Our languages have finite^[1] grammatical characteristics associated with verb construction. The three big categories^[2] are …

1. Grammatical Tense - expresses a fixed position in time

• past, present, or future
• generally shown by changes in form to the first verb in a verb phrases
• He walked (past), He walks (present), He will walk (future)

2. Grammatical Aspect - expresses an extension over time

• unitary, continuous, or habitual
• generally shown by adding new verbs to the verb phrase and making changes to the main verb
• He walked (unitary), He was walking (continuous), He used to walk (habitual)

3. Grammatical Mood (Modality) - expresses the reality of a state or action

• realis (is actual) or irrealis (is a possibility or necessity)
• statements of fact, of design, of command, etc.
• I may walk (possibility), Walk faster! (necessity).

Combining tense, aspect, and modality (mood), you get what many describe as the twelve “tenses” of English:

These constructions are worth exploring as you flesh out the nuance of your narrative, especially when working through the revision process. As you grow in experience, your intuition may alert you that something is wrong with how you are expressing something. Diving into these verb constructions Some of the questions to ask oneself: Is my verb usage projecting time as I should for this sentence? Am I appropriately expressing that this event began before the primary storyline and is still ongoing? Or that it ended before the events of the storyline? Or that they haven’t happened yet? What context surrounding this piece of prose grounds the reader in the relevant time frame? And for how long? And when does the reader exit that time frame? What if that time frame is a repeating event? Does that change anything? Am I describing a wishful or hypothetical act? Is the prose expressing a conditional action or state of being?

Present, past, future, and for other languages, nonpast, nonfuture, etc.

• Present: He goes.
• Past: He went.
• Future: He will go.

• Perfective aspect: looks at an event as a complete action (unitary); bounded and occurring once, without reference to any flow of time during the event
• Imperfective aspect: views an event as the process of unfolding (progressive or continuous) or a repeated or habitual event
  • by ‘habitual’ we mean an action performed habitually, ordinarily, or customarily

Perfective and Imperfective are not to be confused with perfect and imperfect verb forms which are shorthand for a combination of tense and aspect. To make things even more confusing, English doesn’t quite meet the spec for imperfect verb forms in the same way other languages do.

“While tense relates the time of referent to some other time, commonly the speech event, aspect conveys other temporal information, such as duration, completion, or frequency, as it relates to the time of action.” (Wikipedia, “Grammatical_aspect”)

— With tense + aspect we get …

Past simple: past tense

• action happened in the past
• “took”

Past perfect: past tense + perfect aspect

• an action that happened and completed before another past action
• “had taken”

Past perfect continuous: past tense + perfect aspect + continuous aspect

• action that was ongoing in the past until completed at another point in the past
• “had been taking”

Past progressive or past continuous: past tense + continuous aspect

• ongoing but not necessarily related to another action or timeframe
• “was/were taking”

—

Present simple: present tense

• action is happening
• “take”

Present perfect: present tense + perfect aspect

• action that occurred and completed in the past before the present
• “have taken”

Present perfect continuous: present tense + perfect aspect + continuous aspect

• action started in the past, is ongoing, and continues into the present moment (may be completed, or maybe not)
• “have been taking”

Present progressive or present continuous: present tense + continuous aspect, but ongoing now

• action in progress at the current moment; or action showing future scenarios arranged now; or temporary actions happening now
• “am taking”

—

Future simple: future tense

• action will happen
• “will take”

Future perfect: future tense + perfect aspect

• ongoing action that will be completed before a point in the future
• “will have taken by the time you arrive”

Future perfect continuous: future tense + perfect + continuous aspect

• ongoing action that will continue up until a point in the future
• “will have been taking turns holding our luggage by the time it arrives” (awkward)

Future progressive or future continuous: future tense + continuous aspect

• an action that will be happening at a specific time in the future
• “will be taking tomorrow”

“[Grammatical Mood] is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying (for example, a statement of fact, of desire or hope, of command, etc.). The term is also used more broadly to describe the syntactic expression of modality – that is, the use of verb phrases that do not involve inflection of the verb itself.” (Wikipedia, “Grammatical_mood”)

Moods:

• English supports three moods: indicative, imperative, subjunctive
• Other examples of grammatical mood include: interrogative, injunctive, optative, potential, and more.

Moods can be divided into two broad categoies:

• Realis^[6]: an evidential mood: factual statements and positive beliefs—indicative mood
• Irrealis^[7]: non-factual or non-evidentiary, not actually the case, or not known to have happened—imperative and subjunctive moods

Note: English really only supports distinctive Indicative^[6:1], Subjunctive^[8], and Imperative^[9] moods, though I have also seen some indication that English also supports the Interrogative^[10] and Conditional^[11] Moods at some level. The internet is confusing.

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Indicative Mood^[6:2]

The indicative mood, or evidential mood states a fact or asks a question. It is the mood of reality and is the mood most often used in our writing.

• Paul is eating an apple.
• John eats apples.
• The sky is blue.
• Why is the sky blue?

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Subjunctive Mood^[8:1]

(This is the mood that spurred me to hold this discussion.)

Used when “discussing imaginary or hypothetical events and situations, expressing opinions or emotions, or making polite requests.” (Wikipedia)

Examples:

• Indicative: John eats when he is hungry.
• Subjunctive: John would eat if he were hungry.
• Indicative: She is here now.
• Subjunctive: I request that she be here by noon.
• Indicative: He does his homework.
• Subjunctive: It is crucial that he do his homework.
• Indicative: I am able to help you.
• Subjunctive: If only I were able to help you. (Contrary to fact)
• Indicative: They were at the meeting.
• Subjunctive: If they were at the meeting, they would know. (Hypothetical/Condition)
• Indicative: The report shows the error.
• Subjunctive: I propose that the report show the actual cost.

Examples of subjunctive mood from recently read works:

• “If it weren’t for your resilience we wouldn’t have succeeded,” Kaelen said. —from “Resilience” by Allan Mason
• If she were an impostor, he thought, she certainly had me fooled. —from “Gone to the Dogs” by Todd Warner

That second sentence is particularly interesting …
If she were an impostor, he thought, she certainly had me fooled.

• “If she were” is past subjunctive and sets up a hypothetical.
• “He thought” is past simple.
• “Had … fooled” is past perfect a state of being completed before the time of thinking.

Not to dwell too long on the past perfect bit, but this could have been written with “fooled me” instead (past simple) without straining the tense structure:

If she were an impostor, he thought, she certainly fooled me.

But this is where writing becomes a bit more artful. “Had me fooled” is idiomatic and really strengthens the impact of the sentence. Both are grammatically correct, but “had me fooled” is stronger.

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Imperative Mood^[9:1]

Direct commands, prohibitions, and requests. In many circumstances, using the imperative mood may sound blunt or even rude, so it is often used with care.

It’s almost all about the second person and used for telling someone to do something without argument. For example …

“Pat, do your homework now”. “Let’s go!” (us) “Go!” (you) Negated with “don’t,” as in “Don’t go!”

Tense, Aspect, and Mood (TAM) are features of language that we intuitively leverage but never quite master, which is especially evident as we strive for near perfection in our prose, both in art and form. It takes work. A lot of work.

Throughout the revision process, we consistently trip across sentences and passages that we suspect have grammatical issues, but we just can’t quite put a finger on precisely what or why. Often, the problems are associated with tense, aspect, or mood. And so, I encourage everyone to periodically carve out some time to eat that cake and drink that tea, and then squirm down the linguistic rabbit hole and study the language. A cursory understanding of the linguistic underpinnings of our language can be helpful in identifying problems with our writing and finding solutions that elevate our craft.

Read a lot. A lot a lot. Reading strengthens your intuition. Study of the language aids your understanding and helps find solutions to problems you discover. Good luck and write well.