Global Verb Tense Explorer: Mastering Time in 8 World Languages

Ever wished English had more tenses to express the subtleties of time? Join us as we delve into languages that have pushed verb tenses to extraordinary levels, from the minimalist West Greenlandic to the complex past forms of Kiksht.

Before we dive in, let’s clarify what tense means. As defined by The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, tense is an “inflectional category used to indicate the time of an event relative to the moment of speaking.” In simpler terms, it’s how words change to reflect when an action occurs in relation to the present. This article focuses exclusively on tense, leaving aside related concepts like aspect, conditionals, voice, and other verb modifications.

Equipped with our grammatical toolkit, let’s embark on a thrilling journey through time and language (though it’s worth noting that linguistic experts may not always agree on these classifications).

1. West Greenlandic // No Tenses

West Greenlandic stands out for its minimalist approach to verb tenses: it lacks a traditional tense system entirely [PDF]. However, this doesn’t prevent discussing past events. For instance, aggirpuq can mean “he’s coming” or “he was coming,” depending on context, while siurna (“before”) clarifies that siurna aturpara means “I used it before/last year.”

West Greenlandic isn’t alone in lacking time-based verb inflections. Other tenseless languages include Vietnamese, Yukatek Mayan, and Dyirbal, an indigenous Australian language.

2. English // Two Tenses

A single tense would be as uninformative as a clock stuck at one time, which is why no single-tense languages exist. However, many languages, including English, operate with just two tenses.

Contrary to common belief, English lacks a future tense. Linguists generally agree that English operates with just two tenses: past and present (or non-past). For example, I went there yesterday is past tense and past time, while I see the dentist tomorrow uses present/non-past tense to describe future time.

What about will or be going to? While they express future time, they aren’t inflectional—they don’t alter the form of go. English has go, goes, went, gone, and going, but no form like “gowill,” leading most linguists to conclude that English doesn’t have a future tense.

However, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language suggests that English has two past tenses: the preterite (he went there) and the perfect (he has gone there). Despite this, few linguists classify the perfect as a tense, so English is widely regarded as a two-tense language.

Other languages often grouped with English in this regard include Arabic, Finnish, and Japanese. These languages split time into what has passed and what hasn’t. Interestingly, while no well-studied language uses a present/non-present binary tense system, a few, like the New Guinea language Hua, employ a future/non-future system.

3. Italian Sign Language // Three Tenses

When most people consider tense, they envision languages having three tenses. While ternary tense systems are fairly common, they aren’t as universal as one might assume. Italian Sign Language (ISL) exemplifies this, where tense is conveyed through the position of the shoulder: a backward tilt signifies past tense, a neutral alignment indicates present tense, and a forward tilt represents future tense.

4. Isbukun Bunun // Four Tenses

Isbukun Bunun, a dialect of an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan, features four tenses: remote past, recent past, present, and future.

The concept of four tenses might seem challenging if your language doesn’t categorize time this way. However, it becomes clearer when compared to vocabulary. For example, Japanese has words for tomorrow, today, and yesterday, along with おととい (ototoi), meaning “two days ago.” To reference earlier times, counting days is necessary, similar to English (e.g., five days ago). Thus, Japanese can express multiple past times lexically, despite having only one past tense. Isbukun Bunun achieves this distinction grammatically, using tenses instead of words.

Notably, Isbukun Bunun marks the remote past by doubling the recent-past affix -in- to -inin-, as shown in this [PDF].

• Present: hanup, “hunt”
• Recent past: h<in>anup, “hunted”
• Remote past: h<inin>anup, “hunted”

5. Luganda // Five Tenses

Once you grasp the concept of four tenses, understanding a language with five becomes straightforward. Luganda, a Bantu language spoken in the African Great Lakes region, is one such language, featuring the following set of tenses: distant past, recent past, present, immediate future, and near future.

Languages that divide time into recent and remote categories often leave room for interpretation. Given the variability in tense systems, it’s unsurprising that the boundaries between these categories can be fluid. In Luganda, terms like “recent,” “intermediate,” or “distant” are highly context-dependent.

6. Haya // Six Tenses

Unlike Luganda, Haya, another Bantu language, enforces specific rules for its past tenses. The first past tense (P1) applies only to events occurring earlier today. P2 pairs with nyeigolo (“yesterday”) but doesn’t align with mbweenu (“today”) or ijo (“the day before yesterday”). For example, tukomile nyeigolol translates to “I tied (P2) yesterday.” The third past tense, P3, covers anything before yesterday, alongside two future tenses and a present tense [PDF].

7. Kiksht // Nine (?) Tenses

Kiksht, a Chinookan language from the U.S. Pacific Northwest, boasts one of the most intricate systems of past tense distinctions. It features four primary past tense prefixes:

• ga(l)-: the most distant form, used for events a year or more in the past
• ni(g)-: for events from the previous week up to a year ago
• na(l)-: typically for yesterday but can extend to a few days prior
• i(g)-: for events earlier today

But that’s not all! These four prefixes are further divided: As noted in Tense by Bernard Comrie, “The periods defined by ga(l)-, ni(g)-, and possibly i(g)- … are split into earlier (u-) and later (t-) portions.” This creates six or seven past tense distinctions, depending on whether i(g)- includes the u-/t- split. Kiksht’s past tense system is remarkably advanced. (Sadly, the last fluent speaker passed away in 2012, but revitalization efforts are underway [revitalize].)

8. South Baffin Inuktitut // 10 Tenses (More or Less)

Linguists often debate what constitutes a tense or even the definition of tense. However, despite disagreements on the exact count, there’s consensus that South Baffin Inuktitut boasts a rich array of tenses. These include an unmarked present tense and multiple past and future tenses, which may be categorized as follows [PDF]:

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