 The verb paradigm : The set of inflectional forms of a variable lexeme (together with their grammatical labels) is

called its paradigm. In some languages the verb paradigms are extremely complex, but in English they are fairly simple.
The great majority of verbs in English have paradigms consisting of six inflectional forms.
 Tense: describes the time of the event in the sentence relative to the moment of speaking. (WHEN)
 Aspect: refers to how the speaker envisages and the internal temporal constituency of a situation (HOW), informs
about the temporal contour of an event, the flow of an event.

Aspect is a composite between grammatical morphemes and the lexical meaning of a verb phrase.
Ex: 1. He read (unanalysable whole). 2. He was reading (we can divide this into stages)

We can speak of two types concerning aspect. Both types of refer to -beginning, end, duration :
- Viewpoint aspect - grammatical morphemes, Perfective/imperfective
- Situation type (looks at the lexical meaning of the VP) – the properties of a situation as denoted by the predicate.

PERFECTIVE vs IMPERFECTIVE, SIMPLE vs CONTINUOUS:

• Perfective
John painted his house last year. (ACCOMPLISHED)
She wrote a novel.
She spent last summer with her parents.

• Imperfective
John was painting his house last year. (NOT ACCOMPLISHED)
She is writing a novel.
She still lived with her parents.

• Perfective: When a clause describes a situation in a way that considers it as a whole, in its totality, without reference to
any internal temporal structure or subdivision it might have, we say that the clause has a perfective interpretation.
• Imperfective: When a clause describes a situation in a way that makes reference to its internal temporal structure or
subdivisions, we say that the clause has an imperfective interpretation

• PERFECTIVE IS NOT THE SAME WITH PERFECT! : Perfect is the name of a grammatical category, a type of past tense;
Perfective applies, as far as English is concerned, to a kind of semantic interpretation.
Ex: 1. I have broken my glasses.
2. I have been a teacher for several years.

Conceptual features of situation types:

STATES ACTIVITIES ACCOMPLISMENTS ACHIEVEMENTS SEMELFACTIVES

+stative -stative -stative -stative -stative

+durative +durative +durative -durative -durative
-telic -telic +telic +telic -telic

STATES
- Abstract temporal quality
- Predicate a quality/property over an individual
- Can’t be used in the imperative

BASIC-LEVEL STATES
• Individual-level predicates (PERMANENT): know, desire, be tall
• Stage-level predicates (TEMPORARY): be available, be drunk, be in the garden
• Individual-level/Stage-level: sit, lie, sprawl, stand perch
DERIVED STATES (Recategorized)
• GENERIC states: Cats have claws. Tigers eat meat.
• DERIVED states: My cat eats only fish. This tiger hunts every week.

ACTIVITIES (PROCESSES)
• Human agency/ non-human agency
• Don’t have natural endpoints (goals)
• For x time
• Often appear in the progressive
Ex: I stopped running in the park. I finished running in the park. I finished running my laps/the race.

Atelic verb (+ complements)

• Push a cart
• Play the piano
• Sleep
• Think about
• Walk in the park
• Run along the beach

Atelic verb+ cumulative/unaccountable N’s

• Eat cherries
• Write letters
• Drink wine
• Read books
• Find pebbles on the beach all afternoon

ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Change of states
• Complex events
• Prepared by some activity
• The change: the completion of the process
• E1 (process) causes e2 (change of state)
Ex: drink a glass of wine, build a house, throw sthg away/down/up/aside/in

• Atelic, durative verbs + countable objects: They ate a hearty dinner.

• Atelic, durative verbs + directional complements: They went to her house
• Atelic, durative verbs + certain prepositions: The boy ran out.
• Atelic verbs+ resultative phrase: The alarm clock ticked the baby awake.

ACHIEVEMENTS
• Instantaneous
• Single stage events
• Result in a change of state
• Leave out the causing activity
Ex: Die, reach the top, find, lose, notice, win a race

SEMELFACTIVES: cough, knock, hit, flap a wing, hiccup, slam/bang the door, kick the ball
• Semelfactive verbs, also called momentary verbs or punctual verbs, are verbs whose event occurs once (in context)
and last a short period of time, so short that the present progressive aspect cannot be used. By the time the event has
occurred it is over and the past tense is necessary:

- Someone is knocking once on the door.

- Someone just knocked once on the door.
- Someone is knocking on the door
THE ASPECTAL RECATEGORIZATION OF  Accomplishments and achievements > ACTIVITES
- They built a house.
VERB PHRASES - They were building a house.
= predicates shifting from their prototypical class
- They won the race.
- They were winning a race.
1. subject
- Indefinite plurals:
 STATES > ACTIVITIES
The tourists discovered this beautiful castle.
1. To be + property designating adjectives
Tourists discovered that beautiful castle for years.
- He is tall.
- He is being tall. ?
2. Direct object
- He is rude
- Bare plural NP
- He is being rude.
He wrote the essay.
2. Mental cognition verb phrases
He wrote essays for hours.
- Know, believe, hope, trust, think
- I think he is wrong.
3. Adverbials
- I am thinking of giving up smoking.
- Adverbials of extent
3. Physical cognition verb phrases
He walked in the woods for an hour.
- See, hear, smell, taste, feel
He walked to the building in ten minutes.
- You smell nice.
- I’m smelling your perfume to find out what it is.
4. Tense
4. Emotive verb phrases
- Habitual sentences (present simple)
- love, hate, love, dislike, want, miss
He played chess for two hours.
- I love her.
He plays chess.
- I’m loving this.
5. The progressive aspect
 STATES > temporary states
5. Other property designating verbs
 Activities / ACTIVITIES
- belong, contain, consist, weigh, measure
 Semelfactives > ACTIVITIES
- I belong here.
- Her lips were trembling.
- Are you belonging to the local library.
- He was knocking on the door.
 STATES > temporary states
6. Locative verb phrases
- stand, sit, lie, rest, remain
- Romania lies in Europe.
- My socks are lying on the floor.

TENSE = A DEICTIC CATEGORY

- Tense = the chronological order of events in time, as perceived by the speaker at the moment of speaking (ST)
- Tense = deictic = the moment NOW central, past and future = directions of orientation depending on ST
- Tense is a functional category that expresses a temporal relation to the orientation point ST, locating the situation

TENSE = more than just inflections

- Stuart walked to school. TEMPORAL ADVERBIALS:
- Stuart walked to school every day. ANCHORED:
- Albert is playing tennis. - Explicit relation to Speech Time
- Albert is playing tennis tomorrow. - now, yesterday, tomorrow
UNANCHORED:
 Tense specification of the vb (V) – tense inflec. - No explicit relation to Speech time
 Temporal adverbials: - in June, on Friday
 Duration adverbials (for X time)
 Completive adverbials(in X time)
 Frequency adverbials (often, seldom)
 Locating/Frame adverbials:
- Deictic: last week, last night (ST)
- Anaphoric: until, till, on Sunday (previously established time)
- Referential: at six, in August (calendar time)
General framework: Reichenbach’s model
• The semantic interpretation of temporal forms presupposes three points in time:
• ST – speech time
• RT – reference time
• ET – event time
Ex: Tim is playing in the garden. Tim went on holiday last year.
ST – speech time. The time at which the sentence is uttered. ST – NOW

1. Tim is playing in the garden (now)

- 1=PRESENT CONTINUOUS
- RT = present

2. Tim worked in this house last year.

- 2= PAST SIMPLE
- RT=past
- RT is the time indicated by the sentence (past/present/future). RT is established by the combination of tense (tense
affixes) and adverbial(s), which are supposed to establish compatible relational values

3. Terry came here yesterday.

- RT – ed (came), yesterday

4. Ross came tomorrow.

- RT – ??? Came (past) + tomorrow (present)
- If they have contradictory values the combinations cannot establish RT.

ET = the moment at which the event occurs. The value of a temporal expression is the result of the relation of order
established between ST/RT/ET. ET and ST are pragmatically observable, while RT is the abstract moment of time
postulated by the linguist, mediating between ST and ET.

Abstract temporal representation

Tim is playing in the garden (now) Tim went on holiday before midnight.
ST=NOW RT before ST
RT =present ET before RT
RT= ST (RT includes ST)
ET=RT Tim had already gone on holiday.
ST=NOW
Tim went on holiday last year. RT=-ed
ST = NOW ET= had
RT= -ed, last year RT bef ST
RT before ST ET bef RT
ET=RT

Tim will visit the city next month. Tim will have eaten the cakes by then.
ST=NOW ST= now
RT=will, next month RT= next month, future
RT after ST ET= have
ET=RT RT after ST
ET before RT

The temporal specification of English sentences is given by means of tense inflections and temporal adverbials. Each tense
can be analyzed in terms of two main components:
- The reference component (RT and ST)
- The relation component (ET and RT)
THE PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE
VALUES OF THE THE PRESENT SIMPLE

SIMPLE/CONTINUOUS
NONPROGRESSIVE/PROGRESSIVE

John paints his house every year. (FREQUENTLY)

John is painting his house now . (RIGHT NOW)

HABITUAL VALUE
 Habitual sentences indicate that a situation is repeated with a certain frequency during an interval of time. Since
they do not focus on a particular situation but rather on its recurrence, they do not point to a specific moment in
time and in this respect they resemble generic sentences. However, unlike generic sentences, habitual sentences
refer to an individual or an object about which the respective property is true at speech time. Very often, they
include adverbs of frequency classified into general (ever, never, whenever, usually, often, seldom) and specific
(three times a week, twice a day, every two weeks).
 Habitual sentences may be completely specified, indicating both the frequency and the interval during which an
event takes place. Yet, more often than not they have less than complete temporal specification. Compare:
- They visit me every two days during holidays. (specified frequency and interval)
- They visit me every day. (unspecified interval)
- He eats a lot of vegetables in winter. (unspecified frequency)
- He doesn't eat many vegetables. (no frequency and no interval)

GENERIC VALUE
Generic sentences can either:
a. refer to a state which is true at all times (universally true) in the existence of the entity the sentence refers to:
- One and one is two.
- Unu și cu unu fac doi.

- The sun sets in the west.

- Soarele apune in vest.

b. have predicates that refer to typical characteristics of a kind/species. The sentences below refer to “tigers” as a
species:
- Lions are ferocious animals.
- Leii sunt animale feroce.

- The lion is a ferocious animal.

- Leul este un animal feroce.
INSTANTANEOUS OR CONTINUOUS
 I place my hat on the table. (RIGHT NOW)
(I want to make a demonstration and I do this thing in an instant in order to be able to show you something else.)

 I’m placing my hat on the table. (RIGHT NOW)

(I’m in the middle of doing this. While I’m doing this, somebody else comes in.)

LET’S GENERALIZE
• The Present Simple Tense can refer to instantaneous situations - punctual situations that are completed in a single instant.
The Present Continuous refers to situations unfolding at a moment in the present.

INTANTANEOUS PRESENT - refers to an event that is assumed to be simultaneous with the moment of speaking. It is
used in sports commentaries, demonstrations, war reports, and exclamations, commentaries on pictures, books or movies
and stage directions. Examples:

• Bobby Blaze punches Little Guido. Little Guido runs into the ropes. Bobby Blaze is met with a mixture of cheers and boos.
• Bobby Pălălaie îi aplică o lovitură Micului Guido. Micul Guido se duce în corzi. Bobby Pălălaie e întâmpinat cu un amestec
de urale şi huiduieli.
• A recipe for gumbo: In a large Dutch oven we boil three quarts of water with bay leaves, lemon juice, onion wedges, salt,
pepper and parsley. We wash two pounds of shrimp and add it to the pot. We boil it for two minutes and then we peel it.
We store away the shells for later use. Then we sauté two pounds of sliced okra in two tablespoons of bacon grease or
butter in a large heavy skillet...

INTANTANEOUS PRESENT: PERFORMATIVE VERBS

a. I quit! = Demisionez!
b. I bet I know you! = Pariez că te cunosc!
c. I pronounce you husband and wife! = Vă declar soț si soție!

NARRATIVE PRESENT (past value) - Informal narratives

Newspaper headlines
President Bush Visits Troops In Iraq
Old Man Kills Wife

Stage/Camera directions (in plays, scripts etc.)

JOHN TOWNSEND, 35-ish, heavy-set, enters the room, looks around for a moment and then slumps into an armchair,
staring at his wife, CYNTHIA, 30-ish, plain and overweight, who is standing looking out the window. She turns and they glare
at each other a moment in silence.

Summaries referring to an author’s entire work

Dickens draws us into the utter insanity of human experience. His characters are more real and more memorable than any
possible reality.

Summaries referring to a particular fictional work

Jack Sparrow (Depp) endeavors to settle a blood debt to Davey Jones, the infamous captain of the ghostly ship, the Flying
Dutchman. Faced with a potential afterlife of servitude and damnation, Jack also has the upcoming wedding of Will Turner
(Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Knightley) to consider ... (Plot Summary, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest)

NARRATIVE PRESENT (future value)

- The plane leaves tomorrow at 10 p.m. (Due to the schedule of the air company) = Avionul pleacă mâine la zece seara.
- I’m leaving this town tomorrow. (According to my personal plan)= Plec din oraşul ăsta mâine.
 LET’S GENERALIZE: Both the Present Simple and the Present Continuous can be used to refer to the future. The Simple
Present refers to scheduled situations, taking place according to rules imposed from outside (that depend upon a
schedule that has not been devised by the persons involved in that situation, but on some other form of a authority - a
travel agency or an airline for example). The Present Continuous refers to a situation taking place according to a
person’s plan (that does not depend on anybody else’s decision).

THE VALUES OF THE PAST PERFECT TENSE

- He knew he had been there for more than two weeks and he felt tired.
- Știa că era acolo de mai bine de două săptămâni și se simțea obosit.
- He realized he had been waiting for three months and still hadn’t received an answer.
- Și-a dat seama că aștepta de trei luni și tot nu primise un răspuns.
- She knew he had been very upset with her ever since she had refused to marry Jim.
- Știa că era foarte supărat pe ea de când refuzase să se căsătorească cu Jim.
- He admitted that he had been behaving unreasonably lately.
- A recunoscut că se comporta foarte nerezonabil în ultima vreme.
- He realized that he hadn’t met her yet.
- Și-a dat seama că n-o întâlnise încă.
- He was aware that he had last been paid six months before.
- Era conștient că ultima dată când fusese plătit fusese cu șase luni în urmă.
- He had thought his friend had died in 1990, but in fact he had died much later.
- Crezuse că prietenul lui murise în 1990, dar de fapt acesta murise mult mai târziu.
- The previous night, a wolf had broken in the pen and had killed a sheep, which meant that he had to repair the fence of
the pen.
- Noaptea trecută pătrunsese un lup în țarc și omorâse o oaie, ceea ce însemna că acum trebuia să repare gardul țarcului.
- He had often visited her and she knew she could depend on him.
- O vizitase adesea, iar ea știa că se putea baza pe el.
- He hadn’t always been such a brute, she thought.
- Nu fusese întotdeauna o brută, se gândea ea.

PAST PERFECT CAN SUCCESSFULLY COMBINE WITH ANY CLASS OF TIME ADVERBIALS [+THEN/-THEN]
IS PAST PERFECT ONLY THE PAST COUNTERPART OF PRESENT PERFECT?

• Direct Speech: I have been very happy here. / Indirect Speech: He said he had been very happy there.
• Direct Speech: He has been sleeping for 2 hours. / Indirect Speech: Jim said that his friend had been sleeping for 2 hours.
• Direct Speech: John married Susan last year. / Indirect Speech: He said that John had married Susan the previous year.
• Direct Speech: He visited us on Monday. / Indirect Speech: Jim said that John had visited them on Monday.

Let’s generalize!
Past Perfect makes a connection with ‘then’ and is a past counterpart of Present Perfect. It also indicates anteriority to
‘then’ and is therefore a ‘past before past’, expressing events prior to other past events.

 Jim realized he had hated his wife for many years.

 Jim și-a dat seama că n-o mai suporta pe nevastă-sa de mulți ani de zile.
 Jim realized that he had met his wife twenty years before.
 Jim și-a dat seama că o întâlnise pe nevastă-sa cu douăzeci de ani în urmă.

PAST PERFECT IN NARRATION

- ... I picked up a bit of naan bread and mopped up my curry sauce. The naan bread was big; we’d both stuffed ourselves
with it during the meal but it was still big. When it had arrived it had needed a separate table just to accommodate it;
luckily the restaurant wasn’t busy. ‘Not so much a naan bread, more a toasted duvet,’ I’d said. Ash had laughed.
- During the course of the meal we’d reduced the blighter to the proportion of a couple of pillows, not to mention
disposing of portions of chicken kalija and fish pakora to start, followed by garlic chicken [...]. Two dry sherries and a
 couple of bottles of Nuit St George had washed it all down and now we were onto the coffee and brandy. (Ian Banks –
Crow Road)
- Elsie thought of her own mother. She had worked. She had been good at her craft and the air of the kilns had made her
ill. She had tried to make a home for them. They had had a geranium in a pot on a window sill. They had had a Minton
plate [...] hung on a nail on the wall. They all knew what these things meant. They meant they were respectable. Just
respectable. She tried to think she wouldn’t so much mind being trapped in a gilded cage of a comfortable Home – she
had done a fair amount of substitute Home-making at Purchase House, not so much out of a desire for homeliness as out
of a powerful dislike for mess, and shoddiness, and discomfort, which was unshared by the Purchase women. (A.S. Byatt –
The Children’s Book)

MAIN FUNCTIONS OF PAST PERFECT

CAN PAST PERFECT BE REPLACED BY PAST SIMPLE?

 Mary remembered how Jim (had) behaved to her parents on Thanksgiving. He (had) insulted her mother and (had)
angered her father. In his turn, Jim knew he had been a horse’s ass.
 Mary își amintea ce urât se purtase Jim cu părinții ei de Thanksgiving. O insultase pe maică-sa și îl supărase pe taică-său.
La rândul lui, Jim știa că fusese măgar.

 Mary remembered how Jim (had) behaved to her parents on Thanksgiving. He (had) insulted her mother and (had)
angered her father. In his turn, Jim knew he was a horse’s ass.
 Mary își amintea ce urât se purtase Jim cu părinții ei de Thanksgiving. O insultase pe maică-sa și îl supărase pe taică-său.
La rândul lui, Jim știa că era un măgar.

Let’s generalize!
Optionality: Past Perfect forms can be replaced by Past Simple ones if the context clearly indicates the order of the events
expressed by the verbs. The shifted verbs need to be dynamic, otherwise their interpretation might be ambiguous between
anteriority and simultaneity.

 Mary thought about last night’s events and decided she left the party too late.
 Mary thought about last night’s events and decided she had left the party too late.

 Mary realized she was sick.

 Mary realized she had been sick.

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

 Jim thought that] aliens had visited his planet. = Jim era convins că extratereștrii ne vizitaseră planeta.
 [Jim thought that] aliens had been visiting his planet. = Jim era convins că extratereștrii ne vizitau constant planeta.
 [Susan knew] Jim had drunk the gin in the cupboard. = Susan știa că Jim băuse ginul din dulap.
 [Susan knew] Jim had been drinking gin from the cupboard. = Susan știa că Jin (tot) bea din ginul din dulap.

Let’s generalize
The Continuous (/progressive) aspect forces a mainly continuative reading upon the perfect sentence.
 He had written a novel.
 He had been writing a novel.

 She had read the Harry Potter books.

 She’d been reading the Harry Potter books.

TIPS FOR TRANSLATION

 The Present or Past Perfect are not translated in the same manner as the Present or Past Perfect Continuous!
 Compare the translation of the following sentences and remember that the Continuous form is normally translated into
Romanian by a Prezent form (or by an Imperfect form for the Past Perfect Continuous):
 He has sung the same song. / He has been singing the same song for an hour.
 A cântat același cântec. / Cântă același cântec de o oră.

 She realized he had sung the same song./ She realized he had been singing the same song for an hour.
 Și-a dat seama că el a cântat/cântase același cântec./ Și-a dat seama că el cânta același cântec de o oră.

 Past Perfect ≠ Mai Mult ca Perfect, but: Mai Mult ca Perfect = Past Perfect
 The Romanian Mai Mult ca Perfect is a tense devoid of much ambiguity. It normally expresses anteriority to a past
point of reference and it is therefore translatable by means of a Past Perfect form:
 Mama îl certă pe Tom că nu trăsese apa la closet și nici nu ridicase colacul.
 Mother scolded Tom because he hadn’t flushed the toilet or raised the toilet seat.

 There is no one-to-one correspondence between Past Perfect and Mai Mult ca Perfect, however. Consider the
following sentences and their translation:
 Jim told Susan he had never loved another woman.
 Jim îi spuse lui Susan că nu mai iubise niciodată altă femeie.
 Jim i-a spus lui Susan că nu a mai iubit niciodată altă femeie.

 Past Perfect ≠ Mai Mult ca Perfect, but: Mai Mult ca Perfect = Past Perfect
 Jim realized he had been staring blankly for hours.
 Jim își dădu seama că se uita/se uită de ore întregi în gol.

 He knew that by the time she had arrived he would have left for the airport.
 Știa că până să sosească ea/să fi sosit ea/va fi sosit ea, el va fi plecat/o să plece la aeroport.
MEANS OF EXPRESSING FUTURITY
• I’ll pack my suitcase tomorrow.
• I’m going to pack my suitcase tomorrow.
• I‘m packing my suitcase tomorrow.
• Please, don’t forget to give me my umbrella when I pack my suitcase.
• If you want to say goodbye, come and see me in my room. I’ll be packing my suitcase.
• Tell me what you want. I am about to pack my suitcase.
• My master has ordered me to leave. I am to pack my suitcase after I serve his morning tea.
• I’ll have packed my suitcase by the time the train enters the station.
• I’ll come to say goodbye after I have packed my suitcase.
• I told him I would pack my suitcase the following day.
• I told him I was going to pack my suitcase the following day.

EXPRESSING THE FUTURE

PRESENT TENSES and PAST TENSES
WILL + verb (Present Form)
WOULD + verb (Past Form)
Present Simple
The boat sails tomorrow at noon.
Past Simple
They told me the boat sailed tomorrow
at noon.
WILL + infinitive
WOULD + infinitive
WILL + infinitive (Future simple)
He will talk to her on Monday.
WOULD + infinitive (Future in the past)
They told me he would talk to her on
Monday.
WILL + be + V-ing
WOULD + be + V-ing (Future
Continuous): This time tomorrow, I’ll
be eating my dinner.
Present Continuous
Paul is giving a speech next week.
Past Continuous
They told me that Paul was giving a
speech next week.
WILL +have + V-en
WOULD + have + V-en
WILL + have + V-en (Future perfect)
He will have already talked to Sue by
the time Tim gets back.
WOULD + have + V-en (Future perfect
in the past)
They told me that he would have
already talked to her by the time Tim
got back.
WILL + have + be + en + V-ing
WOULD+ have + be + en + V-ing (Future
Perfect Continuous) : This time next
week, I will have been sailing for three
whole days.

WOULD + be + V-ing (Future WOULD + have + be + en+ V-ing (Future

continuous in the past): He told her perfect continuous in the past): He told
that at that precise time the next day her that by that time the following
he would be eating dinner. week he would have already finished
his dinner

The phrase BE GOING TO AM/IS/ARE GOING TO

(Present form and Past form)
Other phrases: BE TO, BOUND TO
(Present form and Past form)
Sue is going to have a baby.
WAS/WERE GOING TO
They told him Sue was going to have a baby.
AM/IS/ARE TO AM/IS/ARE BOUND TO
He is to give a recital tomorrow. My parents are bound to arrive on
Friday.
WAS/WERE TO WAS/WERE BOUND TO
They told her that Jack was to give a My sister told me that our parents
recital tomorrow were bound to arrive on Friday.
NOTA BENE! THESE WAYS OF EXPRESSING THE FUTURE DO NOT ALL HAVE THE SAME MEANING. THERE ARE MORE
SIGNIFICANT OR SLIGHTER DIFFERENCES IN MEANING AMONG THE VARIOUS FORMS ABOVE.

EXPRESSING THE FUTURE IN CERTAIN SUBORDINATE CLAUSES

 I will talk to him tomorrow.
 Voi vorbi cu el mâine.

 I’ll tell you what’s going on, after I talk to his sister.
 Îi voi spune ce se întâmplă, după ce voi vorbi cu sora lui.

Let’s generalize
 WILL/WOULD is forbidden in temporal clauses that we call WHEN-clauses and conditional clauses that we call IF-clauses.
 Because the future auxiliary is forbidden, all the WILL/WOULD forms will be turned into equivalent forms without the
mark of the future, so that all simple forms stay simple, all perfect forms stay perfect, all that is continuous stays
continuous, all that is past stays past (see the table above).

Present Simple versus Present Continuous

- My train leaves tomorrow at five.
- Trenul meu pleacă mâine la cinci.

- “Are you coming home tomorrow?”

- Vii acasă mâine?

- “Yes, my plane gets here at seven.”

- Da, avionul ajunge aici la şapte.

- My train leaves tomorrow at five. (IN THE FUTURE)

- ? My train leaves. (INCOMPLETE SENTENCE)

- He’s walking his neighbour’s dog tomorrow. (IN THE FUTURE)

- O să plimbe câinele vecinului mâine.

- He’s walking his neighbour’s dog. (RIGHT NOW)

- Îi plimbă câinele vecinului.

Let’s generalize!
 When one wants to express a schedule or an arrangement that depends upon exterior factors (a plane’s departure, an
itinerary), one uses the Present Simple Tense. However, when one describes a personal arrangement, something that
depends only upon the plans of a person, one uses the Present Continuous tense.

THE PRESENT CONTINUOUS versus THE BE GOING TO FUTURE

o Bill is taking his son on a fishing trip tomorrow. He has arranged to do so.
- Bill îşi ia fiul cu el la pescuit mâine. A plănuit asta deja.

o Bill is going to take his son on a fishing trip (tomorrow). He intends to do so.
- Bill o să-şi ia fiul cu el la pescuit mâine. Asta e intenţia lui.
BE GOING TO and THE WILL/SHALL FUTURE
o He will/He’ll take his son on a fishing trip.
 să-şi ia fiul la pescuit.

o I shall/I will/ I‘ll take my son on a fishing trip.

 să-mi iau fiul la pescuit.

o I’ll stay in my room and write my essay.

o I’m going to stay in my room and write my essay.
 O să stau în camera mea să-mi scriu compunerea.

o The queen will visit Romania next week.

o The queen is going to visit Romania next week.
 Regina va vizita România săptămâna viitoare.

Differences:
1. Register – Colloquiality
2. Present/versus/Future orientation
3. WILL is more bound to be associated with prediction tinges of meaning:

Let’s generalize!
• The Present Continuous is used to express future arrangements. The “Be Going To” Future is used to express the
fulfilment in the future of an intention in the present or of a present cause. It is a more colloquial form than the “WILL-
future”. “The WILL–future” is used to express (spontaneous) decisions, intentions or predictions and can be used most of
the times interchangeably with the “Be Going To” Future.

THE FUTURE CONTINUOUS

1. a situation in progress at a particular moment in the future

- What will you be doing tomorrow at five? = Ce faci mâine la cinci?
- I guess I’ll be driving to the airport to meet my friends. = Cred că o să conduc la aeroport să mă întâlnesc cu prietenii.

2. situation that will happen as part of the normal course of events in a person’s life:
- I’ll be teaching a lecture tomorrow. (TOMORROW IS MONDAY. THIS IS WHAT I USUALLY DO ON MONDAYS.)
 O să predau un curs mâine.
- I’ll teach a lecture tomorrow. (THIS IS MY INTENTION. I DON’T USUALLY DO THAT ON MONDAYS)
 O să predau un curs mâine.

THE FUTURE PERFECT

- By this time next week, Billy will have completed his journey to Mexico.
- Săptamâna viitoare pe vremea asta, Billy îşi va fi dus la capăt călătoria în Mexic.

- As you have seen, the Future Perfect depends on a point in time in the future. It is often used with a temporal
expression of the type “BY + a point in time” such as “by this time next week”, “by the time you get back” etc.