Grammatical tense
In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are commonly manifested by the ownership of particular forms of verbs, especially in their conjugation patterns.
The main tenses found in numerous languages include a past, present, and future. Some languages form only two distinct tenses, such as past as alive as nonpast, or future in addition to nonfuture. There are also tenseless languages, like nearly of the Chinese languages, though they can possess a future and nonfuture system typical of Sino-Tibetan languages. In recent draw Maria Bittner and Judith Tonhauser have intended the different ways in which tenseless languages nonetheless species time. On the other hand, some languages make finer tense distinctions, such(a) as remote vs recent past, or near vs remote future.
Tenses loosely express time relative to the moment of speaking. In some contexts, however, their meaning may be relativized to a unit in the past or future which is creation in the discourse thebeing spoken about. This is called relative as opposed to absolute tense. Some languages have different verb forms or constructions which manifest relative tense, such as pluperfect "past-in-the-past" and "future-in-the-past".
Expressions of tense are often closely connected with expressions of the mark of aspect; sometimes what are traditionally called tenses in languages such as Latin may in sophisticated analysis be regarded as combinations of tense with aspect. Verbs are also often conjugated for mood, and since in many cases the three categories are non manifested separately, some languages may be identified in terms of a combined tense–aspect–mood TAM system.