TED-ED: How many verb tenses are there in English? - Anna Ananichuk

The video explores grammatical tense and aspect in English, explaining how verbs are modified to indicate time without explicitly naming it. It covers the four aspects: continuous, perfect, perfect progressive, and simple, with examples in past, present, and future tenses. The video also compares English tenses with those in other languages, highlighting differences and translation challenges.

What is the primary function of grammatical tense in a language?

• To explicitly name time periods

• To modify verbs to specify when action occurs

• To describe the mood of a sentence

• To indicate the subject of a sentence

Which aspect describes actions that are still happening at the time of reference?

• Continuous

• Simple

• Perfect

• Perfect Progressive

In the example of the secret naval mission, which tense is used to describe an action completed even earlier?

• Past Perfect Progressive

• Past Continuous

• Past Perfect

• Past Simple

How does Japanese differ from English in terms of grammatical tenses?

• It uses colors to indicate tense

• It has more tenses than English

• It only distinguishes past from non-past

• It has no tenses at all

What challenge does the diversity of tenses across languages present?

• It complicates translation but doesn't make it impossible

• It makes learning new languages impossible

• It eliminates the need for auxiliary words

• It simplifies communication between different cultures