Time Direction / Tense
Is it in the past, present, or future?
Significado
The event's direction relative to the speaker's 'now': before, at, after, or relative to another reference time.
Como identificar
Ask whether the event is earlier, now, later, or relative to another event.
Exemplos
past|present|future|will|did
went yesterday|will go tomorrow|is here now
She will call tomorrow.
Visual guide
Speaker's NOW
│
PAST ◄── now ──► FUTURE
went is will go
Time direction = event's side
of now or another reference.
B02 vs B01: She will call tomorrow. will call → FUTURE side of now tomorrow → WHEN on timeline Languages may mark B02 on verb, with particle, time word, context.
Vista por língua
Na tua língua
Tense is marked by verb forms and auxiliaries; Brazilian Portuguese often uses ir plus infinitive for future.
Ela vai ligar amanhã.
She is going to call tomorrow.
Na língua que estás a aprender
MSA uses perfect/imperfect forms plus particles and context; it is not a simple European tense system.
كتبَ الرسالةَ وسيكتبُ الردَّ.
He wrote the letter and will write the reply.
Learners may map Arabic forms too directly to past/present/future.
Same block, different coding
Both languages use this block strongly, but they signal it differently. Focus on form changes, not only meaning.