The Past Tense

In Ukrainian we have two verb forms of the past tense: the past and the pluperfect tenses (минулий та давноминулий).

The past tense is formed from the base of the infinitive with the help of the suffix - в (-л) as well as gender flexions: the zero flexion for the masculine gender, -a for the feminine gender and - o for the neuter gender. When the base of the infinitive finishes with the consonant, then the suffix - в is absent by the masculine gender (e.g.: нести – ніс, сікти – сік, везти – віз, but грати – грав). If the base of the infinitive contains the suffix -ну it is omitted in the past tense: мерзнути – мерз, сохнути – сох (except the stressed position: тягнути – тягну¢в).

The Ukrainian pluperfect tense (давноминулий) is created analytically by combining the forms of the past tense form of the verb – the carrier of the lexical meaning, with the corresponding form of the past tense of the auxiliary verb бути, e.g.: ходив був, ходила була, ходили були; пішов був, позичив був. Such forms are more often created from imperfective verbs and are used to denote the action which happened a long time ago, or to denote the action which happened before another past action or was completed under the influence of another subsequent action.

In modern Ukrainian forms of the pluperfect tense are gradually becoming less used, being substituted by usual past forms. Very often the pluperfect tense can be met in the deformed form: the help verb бути is used in similar impersonal form було in singular and in plural for all genders, e.g.: Коли було він приходив до нас …; Коли було вона співала …; Коли було вони спитають … According to its meaning this form renders the common or the repeated action in the past.

In English we have two aspect forms of the past tense: the Past Indefinite and the Past Continuous tenses. Besides there are two forms of the past tense that reveal the category of the tense reference: the Past Perfect and the Past Perfect Continuous.

The Past Indefinite tense denotes the action which happened during the period of time including the moment of speaking. This verb form is widely used in narrations, where it renders the subsequent bound with each other events. According to the formation of its aspect-tense form all English verbs are subdivided into two groups of regular and irregular verbs.

The Past Continuous tense underlines that the action is in the process and shows its concrete character. It usually shows the simultaneous course of action with another past action or some definite past moment. This verb form can be compared with the past form of the imperfective aspect, but the latter one has a wider meaning, which is not limited by the simultaneous character of the action.

Of the two relative past tenses Past Perfect is more often used, showing that the action happened till another past action or till some definite moment in the past. The characteristic feature of this tense form is its ability to render the complete character of the action, whereas the Ukrainian pluperfect, means first of all the uncompleted action, and secondly it only stresses the remoteness of some past action comparing to the moment of speaking. Formally these two tenses differentiate themselves also by different help verbs (had in English and – був Ukrainian).

Another relative past tense – the Past Perfect Continuous – renders the course of the action from its beginning till the end in the past; the starting point of such an action is usually indicated and goes before some definite moment upon which actually the action is centered. This tense form is used rather seldom.

The expressive form of the past tense is also widely used. It is formed from the auxiliary verb “to do” in the past tense (“did”) and the base of the infinitive, e.g.: But he did see them. – Але він таки побачив їх. In Ukrainian such shades of meaning are rendered with the help of the corresponding situation as well as lexical means – adverbs дійсно, справді, particles таки, же, ж and others [5; 80–82].

5.3. The Future Tense. The tense form “Future-in-the-past” and sequence of tenses of the English language.

The Future Tense. In Ukrainian forms of the future tense are not created equally for all verbs. Verbs of the perfective aspect, which do not have forms of the present tense, form the future tense with the help of personal endings of present tense, e.g.: прочитаю, напишеш, розкажу (compare: читаю, пишеш, кажу). So the meaning of the future tense is connected here not with endings but with the word formation means: prefixation, change or addition of the suffix, the change of the root vowel, the stress change and different combination of these means.

Verbs of the imperfective aspect have two forms of the future tense: 1) the analytical one which is created from the personal form of the future tense of the help verb бути and the infinitive of the conjugated verb, e.g.: буду працювати, будемо співати; 2) the synthetic form, which is formed by adding to the infinitive base of the conjugated verb personal endings, created from the former forms of the verb яти (иняти, йняти), e.g.: писати-му, -меш, -ме, -мемо, -мете, -муть.

In English all verbs form their future tense equally and are analytical ones. According to the character of the course of action in English there are several aspect-tense forms to denote the action taking place in the future.

The Future Indefinite is formed with the help of auxiliary verbs shall and will with the infinitive of the verb, which expresses the lexical meaning of this construction. This form can render either the single or the repeated action. In Ukrainian it corresponds to the future of both the perfective aspect and the imperfective aspect, depending on the content of a sentence.

The Future Continuous tense is formed by the combination of the auxiliary verb “ to be ” in the Future Indefinite and the Present Participle of the verb expressing the lexical meaning. This form renders the action as a process that will be taking place during some limited period of time, including some definite future moment.

One more future tense – the Future Perfect – is formed with the help of the auxiliary verb “ to have ” in Future indefinite and Past Participle of the verb, expressing the lexical meaning. This verb form renders the action that should finish before a definite moment in the future. The form of the Future Perfect Continuous is used much more rarely.

Unlike the English language where the usage of the future tense is impossible in conditional and some other tense sentences, in Ukrainian sentences the usage of the future tense is not limited by the type of the sentence.

The tense form “Future-in-the-past” and sequence of tenses of the English language. The typical feature of tense forms of the English verb is the fact that many of them render the action that happened not according to the moment of speaking but in accordance with some “center” of the corresponding tense. The vivid example of it is the Future-in-the-Past tense, which renders the action that should take place after some definite past moment; in this case such a point is considered as a “tense center”. These tense forms are created with the help of auxiliary verbs “ should ” and “ would ” and the corresponding infinitive form of the verb, expressing the lexical meaning. Such tense forms are used in Indefinite and in continuous aspects, also in the category of the tense reference (the Future-Perfect-in-the-Past). The peculiarity of “future-in-the-past” forms is the dependable character of their usage: these forms are usually used in complex sentences, when the so called sequence of tenses takes place.

The phenomenon of sequence of tenses is the characteristic regularity of English syntax. Its sense is that the verb-predicate of the subordinate sentence renders the action not in accordance to the moment of speaking, but in accordance to the action expressed by the verb in the main sentence (if the later one is used in the past tense. That is why in such complex sentences the predicate is as if coordinated with the form of the past tense, by which the predicate of the main sentence is expressed, is also expressed by the past tense or “future-in-the-past” form.

In Ukrainian in such cases we can observe another usage of tense forms. For example, in the sentence with indirect speech Він сказав, що ця дівчина вчиться в школі the action вчиться is considered as such that is happening simultaneously with the action of the verb-form сказав. Using forms of the present tense вчиться, the author as if considers the action of the subordinate sentence from the point of view of the moment, when there happened the action expressed by the verb-form сказав. So in such a case the author of the sentence uses in the indirect speech this or that tense form as if being carried in his thoughts into the past [5; 83–86].