Verb tenses (SVFL)

There are many parts of speech. One of them has this peculiar habit that can get rather complicated. The words change their forms depending on time. Which part of speech are we talking about? Correct: verbs!

Verbs are good for many things. They can for example, tell you something about when an event is happening. Here are a few sentences. Look at the verbs, and say if they are happening in the past, right now, or in the future. Det låg fartyg utmed kajen.

Längst bort fanns en stor lyftkran, som hade rostat så mycket att den stod och lutade. När du trycker på knappen här under, spelar filmen i en annan hastighet. Trycker du på paus så stannar den. Jag ska diska och sen kommer jag att tvätta, men först ska jag vila lite. Look at the verbs.

These verbs tell us that those things have already happened. In the past. These verbs tell us that these things are happening right now. And these verbs describe things that haven't happened yet. And to be completely honest, it isn't even certain that they will happen at all.

Except the part about resting. When we change a verb to fit time like this, we say that we change the tense of the verb. Tense means time, and the verb has different forms depending on tense. Here are a few more examples. Ska äta Äter Åt Har ätit Kommer att flyga Flyger Flög Hade flugit As you can see, some tenses have their very own forms of the verb, a verb form.

Other tenses, such as these, are created by adding an additional verb to help out, an auxiliary verb. You can also see that there are several different ways to express both past time and future. Let's organise the examples, so it becomes clearer. Förfluten tid: Jag åt mat igår. Jag har ätit mat.

Jag hade ätit mat. Framtid: På tisdag skall vi flyga till Paris. På tisdag kommer vi flyga. På tisdag flyger vi. Pause the film and read these sentences carefully.

Can you spot any differences between the various ways of expressing past time, or between the ways of expressing future? Do they have exactly the same meanings, or just almost? When you write a story, or some other text, it is often wise not to mix tenses too much. Listen to this example and see if you can spot any peculiarities. Det var en vacker morgon.

Hon klär på sig och tittade ut genom fönstret. Solen skiner, men det har regnat och gatan är ännu blöt. That didn't sound very good. Look at the verbs: a mix-up of different tenses! Let's try again.

Det var en vacker morgon. Hon klädde på sig och tittade ut. Solen sken, men det hade regnat och gatan var ännu blöt. Better? Now the tenses match.

When they harmonise like this, we say there is sequence of tenses. Most of the verbs are now in the same tense, but not all. Look at this one here. This is not the same tense as in the rest of the text. Pause, read, and see if you can see why.

The rain had already stopped falling when she looked out, so that gets its own tense. Sequence of tenses means that the tenses harmonise with each other throughout a text -- not that they have to be identical in all places. Now, you have seen a video about tense. You are watching the last few seconds. In a short while, you will have watched it until the very end.

In the future, you might watch it again.