-turut diberikan contoh untuk tiap-tiap tensis. Perhatikan perubahan verb atau verb phrase seiring dengan berubahnya keterangan waktu.
Subject | Verb/Predicate | Object | Modifier | |
1 | We | study | English | everyday. |
2 | We | are studying | English | now. |
3 | We | studied | English | last night. |
4 | We | were studying | English | when she came last night. |
5 | We | have studied | English | for 3 hours. |
6 | We | have been studying | English | for 3 hours. |
7 | We | had studied | English | for 3 hours when she came last night. |
8 | We | had been studying | English | for 3 hours when she came last night. |
9 | We | will study | English | tomorrow. |
10 | We | will be studying | English | when she comes tomorrow. |
11 | We | will have studied | English | for 3 hours when she comes tomorrow. |
12 | We | will have been studying | English | for 3 hours when she comes tomorrow. |
13 | We | would study | English | when she came last night. |
14 | We | would be studying | English | when she came last night. |
15 | We | would have studied | English | for 3 hours when she came last night. |
16 | We | would have been studying | English | for 3 hours when she came last night. |
Note: Khusus untuk contoh 5&6, 7&8, 11&12, dan 15&16 keterangan waktunya sama. Kenapa? Mari kita bahas tiap tensis satu per satu.