Time Direction / Tense
Is it in the past, present, or future?
Ý nghĩa
The event's direction relative to the speaker's 'now': before, at, after, or relative to another reference time.
Cách nhận biết
Ask whether the event is earlier, now, later, or relative to another event.
Ví dụ
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.
Góc nhìn theo ngôn ngữ
Trong ngôn ngữ mẹ đẻ của Bạn
Vietnamese has no tense inflection; past/future meanings use markers such as đã, sẽ and time context.
Tôi đã ăn rồi.
I past eat already
Trong ngôn ngữ Bạn đang học
English finite verbs normally show present or past tense; future is usually expressed with auxiliaries or context.
She worked yesterday.
worked = past time direction
Learners may expect one future tense form or forget past -ed and irregular past forms.
Same block, different coding
Both languages use this block strongly, but they signal it differently. Focus on form changes, not only meaning.