English Verb Tenses

A verb is one of the elements in clause structure (like the subject and the object) and also a member of a word class (like a noun and an adjective). It is a word or a phrase which expresses a state, an action or an event which occurs in time.Verbs are used to express distinctions in time through tense.

ABSTACT: It cannot be refuted the fact that the English language has become the supreme language around the world. Since English Language is treated as global language of business, it is necessary to develop the effective communication skills of English language. Effective communication skills of English language are necessary for the people of all professions. The concept of English 'verb tenses' is very important in establishing effective communication. Therefore, if one should maintain both ways of communication better, that is, speaking and writing. One need to gain mastery over English tenses, because a command of twelve basic tenses of English plays key role in exchanging of communication one to one.

2004

This study investigates tense presentation in the syllabuses prescribed for accounting students and its correlation with English tense use in banking written discourse. Samples of banking documents have been chosen randomly from local Libyan banks, to signal out tense use in them. In these documents, the present tense has proved to be the more frequently tense. The past tense is the least tense used. Modals are also used in banking written discourse to refer to future time. Tense presentation in the textbooks used in the Department of Accounting at Al-Fatah University has been examined. Not much attention has been given in these textbooks to the use of the simple past tense to refer to past states although it is used in banking written discourse. Likewise, the use of the simple past tense to refer to hypothetical situations has not been pointed out. The study has found that exercises used in the textbooks investigated do not raise the learners’ awareness to tense use. They are mechanical and aim at testing learners’ recognition of the structure. Moreover, the examples used to clarify the tenses are not relevant to students’ field i.e. accounting. Many other tenses presented in the textbooks seem irrelevant to a syllabus for accounting students; and the investigated samples of banking written discourse provide evidence of that. Because the students have not been presented with tense use in the syllabus, they will not be able to recognize and use these tenses. Moreover, since Arabic is the medium of instruction for the specialized subjects, English teaching materials should be geared toward what the learners may encounter in their future careers. Teaching tense use will raise learners’ awareness to how the rules are used, and rids the grammatical syllabuses used from the criticism of being concerned with just memorising rules and structures.