Sequence of tenses refers to the grammatical use of tense in relation to a verb, indicating the time frame and progress of an action. Six basic rules cover present, past, and future tenses, with exceptions. Infinitive present, perfect tense, and past participles are used with irregular verbs.
Sequence of tenses refers to the grammatical delineation of tense in relation to a verb. Although the tense is referenced by auxiliary words or phrases that modify a verb, the tense tells a reader or listener the time frame of an action – basically, whether the action was in the past, is in the present or will be in the future ; and whether the action is in progress. Tenses usually look for agreement between clauses, as when a past tense in a subordinate clause reflects the use of the past tense in a main clause. As with all grammatical usage, there are exceptions to the six basic rules for using simple verbs.
The six basic rules for simple verb use cover the present, past and future. The present tense expresses actions taking place right now, the past expresses completed actions, and the future expresses anticipated actions. Examples of these tenses, respectively, are: the old dog is oversleeping, the old dog has overslept, and the old dog will oversleep. The remaining three of the six basic rules are for the perfect tense, the perfect past, and the perfect future. Examples of clauses for these times are: the old dog overslept; yesterday, Jackie noticed that the old dog had overslept; and the old dog will have overslept before suppertime.
The most explicit use of a sequence of tenses can refer to continuous actions in the present or in the past, called present progressive and past progressive. A progressive present action might be: I’m talking on the phone right now. A past progressive might be: Yesterday, I was talking on the phone.
Present infinitive, perfect tense and past participles are used with irregular verbs to show a relationship with time. An example of the infinitive present with the verb “to sleep” is: The old dog wants to sleep too much. In the past simple, the sentence could be: The old dog overslept yesterday. An example of the use of the past participle is: After the old dog overslept, he refused to eat his dinner.
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