Uses of Tenses

❒ The Present Indefinite Tense can be used to denote the following:—

(a) What is always and necessarily true:—

• The sun shines by day.

• Things equal to the same thing are equal to one another.

(b) What is permanent or habitual in life or character:—

• He keeps his promises. 

• He has good health.

(c) What is present, provided that present time is implied by the context:—

• I understand what you say. 

• The door is open: no one has shut it.

(d) What is future, provided that future time is implied by the context:—

• He comes (=will come) in a few days' time. 

• When do you (=will you) start for Madras?

(e) What is past, provided that the event expressed by the verb is known to be past. (This is called the Historic or Graphic present).

• Baber now leads (then led) his men through the Khyber pass, and enters (=entered) the plains of India.

❒ The Past Indefinite:– The special use of this tense is to state something that was true once, but is now past and gone. It excludes absolutely all reference to present time.

• Baber founded the Mogul Empire in India. Vasco da Gama was the first man from Europe who rounded the Cape of Good Hope. 

❒ The Present Perfect:– The peculiar purport of  this tense is that it invariably connects a completed event in some sense or other with the present time.

• I have lived twenty years in Lucknow (that is, I am living there still, and I began to live there twenty years ago). 

• The lamp has gone out (that is, it has just gone out, and we are now left in darkness). 

(a) The Present Perfect can be used in reference to a past event provided the state of things arising out of that event is still present.

• The British Empire has succeeded to the Mogul.

The series of events by which the British Empire superseded the Mogul took place more than a century ago. The events are there fore long past. Yet it is quite correct to use the Present Perfect tense "has succeeded," because the state of things arising out of these past events is still present: the British Empire still exists, and pertains to present time no less than to past time.

But such a sentence as the following is wrong:–

• Baber has founded the Mogul Empire. 

This is wrong, because the state of things arising out of the foundation of the empire by Baber has entirely passed away.

(b) The Present Perfect, since it denotes present time, cannot be qualified by any adverb or phrase denoting past time. This would be a contradiction in terms. 

Incorrect	Correct
The rain has ceased yesterday.	The rain ceased yesterday.
I have finished my letter last evening.	I finished my letter last evening.
The parrot has died of cold last night.	The parrot died of cold last night.

But such sentences as the following are correct, because the adverb or phrases used in each of them is of such a kind as to connect past time with the present; hence no contradiction occurs. 

• The British Empire has been flourishing for the past 150 years (that is, it began to flourish 150 years ago, and is still flourishing). 

• Fever has raged in the town since Monday last (that is, fever began to rage on Monday last, and is raging still).

❒ The Past Perfect (also called the Pluperfect).

This is used whenever we wish to say that some action had been completed before another was commenced.

The verb expressing the previous action is put into the Past Perfect or Pluperfect tense. The verb expressing the subsequent action is put into the Past Indefinite.

Previous Action  Past Perfect	Subsequent Action  Past Indefinite
He had been ill two days	when the doctor was sent for.
He had seen many foreign cities	before he returned home.
Subsequent Action  Past Indefinite	Previous Action  Past Perfect
The boat was sunk by a hurricane	which had suddenly sprung up.
The ship fled in great haste;	for a wolf had entered the fold.

The Past Perfect ought never to be used at all except to show the priority of one past event to another.

Yet Indian students and clerks are apt to use the Past Perfect when no priority of any kind is implied, and when they ought to use the Past Indefinite. Here is a specimen of an official letter:

"I beg to inform you that the trustees to the endowment, at the meeting convened on 19th July 1940, had unanimously resolved to reserve the option of appointing or dismissing the men employed."

Here the event referred to should have been expressed in the Past Indefinite. The use of the Past Perfect is wrong in this place, because there is no priority of one event to another.

❒ The Future Perfect. This tense is used in two different senses:-

(a) To denote the completion of some event in future time; 

(b) to denote the completion of some event in past time.

• (a) He will have reached home before the rain sets in. (The reaching of home will be completed before the setting in of rain commences.)

• (b) You will have heard (must have heard in some past time) this news already; so I need not repeat it.