# Is it true some languages don't have certain verb tenses? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2004, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-some-languages-dont-have-certain-verb-tenses/229637 "2004-02-17T08:50:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-some-languages-dont-have-certain-verb-tenses/229637/41 "2004-02-23T16:21:39Z")
You can pretty much express any sense of time in most languages, regardless of whether the “tense” exists in a technical sense. This is true as much true of English as it is of any other language. Furthermore, even if there is a particular tense assigned to a particular sense of time, that doesn’t mean that that is the tense that is always used. For example, in Bengali, literary narrative often uses the present tense, even if use of the past tense would be perfectly correct. This even happens sometimes in English – > [@](#): > > And she goes, “I just saw Carrie at Auntie Anne’s and she’s buying, like, a stack of pretzels.” And I go, “No way.” And she goes, “Way!” ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-some-languages-dont-have-certain-verb-tenses/229637/42 "2004-02-24T19:33:17Z")
> [@ruadh](#): > > _Saudade_ > **Iteki** : > Perfectly legit in Hiberno-English. They’re just literal translation from the Irish _Tá mé tar éis…_ God, that never occurred to me! Does that also explain the way we do be saying that we do be doing things? If it does than mrsIteki only has “c’mere” left to be irritated about! ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-some-languages-dont-have-certain-verb-tenses/229637/43 "2004-02-24T21:13:27Z")
Tagalog is one of those languages that has no tense at all. It simply has verbal aspect - the nature of the action of a verb as to its beginning, duration, completion, or repetition and without reference to its position in time. Tense is concerned about WHEN something happened, aspect is concerned with where it has been done or not (contemplation, completion, continuation). In order to indicate when a verb was completed, began, or will start, Tagalog uses time indicators: kanina (earlier) Nakita ko si Ana kanina. - I saw Ana earlier. see-completed I ana earlier (without all the sticky stuff about triggers) An interesting time indicator is “ngayon”, which usually means “now” but can mean “in the present”, “now”, or “at this moment” (conveying English’s ending -ing: “i am study **ing** ”) Aspect is often translated into English using tense, because it is similar, but to a tagalog speaker it says nothing about when the verb happened. Here’s something Tagalog has that English totally lacks: Verbal focus (also called triggers). A triggered/focused verb tells you where the emphasis of the sentence is. It could be who did the action, who received the action, where the action took place, who the action was done for, and what the action was done with. It’s _sort of_ like emphasizing a noun in a sentence: _i_ hit him - roughly like the actor focus i hit _him_ - roughly like the object focus I hit him _with the bat_ - roughly like the the instrumental focus I hit him _on the head_ - roughly like the location focus i hit him on the head with the bat as a favor _for vinnie_ - roughly like beneficial focus It’s not exactly the same, but the aboe helps English speakers understand how verbal focus works. It’s actually pretty easy to grasp once you study it. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-some-languages-dont-have-certain-verb-tenses/229637/44 "2004-02-24T22:26:37Z")
> [@Iteki](#): > > God, that never occurred to me! Does that also explain the way we do be saying that we do be doing things? Sure does. It’s just way of putting the Irish “present habitual” tense into English, which doesn’t have one. Compare these two Irish sentences: _bíonn tinneas orm_ - I am (chronically) sick _tá tinneas orm_ - I am sick (right now) In this respect Irish is a bit like AAVE (“Ebonics”) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-some-languages-dont-have-certain-verb-tenses/229637/45 "2004-02-25T03:21:36Z")
Arabic has only two basic tenses: perfect and imperfect (also known as past and present-future). Similar to ancient Hebrew. (What in modern Hebrew they call the “present” is really an active participle with implied “be”; this too is used in Arabic, but isn’t a genuine verb conjugation.) What the two tenses really are is completed and not-completed action. Thus the completed action, so-called past tense, is used for speaking of things God will do in the future, because when God intends something, who is omnipotent, it’s as good as done! E.g. _jazâka Allâh_ ‘may God reward you’. Literally it’s saying “God reward **ed** you” even though it hasn’t happened yet. God’s actions partake of eternity, in which past, present, and future are not separate, is what Arabic grammar seems to be suggesting here. Arabic can make a past perfect by adding a particle to the past, and a future by adding a particle to the present. It can make progressive imperfects by compounding with the verb “be,” almost like in English. Example: _katabtu_ - I wrote _qad katabtu_ - I have written _aktubu_ - I write _sa-aktubu_ or _sawfa aktubu_ - I will write Combine _kuntu_ ‘I was’ with the present tense and you get _kuntu aktubu_ ‘I was writing’. Combine it with _akûnu_ ‘I become/will be’ in the future and you get _sa-akûnu aktubu_ ‘I will be writing’. Then there’s the active participle, which can be used in the present progressive sense: _ana kâtib_ ‘I am writing’ (right at this moment), though this also could mean ‘I am someone who writes’ or just ‘I am a writer’. So with only two simple tenses to begin with, Arabic can come up with all the equivalents of English tenses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-some-languages-dont-have-certain-verb-tenses/229637.md?page=2)