Content

1. Introduction

2. Aspect and Tense of the English Verb in Theoretical Grammar

2.1 The history of the English verb

2.2 The characteristic of the Modern English verbs

2.3 Tense of the English Verbs

2.4 Peculiarities of Aspect in English

3. Conclusion

4. Works cited

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

In the English language, the verb
is one of the main and most important word classes. The term originates from Latin where it meant “word”. Verbs are used to express actions, processes, states or events. Verbs tell us what happens in a situation involving the noun (the subject of the sentence) and provide us the grammatical information. In the sentence verb is usually used as a predicator, and it also plays central role in the clause. None of the grammatically correct English sentences can exist without a verb. The verb indicates the necessity and the role of the other elements of the clause; it shows the connection between the discourse and the event in objective reality.

The aim of the present work is to show the peculiarities of modern English verbs, connected with their tense and aspect grammatical categories, and to detect their justification in the whole history of the English language. The main task of the work is to analyze the structure and usage of English verbs in different tenses and aspects. The methods
used in the present work are analysis, comparative method and similitude.

The verb possesses the ability to define a process proceeding in time. The difficulty of this part of speech is not only in the structure of its various grammatical categories, but also in its subclass divisions and falling into two sets of different forms: the finite and non-finite forms.  The verb holds the grammatical categories of tense, aspect, finitude, voice, person, mood, number and phase. These categories may be expressed either synthetically (within the word itself with the use of affixes and inflections) or analytically (within the sentence using prepositions).

In the present work the two main grammatical categories are examined. Tense is a grammatical category that locates an event or a process in time, to show when the situation occurs. It denotes the relation of the event to the moment of speech. Aspect
is a grammatical category that expresses how an action, event or state, denoted by a verb, relates to the flow of time[1]. This concept is based on distinction between perfective and imperfective aspects. The interrelation between tense and aspect is obvious. The tenses are classified according to the idea of duration or completeness of the action expressed by the verb.

The complex structure of the verb in grammar accompanies English during the long existence of this language. Its roots can be found in old history of the English language.