Time Direction / Tense
Is it in the past, present, or future?
含义
The event's direction relative to the speaker's 'now': before, at, after, or relative to another reference time.
如何识别
Ask whether the event is earlier, now, later, or relative to another event.
示例
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.
语言视角
在母语中
Mandarin does not have grammatical tense inflection; past, present, and future are usually inferred from time words, aspect, modality, and context.
我明天去上海。
wǒ míngtiān qù Shànghǎi = I tomorrow go Shanghai
在目标语言中
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.