1.0 INTRODUCTION
The English
tense system is used in English Language. According to English Club (n.d.),
“Tense is a verb-based method used to indicate the time, and sometimes the
continuation or completeness of an action or state in relation to the time of
speaking”.
Andrew and
Carol (2013) explained, “Tense is defined as the linguistic expression of time
relations realised by verb forms. Time is independent of language and is common
to all human beings. Most of grammarians conceptualise it, as being divided
into past time, present time and future time”.
We use tenses in English to refer about time likes past,
present and future while, the time refers to when an action takes place. It is
same with other languages like Arabic. However, there is no concept of tenses
in Malay Language.
Majority of people in Malaysia have been learning English
and most of them are struggling with the same things. One of the most
problematic areas is to master in the English tenses. They have learnt tenses since
standard one but, they still cannot master tenses well.
The government have introduced many methods to improve
teaching system however, the problem stills exist. They tried to attract
learners’ attention to interest and love English but their performance is still
unsatisfactory. The learners are easily become bored and give up when they cannot
improve themselves in English.
Many of Malaysian only can master four tenses. They are
simple present tense, simple past, simple future and present continuous. They
can make easy sentences by using the four tenses. However, they will have
problems when it involves long sentences and shift tenses.
Tenses are divided into three. They are present, past and
future. Grammarly Inc. (2017) explained the following:
Verbs come in three
tenses: past, present, and future. The past is used to describe things that
have already happened (e.g., earlier in the day, yesterday, last week, three
years ago). The present tense is used to describe things that are happening
right now, or things that are continuous. The future tense describes things
that have yet to happen (e.g., later, tomorrow, next week, next year, three
years from now).
However, in this assignment, I want to explain about the
simple past, past perfect, past progressive and past perfect progressive
tenses.
3.0 THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE
Simple past
tense is a basic form of past in English. If we can master the simple present
tense, it will be easy for you to master simple past. The past tense has two
verbs to be. They are was and were. It used in certain conditions:
1. It talks about certain action happened once in the
past likes:
o
Liza met her husband in 2000
o
Liza went to Beijing for
holiday
It is very basic form of
past. Majority of students have no problem to understand and master it. They
can differentiate something that happened.
2. It uses for something that happened again and again in
the past. For instances:
o When I was in primary school, I walked every day to school.
o I always played badminton with my friends
3. It also explains and mentions an action that happened
at any time in the past. Even though the action just happened, it also consider
as past. For example:
o I just arrived at home.
o I just finished my homework.
o I wrote the letter
4. It also used to talk and explain about a completed
action in a time before now or in the past. For example:
o Siti died yesterday
o She got married last year
5. It used to explain about something that was true for
some time in the past. For instances:
o
I lived in Penang for three
years
o
I enjoyed when I was in
Sydney
o
I studied at Universiti
Teknologi MARA
6. According to Grammarly Inc. (2017), “You can also use
the simple past to talk about a past state of being, such as the way someone
felt about something. This is often expressed with the simple past tense of the
verb to be and an adjective, noun, or prepositional phrase”.
For example:
o Liza was happy with the result
o Liza was a slim girl when she was kid
o The Petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world
from 1998 to 2004
o After several minutes,
we located the book under the table
3.1.1 Simple past tense for regular verbs
Ø Affirmative
Subject +
verb + ed
o I played football yesterday
o I cleaned the toilet last week
Subject +
verb to be @ verb to have @ verb to do
o I was in Seoul last year
o I had a bicycle 10 years ago
o I did my assignment yesterday
Ø Negative statement
Subject + did not + infinitive
o I didn’t play yesterday
o Tasya did not listen the radio last night
Ø Interrogative
Did +
subject + infinitive
o Did she play yesterday?
o Did Tasya listen the radio last night?
Ø Interrogative negative
Did not +
subject + infinitive
o Didn’t she play yesterday?
o Didn’t Tasya listen the radio last night?
Some verbs
are irregular in the simple past like ate, wrote and went. For example:
o I went to night market last night
o I gave her a watch for her birthday
o I wrote the letter 2 years ago
4.0 PAST PERFECT TENSE
Formula for
the past perfect tense:
Subject +
had + Past participle
It used for these conditions:
Ø The past perfect used to
show that one past action had taken place or was completed before another past
action took place. For instance:
o Siti had brushed her teeth and took a bath
before she come to office
o Liza had finished cooking before her husband
came back
o Lisa came to her office
after she had prepared breakfast
Ø It also used when we
want to tell or report people's words or thoughts, for example:
o Liza said that she never
had eaten kimchee before
o Liza wondered why he had been so busy
o I thought I had been at Selera Signal Restaurant,
but I was wrong
Formula for past
progressive tense:
Subject + was/ were +
verb (ing)
It used for these
conditions:
Ø According to Education
First (n.d.), “The past continuous describes actions or events in a time before
now, which began in the past and is still going on at the time of speaking. In
other words, it expresses an unfinished or incomplete action in the past”. For
example:
o He was drawing when the phone rang
o While Ali was sleeping, Ahmad stole his hand
phone
Ø It also explain about
two actions that were in progress at the same time in the past
For example:
o I was washing dishes while, my sister was sweeping the floor
o The teacher was teaching while his students were listening
Ø Use for an action that
was happening again and again
For example:
o I was studying every day, 5 hours per day
o We were always snoring in
the class
Ø It used with verbs which
show change or growth
For example:
o Shasha was going old
o His personality was changing
Ø To show that something
continued for some time
For example:
o They were laughing
o They were watching the movie
6.0 PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE TENSE
Formula for past perfect
progressive tense:
Subject + had been +
present participle
Ø We use it to show an
action started in the past and continued up until another time in the past
For example:
o She had been cooking for an hour before her husband arrived
o She had been painting the door before her father called
Ø We use before another
action in the past to show cause and effect.
For example:
o Siti was tired because
she had been cleaning her room
o My eyes are sore because
I had been reading too much last
night
There are 12 basic tenses in English. They are simple present,
present continuous, present perfect, present perfect continuous, past simple,
past continuous, past perfect, past perfect continuous, future simple, future
continuous, future perfect and future perfect continuous. One of the problems arise
among ESL learners in term of grammatical area is to master in the English
tenses. That is because:
1. Struggle to understand the use of various past tense
pronunciations
According to Education First (n.d.), “English language learners often
struggle with understanding when to use the various past tense pronunciations
of the English sounds for –ed at the end of regular English verbs. They get
confused with when they should use the [d], [əd] or [t] sounds”.
This problem can overcome when the ESL learners know and understand when
the “ed” sound can be used. We have to use the “ed” sound when the verb end
with the consonants voice of ‘t’ and ‘d’. For instant:
o Exit - exited
o Hate - hated
o Decide - decided
o Create - created
So, as a learner, we should know how to pronouns words correctly to make
sure we do not make any mistakes. By teaching pronunciation, students learn to
listen and correct themselves more and more.
2. IRREGULAR VERB
Irregular verbs are verb that do not follow the normal rules which is we
do not need to put “ed” or “d” at the back. There is no formula for the verbs and
they have to memorize the verbs to make sure they do not do any mistakes when
writing. For instance:
o
Begin began begun
o
Cut cut cut
o
Take took taken
o
Come came come
3. CANNOT DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THE TENSES
Tenses are about
actions. So, when we talk about action, we need to consider about present, past
and future. The verbs need to change depend on the time of speaking. For
instance,
“Siti cooks for her mum every day”.
But, when we
talk about past, we have to change the verb. It becomes “cooked”. The sentence
also needs to change, “Siti cooked
for her mum yesterday”.
The learners always make the mistake
when they do not change the verbs. It happens when the learners cannot
differentiate when to use present tense, past continuous tense and the other
tenses. They still get confuse even though they have learn in a long time. For
example:
“The
Petronas Towers were the tallest
buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004”
Students
always make a mistake in the sentence because they think, this is a fact sentence.
So, they tend to use simple present tense. Actually, they made a wrong.
They know the suitable tenses when
it involves simple sentences but, they get confuse when it involves complex
sentences. For example:
1.
“Mona has been sleeping since this morning”
2.
“I had gone to my office
before I went to the English class”
For the first sentence, the learners tend to use past continuous tense
because they think the action was going. Actually, they have made a mistake.
For the second example, they tend to use past tense for both actions.
4. PROBLEM IN LEARNING PRESENT PERFECT TENSE AND SIMPLE
PAST TENSE
The function of present
perfect and past simple are quite same. So, that is why the learners so
confuse, complicated and difficult to use them in sentences. They should
understand the simple past tense should be used for completed action in the
past with the specific time likes yesterday, last year, ago etc. For instance:
o
I went to Beijing last year
o
Siti visited her grandmother
last week
We use the simple perfect to mention an action that happened at
unspecific time before now and we do not know the specific date. We cannot use
with specific time expression like last weekend, last week etc. For instance:
o I have told them about the party
We cannot say, “I told them
about party”. That is because they do not mention about time.
5. ATTEMPT TO USE “WAS” AND “WERE” IN ALL CASES IN SIMPLE
PAST
As we know, when we want to write a sentence in simple past tense, we
cannot use “was” and “were” before verb. For instance:
I saw an accident yesterday
We cannot
say, “I was saw an accident
yesterday”. The learners attempt to use “was” and “were” and always make the
same mistake.
6. RARELY OR NEVER USE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN DAILY
CONVERSATION
They rarely or never practise English language in daily conversation.
They do not confident. They are afraid and shy if they make any mistake.
Actually, practise is the best way to improve our English. They do not need to
scare because the more they make mistakes, the more they have learnt. It is one
of the learning processes.
Every sentence has subject and predicate. So, automatically they will
not avoid from tenses when they talk. If they use the language in daily
conversation, they can improve their weaknesses in tenses.
7. SO MANY TENSES IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Malay Language has no tense. We no need to change subject and predicate
when we want to talk about present, past or future. It is supported by Soo and
Nor Haniza Hasan (2014, March 6), “Verbs
in the Malay language do not explicitly indicate time. Verbs in Malay are
accompanied by aspectual markers which help to explain the time aspect of an
action”.
For example,
o Liza pergi
ke rumah datuknya kelmarin
o Mereka akan pergi
ke rumah datuknya
o Liza pergi
ke rumah datuknya setiap minggu
Even though we
talk about past and future, the verb never changes in Malay language. In
English Language, we have to change the verb according to the time of the action is
happening:
o Liza went to her grandfather house yesterday
o They will go to their grandfather house
o Liza goes to her grandfather house every
week
There are 12 tenses in English. Every tense has their functions. They
have to remember the functions to make sure they use the correct verbs. The
verbs always change according to the situation. So, that is why they cannot master
the tenses even though they have learnt the tenses several times.
According to Ismail Cakir (Feb, 2011), “Tense is a matter of inflection
that is the changing of the shape of a verb by adding or not adding a morpheme.
It should be borne in mind that "tense" and "time” are not to be
regarded as synonymous in English. The term "tense" is used to refer
to a verb form, not to chronological time”.
8. MIX VERB TENSES
It is one of the problems faced by them. They often struggle to use
suitable tenses when there is a shift in time frame. For instance:
o Lisa is an intelligent student. She likes to do revision every day. As a
result, she got 12A for SPM
They often do not realise and tend to use the present tense for the verb
“got” because the first and the second sentences use the simple present. As a
result, they may write, “she gets
12A for SPM”.
9. FORGET TO PUT
“WAS” AND “WERE” IN PAST SENTENCES
For example:
o Liza was happy with the result
o Liza was a slim girl when she was kid
o When I was young, I was a beautiful girl
The
students always make mistakes in the sentences which is, they forget to put
verb to be before adjective and noun.
8.0 CONCLUSION
As we known, English is an important
language in the world and a second language in Malaysia. So we have to master
it for education and career life. We will have a hard situation in higher lever
if we do not master it since primary and secondary school. In career life, we
have to master it to get a better job.
Tenses are one of the learners’
problems. So, they have to identify cause of their problems. If they cannot
differentiate between tenses, they have to understand their concept and formula
first. When they understand them, they have to practice. Practice is a good way
to master the tenses. They can practice by writing, reading and listening.
These skills can practices alone.
They have to do many exercises to
overcome their weaknesses especially when they involve mix tenses. They can
find the exercises from library, exercise books and internet. The more mistakes
they have made, the more they can identify their weaknesses.
Communication in English is the best
way to improve the tenses. They have to try to speak in English with others
even though in simple sentences. The more they talk, the more they can improve
their skills. Communication can build their confident level. They do not need
to scare when they do any mistakes. The mistakes can improve them better.
Teachers and lecturers have to play
their roles to overcome this problem. They have to use the best teaching
techniques to attract them to like English. If they like English, they will pay
more attention to the lesson and will overcome their weaknesses especially in
term of tenses.
Individual has to work hard to
improve his or her English. Some people need only several times to master
tenses and some people need many years to master them. So, we have to identify
our strengths and weaknesses. When we know ourselves, we can identify the best
techniques to improve ourselves.
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