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Re: Future Tense?

damodaran
If there is PRESENT TENSE and PAST TENSE there must necessarily be FUTURE TENSE.

You would think that wouldn't you, but contrary to what many grammar books tell you, it's not the case. Tense is a system marked by verb inflection or auxiliaries. There is no verb in English that is inflected for future tense, and the 'perfect' which is marked by the auxiliary "have" is a past tense.

What makes you think that English does not have a FUTURE TENSE? Any reference to futurity is termed as FUTURE TENSE

English does have several ways of talking about future time, the most basic one involves the auxiliary "will". But "will" is an auxiliary of mood, not tense, so it cannot be a tense marker.


PaulM