English Tense and Aspect

for
Romanian Learners

Floriana Popescu

Editura Europlus
Galaţi – 2006
 This page is intentionally left blank

ISBN (10): 973-7845-33-1

ISBN (13):978-973-7845-33-7
“The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

Robert Frost

To my husband,

This book is affectionately dedicated

Contents

Rationale 5

Book description 10

1. Temporality. Time. Tense 15

1.1 Terminological issues 16

1.2 Temporality 20

1.3 The concept of Time 20

1.4 Tense 24

1.5 Vectorial interpretation of English 31

temporality

2. Aspectuality. Aktionsart. Aspect 43

2.1 Aspectuality 44

2.2 The concept of Aktionsart 44

2.3 The concept of Aspect 50

3. Tense and Aspect in Romanian and 62
English

3.1 Temporal domains 63

3.2 The domain of the present 68

3.3. The domain of the past 84

3.4 The domain of the future 99

4. Voice through Tense and Aspect 111

4.1 Voice 112

4.2 Tempo-aspectuality and causative 124

constructions

5. Tense and Aspect with non-finites 129

5.1.Non-fintes 130

Instead of conclusions 139

Exercises 143

Further reading 174

Annex 180

Answer key 181

English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

Rationale

The study of a foreign language requires, besides

accuracy and thoroughness in understanding the full
meaning of grammatical patterns and language
mechanisms, the ability to choose the best foreign
language solution to messages learners formulate with
the help of their native language instruments, at least in
the first stage of language acquisition.

My experience as a teacher of language matters has

led me into suggesting an approach to tempo-
aspectuality for the elective practical course on
contemporary English included in the curriculum for the
first year students involved in the distance learning
process. Since the current presentation is intended to
become the support for a practical course, most of the
course will focus on practical aspects of the verb
systems in English and Romanian. Romanian, the
native language (NL, from now on) of the students to
whom the book is mainly intended, will be the starting
point in our comparative approach and English will be
the target language (TL, from now on).

5
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

The comparative view was preferred to others, for it is

not such a complex method fit for an approach involving
a thorough description of the entities in question. Even
if “linguists who write grammars are concerned with
describing how the language works rather than
dictating, or prescribing, how it should be used” (Leech
2006: 5), our approach descriptive as it is, also inserts
some prescriptive rules, particularly in chapters 3, 4 and
5. If the readers consider that ‘prescriptive’ is a less
modestly selected word, they are kindly invited to
accept that “prescriptive rules are clearly not
grammatical rules in the same sense as descriptive
rules, so it might be appropriate to call them rules of
grammatical appropriateness” (Leech 2006: 5).

A proper model for our approach was Cornilescu’s

Towards a Semantic Description of Tense and Aspect
in English and Romanian (1974). The author proves the
contrastive method to be the best way of describing the
complex system of the verb and, in describing the steps
in a contrastive study, that author distinguishes two
procedures to be efficient. According to the former
procedure, the stages to be covered are ‘1) selection of
research topics relating to problematical points of
contact between the specific systems in contact through
observation and experimentation; 2) in-depth studies of
the topics furnished by the preliminary processing the
data: 3) the description of approximate systems at
various levels and 4) the prediction and explication of
the sequencing of such systems.’

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

The latter envisages only three steps: 1) the complete

description of the linguistic systems of NL and TL (our
own denominations); 2) the comparison of the
descriptions and consequently, the making up of a list
with the more difficult problems for the native speaker of
a language in the acquisition of a foreign language. The
list of linguistic facts which are likely to become sources
of interference and which enumerates hypothetical
errors represents the third stage, when applying this
method of contrastive analysis. Once aware of the
possible misunderstandings learners of a foreign
language may show, the linguist and teacher will have
to provide drills intended to correct ‘the native speaker’s
deviant utterances’ (Cornilescu 1974: 47).

After presenting the two possible approaches to the

method of contrastive analysis, Cornilescu completes
the model including a transfer grammar of the two
languages and formulating a composite set of semantic
rules to interpret the English tenses. This set consists of
‘the rules necessary to interpret the tenses of Romanian
plus the rules necessary to account for the difference
between English and Romanian’. A framework fit to
describe any temporal system was put forward by
William Bull and it was also adopted by Cornilescu
(1974: 51) and by many other Romanian grammarians.

The Romanian linguist parallels the positions of the

English tenses with their Romanian counterparts in
Bull’s hypothetical system, to draw three major
conclusions which will be cited in the section referring to
7
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

Bull’s chart in the present approach (see the annex at

the end of the book).

A glimpse at the bibliography of the English or

English/Romanian grammars reveals the fact that the
English verb system has been described by two groups
of authors whose products are different although they
are based on the same general framework. The former
group of authors (Quirk et al. 1972, Quirk and
Greenbaum 1976, Hulban 1982, Quirk et al. 1985,
Binnick 1991, Lewis 1994, Swan 1981, Leech 2004,
Duţescu-Coliban 2000, Hulban 2001, Lăcătuşu 2005a,
etc.) give information on an exclusively English
infrastructure, whereas the latter group of authors
(Cornilescu 1974, Preda si Spăriosu 1972, Popescu
2000, Popescu 2001, Croitoru 2002, Lăcătuşu 2005b)
frequently make references to cases of similarities in
the Romanian verb system.

The distinguishing particularity of the current approach

lies in the fact that the bulk of the presentations start
from the tenses of the Romanian language, unlike the
majority of grammar books or university coursebooks
which minutely describe uses and meanings of the
English tenses and aspects. Unfortunately, “current
descriptions of the meanings or uses, of tenses in
grammars of Romanian, however, do not afford a
sufficient basis for a contrastive analysis because they
only record what is relevant for the native speaker of
Romanian.” (Preda si Spăriosu 1972: 188) So, since
Romanian grammars provide scarce information, it is
8
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

nearly impossible to make your own associations,

connections or analogies in the process of studying
tempo-aspectuality in a comparative, let alone
contrastive approach.
Therefore, this approach is intended to present things
this way, first of all because it addresses distance
learners of English. Practice has proved these first year
students are intent on learning, even if their knowledge
is rather scarce and it reduces to basic forms of verbs
or tenses of forms of aspect. So, in case other
Romanians who have some knowledge of English (pre-
intermediate level) might also use this book to practice,
improve, systematize and enrich their knowledge.
Secondly, many of its prospective readers are assumed
to have at least a rough idea about tense or aspect
patterns and not to master vocabulary heavily relying on
specialized terms. Yet, they feel they need to assimilate
elements of the English language through their
individual study, and they may have to do it without any
other help from a teacher or an extensive exchange of
ideas save their own documentation.

As my strong conviction is that in spite of theories in

second language acquisition methodologies and
recommendations, many learners understand foreign
language patterns when they are able to compare them
to their native language patterns, my students in the
distance learning programmes will enjoy this book
which is mainly for their own benefit.

9
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

Book description

The aim of the book is to introduce the students into the

basics of the English tempo-aspectual system and help
them find their own way with the idiosyncrasies
characterizing the universe of the English verb. The
approach does not intend to go deeper into the
philosophy of temporality and aspectuality, but it will
create an outline of the terminology of the two
components used in order to characterize verb systems
in the majority of European languages. The simplicity of
the presentation and of the structures considered of
importance within this approach are intended to enable
Romanian learners to find their simple, concise and
clear way out of the sometimes complicated means of
expressing events, actions and processes to happen or
to have happened at one more or less distant point in
time.

Therefore, the book focuses on two key concepts in the

grammar of the verb through the perspective of English
and Romanian language specific instruments. Tense
and aspect will be spelt with capital letters when they
10
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

denominate the grammatical concept in an abstract

meaning, in statements valid for the two languages.
Our contrastive approach consists of subdivisions with
a nearly similar structure, which are highly theoretical in
their essence, and which have some activities inserted
after those sections which reveal a high degree of
abstractedness and complexity.
Chapter 1 sets out providing the learners with the
terminology which enables them to comprehend the
tempo-aspectual features of the verb system in
Romanian and English. Three key issues, temporality,
time and tense coagulate around them essential data
which should open wide perspectives in the
understanding of the uses and meanings of temporal
coordinates, time axes and ultimately, tenses.
Chapter 2 follows the structure developed by first
chapter, and focuses again on three key issues,
aspectuality, Aktionsart and aspect. To decompose and
parallel the meanings and shades of meanings
concealed in tense and aspect forms this chapter
describes the temporal properties and the types of
situations dividing English verbs into dynamic and
stative.
Chapter 3 is the centre of the book not only through its
position within the whole approach but due to the topics
it considers. The general picture of the temporal
domains is completed by the distinction between
timeless and real time situations. The next three
subsections contour the domains of the present, past
11
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

and future through the gradual recording of the

Romanian tenses and their preferable equivalents.
Chapter 4 is intended mainly as a synopsis of the
tempo-aspectual active forms projected into their
passive variants. No passive transformation rules draw
the learner’s attention, but equally no simple or
continuous form of the passive tenses was ignored,
save the future perfect continuous in the past whose
frequency of occurrence is very low.
Chapter 5 concludes the theoretical background of the
current presentation with an insight into the way in
which the instruments of tempo-aspectuality may be or
is of use when work with non-finites is a must.
This final part of the volume is intended to describe the
verb systems of the two languages, taking into
consideration similarities and dissimilarities of tempo-
aspectuality, and to lay an emphasis on the cases of
difference at the tense/aspect level. The features of the
passive as well as the minute mechanisms and laws
governing the active passive transformations are
accepted as not to represent a topic of interest for this
level of knowledge of the first year students involved in
the distance learning programmes. The same principle
has forced us not to consider the rules applicable within
the sequence of tenses, which will, according to the
curricula in vigour at present, be largely dealt upon in
the second year of academic studies.

Chapter 6 is entitled Exercises and proposes a wide

range of exercises which are gradual in their degree of
12
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

difficulty and complexity. They offer learners instances

of tense correspondence between the two languages
considered throughout the book as well as tense/aspect
differentiation.
The exercises are distributed through the book to meet
the following requirements:
a) to enable learners to consolidate their
knowledge through practical activities (and thus,
some exercises immediately follow difficult
sections within the chapter itself);
b) to offer learners a set of exercises (at the end of
the chapter) intended for intensive practice;
c) to help students get familiar with the final test
requirements (the set of exercises at the end of
the book).

Note on examples

The practical core of the book is essentially represented

by almost 250 examples which support the theoretical
assertions. They were carefully selected to belong to
sets serving two purposes. One set of examples is
intended to provide solutions for contextual-bound
Romanian verb forms and they were numbered in plain
numbers.
There are other instances verb meanings and uses
which are similar in the two languages and in these
cases the sentences were numbered in pairs 1a and
1b, for instance (and 1c* marked with an asterisk to
point to ungrammaticality). At a first glance, this latter
set of comparable illustrations may seem awkward
13
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

since the majority of examples represent versions of the

same message, yet the author’s strong intent is that of
pointing to parallel instances of verb form/meaning
usage.

The answer key section gives selective answers only

to those items which may create difficulties to the
distance learning students in the home learning
process, or to those persons who might take an interest
in studying the English language without the help of a
teacher.

December 2006

Floriana Popescu
Dunarea de Jos University of Galati, Romania

14
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

CHAPTER 1

Temporality. Time. Tense

Outline
The first chapter of this book sets out on creating the
theoretical tool kit which enables Romanian learners to
better understand the meanings and uses of the English
tenses starting their exploration from their native
language to English and not vice versa as most of the
books invites them to do. The chapter consists of two
unequal halves, the former lingering on terminological
issues and the latter introducing some key concepts
very frequently used in the description of time and
tense.

Learning objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will:
- be able to distinguish between time and tense;
- give possible interpretations to the concept of
time with reference to the Romanian and English
ways of accepting it;
- be in a position to understand, define and use
correctly the temporal coordinates;

15
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

1.1 Terminological issues

A term which has a high frequency of occurrence in

most of the linguistic approaches is ‘category’. Lyons
(1987) shows that there has been little consistency or
uniformity in the use of this term in modern treatments
of grammatical theory, since it was employed with the
meanings of ‘class’ or ‘set’ to refer to any group of
elements recognized in the description of particular
languages. The term and concept of ‘category’ were
shown to have evolved from the Aristotelian theory of
category, which exercised a double impact on grammar:
(a) the elements of a language were analyzed in terms
of ‘matter’ and ‘form’ and as ‘substances’ classified with
respect to their ‘accidental properties and (b) words
were grouped into classes according to their ‘mode of
signifying’ the things, properties and relations to which
they referred. (Lyons 1987: 272) Some authors
associate this word to parts of speech as person, tense,
mood, and it has come to be used as such in both
English and Romanian grammars. In spite of its being
so widespread in the linguistic literature, the only
reference to ‘category’ is to be found in this section,
where it is briefly described for informative purposes.

The literature of temporality frequently operates with

key notions referring to orientation, distance, location,
deixis, temporal coordinates, situations (events, actions,
processes, states), axis of orientation/time axis. All of
these terms will be defined in the chapters dedicated to
fundamental concepts of tense and aspect.
16
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

Nevertheless, some brief specifications will be made, so

as learners should feel at ease when coming across
them in their reading process. Thus, orientation is
defined by Jackson who starts from the deictic adverb
now to identify ‘two spans of time: before now or up to
now, and after now or from now on,’ which refer to the
past segment of a time axis and to the future segment,
respectively (Jackson 1990: 82). Jackson also proposes
a special segmentation of the time axis to cover a span
in terms of ‘proximate to now’ (pre- and post-present)
and ‘remote from now’. The linguist exemplifies the idea
of temporal remoteness with the sentence:
[1] After he had finished doing so he dropped the
helicopter to five hundred feet (Jackson 1990: 83),
which includes two propositions, both of them referring
to past time; chronologically, after he had finished doing
so refers to a time remoter that the interval when so he
dropped the helicopter to five hundred feet. Therefore
the point in past when the dropping took place becomes
a point of orientation for another situation which
happened in the past.

Location admits the possibility of the points of

orientation to be placed on different time axes. The
event moment and the reference moment may therefore
be situated on the segment of the present, of the past
or of the future, and irrespective of the temporal axis,
the concept of orientation as well as the concept of
distance will hold valid. Thus, an event may happen in
the present, as a repeated situation (see example [2]),

17
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

in the past [3] or in the future [4], as in the examples

below:
[2] The show begins at eight o’clock sharp every
day.
[3] The show began at eight o’clock sharp
yesterday.
[4] The show will begin at eight o’clock sharp
tomorrow.

The moment of reference located in the past in the first

example may also be moved to the present time axis,
thus obtaining the version: After he has finished doing
so he drops the helicopter to five hundred feet to
express a flying habit of the respective pilot. So, with
such a change the two propositions discussed in the
preceding paragraph refer now to present time and,
chronologically the first event is remote from the point of
reference situated in the present.

Deixis (comes from a Greek word meaning ‘pointing’ or

‘indicating’) is term now used in a wider sense (Lyons
1988: 636) as compared to the practice of Greek
grammarians. Deixis means ‘the location and
identification of persons, objects, events, processes and
activities being talked about, or referred to, in relation to
the spatiotemporal context created and sustained by
the act of utterance and the participation in it, typically,
of a single speaker and at least one addressee’ (Lyons
1988: 637). This is a relationship which originates in the
system of orientation expressed by the formula ‘ego-
hic-nunc’ [I – here – now] suggesting that any ego
18
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

experiences the order or the seriality of events in direct

relationship to the respective ego’s moment and place
s/he may find her/himself in.

The lexicon of tempo-aspectuality has not found a

proper term to cover what verbs actually express,
states, on the one hand, and events, processes and
actions on the other. Following Lyons’s example (1988:
483), we shall use the term situation as a cover term
and we shall also distinguish between states or stative
verbs and dynamic verbs involving events, processes
and activities. From this author, we shall also borrow
definitions intended to account for the distinctions
necessary in the clear understanding of this rather
confusing terminology.

Therefore, states are those situation types which lack

dynamism and whose internal structure may be
expressed by one moment at least. States exist rather
than happen, they are homogeneous, continuous and
unchanging throughout their duration (Lyons 1988:
483). Dynamic situations are something that happen or
occur and which may either last or be very brief.
Dynamic situations which last in time and which
suggest stages in their development (beginning,
unfolding and an end) should be accepted as processes
(when processes are under the control of an agent they
become activities). Dynamic situations which are
momentary will be taken for events (when events are
under the control of an agent they become actions).
These terminological explanations will serve in the
19
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

understanding of the differences between Romanian

tenses and English aspectual forms.

1.2 Temporality

‘Temporality’ is an abstract noun which reveals both a

broad and a restricted meaning. Generically used, it
refers to ‘the state or quality of being temporal’ (Collins
1999: 1576), and which is assigned to a system of
measuring the physical or chronological time. When
specifically used in linguistics, it designates the
syntactic relationships as revealed by the tense and the
temporal constellations in all types of sentences. The
term is also specifically used in literature with a
cumulative and complex meaning to span (1) the
means of expressing the elapse of time or (2) the
position or the temporal location of the narrator.

1.3 The concept of time. Possible interpretations

The literature on temporality has provided several

possible interpretations to this concept, interpretations
which have a philosophical, logical or grammatical
background. Even if the concept of time has been the
topic of full volumes (see Marcus 1985, as only one
example), this concise presentation will consider time
from three perspectives which enable learners to better
grasp the meanings of the English verb system. Thus, it
will be analyzed as an element of physics, as a means
20
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

to express chronology and as a solution intended to

turn facts or situations into verb forms. For practical
reasons we shall imagine time as an entity consisting of
three layers wherein each has its own two subdivisions.

1.3.1 Physical time. Social vs personal time

The linguistic interpretation of time comes from physics,
where it represents a dimension perceived by any
human being. Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727, English
mathematician and physicist) ranks among the first
scientists to have provided a graphical representation to
time as a line going from left to right and with an arrow
at its right end to indicate the sense of the future.

Benveniste (1966:5) defined the physical time as a

uniform and linear continuum which can be separated
into segments according to the speaker’s will.
According to him, the physical time reveals both its
objective character imposed by the uniform continuum
and its subjective character explained by its capacity of
being segmented according to the speaker’s will.

The social/public segmentation of the physical time

results in the social or public time which “is based on
the periodicity of some observable natural phenomena
by whose regularity people adjust their affairs”
(Ştefănescu 1988: 218).

The same physical time may be segmented by each of

the members of any human community according to
their personal or individual criteria. “Man’s endeavour to
21
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

measure duration by using his own emotions as an

instrument” (Ştefănescu 1988: 217) defines the so-
called subjective or personal time. Physical time is a
dimension of the universe which, even if measured with
the same unit of measurement, may be felt in a unique
way by each individual, depending upon the
recollections created by an event or another.

1.3.2 Chronological Time. Objective vs. subjective

time
The second level assigned to the notion of time implies
its chronological approach. ‘Event’ is the key notion in
the definition of the chronological time. In Benveniste’s
view (1966:6) the chronological time is “the time of the
events which includes our own life as a sequel of
events.” It may also be subdivided into objective and
subjective chronological time. The objective
chronological time represents the time of the calendar
whose only features are permanence and fixity. Closely
connected to tense, time is characterized by three
major dimensions: orientation, distance and location.

The subjective chronological time represents the

time perceived by each individual which does not
coincide with the objective chronological time because
the axes of orientation and the distances separating
personal events cannot coincide with the categories of
the human experiencing of time.

22
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

1.3.3 Linguistic Time. Internal vs. external time

The third level assigned to time allows for the setting of
events against the chronological time, making and
ordering a system whose primary axis is represented by
the deictic adverb now. This third level of approach is
lexicalized in English by a term which is peculiar
exclusively to linguistics, i.e. tense. Linguistic time also
consists of two levels, internal time and external time.

The internal time, usually assimilated to the category

of aspect, is related to the primary and direct
experiencing of duration. Achieving or accomplishing a
process or undergoing a state, the speaker becomes
aware of the time implied by the respective process or
state. In the grammar of the English language internal
or implied time has evolved to Aspect.

The ordering of events which happened, are happening

or may happen in future, and which is based on the
criterion of chronology, yields an objective time. This is
external to the type of situation it describes, and it can
divide the time axis in distinctive segments or moments,
such as present, past and future.

The external time is somehow opposed to the internal

time of any type of situation. It is this external time
which is accepted as tense, the time expressed by
linguistic means.

Time is a complex notion which has acquired not only

new meanings and values but has also been disputed
23
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

by several domains of science, such as logic, physics,

and, first of all, philosophy. The distinction physical vs
chronological time may be of help when interpreting
tense forms as either referring to a certain moment or
interval or when referring to no definite moment or
interval, i.e., when revealing ‘non-presentness’.

1.4 Tense

Tense is a grammatical category which refers to events

or situations situated at points along the linear flow of
time in reference to the ‘now’ moment or speech
moment. Tense expresses the order of events in time
as related to the speaker who perceives the events in
question.

Tense is related to time: tense, person and local deixis

form an essential part of the system of orientation of
every speakers, a part of their ‘ego-hic-nunc’ (I – here –
now), owing to which the speaker associates the
objects and events belonging to extralinguistic reality
they utter.

Tenses are also related to tenses: absolute tenses

report verb situations to the moment of speech (SM)
while relative tenses place the verb situation on the time
axis in relation to another temporal coordinate, the
moment of reference, which is involved by the tense of
the verb in the main clause or the temporal situation of
a larger context (GA 1963: 234, Irimia 1976: 55).
24
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

The literature on temporality has developed a specific

terminology to express its fundamental concepts, time
axis, temporal coordinates, and perspective or
orientation.

The time axis is the line with an arrow pointing to the

right which is the future segment, no matter whether
seen from a present or a past moment of reference. For
practical and didactic purposes the system of the
English verb has three time axes, each of them
describing the ordering of events for one temporal
domain, present, past and future, respectively.

A Past B Present C Future

Fig.1. The Newtonian temporal axis

The terminology denominating the three temporal
coordinates is diverse and individualizing but, in their
essence, the coordinates are the same and they must
be understood as three independent points belonging to
the time axis.

Thus, basically the time of utterance (or else the

moment of speaking, the speech moment, and the time
25
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

of discourse) is the time of the grammatical subject; this

moment/interval locates the grammatical subject or the
speaker in time. The other events become present, past
and future when they are related to the time/interval of
utterance. The time of event (or else the moment of
the event, the event moment or the time of predication)
places the moment or the interval of the developing
situation, on the temporal map.

Unlike these two preceding coordinates, which have a

concrete featuring, the last of them, the time of
reference (or else the moment of reference, the
reference moment, or the time of perspective) is purely
abstract.

The reference moment (RM) or the temporal point of

view/perspective should be abstractly interpreted as
“the temporal point from which the speaker invites his
audience to consider the occurrence of the event, or the
obtaining of the state” (Taylor 1977: 203).

To revise, we shall focus on the three coordinates: RM

(reference moment), SM (speech moment), and EM
(event moment), and on their practical applications in
the understanding of the statements in the foregoing.
Thus, RM is the reference moment indicated by the
sentence, namely, by the verb in the main clause (that
is, it points to the temporal axis or the axis of orientation
– present, past or future, as implied by the tense of the
basic verb of the sentence). SM stands for the time at
which the sentence is uttered, and which is always
26
 English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

represented by the deictic now, which may or may not

be expressed within the sentence. EM refers to the
moment at which the relevant event, state or process
occurs.

The relationships which may exist between the RM (Y

in our graphical representation) and the EM (X in our
graphical representation) express the coincidence of
the two and these are cases of simultaneity; the EM
may precede the RM and the relationship seen through
the sequence of tenses view is known as anteriority; if
the EM expresses a situation which will happen after
the RM that will be an instance of posteriority.

X X X

Y Y Y

X over Y X before Y Y after X

Fig.2. Temporal coordinate relationships

The first graphic representation illustrates the

coincidence of the event moment, the reference
moment and the speech moment, as in:
27
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

[5]a El citeşte ziarul.

[5]b He is reading the
newspaper.
[6]a Beckham loveşte [6]b Beckham shoots and
şi marchează primul punct scores the first point of the
al meciului. match.

The second image describes the precedence of the

event in relation to the reference moment, as in the
examples below:
[7]a Cumpărase deja [7]b He had already
carnea când l-am întâlnit. bought the meat when I
met him.
[8]a Lucra deja de [8]b He had already been
două ore când mama a working for two hours
ajuns acasă.. when mother reached
home.

The relationship expressed under the form of Y after X

describes the fact that the event will take place after the
moment of reference, and after the moment of speech,
which is always the present moment (present as related
to the speaker/utterer of the sentence).

[9]a Voi trece pe la [9]b I shall call on you in

tine după prânz. the afternoon.
[10]a Va mai lucra [10]b She will be working
vreo două ore înainte de for two more hours before
a-şi lua pauza de prânz. taking her lunch break.

The parallel examples display the possibility of the

English system to resort to temporal forms (see
28
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

sentences [6]b, [7]b, [9]b) or to aspectual ones (see

sentences [5]b, [8]b, and [10]b). The difficulty Romanian
learners face is that of making the right choice in terms
of aspect rather than in terms of tense.

Time is not so difficult a concept since it has the same

divisions in the two languages, people dividing the time
axis into the same three segments, past, present and
future.

Tense, on the other hand, may create problems if we

think only about the choices that have to be made to
express future events or situations. One of the
problems is due to the discrepancy between Romanian
and English as far as the number of tenses is
concerned. The Romanian indicative has seven tenses
while the English indicative has sixteen tempo-
aspectual forms. Modern approaches to the English
tense assembly divide the temporal verb forms into
those belonging to the present and those pertaining to
the non-present. The former category includes the
present tenses (i.e., simple present and present
continuous/progressive, present perfect simple and
present perfect continuous) and the latter groups the
forms expressing the non-present (i.e., past tense
simple, past tense continuous, past perfect simple and
past perfect continuous).

Traditional approaches envisaging the English system

deal with temporality in a way which is similar to the
Romanian grammar, in that they mention the existence
29
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

of the present tense, the past tense and the future

tense, each of them being allotted a certain segment on
the time axis. Since Romanian learners stand for our
readership target, this presentation will consider things
from the traditional perspective. This means that we
shall use the old fashioned but similar terminology and
we shall give examples of simple future or continuous
future, of future perfect or future perfect in the past, etc.

To conclude, the similarity between Romanian and

English in terms of temporality lies in the fact that they
both have the same graphical, physical and
chronological representations. Actually, they are both
temporal languages, that is to say they have verb
patterns to express aspectual features and tense
morphemes to make the distinction between present
and past. They also have their tenses divided into
absolute and relative, which was already mentioned in
the foregoing. The absolute or the relative character of
any tense is context-bound, even if linguistic
descriptions assign each of them to either set. Thus,
from the perspective of the relationship between tense
and aspect, the Romanian literature distinguishes (a)
perfective – all tenses of the indicative save Imperfect -
and imperfective tenses – Imperfect, exclusively (Irimia
1976: 55) and (b) momentary and durative tenses.
Unlike Romanian, English distinguishes between tenses
and forms of aspect.

The first tempo-aspectual dissimilarity, in general terms,

lies in the fact that English is much richer in
30
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

grammatical patterns since, in addition to a complete

temporal system, it also disposes of an aspectual
system fully represented on each segment of the time
axis.

1.5 Vectorial Interpretation of English Temporality

Our description will take into account the three

coordinates and their possible interrelationships. When
the position and relationships of temporal coordinates
are shown by arrows, we have to deal with a vectorial
representation of temporality.

The use of such a vectorial representation will become

clear when the category of aspect and, particularly, the
situation viewpoint will be considered.

Consider the following patterns of temporal

interpretation:
► [1] Emily visited the Village Museum two
years ago.
SM: now
RM: is indicated by the past tense form of
the verb and by the past time adverbial
two years ago.

Hence, the sentence reports an event that took place in

the past (relative to the now of the SM).
► [2] Emily had already visited the Village
Museum two years ago.
31
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

[1] and [2] are identical, except that the

event moment is more precisely
determined. Reichenbach is the specialist
who devised a theory according to which
tenses are defined to be SM, RM, EM
configurations ordered by the operations
of simultaneity and sequentiality (i.e.
posteriority and anteriority). Consider
example [1] where
SM: now,
RM: past/anterior to the speech time:
anteriority is expressed through the vector
formula
RM  SM
EM is assumed to be simultaneous with
RM: the vector formula for simultaneity is
EM = RM.

Hornstein (1982:121) sustains that intuitively such an

approach takes SM, RM and EM to be time moments
(or intervals on the time line) and the tenses are
considered as ways of temporally representing events
as related to the SM.

We shall consider in the following how the theory deals

with other tense forms and several adverbs or
adverbials.
► [3] John leaves tomorrow.
SM: now
The tense form and the time adverb point
to a time after SM, namely, a future axis;
32
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

therefore RM  SM. The event time is left

unspecified, i.e. we do not know when the
event is scheduled to take place, hence
EM = RM.
[3’] {RM  SM, EM = RM}
► [4] Victor had drunk the brandy.
SM: now
RM: past; relative to the SM is anterior to
it: SM RM. On the past time axis, the
event of having drunk the brandy is
anterior to the past RM, therefore EM 
RM.
[4’] {RM  SM; EM  RM}
► [5] Pauline will have read the poem.
SM: now
RM: posterior to now, RM  SM, and on
the future axis the event of reading the
poem is anterior to the anticipatory point
after that creates the future axis, EM 
RM.
[5’] {RM  SM; EM  RM}
► [6] Ronald broke the cup last night.
SM: as always, now
RM: specified by the adverbial last night
and by the tense form broke. By inference
the relation between SM and RM is that of
sequence RM  SM. EM is left
unspecified, i.e. we do not know precisely
when it took place in the interval
represented by last night. Hence EM and
RM are considered to be simultaneous.
33
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

SM: now
RM: last night, RM  SM, past
EM: unspecified with respect to RM,
therefore EM = RM
[6’] {RM  SM, last night EM = RM}
► [7] My little brothers had already fallen
asleep when I arrived at home.
SM: now
RM: when I arrived at home; by influence
the relation between RM and SM is one of
anteriority, RM before SM. EM is specified
as having already occurred by that time;
therefore at RM, EM is anterior to it:
SM: now,
RM: when I arrived at home, past, RM 
SM
EM: have already with respect to RM; EM
 RM
[7’] {RM  SM, when… EM  RM, have
already}
► [8] Juliana had decorated the nursery at
midnight, before the baby’s birth.
SM: now
RM: midnight, relative to now of the SM,
anterior and, therefore, past. The EM the
time when the nursery was decorated is
specified by the preposition before.
SM: now
RM: midnight, RM  SM, past
EM: before, therefore EM  RM

34
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

[8’] {RM  SM, midnight, EM  RM,

before}
► [9] Texaco is signing the contract before
next week.
SM: now
RM: next week, RM  SM, future
EM: before, therefore EM  RM
[9’] {RM  SM, next week, EM  RM
before}

Ioana Stefanescu (1988) is the linguist to have

introduced such a type of analysis in the literature of
speciality addressing Romanian learners.

This possible interpretation of temporality, also known

as the vectorial representation, contributes to a more
facile interpreting of the events in their chronological
order.

EXERCISES

1. Read the examples below, distinguish the reference

moment and comment upon its relationship with the
tense form. Fill in the blanks with the vectorial
representation of each of these examples.
Mary and James are going to London next week.
…………………………………………………
…………………………………………………

35
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

The painter will have painted the house roof before

Saturday evening.
…………………………………………………
…………………………………………………
We bought these dictionaries yesterday.
…………………………………………………
…………………………………………………
They had already dug the ditches when the pipes
were brought.
…………………………………………………
…………………………………………………
The rain will wash the pastures this year, as a
consequence of deforestation.
…………………………………………………
…………………………………………………
They water and weed the flowers in the garden
every week.
…………………………………………………
…………………………………………………

2. Build five sentences where the RM is expressed as

suggested below:
RM: one week ago
RM: when they left the party
RM: before they had arranged to buy the house
RM: this week

3. Give your own examples of sentences to be

described with the following formulas:

36
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

RMSM (the RM is anterior to the SM, which

means that the reader should consider that the
event happened depending on the time adverb)
RM SM
RM=SM

4. Produce one set made up of three sentences whose

reference moment may be located in the present, past
or future. (Consider the sentences [1], [2] and [3] as
models for this task).

A thorough examination of the two charts (see annex 1

at the end of the book) will reveal both the points of
correspondence and the apparent shortcomings of the
Romanian language. In the case of Romanian, the
tense gaps spotted in the chart are only apparent as
our language has many other instruments to accurately
express any semantic feature implied by a certain
English tense or another.

Tense actually establishes the relation between SM and

RM, while aspect describes the internal structure, in our
view the relation between EM and RM. Aspect and
tense are related both notionally and formally. The
aspectual meaning of a sentence is also dependent on
the temporal reading. That is why most of the
grammarians believe that tense and aspect cannot be
separated, even if they are treated as distinct
categories.

37
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

Time and tense are two different concepts which have

the same origin - a fundamental dimension of the
Universe - but which focus on two interrelated aspects,
the moment an event/situation developed or took place
–time- and the most appropriate linguistic instrument to
suggest the speaker and the listener the accurate
location of the respective situation type, tense. While
time is a general term which is used in each and every
field of activity, tense is exclusively a grammatical term
and will be considered as a fundamental example of
metalanguage.

Summary

The first chapter of this parallel approach sets the

framework for the rest of the description, introducing the
basic terminology frequently occurring in the literature
of temporality.
Due to the terminological difference – Romanian lacking
the lexical distinction time vs tense – as well as due to
the numerous possible interpretations of the concept of
time, some views were offered to create an idea about
the multitude of temporal outlooks.
The sequencing of time interpretations led to the
grammatical category of tense and to its semantic or
formal classifications.
The final section of the chapter was intended
exclusively for practical reasons: to enable Romanian
learners get familiar with the possible readings of
temporality.

38
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

EXERCISES

1. Find the proper answer to the questions below:

a. What is the difference between time and tense?

b. How do you define the Romanian term ‘timp’ if
you relate it to time and tense?
c. What other deictic categories do you know?
d. How do you consider orientation as defined in
the literature of temporality?
e. Enumerate and define the temporal coordinates.
f. How do you classify time points in terms of
distance?
g. Where can you locate the reference moment? (is
there one or are there more time axes?)
h. Could you find any similarities between the
English and the Romanian temporal systems?
i. What benefit(s) have you found in finding out all
these about temporality, time and tense?

2. Consider the vectorial representation and apply it to

the following sentences:

a. My little brother lost his bicycle last year.

b. They will publish their contribution to the
development of this region in a special bulletin
next month.

39
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

c. The pottery fragments will have been carried to

the museum before the end of the week.
d. The children watch cartoons every day.
e. They will repair the bridges across the Thames
next millennium.
f. The computer had been coupled before the
assistant entered his office.
g. Firemen train every day.

3. For each of the following sentences say (where

relevant) which time segment is referred to.

a. He took a bus to the railway station, bought her

ticket and succeeded in getting on the train in
time.
b. They were used to reading a lot of literature
when they were high school students.
c. My uncle writes novels, but he prefers reading
short stories.
d. It had been snowing for three days when a snow
storm started out of the blue.
e. They brought several newspapers.
f. Students will have a very difficult session of
examinations this long and hot summer.
g. Teachers promised to spend some hours reading
and improving their knowledge.
h. You will have copied this painting before noon
tomorrow.
i. The doctor operated on that patient last month.
j. We spend a lot of money on sweets.
k. They carried the logs by trucks.
40
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

4. Translate into Romanian, paying attention to the

tense forms; comment on possible dis/similiarities at the
tense level:

“It often happened that when we thought we were

experimenting on others we were really
experimenting on ourselves”.
(O. Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey)

“I want him to play with me, cried Lord Henry,

smiling, and he looked down the table and caught a
bright answering glance.”
(O. Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey)

“My heart began to misgive me, and I was much

fatigued; for I had had very little sleep for several
nights before.”
“The daughter came up, and said, Mr Robert had
given her a letter to give me…”
(S. Richardson, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded)

5. Make the vectorial representation of the following

sentences, paying attention to the time adverbs
wherever possible.

a. My boyfriend worked in Great Britain two years

ago.
b. They had a clear perspective about this item.
41
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

c. You read, make notes and learn a lot every day.

d. They went for a trip to the South Pole last year.
e. As a rule, soldiers train up to four hours a day.
f. The elections will decide the future mayor of our
town.
g. The letters will have been translated before the
manager asks for them.
h. Drivers drive their cars eight hours a day.

6. Translate into Romanian and discuss with your study

partner about the tense forms in this excerpt in terms of
location (remoteness):

“She thought, without exactly wording the thought,

how strange and godlike was a composer’s power,
who from the grave could lead through sequences of
emotions which he alone had felt at first, a girl like
her who had never heard of his name, and never
would have a clue to his personality.”
(Th. Hardy - Tess of the d’Urbervilles)

42
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

CHAPTER 2

Aspectuality. Aktionsart. Aspect

Outline
This chapter addresses two different facts which are to
be found both in the Romanian and English ways of
expressing aspectual features of states, processes,
activities or events. Since similarities between the two
verb systems constitute the starting point in every
sequence of this book, the presentation of what follows
will first focus on general problems of aspectuality.
Aktionsart, a concept whose manifestations are obvious
in the two languages, will open the section which
continues with a sketchy portrait of the grammatical
category of aspect, or simply Aspect, from now on.

Learning objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able:
- to understand what Aspect and Aktionsart
stand for;
- to distinguish between the features of Aspect
and Aktionsart;
- to discuss and exemplify the semantic
features involved by the use of aspectual
forms;

43
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

- to handle the key concepts in the literature of

aspectuality:
- to have a better overview Romanian and
English aspectuality

2.1 Aspectuality

Aspectuality is an abstract term which refers to the

lexical, morphologic and syntactic patterns intended to
express some characteristics of the situations
expressed by verbs such as perfective vs imperfective,
durative versus momentary, repetitive vs semelfactive.

The English grammatical patterns for Aspectuality form

together the aspectual system, which is the parallel
version of the temporal system. This is why, the final
section of this approach will summarize the two
systems in a tabular presentation.

The lexical patterns suggesting aspectuality are

circumscribed to the concept of Aktionsart, with its
plural form Aktionsarten and, by means of aspectual
verbs, they express the stages in the unfolding of an
activity or process, both of which require three stages of
evolution: the beginning, the continuation and the end.

2.2 The Concept of Aktionsart

The grammar of aspectuality could not be complete if

no mention were made with regard to Aktionsart, which
44
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

is a notion so very rarely spoken about. It could, in turn,

create a very rich system with nearly a perfect
possibility of equivalence into Romanian.

Aktionsart is the lexical aspect, i.e. that specific form of

aspect which may be expressed with the help of
catenative verbs (known in the Romanian grammar as
‘semiauxiliare de aspect’). These verbs will emphasize
or will draw the attention upon the beginning, the
continuation, the interruption or the end of an action.

The next paragraphs, inspired from the classification

put forward by Guţu-Romalo (1961), further on the
grammatical category of Aktionsart to illustrate the
abundance of lexical instruments used to express
stages in the development of a verb situation and which
have been somewhat ignored in Romanian - English
approaches of the verb system.

The beginning of an action is expressed by a începe, a

se pune/porni, a se apuca (followed by the infinitive, the
Romanian Conjunctiv or a noun playing different roles
at the sentence level):

1a Începu a plânge cu 1b She started crying

foc. bitterly.
2a Copiii începură să-l 2b The children began
asculte cu atenţie. listening to him
attentively.
3a Acum ei încep 3b They start the
licitaţia. auction now.
45
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

4a Bătrânul se puse să 4b The old man took to

povestească. telling the story.
5a Oamenii se apucară 5b The people set to
să transporte cutiile carrying the heavy
cele grele. boxes.

The duration or the unfolding of a situation is

emphasized by the verbs a continua or a urma, a sta
which are followed by a verb in the infinitive or
Conjunctiv and rarely by nouns:

6a Mai sunt puţine de 6b Little else is to be

adăugat, urmă added, went on the old
bătrânul. man.
7a Continua să 7b He kept on believing
creadă că lucrurile that things would
se vor îmbunătăţi improve.
8a Omul îşi urma 8b The man continued
munca începută cu the work he had
ceva timp înainte. started some time
before.
9a Stau câteodată şi 9b I sometimes keep
visez cu ochii daydreaming…
deschişi…

The verbs which focus on the finish or egressive stage

of a verb situation are more numerous and include both
verbs belonging to formal and informal, archaic or
dialectal Romanian, such as a înceta, a sfârşi, a epuiza,
a termina, for the former category and a mântui, a găta,
46
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

a isprăvi, for the latter. Verbs in this semantic group are

followed by the infinitive or Conjunctiv:

10a Sindicatele încetară 10b The trade unions

să mai protesteze ca stopped protesting
urmare a in consequence to
promisiunilor the minister’s
ministrului. promises.
11a Bătrânii mântuiră 11b The old people
vorba târziu şi ended their
plecară spre casele discussion late and
lor. they went to their
houses.
12a Femeia gătă de 12b The woman finished
aranjat masa şi laying the table and
invită musafirii la invited the guests to
cină. dinner.

In addition to these verbs, there still exist other kinds of

situations whose meanings involve the foregoing
semantic features assigned to Aktionsart and which are
expressed by means of different instruments, such as
pairs of verbs and idiomatic constructions which are in
our focus in what follows.

There are pairs of verbs learners have to distinguish

through the prefix which makes them semantically
different and, on the other hand there are verbs which
are semantically related. Romanian verbs as a adormi
and a dormi are different in their aspectual meaning, the
47
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

former involving ingression into a state and the latter,

the full development of the same state. The verbs a tăia
and a reteza, when used in their figurative meaning,
they suggest interruption, with the former verb and dead
end of the situation, with the latter. Verbs may accept
prefixes to make aspectual distinctions – continuation of
the situation described by the verb, as is the case with a
face (to do) and a preface, a schimba and a
preschimba, (to do again, to repeat and intensify the
action expressed by the verb). Nevertheless, the prefix
pre- may involve the aspectual meaning of anteriority,
as is the case with a plăti (to pay) and a preplăti (to pay
in advance). The idea of continuity is sometimes
involved by the prefixes re- and răs- in a abona (to
subscribe) and a reabona (to subscribe again or to
renew one’s subscription), a citi and a reciti, a scrie and
a rescrie or a citi and a răsciti, a tălmăci and a
răstălmăci or a coace and a răscoace.

Idiomatic structures may also suggest stages in the

development of a process or an action (Evseev 1974:
42) as is the case with a izbucni în lacrimi/râs, a da în
clocot, a da în pârg, a da frunză/puful/lacrimile/sângele,
a se prinde la ceartă/vorbă/trântă, a se pune pe
treabă/lucru/gânduri, a-şi lua zborul, a lua fiinţă, a o lua
la fugă, a da să plece/replice/lovească, etc., where
ingression is meant. or a se face scrum where
completion or the end of burning is obvious. While a
tăia elanul means to reduce in intensity and a tăia vorba
means to stop somebody’s speech for a little time, a i-o
reteza involves also the end of any possible reply.
48
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

Aspectually, this is an illustration of the egressive stage

of a situation.

The concept may also be interpreted from the aspectual

perspective, when the catenative or auxiliary verb is in
continuous forms. The implicature for each of the
examples is accounted for between brackets.

Compare the pairs of sentences below:

13.a. She begins to read a novel every Monday.

[ingressive stage, neutral tone]
13.b. She is beginning to read a novel every
Monday.[ingressive stage, ironical tone; implicature: this
is what she usually does but without an end]
14.a. I began to understand his choice.
[ingressive stage]
14.b. I was beginning to understand his choice.
[stress on the inchoative stage]
15.a. They kept on making the same mistake.
[progressive stage, neutral tone]
15.b. They were keeping on making the same
mistake. [progressive stage, speaker’s emphasis on the
subject’s persistence in carrying out the situation]
16.a. As a poet he writes every day not to lose
his touch. [ordinary practice]
16.b. As a beginner poet he scribbles every day
to make his hand. [frequency and insistence on the
parts of the sentence subject]

49
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

2.3 The concept of Aspect

Aspect - a universal category detectable in any

language and concealing meanings which involve the
mode of the action will be described in the following.
This grammatical category is viewed as a system based
on four main coordinates: perfectivity, imperfectivity or
durativity, iterativity and intensiveness. Perfectivity
includes two subdivisions – inchoativity or ingressivity,
which refers to the moment marking the beginning of a
state and resultativity which focuses on the result of the
activity expressed by the verb.

Aspect is characterized by a high degree of complexity

since in overlaps temporal and aspectual features, and
sometimes it is very difficult to say where temporality
stops and aspectuality begins.

Aspectual meanings are argued to hold for sentences,

rather than for individual verbs or verb phrases and it is
defined as consisting of two components (a) situation–
type and (b) viewpoint, with initial and final points, which
interact in the language system.

2.3.1 Temporal properties

The situation-type of a sentence is seen as
determined by the temporal properties of the
situations themselves (they can be durative, telic or
atelic, instantaneous, semelfactive or iterative), i.e. by
50
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

the verb and its arguments. It corresponds to what is

called Aktionsart in more traditional approaches to
aspectuality.

The second concept of interest for the theory of

aspectuality is the viewpoint, which is grammaticalized,
that is it is expressed by means of inflections. In English
[be + -ing] is the mark of the imperfective point of view.
In fact, English has two such viewpoints (i) the
perfective and (ii) the imperfective. Comrie (1985: 6)
suggests a third viewpoint, the neutral, which is flexible,
including the initial point of a situation and at least one
internal stage. While the perfective focuses on the
situation as a whole, providing its globalized view with
both initial and final points, the imperfective focuses on
a certain part of the situation usually, the middle of the
respective situation, disregarding any beginning or final
point.

Perfectivity is that feature which shows that an action

has reached an end or it is of a resultative type and
describes the participation in an activity which
necessarily leads to an end or to a terminal point (to
sleep, to read) or even to the emergence of a result.

Imperfectivity focuses on the duration of the action,

without any reference whatsoever to its result. It
emphasizes the fact that a certain situation may have
an internal structure, describing a temporally
unbounded state or an activity which will not necessarily
lead to a terminal point. The difference between these
51
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

semantic features lies in the fact that imperfectivity

considers the inner structure of any type of situation.
According to Comrie (1985:4) “… the difference
between perfectivity and imperfectivity is not
necessarily an objective difference between situations,
nor is it necessarily a difference that is presented by the
speaker as being objective. It is quite possible for the
same speaker to refer to the same situation once with a
perfective form, and once with an imperfective form,
without in any way being self-contradictory”.

Durativity is the aspectual features which opposes

momentaneity to progressivity, to the full development
of the situation-type expressed by the verb. This
semantic feature is expressed through the subsystem of
the simple or common aspect as opposed to the
progressive or the continuous aspect.

Iterativity is the aspectual feature which corresponds to

the opposition semelfactive vs. repeated or iterative or
frequentative. A semelfactive situation is a time point
activity, which implicitly means that its duration is really
very brief (for example to cough, to jump, to hit, to
knock). A semelfactive situation is one simple cough or
one simple jump, or just one knock on the door; when
the action expressed by a semelfactive verb is repeated
within a short time interval, it will suggest the idea of
duration or of progressivity.

Telicity or boundness is the dimension which

characterizes a verbal situation as completed or
52
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

finalized or as incomplete. This feature may be

subjective (bounded – unbounded) or objective
(perfective or imperfective), which is the case with
agentive situations. In such instances the agent may
decide to stop being active or to stop doing what he
was doing.

2.3.2 Phase
Speaking about the internal structure or mode of an
action, we shall have to consider the objective stages of
an action which determine some semantic features as
imminence, ingressivity, inchoativity, progressivity,
egressivity, which are generically called phase. The
meanings of all these semantic features are easily
explained through the table below:

inchoative i
ingressive ii
inceptive iii
progressive iv
regressive v
conclusive vi
egressive vii

Inchoativity is the semantic feature which points to the

beginning of an action is getting near to the speech
moment, the pre-beginning stage.

Ingressivity or inceptivity emphasizes the beginning

of the situation, while egressivity focuses on the post-
53
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

situation interval (the moment of contemplation), which

follows the final stage of any type of situation, namely
the conclusive stage.
This conclusive stage means, in fact, the getting out of
the action expressed by the verb.

2.3.3 Types of situations

Verbs may express several types of situations, which is
the generic term for states, activities, events,
accomplishments and achievements.

States are those situation types which lack dynamism

and whose internal structure may be expressed by one
moment at least. Some verbs may hold either the
position of stative verbs – to express a state or the
position of dynamic verbs, to express an action or a
process. That is why it is advisable to refer to the
stative or dynamic uses of verbs and not as stative or
dynamic verbs. Stative verbs fall into two categories:

1. verbs of inert perception and cognition:

adore, astonish, believe, desire, detest,
(dis)like, doubt, forgive, guess, hate, hear,
imagine, impress, intend, know, love, mean,
mind, perceive, please, prefer, (pre)suppose,
realize, recall, recognize, regard, remember,
satisfy, taste, think, understand, want, wish.
These verbs do not occur in the progressive,
as a rule; when suggesting process, which
means that they slightly hange their meaning,
they may be used in the progressive.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

2. relational verbs: apply to, be, belong to,

concern, consist of, contain, cost, depend on,
deserve, equal, fit, have, include, involve,
lack, matter, need, owe, own, possess,
remain (a bachelor/spinster), require,
resemble, seem, sound, suffice, tend, etc.
These verbs are usually impossible in the
progressive.

Activities are the durative, atelic events, which have

successively homogenous stages and an arbitrary
terminal point (to smoke, to eat, to work, to climb, to
build, etc.).

Accomplishments are complex durative, telic events,

which consist of a process with successive stages and
a natural terminal point (build a house, carve a statue,
walk to market, compile a dictionary, paint a car, climb a
mountain, write a book, to play a sonata, etc.). The
result of an accomplishment is a change of the state.

Achievements are dynamic, telic, instantaneous

events (win a race, reach the top). Activities,
accomplishments and achievements are expressed by
means of dynamic verbs.

Dynamic verbs include five subdivisions:

1. activity verbs: abandon, ask, beg, call,

drink, eat, help, learn, listen, look at
55
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

play, rain, remind, read, say, slice,

throw, wedge, whisper, work, write, run,
drive, etc.
2. process verbs: change, deteriorate,
grow, mature, widen, slow down
3. verbs of bodily sensations: ache,
hurt, itch, feel
4. transitional event verbs: arrive, come,
enter, die, fall, leave, lose, land
5. momentary verbs: hit, jump, kick,
knock, nod, tap

The viewpoint characterizes the situation expressed by

the verb as being partial or global.
Nevertheless, the global character of a situation is or
may be a matter of high subjectivity.

Compare the pairs of sentences below:

17a. You have done your job, so you may leave
now.
17b.You did your job, so you may leave now.
and
18a. She has taken all the pills and she will feel
better soon.
18b. She took all the pills and she will feel better
soon.

Sentences 17 and 18 cover the same segment on the

time axis, so they suggest temporally similar situations.
Why are there two solutions for each case?

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

Because in such cases, the segment on the time axis is

close to the SM and RM, but, at the same time it covers
both the domain of the past and that of the present,
speakers may decide what to choose between Aspect
and Tense.

All these features will prove necessary in the further

characterizations of the verbs when deciding which of
the tempo-aspectual forms to use in certain of context.
The practical purpose of this presentation will matter
when you are in a position to make English and
Romanian translations no matter which is the source
and which the target language.

Summary

This chapter approached the issues connected to

Aspect and Aktionsart as the two exist in Romanian and
English. After a brief theoretical framework intended to
be a background for the two concepts, Aktionsart was
considered as shared by both languages. Aspect, which
is not only a little bit more complicated but which has its
idiosyncrasies, if compared to the Romanian system,
was given a more minute theoretical description aiming
at making these notions as explicit as possible. The
description of Aspect relies on Charlotta Smith’s
guidelines as specified in the volume The Parameter of
Aspect (1991). Since this author’s view on Aspect and
aspectuality applies to Romanian as well, examples
57
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

from this language come in support to the theoretical

statements.

QUESTIONNAIRE

1. What is aspectuality?
2. How would you define Aktionsart?
3. Give a possible definition of Aspect.
4. Can aspect and tense be separately described?
Provide arguments in favour of your position.
5. Why is it argued that aspectual meaning holds for
sentences rather than for individual verbs?
6. What is situation aspect?
7. What is viewpoint aspect?
8. Which are the temporal dimensions of Aspect?
9. Give four examples of semantic features which
characterize aspectuality and define them.
10. Give examples of five verbs which can be classified
as states, activities, achievements or
accomplishments.

EXERCISES

1. Provide your translation into Romanian, paying

attention to the aspectual values of each verb form.
Write your remarks on the aspectuality of each verb
form and discuss them with your class mates.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

a. “Dorian Gray drew a long breath. Ýou have been on

the brink of committing a terrible crime, my man’… “
(O. Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray)

b. “Dorian Gray passed his hand over his forehead.

There were beads of perspiration there. He felt that he
was on the brink of a horrible danger. “
(O. Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray)
c. “Whenever I have gone there, there have been
either so many people that I have not been able to see
the pictures, which was so dreadful, or so many
pictures that I have not been able to see the people,
which was worse.”
(O. Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray)
d. “This is Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian, an old Oxford
friend of mine. I have just been telling him what a
capital sitter you were, and now you have spoiled
everything.”
(O. Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray)
e. “You have not spoiled me pleasure in meeting you,
Mr. Gray,” said Lord Henry, stepping forward and
extending his hand. My aunt has spoken to me about
you.”
(O. Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray)

f. “He has certainly not been paying me compliments.

Perhaps that is the reason that I don’t believe anything
he has told me.
(O. Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray)

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

g. Talking to him was like playing upon an exquisite

violin. He answered to every touch and thrill of the
bow…
(O. Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray)

h. “Some day, when you are old and wrinkled and

ugly, when thought has seared your forehead with its
lines, and passion branded your lips with its hideous
fires, you will feel it, you will feel it terribly.
(O. Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray)

2. Translate into English and comment on the aspectual

features revealed by each sentence:
1. Bebeluşul aproape adormise când a tresărit
din cauza telefonului care a sunat brusc şi l-a
trezit.
2. El construieşte o casă nouă pentru familie.
3. Din cauza vântului care suflă cu putere de
aproape trei zile, şopronul din spatele casei
este gata-gata să se prăbuşească.
4. Stătu să plouă de aproape trei ceasuri, cu
vântul suflând dinspre nord, cu nori negri şi
grei deasupra pădurii, când pe neaşteptate
vântul se opri şi soarele ieşi printer nori.
5. Dădu să plătească însă ar fi dorit să facă
parinţii lui gestul pentru el.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

6. În timp ce victima ere în operaţie, autorul

accidentului şi întreaga lui familie aşteptau cu
nerăbdare părerea chirurgului despre
viitoarea evoluţie a sănătăţii victimei.
7. Cumpărase deja câteva cărţi şi se pregătea
să iasă din magazin când vânzătoarea intră
cu alte coşuri cu volume noi.
8. În dimineaţa aceea rece şi ploioasă de
noiembrie încercam să mă gândesc la
frumoasele şi îndepărtatele zile de vară cu
soare strălucitor.
9. Şoferul a condus microbuzul cu o viteză
destul de mare, fără a încălca prevederile
noului cod de circulaţie, pentru că se temea
că ajunge prea târziu la aeroport.
10. În fiecare zi la această oră fetele se plimbă
prin parc în timp ce băieţii joacă fotbal pe
terenul din spatele şcolii.
11. Urca treptele cu foarte mare greutate din
cauza accidentului suferit.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

CHAPTER 3.

Tense and Aspect in Romanian

and English
A Parallel Approach

Outline
This chapter describes, in general terms, the features of
Romanian tenses providing English versions for each of
the suggested instances. Comments will argue for the
choices to be made and for the criteria applied in the
semantic interpretations. It unfolds a description of the
tenses of the indicative and lists temporal values of the
tenses distributed on the present time, past time and
future time axes of orientation. Examples will include
tenses in simple and complex sentences, pointing to
tense constraints, wherever the case is.

Learning objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will:
- have a clear image of the systems expressing
temporality and aspectuality;
- know about the distribution of tenses on the
each of the time axes;

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

- recognize he semantic features of the verb

forms which enable you to find proper
equivalents for each of the tenses;
- realize both the correspondences and the
difference between English and Romanian
verbs
- be able to account for the choices you make
in the process of translating when either
language is both source and target language.

3.1 Temporal Domains

The first chapter briefly presented some views on time

and tense put forward by philosophers, linguists,
grammarians and logicians, whose ideas point to a
nearly the same conclusion according to which “people
probably feel that they share the same idea of time.”
(Lewis 1994: 48)

Since people normally perceive time to be divided into

Past, Present and Future, we shall assume that these
three segments cover the three temporal domains.
Therefore, the approach will consist of three major
sections, each of them assigned to a particular temporal
domain. Intended to be the core of the book, the
chapter will consider tenses and aspectual forms as
representations of time points or intervals placed on
each of the time segments to describe various types of
situations (which happened in the past and have no

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

consequence at the SM, or which have consequences,

etc.).

For practical purposes we shall adopt the view

according to which linguists divide the English tense
system into three domains, the present, the past and
the future. The tempo-aspectual forms of the present
domain are:
- present tense simple / present tense
continuous
- present perfect simple / present perfect
continuous

The tempo-aspectual forms of the past domain are:

- past tense simple / past tense continuous
- past perfect simple / past perfect continuous

The constructions which express future situations and

cover the future domain are:
- ‘traditional’ simple / continuous future
- ‘traditional’ simple / continuous future perfect
- ‘traditional’ simple / continuous future-in-the-
past
- ‘traditional’ simple / continuous future perfect-
in-the-past

Since this has been announced to look like a parallel

approach, the Romanian tempo-aspectual forms to be
considered will also be grouped on the basis of the
temporal domains into forms of the non-past and forms
of the past as follows:
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

- prezent
- trecut (generic denomination, which consists
of imperfect, perfect simplu, perfect compus,
mai mult ca perfect)
- viitor (with its representations, viitor simplu or
viitor I, and viitor anterior or viitor II)

Another main idea of the same chapter is that “time is

not the same thing as tense”. (Lewis 1994: 47) Time is
an element of human experience of reality whereas
tense is a purely grammatical idea and a technical term
pointing to a morphological change in the base form of
verbs.

3.1.1 Timeless vs real time situations

When speakers build up their sentences, they may refer
to real time moments/intervals or they may make
statements which do not refer to a particular time
interval or time point. This is the case with what
grammars call ‘timeless situations’. You should not
confuse timeless for tenseless or vice versa, for each
word refers to a specific situation; the former focuses on
the generic meaning of the sentence tense, while the
second characterizes those sentences which do not
have a tense in their structure.

A. Timeless situations
They represent a particular case in the semantics of
temporality. This is because sentences may be
constructed around any of the three absolute tenses in
both Romanian and English, but they do not refer or
65
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

relate to a specific moment-interval. Therefore,

situations where the event moment is not related to a
certain reference moment (RM) but which has a generic
meaning and which holds true for ever. Comrie (1985a:
8) calls these situations ‘timeless‘ for they have
universal validity.

Based on the tense of the sentence predicate, they

include:
1. Timeless situations built with Prezent, and its English
equivalent Simple Present Tense, include:
a) sentences expressing sayings and proverbs:
1a. Prietenul bun la nevoie se cunoaşte.
1b. A friend in need is a friend indeed.
2a. Sângele apă nu se face.
2b. Blood is thicker than water.

b) sentences expressing truths (universal and

general truths):
3a. Oxigenul se poate combina cu toate
elementele, cu excepţia gazelor inerte.
3b. Oxygen is capable of combining with all
elements except the inert gases.
4a. Turcii beau multă cafea.
4b.Turks drink a lot of coffee.

2. Timeless situations built with the Perfect Compus or

Past Tense Simple are sayings or proverbs:
5. A tunat şi i-a adunat.
6. Domnul a dat, Domnul a luat.
7. Men were deceiving ever.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

3. Timeless situations involving futurity are built with the

Prezent or under the form of tenseless sentences which
are, in fact, sayings or proverbs and with English
patterns expressing futurity:

8a. Timpul le rezolvă pe toate.

8b. Time will bring all to light.
9a. Copiii tot copii. (tenseless sentence – there is
no predicate in this proverb)
9b. Children will be children.
9c. Boys will be boys.
10a. Când o face plopul mere
şi răchita micşunele.
10b. When hell freezes.

B Real time situations

Unlike timeless situations, where the tense form means
“at all times” or “no particular time” (Downing and Locke
1900: 354), the greatest majority of sentences do refer
to either a certain time point or time interval which is
expressed within a smaller or larger context (sentence
or paragraph). The syntagm ‘real time’ in the section
title was chosen for the sake of contrast with the
preceding section, timeless situations.

Therefore, the rest of the chapter will further on those

situations which are related to a specific time interval or

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

time point and whose relationship may be supported

either by an adverb or an adverbial of time.

3.2 The domain of the present

The tense and the aspectual forms which are the core
of this book were selected to belong exclusively to the
indicative, for this is the only mood showing that a verb
situation really happens, has happened or did happen
in some (more or less remote) past. There do exist
slight references to temporality with subjunctives and
conditionals, but most of the grammarians share the
opinion that many other features and shades of
meaning are involved with these forms than that of
temporality.

The most frequently cited model of temporal

interpretations, Bull’s hypothetical system (see annex 1
at the end of the book) refers to the tenses of the
indicative and since this is our starting point we shall
consider mainly its tenses in the two languages. The
present time axis of orientation hosts one Romanian
tense Prezent, and four English forms, Present Tense
Simple and Present Tense Continuous, Present Perfect
Simple and Present Perfect Continuous.

We shall start from the absolute tenses of the

Romanian language in our endeavour to provide
practical solutions, clear distinctions and specifications
regarding the choices of the proper English equivalents.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

3.2.1 The Romanian Prezent and the English

Present Tenses
Meaningfully opposed to timeless present, which refers
to situations not involving the SM, the temporal present
makes reference to those instances which do involve
the SM, be it a moment proper or an instant (now, as a
rule) or an interval. The temporal present is the time
axis segment where the EM (event moment) coincides
with the RM (reference moment) and the SM (speech
moment).

The segment on the time axis in the close vicinity of the

now moment on a small portion both before and after it,
shows the multitude of English tempo-aspectual forms
which convey semantic features expressed by four
grammatical instruments. The simple present tense, the
continuous/progressive present tense, the simple
present perfect and the continuous/progressive present
perfect are all possible versions for the one and only
version of Prezent.

It is obvious that mastering the use of English tenses is

a challenging and difficult task for a Romanian-speaking
native, who may face at least four choices in the target
language for only one source language tense.

A. Prezent and Present Tense Simple

The ‘now moment/interval’ focuses on a situation which
happens or is said to happen at the speech moment,
under the speaker’s eyes; nevertheless, the present
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

moment/interval should not be literally understood to

refer exclusively to the speech moment, but it should be
interpreted in a general sense to refer to situations
which hold true or remain valid, no matter the speech
moment.

Romanian Prezent forms will always be translated with

Simple Present equivalents, in the following instances:

a) when formulating sentences which express

habits or situations so frequently repeated that
they may be accepted as habits:

11a. Totdeauna bunicul citeşte ziare dimineaţa.

11b.Grandfather always reads papers in the
morning.
12a. În fiecare dimineaţă ploioasă merge la birou
cu maşina lui.
12b. Every rainy morning he goes to his office by
his own car.
13a. Philip şi Margreet merg în croazieră cu
bărcuţa lor, Suzanna, în fiecare vară.
13b. Every summer, Philip and Margreet go on a
cruise by their little boat Suzanna.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

NOTE:
Indefinite adverbs of frequency such as: always,
n/ever, often, occasionally, generally, frequently,
sometimes, rarely, seldom and usually when used in
sentences suggesting a neutral tone will always be
accompanied by Simple Present.

b) with situations happening at the SM and by

means of which the sentence subject begs,
offers or accepts something:

14a. Cele două părţi acceptă continuarea

discuţiilor săptămâna următoare.
14b. The two parties agree on continuing the
discussions next week.
15a. Te implor să reflectezi îndelung asupra
acestei decizii.
15b. I implore you to ponder this decision.

c) in newspaper headlines

“România intră în UE prin cultură”, “UE schimbă

regulile” (Jurnalul Naţional)
“Billie Holiday Dies”, (Herald Tribune)

d) with certain expressions focusing on a situation

in full progress, such as here comes …, and
there goes…:

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

16a. Iată vine taxiul, deci vom ajunge la timp la

gară.
16b. Look, here comes the taxi so we shall reach
the railway station in time.
17a. Se duce şi dicţionarul pe care voiam să-l
cumpăr; va trebui să-mi command unul prin
internet.
17b. There goes the dictionary I was going to buy;
I shall have to order one via the Internet.

e) in practical usage, in expressions like it’s (a long

time/five weeks/years/months) since:

18a. A trecut multă vreme de când au pierdut

legătura.
18b. It’s a long time since they lost contact.
19a. Au trecut două luni de când a plecat în State.
19b. It’s two months since she left for the United
States.

f) In stage directions

20. “…devine ridiculos faţă cu ştiinţa şi merită

ghespreţăluit. (Şcolarii rîd, Ionescu mai tare ca
toţi.)
Profesorul …: … înţălesu-m-ai?
(Copiii devin din ce în ce mai impacienţi şi mi
zgomotoşi.)
(Caragiale – Despre cometă – Prelegere populară)

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

21. “BRANT (grabbing her by the arm – tauntingly)

You’re a coward, are you, like all Mannons, when
it comes to facing the truth about themselves?
(She turns on him defiantly. He drops her arm
and goes on harshly) I’ll bet he never told your
grandfather, Aba Mannon, as well as his brother,
loved my mother!”
(O’Neil – Mourning Becomes Electra)

g) when a situation is to happen in the future, the

Prezent and Simple Present will assume future
meanings:
 when they express an official timetable or
programme
22a. Cursa pentru New York decolează în
jumătate de oră
22b. The flight to New York takes off in half an
hour.
 when they are accompanied by an adverb
or an adverbial expressing futurity:

23a. Expoziţia se deschide mâine la prânz.

23b. The exhibition opens at noon tomorrow.

B. Prezent and Present Tense Continuous

Romanian sentences whose Prezent verb form refers to
a specific now moment/interval, will be translated by
means of the Continuous Present forms only:

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

a) when situations are in full progress at the speech

moment:

24a. Copiii mei se uită la desene animate acum.

24b. My children are watching cartoons now.
25a. Lidia este în pat şi serveşte micul dejun.
25b. Lidia is in bed having her breakfast.
26a. Managerul citeşte scrisorile în biroul său
acum.
26b. The manager is in his office reading the
letters.

NOTE
Expression of place can sometimes be placed between
the auxiliary and the –ing verb in continuous tenses, as
in examples 25b and 26b.

b) when situations have a temporary character:

(these days/weeks/months/years, this term, this
week/month/season/year suggest the temporary
character of a situation)

27a. Zilele acestea munceşte mai mult fiindcă vrea

să-şi termine proiectul înainte de sfârşitul
săptamânii.
27b. These days he is working harder because he
wants to finish his project before the week-
end.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

28a. Vara aceasta locuieşte în Egipt pentru că

soţul ei vizitează un sit arheologic acolo.
28b. This summer she is living in Egypt for her
husband is visiting an archaeological site
there.

c) when situations may be going on at any time:

29a. Nu mă deranja niciodată când vorbesc la

telefon, te rog.
29b. Please, never disturb me when I am talking
on the telephone.
30a.Nu vorbi cu băieţelul când numără.
30b. Don’t talk to the little boy while he is counting.

d) when situations reveal a developing or changing

character:

31a. Să ne grăbim, se face din ce în ce mai

întuneric.
31b. Let’s hurry up, it is getting darker and darker.
32a. Măsurile propuse arată că lucrurile se
înrăutăţesc.
32b. The measures, which have been proposed,
show that things are changing for the worse.

e) when situations described in the sentence

suggest admiration, annoyance, disapproval,
irritation, reproach:

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

33a. Totdeauna uit unde-mi las ochelarii şi, dacă

am nevoie de ei, nu ştiu de unde să-i iau.
33b. I am always forgetting where I leave my
glasses and if I need them I don’t know where
to take them from.
34a. Rareori uită să precizeze cât de mult i-a
ajutat pe vecinii ei.
34b. She is rarely forgetting to mention how much
she has helped her neighbours.

f) when situations described in the sentence will

happen in the future and they suggest personal
arrangement:

35a. Trec pe la tine într-una din zilele acestea.

35b. I am calling on you one of these days.
36a. Am aranjat deja totul aşa că te aştept în faţa
teatrului.
36b.I have already made all the arrangements so I
am waiting for you in front of the theater.

C. Prezent and Simple or Continuous Present

Romanian sentences whose Prezent refers to a specific
now moment/interval, will be translated by means of
either Simple or Continuous Present. When the
situation expressed by a Prezent involving a temporal
background, will have to be translated into English, the
following distinctions will be considered at the sentence
meaning level:

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

a) permanent vs temporary features of the

sentence subject:

37a. Dorina este o persoană înţeleaptă.

37b. Doris is a wise person. (permanent feature-
Simple Present)

38a. Nu ştiu ce e cu tine, Dorina, eşti cu adevărat

ilogică!
38b. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, Dorina,
you are being illogical! (temporary feature -
Continuous Present)

b) in commenting quicker vs slower sports:

39a. Beckham marchează primul gol.

39b. Beckham shoots the first goal.
40a. Jucătorul de golf îşi alege crosa cu grijă.
40b. The golfer is choosing the club carefully.

c) verbs expressing mental activities/attitudes - as

verbs of communication vs verbs expressing
mental activities - as verbs describing processes.
(verbs expressing mental activities/attitudes
include agree, believe, consider, doubt,
expect, forget, guess, imagine, note, realize,
remember, suspect, think, understand,
wonder)

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

41a. Consider că este o persoană cinstită. (opinia

mea este …)
41b. I consider him to be a fair person.
42a. Mă gândesc la propunerea lui. (reflectez la…,
analizez, întorc pe toate părţile...)
42b. I am considering his proposition.
43a. Cred că va cumpăra maşina aceasta, în cele
din urmă. (opinia mea este …)
43b. I think he will eventually buy this car.

44a. Spune-mi la ce te gândeşti. (la ce reflectezi,

asupra cărui subiect meditezi...)
44b. Tell me what you are thinking of.
45a. Înţeleg limba engleză. (opinia mea este …)
45b. I understand English.
46a. Înţeleg limba engleză din ce în ce mai bine.
(din ce în ce mai bine - intensifying pattern
involving process)
46b. I am understanding English better and better.

d) verbs of perception: denoting inert vs volition or

purposeful perception on the part of the sentence
subject (verbs of perception: feel, smell, taste,
touch, see, hear, sound)

47a. Laptele acesta are gust acru. (inert

perception)
47b. This milk tastes sour.

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48a. Gust laptele copilului ca să văd dacă este

suficient de cald. (purposeful perception)
48b. I am tasting the baby’s milk to see whether it
is warm enough.
49a. Crinii miros/au un parfum minunat. (inert
perception)
49b. Lilies smell wonderful.
50a. Miros crinii şi trandafirii ca să mă decid ce
flori să cumpăr pentru evenimentul de mâine.
(purposeful perception)
50b. I am smelling lilies and roses to decide which
flowers to buy for tomorrow’s event.

NOTE:
In distinguishing between inert and purposeful
perception with the verbs to see and to hear,
remember that they are used differently.
When involving purposeful perception to see is
replaced by to look at, to watch, etc., and to hear is
substituted by to listen to.

51a. Vezi pasărea aceea de sub salcie? (inert

perception)
51b. Do/Can you see that little bird under the
willow?
52a. Mă uit la furnica aceasta care cară un
grăunte cât ea de mare. (purposeful
perception)
52b. I am looking at this ant carrying a grain which
is as big as it is.

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53a. Ana o ascultă pe soprana ei preferată.

53b. Ann is listening to her favourite soprano.

NOTE:
to see in the Continuous Present is not a verb of inert
perception since it may mean
(1) to accompany/escort somebody to;
(2) to date;
(3) to have hallucinations

54a. Te conduc numai până la poartă.

54b. I am seeing you only to the gate.
55a. Ne vedem mai des săptămâna vitoare.
55b. We are seeing each other more often next
week.

NOTE:
to hear in the Continuous Present is not a verb of inert
perception since it means to have an audition.

56a. D-l profesor nu poate răspunde la telefon;

acum audiază candidaţii pentru postul vacant
de violonist.
56b. The professor cannot answer the phone; now
he is hearing the applicants for the vacant
position of violonist.

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e) verbs of positive or negative attitudes

emphasizing a neutral tone vs a polite tone or a
tentative meaning (verbs of positive or negative
attitudes: bear, care, like, dislike, enjoy,
forgive, hate, hope, prefer, refuse, stand,
want):

57a. Te iubesc, Paul.

57b. I love you, Paul.
58a. Îmi place McDonald din ce în ce mai mult.
58b. I am loving McDonald more and more.
59a. Sper că tu vei fi numit manager general.
59b. I hope you will be appointed general
manager.
60a. Sper că dumneavoastră veţi fi numit manager
general.
60b. I am hoping you will be appointed general
manager.

f) with be and have as stative vs non-stative verbs:

61a. Cerşetorul acesta este beat mort. (stative

meaning)
61b. This beggar is dead drunk.
62a. Victor Popa este un inginer de succes.
(stative meaning)
62b. Victor Popa is a successful engineer.
63a. Ioana şi Bogdan au o casă foarte frumosă.
(stative meaning)
63b. Ioana and Bogdan have a very nice house.

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64a. Reacţia ta mă face să cred că eşti ciudat.

(non-stative meaning)
64b. Your reaction makes me believe you are
being awkward.
65a. Discutăm despre consecinţele unei
asemenea decizii. (non-stative meaning)
65b. We are having a talk on the consequences of
such a decision.

3.2.2 Present time relevance situations

Present time relevance situations are those actions or
events which:
(a) started or happened in a past moment/interval
and develop up to the SM to include it
(b) have consequences in the SM which are
expressed at the sentence level;
(c) the speaker/sentence subject considers or
knows they may eventually happen in the future.
In instances of the kind, the Prezent will have as
meaningfully equivalent forms in Simple or Continuous
Present Perfect forms. Therefore, even if the EM
precedes the SM and the RM, the possibility of the
situation expressed by the verb in focus to happen at
the SM or afterwards, makes it possible for Prezent to
be rendered by Present Perfect.

Prezent and Present Perfect Simple or Continuous

a) simultaneous situations which began in the past,
continue up to the SM and are connected by
means of since: (‘since’ Present Perfect)
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

66a. Arată mult mai bine de când lucrează în

această firmă.
66b. She has looked much better since she has
worked in this company.
67a. Sunt mai fericiţi de când au doi copii.
67b. They have been happier since they have had
two children.

NOTE
As far as tense choice is concerned, since may be
followed either by the Present Perfect or the Past
Tense, depending on the emphasis laid on the initial
moment or the duration of the situation in point.

68a. Este mai puţin stresat de când şi-a cumpărat

maşină.
68b. He has been less stressed since he bought
himself a car.
69a. Este mai puţin stresat de când are un şef
nou.
69b. He has been less stressed since he has got a
new boss.
70a. Sunt mai fericiţi de când s-au mutat în
această casă.
70b. They have been happier since they moved
into this house.

b) situations which began in the past and continue

up to the SM: (‘continuity’ Present Perfect)
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

71a. Plouă de două zile, de luni, adică.

71b. It has rained for two days, I mean since
Monday.
72a. Plouă de două zile fără întrerupere,de două
zile.
72b. It has been raining continuously for two days.
73a. Lucrează pentru o companie de transporturi
de aproape doi ani.
73b. He has worked for a shipping company for
almost two years.
74a. Lucrează pentru o companie de transporturi
de aproape doi ani, de doi ani.
74b. He has been working for a shipping company
for almost two years.

NOTE
Present Perfect Continuous may be used in any of the
above situations when the speaker wants to lay a
special emphasis on duration.

3.3 The domain of the past

Past situations are described in terms of temporal

coordinates as follows: the situation expressed by the
verb took place in the past, that is, before or more
precisely preceding the SM and the RM. Figure 2 in
annex 1 represents this type of relationship established
between the SM on the one hand and the EM and RM
on the other. The temporal domain of the past is a bit
richer in Romanian, as compared to the domain of the
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present, meaning that Romanian learners should make

choices for four past tenses out of its English
counterpart.

Thus, the domain of the past includes Imperfect, Perfect

Simplu, Perfect Compus and Mai Mult ca Perfect, while
English relies on Simple Past Tense, Continuous Past
Tense, Simple Past Perfect and Continuous Past
Perfect, Simple Future in the Past, Continuous Future in
the Past.

3.3.1 The Romanian Imperfect

The Romanian Imperfect conceals temporal, aspectual
and modal values, which make it meaningfully complex
and difficult to render in English correctly unless able to
instantly understand its context-bound sense. As an
absolute tense it expresses (a) a durative situation
which happened in the past, or a situation which was in
full progress in the past, (b) a situation repeated in the
past (a past iteration) and (c) a situation which
happened and ended in the past (the value of a perfect)
(GA 1963: 236).

The Romanian Imperfect may find four English

equivalents, as shown through the example of the form
lucram which is translated through I worked, I was
working, I had worked and I had been working
(Preda şi Spăriosu 1972: 187). In addition, the authors
mentioned in the foregoing sentence, complete the
portrait of the Imperfect for they reveal the possibility of
this tense to be used as an alternative to the
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

Condiţional trecut in the example Dacă mă întrebai îţi

răspundeam – I’d have told you if you had asked me
(Preda şi Spăriosu 1972: 187), where one and the
same Romanian verb form has two English solutions,
Past Conditional and Past Subjunctive 2, respectively.

In what follows, the Imperfect will be interpreted through

the semantic features of aspectuality, which consider
the non-/perfective character of a situation or its
completion vs incompletion. The presentation will start
from Romanian since the book addresses Romanian
learners who may face difficulties in choosing the
proper equivalent for this complex verb form which
contains both temporal and aspectual features.

Depending on the broad or restricted context, the

Romanian Imperfect is translated into English through
Past Tense Simple, Past Tense Continuous, Past
Perfect Simple, Past Perfect Continuous, Past
Conditional and Past Subjunctive 2. Each of the
equivalents will be described in the subsequent
divisions, with exemplifications and some grammatical
tips completing the instruments which enable Romanian
learners to make the right choice.

A. Romanian Imperfect and Past Tense Simple

Romanian sentences whose Imperfect may be
translated through the Past Tense Simple will have to
express:
a) an action, state or quality which is relevant in
relation to a moment/interval in the past.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

75a. Cunoşteam foarte bine oraşul pentru că

locuisem acolo cu ceva timp în urmă.
75b. I knew the town very well for I had lived there
some time ago.
76a. Pe atunci via aparţinea C.A.P.-ului, adică
tuturor şi nimănui.
76b. At that time the vineyard belonged to the
Agricultural Cooperative, meaning to
everybody and to nobody.
77a. Când chirurgul l-a văzut, la câteva zile după
operaţie, arăta mult mai bine.
77b. When the surgeon saw him a few days after
the surgery, he looked much better.
78a. Biroul lui dădea spre malul stâng al Dunării.
78b. His office looked over the left bank of the
Danube.
79a. Uşa din spate ducea spre pivniţa cu vinuri.
79b. The back door led to the wine cellar.
Past Tense Simple is the equivalent of Imperfect forms
when they are set against a larger temporal framework
narrating situations which happened and finished in the
past and when this temporal framework is completed by
time words (phrases or clauses).
80a. Au ajuns acasă seara târziu; era cald în toată
casa, camera era pregătită pentru musafiri şi
masa era aşezată pentru cină.
80b. They reached home late in the evening; it
was warm in the house, the room was
prepared for the guests and the table was laid
for dinner.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

NOTE
verbs as to open, to come out, to start, to write,
when used as predicates in the Imperfect and having an
inanimate subject, they may involve failure of the
predication they express and they will always be
translated by would not + infinitive

81a. Cu toate că foloseam cheia încuietorii, uşa nu

se deschidea.
81b. Although I was using the proper key of the
locker, the door would not open.

b) past ability

82a. Băieţii mei patinau foarte bine.

82b. My boys could skate very well.
83a. Nu vedeam nimic din cauza ploii dese.
83b. We could not see a thing because of the
heavy rain.

c) a repeated past action or event

84a. În zilele călduroase de vară udam florile de

două ori pe zi.
84b. On hot summer days I watered (would/ used
to water) the flowers twice a day.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

85a. De obicei purta haine elegante numai în zilele

de sărbătoare.
85b. She usually wore (would/used to wear) fancy
clothes only on holidays.
86a. Stătea ore în şir pe terasa din faţa casei şi
citea reviste de modă.
86b. She would sit on the front porch for hours
reading fashion magazines.
87a. În zilele fierbinţi de vară, ne duceam la plajă
în fiecare zi, când eram copii.
87b. On hot summer days we went (would/used to
go) to the beach every day, when children.

NOTE
The repetitive character of a situation happening in the
past is completed by indefinite (a) adverbs of frequency,
(b) adverbial phrases or even (c) adverbial clauses of
frequency. Just to revise, remember the examples
below:
(a) often, seldom, rarely, usually, always,
frequently, n/ever, constantly
(b) every time, time and again, again and again,
now and then
(c) whenever/every time we met/ we talked to
each other/we spent time together, etc.

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B. Romanian Imperfect and Past Tense Continuous

The Imperfect is translated through the Past Tense
continuous when:

a) it ‘expresses an action which began at some

point in the past and continued for some time
after the moment or period indicated or involved
by the context, its lower and upper limits being
unknown and unimportant, save in some of its
uses’ (Preda şi Spăriosu 1972: 189).

88a. Ieri la ora asta călătoream de la Galaţi spre

Focşani.
88b. This time yesterday I was travelling from
Galaţi to Focşani.
89a. În timp ce luam prânzul ne uitam cu toţii la
ştiri.
89b. While we were having lunch we were
watching the news.

NOTE
Adverbs and adverbials requiring the use of the Past
Tense Continuous focus on a certain moment or
interval in the past, such as: this time yesterdaytwo
days ago, yesterday from 10 to 12, etc.

b) it expressed a future situation which is related to

a past reference:

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

90a. Trebuia să mă grăbesc, fiindcă mă întâlneam

cu prietenii mei peste câteva minute.
90b. I had to make haste as I was meeting my
friends in a matter of minutes.
91a. Băiatul de la FanCurier mă anunţase că
venea în cel mult o jumătate de oră.
91b. The FanCurier boy had let me know that he
was coming in at most half an hour.

C. Romanian Imperfect and Past Perfect Simple

The Romanian Imperfect is rendered in English by
means of the Past Perfect Simple when it

a) expresses a situation ‘which, having begun

before a certain point in the past, was still
continuing at that point’ (Preda şi Spăriosu
1972: 196), but which is neutral in its tone.

92a. Lucram la o carte de istorie a limbii engleze

de mai mulţi ani.
92b. I had worked on a history of the English
language for several years.

b) expresses a situation ‘which began before a

certain point in the past and is relevant to that
point’ (Preda şi Spăriosu 1972: 197)

93a. Se plimba prin parc de ceva vreme când, pe

neaşteptate, întâlni o veche prietenă.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

93b. She had been walking in the park for some

time when she suddenly came into an old
friend.

NOTE
Adverbs and adverbials suggesting the meaning of
anteriority to be read in the above situations consist of
those involving duration, such as for some time, for two
weeks, etc., and those involving the moment the
situation in focus begins, such as since Christmas,
since the beginning of October, etc.).

D. Romanian Imperfect and Past Perfect

Continuous
The Romanian Imperfect has as equivalent English
forms the Past Perfect Continuous when it expresses a
situation ‘which, having begun before a certain point in
the past, was still continuing at that point’ (Preda şi
Spăriosu 196), but whose tone is emphatic, the
speaker pointing to the duration of the situation
described by the verb.

94a. De ani de zile lucram la cartea de istorie a

limbii engleze.
94b. For years had I been working on that history of
the English language.
95a. Petre învăţa hindi de câteva luni când s-a ivit
ocazia să plece în India.
95b. Petre had been studying Hindi for some
months when he was offered the opportunity to
leave for India.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

E. The Romanian Imperfect as a substitute for the

forms of the Romanian Condiţional Trecut
The Imperfect works as an alternative to the forms of
the Condiţional Trecut both in independent conditional
clauses and in conditional sentences (both in the main
clause and the subordinate clause of condition)

a) in independent conditional clauses, the Imperfect

is rendered in English through what is
traditionally called the past conditional.

96a. În locul tău, declinam invitaţia.

96b. In your shoes, I should have declined the
invitation.

b) In the case of conditional sentences, the

Imperfect is translated depending upon the
position it holds at the sentence level. Thus, in
the main clause it is rendered by the past
conditional forms, while in the subordinate clause
its equivalent form is Past Subjunctive 2.

97a. Dacă veneai cu noi la petrecere, te distrai de

minune.
97b. If you had come with us to the party, you
would have had the time of your life.
98a. Dacă ştiam că vii îţi păstram un loc lângă
mine.
98b. If I had known that you would come, I should
have kept a seat for you next to mine.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

3.3.2 The Romanian Perfect Simplu and Past Tense

Simple
The Romanian Perfect Simplu is a controversial tempo-
aspectual form in that the current descriptions of its
meanings and uses in Romanian grammars do not
make very clear distinctions with regard to its portion on
the segment of the time axis, and implicitly to its
relationship to the RM.

Perfect Simplu is generally assumed to denote a

situation which happened and finished in the past, and
in literature it is used only in narrations (GA 1963: 238),
it will be rendered in English through Past Tense
Simple.

99a. Dis-de-dimineaţă puseră bagajele în maşină

şi plecară în vacanţă.
99b. Early in the morning they put their luggage in
the car and away they went on holidays.

3.3.3 The Romanian Perfect Compus and Past

Tense Simple
The Romanian Perfect Compus expresses a completed
situation, and with such a meaning it is rendered in
English by means of Past Tense Simple or indefinite, as
some grammars call it:

100a. Am lucrat un an întreg pentru firma lor.

100b. I worked for their company for a whole year.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

101a. Când l-am cunoscut era mai gras.

101b. When I met him he was fatter.
102a. Şi-a rupt mâna dreaptă săptămâna trecută.
102b. He broke his right hand last week.

A. The Romanian Perfect Compus and Present

Perfect Simple
The Romanian Perfect Compus is rendered by Present
Perfect when:

a) a situation which happened in the past has

consequences at the SM, consequences
expressed within the sentence:

103a. Şi-a rupt mâna dreaptă şi nu poate să mai

lucreze deloc.
103b. He has broken his right hand and he cannot
work at all.
104a. Pentru că poliţia i-a luat permisul de
conducere nu va mai putea conduce timp de
trei luni.
104b. Because the police have taken his driving
licence he won’t be allowed to drive for three
months.
English grammars call this present perfect
meaning ‘experiential’

b) the speaker knows that there is, at least, a slight

possibility for the situation to take place in the
future ( as a rule, Perfect Compus is used in
interrogations and negations)
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

105a. Ai citit Hamlet?

105b. Have you read Hamlet?
106a. Profesorul nu le-a spus încă nimic despre
rezultatele de la examen.
106b. The teacher has not told them anything
about the exam results, yet.

English grammars call this present perfect meaning

‘resultative’

B. Perfect Compus and Present Perfect Continuous

The Romanian Perfect Compus is translated through
Present Perfect Continuous when the sentence subject
speaks about an incomplete activity:

107a. Cineva a mâncat din prăjitura mea.

107b. Somebody has been eating my cake.
108a. Am făcut curat în dormitor, dar n-am
terminat încă.
108b. I have been cleaning the bedroom, (but I
haven’t finished yet –optional continuation).

3.3.4 The Romanian Mai Mult Ca Perfect and Past

Perfect
The Romanian Mai Mult Ca Perfect is the only tempo-
aspectual form which resembles its English counterpart
in terms of semantics. This verb form expresses a
situation which happened and was completed in the
past, and which is prior to another past situation. By
way of consequence, both languages use these verb
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

forms as absolute tenses (with a narrative value in main

clauses) and as relative tenses/aspectual forms to
suggest perfectivity in relation to a past situation.
Consider:
109a. Nu aflaseră mai nimic despre fratele ei.
109b. They had hardly heard from her brother.
110a. Trenul nu ajunsese în gară; peronul era gol.
110b. The train hadn’t reached the railway station;
the platform was empty.
111a. Îl ştiau foarte bine pentru că fuseseră colegi
de şcoală.
111b. They knew him very well for they had been
school mates.

Nevertheless, one cannot speak about a perfect overlap

between Mai Mult Ca Perfect and Past Perfect, for the
English form has two variants, the simple and the
continuous versions.

Mai Mult Ca Perfect is translated through Past Perfect

Continuous when:

a) it expresses an situation in progress throughout

a time interval:

112a. De luni până vineri tradusese zeci de pagini

de texte despre sudură.
112b. From Monday till Friday she had been
translating tens of pages of texts on welding.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

b) the speaker wants to stress the idea of duration

113a. Mă simţeam epuizată pentru că lucrasem

toată ziua.
113b. I felt exhausted for I had been working all
day long.

c) the speaker emphasizes the emotional touch of

the situation in focus, such as irritation or
annoyance:

114a. Încercaseră să obţină o audienţă la primar

de mai multe săptămâni, însă în final au
renunţat pentru că formalităţile păreau fără
de sfârşit.
114b. They had been trying to get an appointment
with the mayor for some weeks, but they
finally gave up because formalities seemed
endless.

d) speakers wish to emphasize their stronger

desires:

115a. Sperasem din toată inima că vom uita cele

întâmplate şi că vom regăsi vechea noastră
prietenie.
115b. I had been hoping we would forget what had
happened and that we should find again our
old friendship.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

3.4 The domain of the future

Temporally future situations related to a past reference

represent a particularity of the English verb, if compared
to Romanian.
The Romanian language does not possess grammatical
instruments to express future situations related to a
past reference.

3.4.1 Future situations related to present reference.

Futurity or situations imagined, supposed or expected
to happen in a moment or time interval which follows
the SM, may be expressed in English by means of
simple or continuous verb forms, by auxiliary as well as
modal verbs and even by lexical patterns with a future
meaning.

The Grammar of the Romanian Academy records only

the Viitor and the Viitor Anterior (GA, 1963: 240-241),
even if Romanian benefits from a multitude of
possibilities to convey future meanings; these
instruments belong to either the literary or colloquial
registers, and they do not include continuous verb
forms for the simple reason that our language lacks
such patterns.
Nevertheless, descriptions of the choices at the hand of
Romanian native learners of English distinguish
between ‘pure futurity’ and ‘coloured futurity’ (Bîră :131)
and quotes R.A.Close who distinguishes (a) pure

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

futurity, (b) present indications of what the future may

bring and (c) personal attitudes.

Despite the discrepancies between the two languages,

this division of our parallel approach will reveal those
instances of correspondence, to continue by pointing to
the particularities of either language.

A. Romanian Future Forms and English Future

Forms
When Romanian natives have to choose from the
English means of expressing futurity (i.e., Simple
Future, Continuous Future, Near Future, Future Perfect
Simple and Future Perfect Continuous) an equivalent
for Viitor and Viitor anterior, they may find themselves in
a difficult position.

B. Romanian Viitor I and English Simple Future

The Viitor has two patterns, the literary version, highly
frequent in the written language, voi/vei/va/vom/veţi/vor
+ the infinitive and am/ai/are (a) o + Conjunctiv Prezent
and their English equivalent forms are the Simple
Future in full or contracted forms:

116a. Vor vinde casa de la ţară.

116b. They will sell the country house.
117a. O/Or/Au să vândă casa de la ţară.
117b. They’ll sell the country house.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

C. Romanian Viitor I and English Continuous Future

When the future situation envisaged by the sentence
subject involves the feature of duration or of full
progress at a certain time in the future, the Continuous
Future is the proper choice:

118a. Mâine toată dimineaţa va citi în sala de

lectură.
118b. She will be reading in the reading room the
whole morning tomorrow.
119a. Sâmbătă între orele 9.00 şi 12.00 vor avea o
sesiune de comunicări.
119b. On Saturday between 9 and 12 o’clock they
will be having a session of communications.

D. Romanian Viitor Apropiat and English Near

Future
The idea of future nearness is expressed in English by
means of a periphrasis, to be going to followed by a
lexical verb. Even if the latest edition of Gramatica
Academiei does not mention Viitor Apropiat among the
Romanian tenses, through contamination with English,
we may say that Romanian has a word for word
solution to this English pattern:

120a. Are de gând/intenţionează să plece la Paris

curând.
120b. He is going to leave for Paris soon.

Future intention is expressed by lexical means as well:

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

121a. Maria este pe punctul de a renunţa la acest

mariaj nefericit.
121b. Mary is on the point/verge of giving up this
unhappy marriage.

E. Romanian Viitor II and English Future Perfect

Simple
The Romanian Viitor II or Viitor anterioris a relative
tense expressing a situation which happen in the future,
and it will be perfected before another future situation.
In terms of temporal coordinates the EM is placed after
the SM but before the RM.

If this tense is very rarely used in spoken Romanian, it

is very frequent in English. Actually, to a native speaker
of English, simple future is meaningless, for ‘tomorrow’
is a meaningless word, so, if you want to be convincing
in a conversation with an English native better use the
Future Perfect Simple for it is more reliable, per se.

122a. Voi termina proiectul până la prânz.

122b. I shall have finished the project by noon.
or
122c. I shall have the project finished by noon.

F. Romanian Viitor II and English Future Perfect

Continuous
The feature ‘duration/continuity’ is emphasized by the
use of the Future Perfect Continuous when expressing

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a situation which happens in the future, and which will

be perfected before another future situation.
123a. Va fi lucrat deja trei luni la proiect mâine,
când îl va termina.
123b. She will have been working on the project
for three months, when she finises it
tomorrow.
124a. Va fi nins deja de două zile cînd vom pleca
la munte.
124b. It will have been snowing for two days when
we go to the mountains.

3.4.2 Future situations related to a past reference.

Unlike futurity seen from a present point of reference
where future forms are used in independent or in main
clauses, futurity seen through a past reference requires
(a) the use of such forms in subordinate clauses and (b)
the existence of a past tense in the main clause.
Romanian does not possess any form to suggest
futurity seen from the past, but English has specific
means to express futurity seen from the past. These
means are Simple Future in the Past, Continuous
Future in the Past, Future Perfect Simple in the Past
and Future Perfect Continuous in the Past.

A. Romanian Viitor I and English Simple Future-in-

the-Past
Therefore, to be translated through Simple Future-in-
the- Past, a Romanian future should be in a subordinate
clause:
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125a. Au promis că vor fi punctuali.

125b. They promised they would be punctual.
126a. Ştiam că voi plăti singură nota de plată
pentru telefon.
126b. I knew I should pay the phone bill by myself.

B. Romanian Viitor I and English Continuous

Future-in-the-Past
To choose this verb form for the translation of a
Romanian future, learners should distinguish the
feature of duration or that of full progress at a future
moment/interval, which is viewed from a past reference.

127a. Era convinsă că luni pe vremea asta va

patina.
127b. She was convinced that this time on
Monday she would be skating.

C. Romanian Viitor Apropiat and English Near

Future-in-the-Past
Future nearness seen from the past involves the fact
that the sentence subject doubts the fulfillment of the
situation expressed through this pattern.

128a. Ştiau că prietena lor avea de gând să le

facă o vizită.
128b. They knew that their friend was going to pay
them a visit.

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D. Romanian Viitor and English Future Perfect

Simple-in-the-Past
Since the Romanian Viitor I is simpler and it is preferred
to Viitor II in the colloquial variant of the language,
which is very rarely used, rare indeed will be the
instances when students face such a kind of choice:

129a. Ştia că va traduce/va fi tradus poemul până

sâmbătă seara.
129b. She knew she would have translated the
poem by Saturday evening.
130a. Muncitorii sperau că vor săpa grădina până
seară.
130b. The workers hoped they would have dug the
garden till the evening.

E. Romanian Viitor and English Future Perfect

Continuous-in-the-Past
Future perfect continuous in the past will be preferred
when translating a Romanian future only when that
situation is durative and it is seen to be perfected in
relation to another future situation, both of them seen
through the past perspective:
131a. Mecanicul era convins că va petrece vreo
trei ore ca să repare maşina.
131b. The mechanic was convinced (that) he
would have been repairing the car for nearly
three hours.

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Summary

This chapter consists of three major sections whose

aims were to briefly describe the Romanian tenses and
aspectual forms.
Starting from the temporal domains, and distinguishing
between timeless situations and tenseless sentences,
the approach considers the possibilities of equivalence
in the domain of the present time.
The second major section focuses on the domain of the
past, and applies the same method of comparison with
tenses and aspectual forms located by Bull in his
hypothetical system on the past time axis.
The domain of the future, dealt with in the third major
section of the chapter, is somewhat more difficult for a
parallel approach as Romanian lacks specific forms to
express futurity seen form a point of reference situated
in the past.
Nevertheless, these relationships are conceptualized
and consequently Romanian learners must not only
distinguish but also to translate them correctly.
This description suggests the matching of the English
tempo-aspectual forms to their Romanian counterparts
(also considering other time elements, such adverbs or
conjunctions, whenever possible).

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TEST
A. Choose the right form:
1. It….. since the beginning of September.
a) rains
b) has rained
c) rained.
2. They … all day long, that is why they are so tired.
a) dug
b) dig
c) have been digging
3. By this time tomorrw they … two months at sea.
a) will spend
b) will be spent
c) will have spent
4. I won’t ring her up today for I know she … for her
exam.
a) studies hard
b) studys hard
c) is studying hard
5. Nobody …such a disaster.
a) is imagining
b) had ever imagined
c) has been imagining
6. They said that their life could never be as it … before
the terrorist attack against the Twins.
a) had been
b) was
c) has been
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7. I won’t ring my daughter up this week for I know she

…for her exams.
a) studies
b) is studying
c) is studing

8. This very skillful carpenter … furniture for a living.

a) makes
b) is making
c) making

9. I … my umbrella and my hat a week ago.

a) lossed
b) loosen
c) lost
10. I … my umbrella so I’ ll have to buy a new one.
a) lost
b) have lost
c) had lost

11. Early risers are those who … very early in the

morning.
a) get up
b) are getting up
c) have got up
12. The robbers … the bank before midnight and stole a
huge sum of money.
a) broke into
b) had broken iinto
c) have broken into
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B. Which of the following is the correct sentence?

1. a) She is tasting the juice.

b) This juice is tasting bitter.
2. a) My parents are seeing the documentary about
sharks
b) My parents are watching the documentary about
sharks.
3. a) She appears to be happy with her career.
b) She is appearing to be happy with her career.
4. a) Helicopters have been hovering over the city since
the terrorist attack.
b) Helicopters are hovering over the city since the
terrorist attack
5. a) My uncle is usually smoking pipe.
b) My uncle is just smoking his pipe and he hates
being disturbed in moments like this one.
6. a) They have been working all day long so they are
going to bed now.
b) They worked all day long that’s why they feel very
tired.
7. a) Peter loves chocolate.
b) Peter is loving chocolate.

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8. a) Victor understands mathematics better and better

b) Victor is understanding mathematics better and
better.
9. a) The wind has been blowing roughly two days ago.
b) The wind blew roughly two days ago.

10.a) The expert is tasting the new sorts of tea to

choose the best samples for mass production.
b) The expert tastes the new sorts of tea to choose
the best samples for mass production.
11. a) This wool feels too soft, and since I don’t like it I
won’t buy it.
b) This wool feels too softly, and since I don’t like it I
won’t buy it.
12. a) Roses smell too sweet for my taste, they have
thorns, so I don’t really like them.
b) Roses smell too sweetly for my taste they have
thorns, so I don’t really like them.

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CHAPTER 4

Voice through Tense and Aspect

Outline
This chapter proposes an extension of the framework
suggested in the beginning of the approach, interpreting
Tense and Aspect through the perspective of another
major grammatical category, Voice. The comparative
method which underlies the whole approach imposes it
on us to discuss similarities and dissimilarities as they
are noticeable within Romanian and English ways of
expressing Voice.

Learning objectives
When you finish studying this chapter, you will be able
to:
- distinguish between active and passive forms
and meanings;
- illustrate the corresponding passive voice forms
of either Tense or Aspect patterns used for the
active voice;
- discuss about similarities and dissimilarities
which can be established between Romanian
and English Voice;
- handle both active and passive forms in practical
usage;
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- have a bird’s eye view of Tense and Aspect as

instruments of Voice

4.1 Voice

The category-based comparative description of the

Romanian and English verb systems requires at least
some allusions to Voice, a complex grammatical
concept which concerns not only the verb or the verb
phrase but other constituents of the clause as well.
Nevertheless, is our main purpose is to pay a greater
attention to Tense and Aspect forms in the passive
rather than focus on the complexities arising from
passive transformations, or from interpreting the whole
bulk of problems dealt with in the literature of speciality.
In fact, the main purpose of the chapter is to give a full
record of the passive system forms with simple example
starting from the Romanian language.

We shall stick to essentials and we shall just mention

one and the same idea can often be expressed in two
different ways, by means of an active or a passive
construction. The two ways mean essentially the same
thing and yet, they are not in every respect
synonymous, and it is therefore not superfluous for a
language to have both turns and thus, be able to shift
the point of view. As a rule, the person or thing, that is
the center of interest at the speech moment, is made
the subject of the sentence, and therefore the verb is, in
some cases in the active, in others in the passive. The
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grammatical means which allows for these linguistic

speculations to be accounted for is voice.

Thus “voice is a grammatical category which makes it

possible to view the action of a sentence in either of two
ways, without change in the facts reported.” (Quirk et
al., 1985:159).

In terms of Voice, the common feature is the fact that

the two languages have both active and passive forms.
Nevertheless, there are dissimilarities within the same
grammatical category. Thus, Romanian shows another
voice, diateza reflexivă, whose English version mostly
relies on the use of reflexive pronouns, or apparently
passive constructions, as will be shown in the section
describing the use of the verb to get as an auxiliary for
passive patterns.

4.1.1 Active Voice

The preceding chapters described Tense and Aspect at
length, and they focused exclusively on the active
voice. But not all active verbs have ‘active’ meanings.
Some of these will be cited and discussed within this
chapter, which also intends to bring to the distance
learners’ attention some controversial points regarding
the concept of Voice as manifest in Romanian and
English.

For example, there are active and passive patterns

which have the same meaning:
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1. There is a lot of work to do/to be done.

2. There are six letters to write/to be written today.
(M. Swan 1981:330)
The lack of semantic distinction between to do/to be
done and to write/to be written should not be taken for
granted, for the same author draws the attention upon
the difference between:
3. There is nothing to do. I am bored (There are no
entertainments)
4. There is nothing to be done – we will have to
buy another one. (There is no way of putting it
right)

These distinctions apply in the case of the non-finite

form of the infinitive, but they were intended to refresh
your knowledge of active and passive forms. Also for
revision purposes mention will be made of the fact
active sentences may one or two passive versions,
depending on the transitive verb they are built around:

5. Santa Claus gave the presents. (active – gave

is followed by one object)
5a. The presents were given by Santa Claus.
(one passive version)

6. Mary gave her sister a photo album. (active-

gave is followed by two objects, therefore
there will be two passive versions)
6a. Her sister was given a photo album.
6b. A photo album was given to her sister.

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Indeed, since the active forms and meanings were

described in chapters 2 and 3, we have to admit that
those examples revealed cases of meaningful
correspondence or appropriateness. For the sake of
symmetry, it would be convenient to say that sentences
in the affirmative have, in their majority, their passive
version. It is worth mentioning, nevertheless, that
various constraints, imposed by the nature of the verb
making the predicate of the sentence (intransitive verbs,
for a first instance, or state verbs used in their stative
meaning), by the nature of the object or even by the
nature of the agentive, do not allow for the presence of
passive constructions around them.

In what follows, we shall consider those verb patterns,

which formally resemble the reflexive voice or the se
constructions to a Romanian learner of English. For
practical reasons, the se constructions will be divided
into (a) the impersonal constructions and (b) those
involving a reflexive meaning. The former group that of
impersonal constructions, tempt Romanian learners to
translate them through the it-pronoun:

7a. Se ştiu puţine lucruri despre factorii care

produc boli devastatoare ale pomilor.
7b. Little is known about the factors which produce
tree-devastating diseases.
7c. * It is known little about … (ungrammatical)

The latter group is made up of sentences whose

grammatical subjects are inanimate nouns and, which,
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consequently, cannot perform by ‘themselves’ any kind

of action upon them. Consider only one such case:

8a. Ţesătura aceasta este frumoasă, dar nu se

spală.
8b. This fabric is nice but it doesn’t wash.

This second couple of examples is known in the English

grammar as pseudo-passive constructions or Passivals.
How do we distinguish pseudo-passives from passives?
Simply, by analyzing the nature of the sentence subject
and the type of discourse the sentence is part of. Read
the following examples to try your hand and decide
which is the example denoting a passival meaning?

9a. Portocalele se cultivă în această parte a livezii.

(impersonal tone)
9b. They grow/are grown oranges in this part of
their orchard.
10a. Portocalele se vând mai bine toamna decât
vara. (passival)
10b. Oranges sell better in autumn than in
summer.
11a. Portocalele se păstrează în locuri răcoroase.
(instructions)
11b. Keep oranges in a cool place.

4.1.2 Passive Voice

As stated in the foregoing, when the speaker’s interest
focuses on the subject of a sentence the active form will
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be preferred whereas when the result does matter in

the speaker’s way of putting things, the passive will be
the choice. “The passive is probably more common in
written English, where there tends to be less use of
personal reference in some contexts, since the
audience may be unknown”. (Vince 2004: 37)

It is more than obvious that wording with either active or

passive voice forms is highly dependable upon the
speaker’s subjectivity. As strong as the speaker’s
subjectivity may be, the linguistic literature of Voice
reveals reasons which account for the use of passive in
a large number of instances, out of which just very few
will be considered in the following:

a) when the subject of a sentence in the passive

matters more to the speaker than the (logically)
active subject:

12. Too many people have already been killed in

the Iraqi war.
13. The new building of the hotel was burnt down.

b) when emotions (tact, concern for the listeners’

convenience, or delicacy of sentiment) prevent
the speaker from mentioning the active subject

14. The maverick MP was invited to moderate his

tome.
15. Sarcastic remarks were made during the
speech.
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c) the active subject is either unknown or it cannot

be easily stated

16. A deer and her cub were run over last night by
a crazy driver.
17. An extremely useful dictionary of confusable
words was published last year.

In fact, according to Downing & Locke (1992: 121), 70%

of the passive sentences found in the English literature
contain no mention of the active subject.

The illustrations in the preceding paragraphs show the

verb to be as the auxiliary which is part of passive
patterns. However, the verb to get is sometimes used
in passive patterns, particularly in the spoken language:

18. George got arrested at the Dinamo – Steaua

match.

Swan (1981: 267) suggests that as an auxiliary for the

passive to get is used “particularly in two cases: when
we are talking about things that are done suddenly,
unexpectedly or by accident, and when we are talking
about things which we ‘do to ourselves’ (like getting
dressed) – actions which are reflexive rather than
passive. While the above example unexpected or
sudden action described by the verb, the sentence
below will support the second type of cases when get is
preferred:
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19. She is getting dressed for the party.

Our guideline principle of symmetry requires that this

chapter should display the structure of the preceding
chapters. But since it has been pointed out that our
main concern here lies in Tense and Aspect, the two
grammatical categories will be briefly illustrated through
a tabular presentation, whose columns and rows will
synthesize the prescriptions commented on at length in
chapter 3.

The English tense and aspect forms in the tables are so

chosen not to focus on meanings but to offer one
example of their passive structures.

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THE DOMAIN OF THE PRESENT

Voice Tense and Aspect Forms
Romanian Prezent Present Tense Simple
Active Ei fac pâine în S + vb
fiecare zi. They make bread every day.
Passive Se face pâine în S + be + vb3
fiecare zi. Bread is made every day.
Romanian Prezent Present Tense Continuous
Active Ei fac pâine acum. S + be +vbing
They are making bread now.
Passive Se face pâine S + be +being + vb3
acum. Bread is being made now.
Romanian Prezent Present Perfect Simple
Active Ea scrie scrisoarea S + have/has + vb3
de două ore. She has written the letter for
two hours.
Passive Scrisoarea se scrie S + have/has +been+vb3
de două ore. The letter has been written for
two hours.
Romanian Prezent Present Perfect Continuous
Active Ea scrie scrisori de S + have +been +vbing
o săptămână. She has been writing letters for
a week.
Se scriu scrisori de S + have +been + being +vb3
Passive o săptămână. Letters have been being
written for a week.

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THE DOMAIN OF THE PAST

Voice Tense and Aspect Forms
Romanian Imperfect Past Tense Continuous
Active Copiii cântau cu S + be+ vbing
atenţie. The children were singing attentively.
Passive Mâncarea se S + be+ being + vb3
pregătea cu grijă Food was being prepared carefully.
Perfect Simplu / Past Tense
Compus Simple
Active Au corectat / S + vb2
Corectă raportul de They corrected the report several
mai multe ori. times.
Passive Raportul a fost S + be + vb3
corectat de mai The report was corrected several
multe ori. times.
Romanian Mai Mult
Ca Perfect Past Perfect Simple
Active Corectaseră deja S + had + vb3
raportul. They had already corrected the
report.
Passive Raportul fusese deja S + had + been + vb3
corectat. The report had already been
corrected.
Romanian Mai Mult Past Perfect Continuous
Ca Perfect
Active Corectaseră raportul S+ had + been +vbing
de mai multe ori. They had been correcting the report
several times
Passive Raportul fusese S+had+been+being+vb3
corectat de mai The report had been being corrected
multe ori. several times.

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THE DOMAIN OF THE FUTURE

A. Present reference
Voice Tense and Aspect Forms
Viitor I Future Tense Simple
Active Curând vor S+shall/will+vb
publica They will publish the results of
rezultatele their research soon.
cercetării lor.
Passive Rezultatele S+shall/will+be+vb3
cercetării lor vor The results of their research
fi publicate will be published soon.
curând.
Viitor I Future Tense Continuous
Active Calculatorul va S+shall/will+be+vbing
procesa datele The computer will be
timp de mai processing the data for hours.
multe ore.
Passive Datele vor fi S+shall/will+be+being+vb3
procesate timp The data will be being
de mai multe processed for hours.
ore.
Viitor II Future Perfect Simple
Active Vor fotocopia/fi S+shall/will+have+vb3
fotocopiat cartea They will have photocopied the
înainte de prânz. book before noon.
Passive Cartea va fi/va fi S+shall/will+have+been+vb3
fost copiată The book will have been
înainte de prânz. photocopied before noon.

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THE DOMAIN OF THE FUTURE

B. Past reference
Voice Tense and Aspect Forms
Romanian Viitor I Future Simple-in-the-Past
Active Spera că va S+should/would+vb
traduce piesa. She hoped she would
translate the play.
Passive Spera că piesa va S+should/would+be+vb3
fi tradusă curând. She hoped the play would be
translated soon.
Romanian Viitor I Future Continuous-in-the-
Past
Active Ştia că va aranja S+should/would+be+vbing
timbrele ceasuri He knew that he would be
de-a rândul. arranging the stamps for
hours.
Passive Stia că timbrele S+should/would+be+being+
vor fi aranjate Vb3
ceasuri de-a He knew that the stamps
rândul. would be being arranged for
hours.
Romanian Viitor II Future Perfect-in-the-Past
Active Spera că va S+should/would+have+
traduce piesa been+vb3
până luni She hoped the play would
dimineaţă. have translated the play till
Monday morning.
Passive Spera că piesa va S+should/would+have+
fi tradusă până been+being+vb3
luni dimineaţă. She hoped the play would
have been translated till
Monday morning.

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4.2 Tempo-aspectuality and causative

constructions
Causative constructions are grammatical patterns made
up of an auxiliary followed by an object accompanied by
the past participle of a lexical verb. The auxiliaries
involving causality are to have and to get.

Causative constructions are used for different purposes

depending upon the auxiliary that is part of the pattern.

Thus, when the verb to have is used, it is meant to:

a) describe a service performed for the sentence
subject by another person

19a. Doina şi Dan şi-au vopsit barca la un vopsitor

foarte atent.
19b. Doina and Dan had their boat painted by a
very careful painter.

b) describe the unpleasant which may have

happened to a person:

20a. Lui Victor I s-a furat laptop-ul aşa că a trebuit

să se ducă la poliţie.
20b. Victor had his laptop stolen so he had to go to
the police.

When the verb to get is used, it is meant to:

a) suggest that “there is a feeling that something

must be done” (Vince 2004: 35):
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

21. We have had problems with our TV set lately,

so we must get it serviced.

b) suggest that “there is a feeling of eventually

managing something” (Vince 2004: 35):

22. They are an efficient team who get things done

in due time.

Since both have and get play the role of auxiliaries in

causative patterns, they will also bear the marks of
temporality.

Summary

The outstanding purpose of this chapter was to outline

the main ideas regarding the concept of voice, its
meanings and its representations in Romanian and
English.
Leaving aside any (con)textual analysis or interpretation
focused on the tense or aspect choice, the essence of
the chapter was synthesized in four tables which ensure
a bird’s eye view of the parallel between active and
passive form in both languages.
The presentation also included problems connected to
Voice and which may create confusion, such as the
distinctions between be and get as component
elements of passive structures.
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The voice-related causative constructions peculiar to

English were also briefly tackled, in terms of auxiliary
verb distinctions.

EXERCISES

A. Render the following sentences passive:

1. The president called upon the M.P.’s to pass the

bill.
2. Burglars have broken into the bank this night so
nobody may enter the bank building.
3. Whenever I enter the room smoking, my father
frowns upon it.
4. Nobody will be able to take them in ay more.
5. The rebels shall hand in all weapons.
6. Every student looked up to Dr. Jones.
7. No one has lived in this unfriendly house for
ages.

Translate into Romanian:

1. You were given a ticket to go there.

2. The money in this account is said to be spent on
the houses for the poor.
3. Yesterday my car was tugged by the police and I
was fined 40 € because the car had been parked
against regulations.
4. The injured customer was being taken from the
place of the accident.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

5. Telex is the name given to the teleprinter service

operated by a competent operator. It combines
the speed of the telephone with the authority of
the printed word, and no confirmation is required.
Messages for transmission are typed in page
form and are immediately reproduced in the
same form on the machine at the other end of
the line. Telex numbers are published in the
Telex Directory.

Translate into English:

1. Cartea aceasta se citeşte mai uşor decât cealată

pe care mi-ai dat-o săptămâna trecută.
2. În multe dintre ţările europene maşinile la mâna
a doua se vând mai uşor decât cele noi.
3. Am crezut că maşina era dusă la garaj, dar
oamenii mi-au spus că o duceau la un atelier.
4. Ai grijă cu rochiile astea, nu se calcă fiindcă sunt
din fibre sintetice.
5. Bunicii mele îi plăceau rochiile din mătase şi
spunea deseori că mătasea se poartă bine.
6. Nenumărate teze şi ipoteze au fost cotestate sau
chiar infirmate de-a lungul secolelor.
7. Criteriile care au stat la baza acestei cercetări
fuseseră stabilite de un grup de profesori din
universitatea noastră.
8. Vizitatorii au fost impresionaţi de uriaşii cactuşi
din gădina botanică.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

9. Multe din fenomenele pe care omenirea le vede

de sute de ani nu au fost încă explicate de
ştiinţă.
10. Animalele sălbatice se prind cu foarte mare
greutate.
11. Nu mi s-a spus să înapoiez biletul.
12. Mi s-au dat atât de multe bagaje încât mi-a fost
imposibil să le duc singur la maşină şi de aceea
am rugat pe cineva să mă ajute.
13. Se vorbeşte mult despre aderarea României la
Uniunea Europeană.
14. Se construiesc din ce în ce mai puţine
apartamente în oraşele mai mici din România.
15. Se verifică cablurile pentru electricitate din acest
imobil de aceea nu avem curent acum.
16. Se înlocuiesc firele obişnuite cu cablu de înaltă
calitate de mai multe zile, de aceea nu avem
acces la internet.
17. Se vor moderniza mai multe şosele în următorii
doi ani.
18. S-au aprobat mai multe proiecte de cercetare
acum doi ani comparativ cu anul trecut.
19. S-au creat mai multe spaţii de joacă pentru copii
în aceşti ultimi doi ani.
20. S-au achiziţionat computere noi pentru
laboratoarele de informatică din şcolile care au
fost modernizate anul treacut.
21. Se supraveghează construirea vapoarelor de
către reprezentanţii firmelor specializate.

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CHAPTER 5

Tense and Aspect with Non-

Finites

Outline
This is the final chapter heavily relying on theoretical
data which focuses on the ways of assigning temporal
or aspectual values to the non-finite forms of Romanian
and English verbs. Out of the four English non-finites
only the Infinitive and the Gerund will be the subject of
our discussion for they display tense and aspect
distinctions.
Although a few grammars stress the fact that non-finites
are verbal nouns and describe their noun-like features,
as verbal nouns they also involve meanings assigned
to verbs. These verb-like features serve to highlight the
interrelationship of non-finites with temporality and
aspectuality.

Learning objectives
When you finish studying this chapter, you will be able
to:
- distinguish between the different forms and
meanings of the forms of the infinitive and
gerund;

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- describe the senses and the semantic features

concealed by each of the elements in the
structure of non-finites;
- select the proper equivalents for the slightly
simpler Romanian meaningfully similar
structures;
- master a bird’s eye view of the non-finites
approached through the tempo-aspectual
perspective.

5.1 Non-finites

‘Non-finites’ is generic term which covers several

elements whose uses, meanings and functions are very
specific. The infinitive, gerund and participle are non-
finite forms of the English verbs and which also are to
be found in the framework of the Romanian equivalent
system. Swan defines non-finites to be “verb forms
which cannot be used with a subject to make a tense”
(Swan 1981: xxi). Nevertheless, as they are verbs they
shall implicitly suggest both the idea of temporality and
of aspectuality.

This section is intended to prove that temporality and

aspectuality are elements which characterize not only
the indicative mood, which is extensively dealt with in
the foregoing of the approach, but with non-finites as
well. The only non-finites considered are the Infinitive
and the Gerund, for participles have a special
grammatical regimen. Thus, they are divided into
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present and past forms and their usages depend mainly

on the larger verb structures they are part of. The
distinction present – past participles does not refer to
temporal anchorage or temporal relationships involving
chronological order but tackles with aspects not in
common with our concerns.

5.1.1 The Infinitive

Temporality related to non-finites is highly indefinite as

it only suggests chronology in terms of anteriority,
posteriority or coincidence of the EM and the RM or the
SM.

Aspectuality, on the other hand emphasizes either

duration or perfectivity or full progress, but never
suggesting attitudes, as it did with finite forms of verbs.
In fact, as far as English s concerned, formal
descriptions of the infinitive start with the temporal and
aspectual distinctions.

The Romanian literature makes just formal distinctions

between the long and the short infinitive (GA 1963:
224), even if tense distinction with the Infinitive does
exist in our language as well, which possesses the
present infinitive a merge, a vedea, a scrie, etc., and
the perfect infinitive a fi mers, a fi văzut, a fi scris.

Although Thomson and Martinet (1993: 212) distinguish

between:

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Present infinitive to work, to do

Present continuous to be working
infinitive
to be doing
Perfect infinitive to have worked
Perfect continuous to have been
infinitive working
to have been
doing
Present infinitive to be done
passive
Perfect infinitive to have been
passive done

they omit the present form also mentioned in the

linguistic literature (Cornilescu, Iclezan-Dimitriu 2000: 6)
for the passive continuous aspect, to be being done as
well as the past form of the same passive continuous
aspect, to have been being done, whose frequency of
occurrence is extremely low.

The semantic descriptions of the Infinitive refer to its

temporal meanings. For instance, the English Perfect
Infinitive “corresponds not only to the perfect (‘Tis better
to have love and lost Than never to have loved at all),
but also to an ordinary preterit (You meant that? I
suppose I must have meant that) and to ante-future
(future perfect: This day week I hope to have finished
my work)” (Jespersen 1965: 285).

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Temporally, the present infinitive suggests:

a) the relationship of coincidence of the situation
expressed by the verb in the infinitive and the
verb it depends upon:

1a. El se jură că este ocupat. Se jură a fi ocupat.

1b. He swears that he is busy now. He swears to
be busy.
2a. El se jura că este ocupat. Se jura a fi ocupat.
2b. He swore that he was busy. He swore to be
busy.
b) the relationship of posteriority of the situation
expressed by the verb in the infinitive and the
verb it depends upon:

3a. El se jură că va veni. Se jură a veni.

3b. He swears he will come. He swears to come.
(Cornilescu 1976: 340)
4a. El se jura că va veni. Se jura a veni.
4b. He swore that he would come. He swore to
come.

c) the relationship of anteriority of the situation

expressed by the verb in the infinitive and the
verb it depends upon:

5a. John e bănuit a fi sosit ieri la ora 2.00.

5b. John is believed to have arrived at 2,00
yesterday. (Cornilescu 1976: 343)

Aspectually, the present infinitive suggests:

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a) the full progress of the situation expressed by the

verb in the infinitive:

6. Tom’s seems to be working hard, and he cannot

hear you calling him to dinner.
7. The movie shows the house to be being done
under your eyes.

b) the duration of the situation expressed by the

verb in the infinitive:

8. The surgeon wants the patient to be being

monitored for 24 hours.

c) the perfectivity of the situation expressed by the

verb in the infinitive

9. I expect him to have read the play before noon.

10. I expected my shopping to have been paid for
by my parents.

5.1.2 The Gerund

Formally, the English Gerund is not as rich as the
Infinitive, for it only has four forms whose names denote
temporal features circumscribed to each of the patterns
below:

Present gerund writing

Perfect gerund having written
Present gerund passive being written
Perfect gerund passive having been written
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Unlike the infinitive, the present gerund conveys

temporal meanings as a consequence of its distribution
in the close vicinity of verbs they depend upon. Thus,
gerund may suggest:

a) past events seen form the present or from the

past (when it follows the verbs to remember, to
regret):
11. I remember that I posted the letter. I remember
posting the letter. (present RM)
12. I remembered that I had posted the letter. I
remembered posting the letter. (past RM)

13. I regret that I didn’t believe her. I regret not

believing her. (present RM)
14. I regretted that I hadn’t believed her. I regretted
not believing her. (past RM)

b) making an experiment, a new experience

(when it follows the verb to try):

15. Have you tried swimming in cold water in

winter time?

c) the continuing of an action (when it follows

the verb to go on):

16. They went on digging in the garden even

though it was getting darker and darker.

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d) the full progress of an action (when it follows the

verbs to hear, to see and to watch):

17. I saw the man climbing the western coast of

the mountain.
18. You could hear the ill baby crying all night
long.

The perfect gerund is most often used instead of its

present form, when the speaker refers to a past
situation:

19. The child was accused of having hurt the cat.

This form is preferred after the verb to deny:

20. The burglar denied having taken that huge
sum of money although the safe showed
signs of having been touched.

Summary

The final chapter concludes our approach to temporality

and aspectuality with some statements regarding the
non-finites. Confusing to some learners, grammars
frequently mention that non-finites are verbal nouns.
Nevertheless, the current presentation revealed the
instruments (auxiliaries, actually) which add temporal
or/and aspectual features to both the Infinitive and the
Gerund.
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Exercises

1. Consider the example in the cassette and make

sentences according to the model:

Why is he standing there? Is he waiting for someone?

I think so. He appears to be waiting for someone.

1. Is your cat longing for your husband?

He’s been out of town for a while, so I think she
looks…
2. Does Christine like Kyle?
He’s been kind to her. She may seem …
3. Are they setting out for a polar expedition?
Yes, they appear to me …
4. Has he something to add to what has been said?
He seems …
5. Have they moved out of that old mansion?
They appear…

2. Fill in the blanks with present or perfect infinitives:

1. Visitors are not allowed … icecream in our

boutique.
2. Marina advised me not …on their decisions.
3. The applicants are invited … their CV and a
letter of application by 22 February.
4. Dorin admitted … lots of mistakes when he was
younger.
5. Florina promised … by plane instead of train.
6. Mother asked John … her a glass of water.
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3. Match the two halves to produce correct sentences.

Make as many sentences as possible:

A. Not so many young a. to be walking in the streets

ladies can afford of new york
B. I would like my b. to be walking in the park
daughter the whole afternoon.
C. One good day I hope c. to buy you a nice present
for your birthday.
D. She intends d. to spend their holidays in
Monte Carlo.
E. I will not forget e. not to work so very hard.
f. to sign the letters.
g. to be able to mend the
house roof.
h. to post the letters for mum.

4. Fill in the blanks with present/perfect gerund forms:

1. In winter skiers go … every week-end and

fishermen go whole-fishing, only shopping
addicts go … every season.
2. Her research results are worth…
3. When a thing is worth … it is worth … well.
4. She can’t stand … horror movies.
5. It’s no use … the same worn out arguments.
6. He remembered …seen the book in a bookshop
window.

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Instead of conclusions

The parallel description of the Romanian and English

tenses of the indicative leads to correspondences and
specific features to characterize the systems in focus.

The two systems share the following traits:

- they have language-specific linguistic means to

express temporality, namely tenses;
- they have tense morphemes to distinguish past
from present situations;
- they rely on auxiliary verbs, on lexical patterns as
well as other simple tenses to suggest futurity;
- the whole bulk of tenses formally divides into
simple and compound tenses;
- the whole bulk of tenses semantically divides into
absolute and relative tenses

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

- absolute tenses play the major role of temporal

guides at the sentence level; (sometimes they
may play the same role at the paragraph level);
- relative tenses always relate to absolute tenses,
which. in such instances, become the temporal
anchors of the sentence/paragraph;
- sometimes the temporal meaning of a sentence
may be the sum total of the meanings of the
tense and the adverb(s) determining it, as it is
the case with the present used to suggest future
meanings;
- they conceptualize stages in the development of
processes and activities, which are
grammaticalized by means of Aspect;
- they make use of the semantic meanings of
Aktionsart, even if the literature of the field
disregards the concept as such;
- they express Aktionsart by means of aspectual
auxiliaries which point to the beginning,
continuation, interruption or the end of a
situation;
- they express aspectual features by means of
prefixes;
- the infinitive and the gerund are the two non-
finites which involve temporal and aspectual
meanings, in spite of their frequently being called
‘verbal nouns’;

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- the two languages have voice distinctions and

share active and passive forms and meanings
- the passive system is a projection of the active
system;

Particularities of the English tempo-aspectual

system:

- English verbs possess a framework which

consists of three subsystems focuses on Tense
– Aspect - Aktionsart
- each of the English tenses has an aspectual
back up;
- seen as a whole, this tempo-aspectual system is
characterized by impeccable symmetry;
- the use of tenses within complex sentences is
restricted by rules describing the sequence of
tenses based on the temporal or chronological
relationships to be established between the verb
in the main and the verb in the subordinate
clauses;
- the concept of Aktionsart accepts the use of
aspectual auxiliaries both in their simple and in
their progressive forms;
- futurity seen both from present and past
reference points may be expressed with verbal
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

patterns pertaining either to the now moment of

to the then moment;
- futurity is a complex notion in that in overlaps
temporal, aspectual and, sometimes, modal
meanings
- aspectual features are formally and semantically
noticeable with non-finites.

Particularities of the Romanian tempo-aspectual

system:

- Romanian has an incomplete grammatical

system to express aspectual features, namely at
the level of the past and future domains;
- The non-finites do not involve semantic features
assigned to aspectuality;
- there is no tense restriction dictated by the
sequence of tenses;
- there is no specific form or pattern to
grammaticalize futurity seen from a point of
reference placed on the past time axis;
nevertheless, Romanian expresses this
relationship at the sentence level, where the verb
in the main clause underlies the past reference
to which futurity is assigned.

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EXERCISES

This chapter is intended to draw the attention of the

learners involved in the distance learning programme
upon the topics to be considered in detail. It consists of
two sets of knowledge testing means, questionnaires
and exercises.

Questionnaires will not be answered in the answer key

section, for the expected answers may be found in the
chapter they belong to
The exercises are not very diversified in format and
rubric; they are mainly intended to enable learners to
draw parallels between NL and TL instruments
expressing tempo-aspectuality, to which language-
peculiar meanings are assigned.
The multiple-choice exercises, which train learners to
look for the tiny detail, find heir answers in the answer
key section.
Nevertheless, the exercise section heavily relies on
translations from Romanian into English and vice versa,
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for it is almost ingored in high school textbooks and for

it has shown its importance in the foreign language
acquisition process.

CHAPTER 1

QUESTIONNAIRE 1.

1. What is temporality?
2. Time and tense are related to temporality; which
is the technical term?
3. What do we mean by physical time?
4. What do we mean by chronological time?
5. What temporal coordinates do you know?
6. What time axes do you know?
7. How do you define internal time?
8. How do you define external time?
9. How do you define orientation?
10. How do you define deixis?

EXERCISES

1. Draw a list of the tenses and aspect forms

belonging to the domain of the present.
Compare it with you partner’s and make the
necessary corrections.

2. Write six sentences to express the following:

- an action which developed in the past

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- an action which happened before another past

action
- a temporary characteristic in the behaviour of a
person
- an repeated action which happened in a remote
past
- a personal arrangement expected to happen in the
future
- a permanent characteristic of a person

3. Write six sentences to express perfectivity

seen from:
 a present reference
 a past reference
 a future reference

4. Write six sentences to express a durative

situation which happened:

 in the past
 under the speaker’s eyes
 in a future seen from a present
reference

5. Make the vectorial representation of the

following sentences

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

1. Victoria bought these two English dictionaries

yesterday.
2. The workers had already dug the ditches when
the lorry brought the pipes.
3. They water and weed the flowers in the front
garden every week.
4. Some students read, make notes and learn a lot
every day.
5. We used to spend a lot of money on sweets
when we were younger (and slimmer).

CHAPTER 2

QUESTIONNAIRE 2.

1. What is Aktionsart?
2. What groups of verbs distinguish features of
Aktionsart?
3. What is the formal difference between Aspect and
Aktionsart?
4. How many types of situations do you know?
5. Which are the phases in the development of a
situation?
6. What is the difference between inchoative and
inceptive?
7. What is the difference between ingressive and
egressive?
8. What is the difference between a state and an event?
9. How do you define accomplishments?
10. How do you define semelfactives?
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

11. How do you define habituality?

12. What is the difference between iterativity and
habituality?

If you could quickly give the answer to each of the

above questions, you may proceed to the next
exercises; if not, read the chapter again and then
resume this section.

EXERCISES

6. Distribute the verbs below into the columns of

the following table:

To see, to bring, to come, to win a contest, to

fly, to sleep, to burst, to hit, to hicup, to climb,
to dismantle, to preach, to doze off, to pray, to
cut, to bleed, to learn, to teach, to answer, to

States Events Processes

7. Distinguish between semelfactives and other

types of situation.
to push, to arrange, to imagine, to hit, to fall, to
cough, to run, to knock, to bring

Semelfactives Non- semelfactives

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

8. Distinguish between telic and atelic situations and

then build three sentences to make the telic –atelic
distinction
to paint rooms, to wash a car, to mop, to
smoke cigarettes, to some a cigarette, to eat,
to eat a peach, to water flowers, to water the
flower pots, to grow vegetables, to cook this
evening’s dinner.

9. Fill in the blanks with the right form of the verb:

Miriam ... (1. to be) a hard-working girl these days. She

... (2. to do) a lot of individual study lately and she ...(3.
to keep saying) she ... (4. to be) very proud of her work
grapes. She ...(5. to understand) Spanish better and
better and she ...(6.to love) it more and more. Actually
she ...(7.to take to studying) Spanish for more than a
year because her husband ...(8. to be) in Barcelona for
the last two years, he ...(9. to stay) there one more year
and then he ...(10. to move) to Madrid and he ...(11. to
bring his wife with him and so they (12. to go) on with
their family life.

10. Translate into English and and write between

brackets the sort of timeless situation they express:

1. Deciziile luate sub impulsul momentului au

uneori consecinţe cât se poate de neplăcute.
2. Cine se scoală de dimineaţă departe ajunge.
3. Cine se aseamănă se adună.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

4. Rândunelele sunt păsări migratoare.

5. Unghiul drept are 90º.
6. Apa este alcătuită din oxigen şi hidrogen.
7. Piatra care se rostogoleşte nu prinde muşchi.
8. Cu o floare nu se face primăvară.
9. Ecuatorul împarte Pământul în două.
10. Soarele şi luna sunt corpuri cereşti.

11. Translate into English paying attention to the

present tense forms to be used:
1. Te rog să o inviţi în birou pe doamna care
aşteaptă în hol.
2. Noul nostru manager crede că este suficient să
introduci reforme; eu, însă, cred că dacă nu
urmăreşti evoluţia lor şi nu le consolidezi în
fiecare zi, toată munca este inutilă.
3. Copiii trebuie învăţaţi să-şi facă ordine în camera
lor în fiecare dimineaţă.
4. În fiecare seară uită să stingă lumina din hol şi
asta mă deranjează; nu ştiu ce să fac să-l
obişnuiesc să-şi îndeplinească această
responsabilitate.
5. Puma cea mai tânără de la gradina noastră
zoologică este în libertate acum şi sunt sigură că
ne va fi foarte greu s-o prindem din nou.
6. Am auzit că vecinul meu, arheologul, va lucra ca
profesor universitar într-o facultate din Egipt.
7. Când vor ajunge la hotărârea finală o vor
comunica tuturor părţilor cuprinse în proiect.
8. Întotdeauna recunoaşte personajul principal
după descrierea făcută în dosarul ataşat lecţiei.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

9. Ciorile sunt păsări inteligente, cred specialiştii, în

urma experimentelor de laborator.
10. Copiii sunt neaşteptat de zgomotoşi astăzi !

12. Fill in the blanks with forms of the past tense

simple or continuous:

1. He … (go) to school by bike last year.

2. My friends … (watch) television when I phoned
them.
3. They … (invite) me to see the film when I phoned
them.
4. Bob … (write) the letter in ten minutes and then
he leaves for the post office.
5. While his sister … (lay) the table, he … (write) a
letter to their parents who …(live) in another
country for some time.
6. As usual, grandfather … (read) the newspaper
when I came home.
7. She … (ask) me about my holidays plans when
we met.
8. The barn behind the house … (burn) when we
came out to see where the noise was coming
from.
9. Mary … always … (talk) about fashion and this
annoyed her friends.
10. Sandy … (look) for an atlas in a bookshop when
her mother spotted her through the shop window.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

13. Translate into English:

1. Vremea este urâtă de câteva zile şi cerul este
întunecat.
2. Este trecut de 22.30 şi sună telefonul; cine mă
sună la ora asta?
3. Te urmăresc de mai multă vreme şi cred că eşti
în stare să faci faţă unui interviu pentru ocuparea
unui loc de muncă.
4. În ultima vreme am mers la bibliotecă de cel
puţin trei ori pe săptămână.
5. Din decembrie plouă din când în când, bate
vântul din când în când, dar nu a nins niciodată
până acum.
6. Spune-mi ce ai de gând să faci mâine. Când eşti
liberă, după amiază mergem la grădina botanică.
7. Cine este omul despre care vorbeai?

8. In timp ce mă grăbeam spre ieşirea din magazin,

am dat peste un tânăr pe care nu-l observasem.
9. Aceasta este cartea pentru care am plătit, din
economiile mele, o mare sumă de bani.
10. Iată vine prietenul despre care ţi-am vorbit.

11. Vânzătorul i-a dat lui John prăjiturile pe care le-a

cerut.
12. M-am gândit deseori la problema despre care
mi-ai vorbit luna trecută.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

CHAPTER 3.

14. Choose the right English version for each of the

following:

A. Florile pentru care am plătit deja nu au ajuns încă

la mine acasă.
a) Flowers for which I paid have not arrived at my
home yet.
b) The flowers for which I paid have not arrived at
my home yet.
c) The flowers which I have paid for, have not
arrived at my home yet.

B. Pentru că ningea de aproape douăzeci şi patru

de ore când am ajuns noi la Braşov, zăpada
ascundea deja băncile din parc.
a) For it was snowing for nearly 24 hours when we
reached Braşov, the snow was already hiding
the benches in the park.
b) As it had been snowing for nearly 24 hours
when we reached Braşov, the snow already
covered the benches in the park.
c) As it has been snowing for nearly 24 hours
when we reached Braşov, the snow was
already covering the benches in the park.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

C. Politicianul tot vorbeşte şi vorbeşte de mai bine

de o oră, dar nu a spus nimic important până acum.
a) The politician has been talking for more than an
hour, but he did not say anything of importance
till now.
b) The politician is talking for more than an hour,
but he has not said anything of importance till
now.
c) The politician has been talking for more than an
hour, but he has said nothing of importance till
now.

D. Mi-ai aşezat pe masă toate dicţionarele şi cărţile

de gramatică şi îmi ceri acum să traduc această
piesă.
a) You put all your dictionaries and grammar
books on the table for me and you ask me now to
translate this play.
b) You have put all your dictionaries and grammar
books on the table for me and you ask me now
to translate this play.
c) You put all your dictionaries and grammar
books on the table for me and now you are
asking me to translate this play.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

E. N-am tradus niciodată un fragment literar, de

aceea nu cred că voi putea să-l traduc nici pe
acesta, cel puţin eu nu cred că voi fi în stare să-l
traduc foarte bine.
a) I have never translated a literary fragment, so
do not think I am able to translate this; at least I
do not believe I can translate it very well.
b) I never translated a literary fragment, so do not
think I shall be able to translate this; at least I
do not believe I am able to translate it very
well.
c) I have never translated a literary fragment
before, so do not think I shall be able to
translate this; at least, I do not believe I shall
be able to translate it very well.

F. Sora mea are o mulţime de prieteni pentru că a

fost la târgurile naţionale de arte şi meserii.
a) My sister has a lot of friends for she went to
(inter)national fairs of arts and crafts.
b) My sister has a lot of friends for she goes to
national and international fairs of arts and
crafts.
c) My sister has got a lot of friends for she has
gone to national and international fairs of arts
and crafts.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

G. De apropape două săptămâni vântul suflă

devastator deasupa ţărilor din nordul Europei şi a
produs deja pagube enorme.
a) The wind has been blowing fiercely for nearly
two weeks over the North European countries
and it caused huge damage already.
b) The wind has blown fiercely for nearly two
weeks over the North European countries and
it caused huge damage already.
c) The wind has been blowing fiercely for nearly
two weeks over the North European countries
and it has already caused huge damage.

15. Translate into Romanian, paying attention to the

aspectual forms:

1. „Last night, or rather this morning, I was dancing till

two o’clock.”
2. „… and he went up to the attics when all was
burning above and below…”
3. „And then they called out to him that she was on the
roof, where she was standing, waving her arms.”
4. „And so you were waiting for your people when you
sat on that stile?”
5. „Now I will leave you: I have been travelling these
last three days, and I believe I am tired.”
6. „He has explained again and again that it is not
himself…”

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

7. „’I see you and St John have been quarrelling,

Jane’, said Diana, ’during your walk on the moor’. ”
8. „Here was a new stunner – I had been calculating
on four or five thousand. This news actually took my
breath for a moment. Mr St John whom I had never
heard laugh before, laughed now.”
9. „I had read Goldsmith’s ’History of Rome’, and had
formed my opinion of Nero, Caligula, etc. Also I had
drawn parallels in silence…”
10. „For several subsequent days I saw little of Mr
Rochester. In the mornings… gentlemen from
Millcote or the neighbourhood called, and
sometimes stayed to dine with him.”
11. „You have lived the life of a nun: no doubt you are
well drilled in religious forms…”
(Ch. Brontë – Jane Eyre)

16. Translate into English and draw a list of the

means of expressing Aktionsart, as you come
across them while translating the sentences

1. Dan Chişu mărturiseşte că a început să-şi scrie

memoriile şi este de părere că i-ar mai trebui trei
ani ca să vadă volumul în librării.
2. Continuă să lucreze la acest proiect, cu toate că
nu este convins de succesul eforturilor lui.
3. În urma furtunilor din aceste săptămâni, şopronul
din spatele casei este gata-gata să se dărâme.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

4. Bunica îşi isprăvi povestea şi se duse la culcare.

5. Copiii începură să prindă drag de casa bunicilor
şi îi rugară pe părinţi să meargă acolo mai des.
6. Sportivii continuau să se antreneze câteva ore în
fiecare zi.
7. Cercetările continuară şi în luna ianuarie, dar nu
apăru nici un indiciu, nici un fel de dovadă şi nici
măcar un nou martor,
8. Băieţii continuau să alerge pentru că nimeni nu
era obosit şi pentru că întrecerea nu se sfârşise
încă.
9. Filmul devine din ce în ce mai interesant, ba mai
bine, captivant, de aceea nimeni nu mai scoate o
vorbă.
10. Apa continuă să picure din tavan şi a stricat deja
şi un colţ din peretele fără fereastră.

17. Match the two versions of the excerpts below,

and analyse the means of expressing temporality
and aspectuality, as offered by authoriyed
translators:

A. „Something seemed to a.”A fost o seară minunată

tell me that I was on the şi trebuie s-o încheiem în
verge of a terrible crisis in chip minunat.”
my life.”

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

B. „In the centre of the b.”N-am mai călcat pe la

room…, stood the full- club de zile întregi.”
length portrait of a young
man… and in front of it,
some little distance away,
was sitting the artist
himself…”
C. „I have not been to the c.Ceva parcă îmi spunea
club for days.” că mă aflu la un pas de o
criză cumplită în viaţa
mea.

D.“…’Well’, said he, ‘you d. “Mereu, ea rosteşte un

are an ungrateful girl; but I cuvânt rău despre mine
am thinking it would be a [şi, cum găseşte o ocazie
pity…’ … mă laudă.]

E. „It has been a charming e.”În mijlocul încăperii…

evening, and we must end se afla portretul în mărime
it charmingly.” naturală al unui tânăr… iar
în faţa portretului, ceva
mai departe, şedea artistul
însuşi. „
F. “Her nephew, who f.“ - Ei, bine, eşti o fată
swears like a fine nerecunoscătoare, dar mă
gentleman at every word, gândesc că ar fi păcat …’
rapped out an oath, and …”
said, drolling…”

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

G. “She is never wanting g.“Nepotul ei care înjură la

to give me a good word.” fiecare cuvânt ca un
distins gentleman, mai-mai
a dat drumul unei înjurături
şi făcând haz, zise…”

H. Whenever I have gone h. De câte ori am călcat pe

there… acolo…

Note 1. Excerpts A,B,C and H were taken from O.

Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”
Note 2. Excerpts D, F and G were taken from S.
Richardson’s “Pamela”

18. Translate into English paying attention to some

groups of sentences and the slight differences
which may matter:

1. Aproape că am adormit când sunetul brusc al

telefonului m-a deranjat şi n-am mai dormit până
dimineaţă.
2. Erau în sătucul acela de la marginea pădurii de
două zile când au aflat că şi prietenii lor îşi
petrec vacanţa tot acolo.
3. A locuit multă vreme într-un bloc din centrul
oraşului.
4. Au locuit 10 ani în casa de la ţară.
5. Au locuit în ultima vreme în zona periferică a
oraşului.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

6. Lucrează în această şcoală de peste 15 ani şi

cei mai mulţi dintre foştii lui elevi au numai
cuvinte frumose despre el.
7. Şcoala noastră a oferit învăţământului superior
absolvenţi de foarte mare viitor.
8. De 10 ani încoace şcoala noastră a oferit
învăţământului superior absolvenţi de foarte
mare viitor.
9. A lucrat în această firmă din 1990 până în 1998
şi conducerea nu a avut decât cuvinte frumoase
despre munca lui.
10. Aceasta este chiar camera de hotel în care am
locuit şi data trecută când am fost în Amstredam.
11. Era plăcut să te plimbi printre pomii căroră le
cădeau frunzele.
12. Mâine la ora asta vom fi repetat deja toate
subiectele pentru testul de sâmbătă.

19. Translate into English paying attention to some

groups of sentences and the slight differences
which may matter
1. De când s-au produs atentatele de la Madrid,
părinţii ei plâng fără încetare.
2. Nu se mai poate deplasa de când a avut
accidentul de maşină.
3. Este mult mai fericit de când au doi copii.
4. Ei sunt mult mai fericiţi de când au adoptat şi cel
de-al doilea copil.
5. A învăţat foarte multe lucruri de când este în
această firmă.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

6. A învăţat foarte multe amănunte privind tonul în

corespondenţă de când s-a angajat la noi.
7. De când sunt studenţi la secţia de artă, aceşti
studenţi, au pictat mai multe peisaje.
8. În anii lor de tinereţe puţini pictori au pictat
portrete.
9. De vreo două luni, de când îl antrenează Mircea,
fiul meu joacă tenis mult mai bine.
10. Face studii în domeniul arheologiei de când a
terminat facultatea, adică din 1996.
11. După ce vor copia cuvintele noi de câte patru ori
pe fiecare dintre ele, vor şti cum să le scrie
corect.
12. Toţi pacienţii din acest salon vor trebui să repete
toate analizele după ce vor termina toate
medicamentele.
13. Vei traduce corect toate formele verbale după
ce vei învăţa şi vei înţelege regulile care au fost
predate astăzi.
14. Vor semna contractul numai după ce îl vor citi cu
atenţie.
15. Dacă ai trimis scrisoarea de intenţie conform
datei limită, dosarul tău va fi acceptat.
16. După ce va repeta poezia de cinci sau şase ori,
o va şti pe de rost.
17. De apropape o lună de când sunt în Bucureşti
îmi caut o casă dar cred că voi mai avea încă
mult de căutat până voi găsi ceea ce-mi doresc.
18. S-au pregătit pentru jocurile olimpice cel puţin
opt ore zilnic şi, cu toate acestea, nu au
convingerea că vor câştiga vreo medalie.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

19. Sunt în sat de două zile dar n-au venit încă pe la

noi.
20. În ultima vreme sunt în stare să lucreze mult mai
mult decât anul trecut pe vremea asta.
21. Deoarece s-a convins că în ultima vreme am fost
în stare să obţin rezultate mai bune, mi-a oferit
un bonus.
22. De când lucrează la gară, de aproape vreo trei
luni, călătoreşte cu trenul fără bilet.
23. Personalul acestui magazin vorbeşte frumos şi
politicos şi cu clienţii şi cu vizitatorii magazinului.
24. Elevii sunt foarte atenţi deoarece profesorul le
predă acum concordanţa timpurilor.
25. Vorbesc, de obicei, despre necazurile vieţii de zi
cu zi.
26. Vorbesc cu pasiune despre preocupările lor
literare.
27. Aşteptăm în holul hotelului şi bagajele noastre
sunt pe o platformă lângă lift.
28. Acest canal de televiziune transmite ştiri la
fiecare jumătate de oră.
29. Ascutăm cu atenţie ştirile pe care le transmite
postul de televiziune CNN.

20. Translate into English paying attention to some

groups of sentences and the slight differences
which may matter
1. Am primit totdeauna cadouri frumoase de la
părinţii mei, până acum.
2. l-am auzit vorbind despre un subiect mai puţin
interesant.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

3. Aţi învăţat multe lucruri bune când aţi fost

studenţi.
4. l-am văzut de mai multe ori când picta în grădina
botanică.
5. Am pierdut din nou cartea de la bibliotecă şi
acum trebuie să merg şi să plătesc amenda.
6. Până la divorţ Eleonora a primit totdeaua flori de
la părinţii soţului ei.
7. De fapt, dorinţa ei ei este ca până la anul pe
vremea asta să fi organizat deja prima ei
expoziţie de obiecte de artă populară
achiziţionate la aceste târguri.
8. Deşi au fost foarte atenţi cu lucrurile lor toată
dimineaţa, când au ajuns acasă au descoperit că
totuşi au pierdut cartea de poveşti pe care o
împrumutaseră de la bibliotecă.
9. Aţi învăţat multe lucruri bune, ceea ce este
evident din studiul pe crae îl prezentaţi acum în
detaliu în faţa acestui auditoriu specializat.
10. Pentru că a învăţat bine regulile jocului şi pentru
că se antrenează serios de ceva vreme, nimeni
nu-l poate învinge.

21. Put the verbs in brackets into present perfect

simple or past tense.

Someone (1. ring) up half n hour ago and (2. say) that
there was a time bomb in the plane. Since then the
crew (3. search) for it, but they not (4. find) it. This is the
third scare bomb they (5. have) this week.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

22. Turn the Simple Future sentences into

Continuous Future sentences and make the
necessary changes to express future time intervals:

1. The economists of our company will analyze the

financial situation of the months to come in order to
make a realistic prognosis.
2. I shall work for my dissertation tomorrow.
3. The football team will train for the next international
competition.
4. Horticulturists will have a convention in Seattle.
5. The medical students will watch a demonstrative
heart surgery on the Reality Channel.
6. We shall listen to a concert.

23. Translate paying attention to the ways of

expressing futurity, no matter the location of the
reference moment:

1. Îţi va spune ce să faci cu vechea ta maşină puţin mai

târziu; acum vorbeşte cu nişte antreprenori care
deschid o afacere aici.
2. Ghidul vă va descrie oraşul în cele mai mici
amănunte.
3. Îţi va aduce valiza înapoi după amiază.
4. Vor fi de acord să locuiască în casa veche pentru că
este mai aproape de staţia de autobuz.
5. Cortina se va ridica în câteva minute şi sala va
răsuna de aplauze.
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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

6. Ştiam că îmi va înapoia dicţionarul fără întârziere.

7. A promis că ne va scrie un e-mail înainte de a începe
cursurile.
8. Instalatorul a promis că va repara caloriferul cam
vreo două-trei ore mâine dimineaţă.
9. Şoferul cunoştea o scurtătură şi era convins că va
ajunge la Iaşi înainte de prânz.
10. Dentistul şi-a asigurat pacienţii că nu vor simţi nimic
în timpul plombării dinţilor.

CHAPTER 4.

24.Give the passive version, (two, wherever

possible) of the sentences below:
1. The user’s book accompanies each of our
products.
2. They will be carrying the fish to markets this time
tomorrow.
3. The philosopher handed the prize to the winner.
4. The doctor gave those patients expensive pills.
5. A generous businessman has just offered them a
house to live in for some time.
6. The police will be monitoring the traffic on the
highways to Bucharest.
7. The coach has been monitoring the five boys
from Cluj-Napoca.
8. The more talented chefs are cooking the food for
the exhibition.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

25. Translate paying attention to the passive forms

to be used:

1. S-a lucrat la acest dicţionar pentru o perioadă de

aproximativ 20 de ani.
2. Au lucrat la prima ediţie a dicţionarului Oxford
timp de patruzeci de ani.
3. S-a menţionat adesea că s-a lucrat foarte mult
timp la compilarea dicţionarului Oxford.
4. Au ridicat zidurile acestei uzine în mai puţin de
două luni.
5. Zidurile acestei uzine au fost ridicate în mai puţin
de două luni.
6. Am zărit-o în mulţime dar nu am putut vorbi cu
ea.
7. A fost zărită în mulţime, dar nu i s-a putut vorbi.
8. I-au arătat că nu are dreptate.
9. I s-a arătat că greşeşte.
10. Mai multe persoane au solicitat această slujbă.
11. Slujba aceasta a fost solicitată de mai multe
persoane.
12. Vei citi instrucţiunile de folosire a dicţionarului
înainte de a căuta vreun cuvânt nou.
13. Se vor citi instrucţiunile înainte de folosirea
acestei substanţe care este extrem de toxică.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

REVISION ITEMS

Choose the right solution:

1. Se pare că avem o iarnă grea: ninge de mai multe

zile iar stratul de zăpadă este destul de gros.
a) We seem to have a rough winter: it has snowed
for several days and the snow layer is thick
enough.
b) We seem to be having a rough winter: it has been
snowing for several days and the snow layer is
thick enough.
c) We seem to have a rough winter: it had snowed
for several days and the snow layer is thick
enough.

2. Circulaţia se pare că va fi oprită din cauza

zăpezii.
a)The traffic seems to be banned on account of
snow.
b)The traffic seems to have been banned on
account of snow.
c)The traffic will be banned on account of snow.

3. Regret că am pierdut prilejul de a vedea una din

marile capitale ale lumii.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

a)I regret missing the opportunity of visiting one of

the big capitals of the world.
b) I regret to have missed the opportunity of visiting
one of the big capitals of the world.
c) I regret having missed the opportunity of visiting
one of the big capitals of the world.
4. Vi se arată dovezile vinovăţiei lui, dar le ignoraţi.
a) You are being shown evidence of his guilt but you
ignore them.
b) You have been shown evidence of his guilt but
you ignore them.
c)You are being shown evidence of his guilt but you
ignore.

5. Doamnelor li se prezintă de apropape două ore

ultimele poşete produse de firma D.A.D.A.
a)The ladies were being shown the last models of
handbags produced by D.A.D.A.
b)For nearly two hours the ladies have been being
shown the lastest models of handbags produced
by D.A.D.A.
c)The ladies have been being shown the last models
of handbags produced by D.A.D.A.

6. În ultima vreme ni se predau lecţiile sub forma

prezentărilor PowerPoint.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

a) Lately we were taught the lessons as PowerPoint

presentations.
b) Lately we have taught the lessons as PowerPoint
presentations.
c) We have been taught the lessons as PowerPoint
presentations lately.

7. Nu li s-a făcut încă nici un fel de training deşi li

s-a promis acest lucru cu mai mult timp în urmă.
a) They have not been trained at all yet although
they have been promised this thing some time
ago.
b) They have not been trained at all yet although
they were promised this thing some time ago.
c) They have not been trained at all yet although
they had been promised this thing some time ago.

8. Construcţia a fost proiectată în urmă cu mai mulţi

ani.
a) The building has designed several years ago.
b) The building has been designed several years
ago.
c) The building was designed several years ago.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

9. Fenomeme climatice dintre cele mai

neaşteptate se petrec în ultima vreme pe
întreaga planetă.
a) Climatic phenomena of the most unexpected
happen all over the world lately.
b) Climatic phenomena of the most unexpected
nature have happened worldwide lately.
c) Climatic phenomenons of the most
unexpected nature have been happened all
over the world lately.

10. Fratele lui Victor va discuta cu directorul

grădinii zoologice în legătură cu puiul de urs pe
care l-au găsit în faţa casei mai zilele trecute.
a) Victor’s brother will discuss with the manager
of the Zoo about the bear cub they found in
front of their house the other day.
b) Victor’s brother will be discussing with the
manager of the Zoo about the bear cub they
have found in front of their house the other
day.
c) Victor’s brother is going tol discuss with the
manager of the Zoo about the bear cub they
have found in front of their house the other
day.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

11. Ştiu că mi se vor oferi şi flori de ziua mea de

naştere.

a. I know I shall also be being offered

flowers on my birthday.
b. I know I shall also be offered flowers on
my birthday.
c. I know they will also offer me flowers on
my birthday.

12. A ajuns la timp acasă şi tocmai vorbeşte cu

fetiţele lui.

a) He arrived in time at home and he

talks with his little girls.
b) He arrives in time at home and he
talks with his little girls.
c) He arrived in time at home and he is
just talking with his little girls

13. Ştiam că a ajuns acasă pentru că îl auzeam

vorbind cu feţiţele lui.

a) I knew he arrived at home as I could

hear him talking with his girls.
b) I knew he has arrived at home as I could
hear him talking with his girls.
c) I knew he had arrived at home as I could
hear him talking with his girls.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

14. Părinţii tăi ştiu ce ai de gând să faci în zilele

următoare?

a) Do your parents know about what you are

going to do the next days?
b) Do your parents know about what you are
doing the next days?
c) Do your parents know about what you will do
the next days?

15. Părinţii ei ştiau ce avea de gând să facă

înainte de a pleca din ţară.

a) Her parents knew about what she was going

to to before leaving the country.
b) Her parents knew about what she was doing
before leaving the country.
c) Her parents knew about what she would do
before leaving the country

16. Au petrecut zile frumoase în deltă unde au

fost la pescuit, la vânătoare şi unde au petrecut
serile în jurul unui foc.

a) They had nice days in the delta where they

went fishing, hunting and spent their evenings
around a fire.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

b) They spent nice days in the delta going

fishing, and hunting and where spent their
evenings around a fire.
c) They lived nice days in the delta where they
went fishing, hunting and spent their evenings
around a fire.

17. Se mutaseră la ţară de ceva vreme pentru că

doreau să-şi cumpere animale şi să aibă ferma
lor.
a) They moved to the countryside for some time
for the wanted to buy animals and have their
own farm.
b) They have moved to the countryside for some
time for the wanted to buy animals and have
their own farm.
c) They had moved to the countryside for some
time as the wanted to buy animals and have
their own farm.

18. Când Elena ajungea acasă îşi găsea copiii

jucând jocuri pe calculator.

a) Whenever Elena arrived at home she found

her children playing computer games.
b) Whenever Elena was arriving at home she
found her children playing computer games.
c) Whenever Elena arrived at home she found
her children had been playing computer
games.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

Further reading
Following the model proposed by Leech (2004: 133) or
Leech et al. (2006: 230), this ending section has two
purposes: it gives a selection of the books to be
consulted or studied and mentions the sources which
underlie the present approach.

1. ***** 1963, Gramatica limbii române, Bucureşti:

Editura Academiei (GA)
2. Allerton,D. J., 1979, Essentials of Grammatical
Theory. A consensus view of syntax and
morphology. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul
3. Alexander, L.G., 1988, Longman English
Grammar, London: Longman
4. Benveniste, E., 1966, Le langage et l’expérience
humaine, în Problèmes de linguistique générale,
Paris: Gallimard
5. Biber et al., 1999, Longman Grammar of
Spoken and Written English, London: Longman

174
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

6. Binninck, R.I., Time and the Verb. A Guide to

Tense and Aspect, Oxford: Oxford University
Press, Canada
7. Bîră, E., 1974, Main Future Expressions in
English and Romanian, în The Romanian-
English Contrastive Analysis Project. Contrastive
Studies in the Syntax and Semantics of English
and Romanian, 6, pp. 131 -72
8. Bull, W.E., 1960, Time, Tense and the Verb. A
Study in the Theoretical and Applied Linguistics,
with Particular Attention to Spanish. Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
9. ******1998, Collins English Dictionary. Millennium
Edition, Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers
10. Collins Cobuild, 1990, English Grammar,
London: Harper Collins Publishers,
11. Comrie, B, 1985, Aspect, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
12. Comrie, B, 1985a, Tense, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
13. Cornilescu, A. 1974, Towards a Semantic
Description of Tense and Aspect in English and
Romanian, in Contrastive Studies in the Syntax
and Semantics of English and Romanian,
Bucureşti: Bucharest University Press, pp. 43-
130

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

14. Cornilescu, A. 1976, The Transformational

Syntax of English, Bucureşti: Bucharest
University Press
15. Cornilescu, A., Iclezan-Dimitriu, I., 2000, The
Infinitive, Iaşi: Editura Institutul European
16. Croitoru, E., 2002, Modals.Tenses.Aspect,
Galaţi: Editura Fundaţiei Universitare “Dunărea
de Jos”
17. Declerck, R., 1989, Tense in Discourse, Leuven:
University of Leuven
18. Downing, A., Locke, J., 1992, A University
Course in English Grammar, New York: Prentice
Hall
19. Evseev, I., 1974, Semantica verbului. Categoriile
de acţiune, devenire şi stare, Timişoara: Editura
Facla
20. Guţu-Romalo, Valeria, 1961, Semiauxiliare de
aspect?, în Limba română, X, 1, pp. 3-15
21. Hulban, H., 1982, The English Grammar,
Morphology and the Simple Sentence, Iaşi:
Universitatea “Al. I. Cuza”
22. Hulban, H., 2002, Syntheses in English
Morphology, Iaşi: Editura Spanda
23. Irimia, D., 1976, Verbul, Iaşi: Editura Junimea
24. Ivănescu, G., 1957, Le temps, l’aspect et la
durée de l’action dans les langues indo-

176
English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

européennes, in Bucureşti: Mélanges

linguistiques, p. 23-63
25. Jackson, Howard, 1990, Grammar and Meaning,
London and New York: Longman
26. Jespersen, O., 1965, The Philosophy of
Grammar, New York: The Norton Library, Norton
& Company Inc.
27. Jespersen, O.,1964, Essentials of English
Grammar, University of Alabama Press
28. Joos, M., 1968, The English Verb. Form and
Meanings, Madison Milwaukee: The University of
Wisconsin Press
29. Lăcătuşu, Tamara, 2005a, Essentials of English
Syntax. Complex Structures, Iaşi: Casa
Editorială Demiurg
30. Lăcătuşu, Tamara, 2005b, Essentials of English
Syntax. The Simple Independent Sentence, Iaşi:
Casa Editorială Demiurg
31. Leech, G., 2004, Meaning and the English Verb,
Third Edition, Pearson Longman
32. Leech, G., Deuchar,M., Hoogenraad,R., 2006,
English Grammar for Today, Palgrave Macmillan
33. Lewis, M., 1994, The English Verb. An
Exploration of Structure and Meaning, London:
London Teaching Publications

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

34. Lyons, John, 1987, Introduction to Theoretical

Linguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
35. Lyons, John, 1988, Semantics, Cambridge
University Press
36. Marcus, Solomon, 1985, Timpul, Bucureşti:
Editura Albatros
37. Murphy,R., et al., 1990, Grammar in Use,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
38. Pârlog,H. şi Teleagă,M., 1999, Dicţionar de
colocaţii nominale englez-român,Timişoara:
Mirton
39. Pârlog,H., Teleagă,M., 2000, Dicţionar englez-
român de colocaţii verbale, Iaşi: Polirom
40. Popescu, F., 2000, Tempo-aspectualitate
contrastivă, Iaşi: Editura Spanda
41. Popescu, F., 2001, The Verb and the Verb
Phrase in Contemporary English, Galaţi: Editura
Fundaţiei Universitare “Dunărea de Jos”
42. Preda, Ioan, Spăriosu, Domnica, 1972, The
Romanian Imperfect and its English Equivalents,
in Studies, The Romanian English Contrastive
Analysis Project, Bucureşti: Bucharest University
Press, pp. 185-200
43. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., 1976, A University
Grammar of English, London: Longman

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

44. Quirk, et al.,1985, A Comprehensive Grammar of

English, London: Longman
45. Săteanu, C., 1980, Timp şi temporalitate în limba
română, Bucureşti: Ed. ştiinţifică şi enciclopedică
46. Schibsbye, K., 1970, A Modern English
Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press
47. Schrampfer Azar, B., 1989, Understanding and
Using English Grammar, New Jersey:
Regents&Prentice Hall
48. Smith, Ch., 1991, The Parameter of Aspect, in
Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, vol. 43,
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
49. Swan, M., 1981, Practical English Usage, Oxford
University Press
50. Ştefănescu, Ioana, 1988, English Morphology,
Bucureşti: Bucharest University Press
51. Taylor, B., 1977, Tense and Continuity, in
Linguistics and Philosophy, pp. 199 -220
52. Thomson, A.J., Martinet, A.V., 1993, A Practical
English Grammar, Fourth Edition, Oxford: Oxford
University Press
53. Vince, M., 2004, Advanced Language Practice,
Macmillan Heinemann

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 English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

ANNEX - Bull’s hypothetical system

E(PP-V) E(PPOV) E(PP+V)

 has sung sings will sing 
has been singing is singing will be singing

E(AP-V) E(APOV) E(AP+V)

 will have sung zero zero 
will have been
singing

E(RP-V) E(RPOV) E(RP+V)

 had sung sang would sing
had been singing was singing would be singing

E(RAP-V) E(RAPOV) E(RAP+V)

would have sung zero zero 
would have been singing

E(PP-V) E(PPOV) E(PP+V)

 am cîntat cînt voi cînta 

E(AP-V) E(APOV) E(AP+V)

voi fi cîntat zero zero 

E(RP-V) E(RPOV) E(RP+V)

cîntasem cîntam/cîntai zero 
am cîntat

E(RAP-V) E(EAPOV) E(RAP+V)

zero zero zero 

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

ANSWER KEY
This section presents only the answers to the exercises
which precede the suggestions for further reading.

Chapter 1.

Exercise 9.
1.has been 2. has been doing 3. has kept saying 4. has
been 5. is understanding 6. is loving 7. she has taken
to 8. has been 9. is staying 10. is moving 11. is bringing
12. will go on

Exercise 10
1. Decisions taken on the spur of the moment
sometimes have as unpleasant consequences
as possible.
2. The early bird catches the worm.
3. Birds of a feather flock together.
4. Swallows are migrating birds.
5. The right angle has 90º.
6. Water consists of oxygen and hydrogen.
7. A rolling stone will catch no moss.
8. One swallow does not make spring.
9. The equator divides the Earth into two halves.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

10. The sun and the moon are celestial bodies.

Exercise 11.

1. Please invite into the office the lady who is

waiting in the hall.
2. Our new manager thinks it is enough to introduce
new reforms; but I think that if you don’t monitor
their evolution and you support them every day,
all the work is in vain.
3. Children have to be taught to tidy up their room
every morning.
4. He is always forgetting to switch off the light in
the hall and this annoys me; I don’t know what to
do to get him used to carrying out this
responsibility.
5. The youngest puma in our zoo is still in the open
and I am sure it will be very difficult for us to
catch it again.
6. I hear my neighbour the archaeologist will work
as a professor for a faculty in Egypt.
7. When they reach the final decision they will
communicate it to all the parties in the project.
8. He always recognizes the main hero after the
description included in the lesson file.
9. Crows are clever birds, believe the experts after
the laboratory experiments.
10. The children are being unexpectedly noisy today!

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

Exercise 12

1. went 2. was watching 3. invited 4. will be writing 5. is

laying / is writing / are living 6. was reading 7. asked
8. was burning 9. was talking 10. was looking

Exercise 13
1. The weather has been nasty for a few days and
the sky has been overcast.
2. Itis beyond 22.30 and the phone is ringing; who
is calling me at this time?
3. I have been monitoring you for a while and I think
you are able to be up to the requirements of a
job interview.
4. Lately I have been to the library at least three
times a week.
5. Since December it has rained now and then, the
wind has blown now and then, but it has never
snowed so far.
6. Tell me what you are going to do tomorrow.
Whenyou are free, in the afternoon we are going
to the Botanical Garden.
7. Who is the man ou were talking about?
8. While I was hurrying to the shop exit, i ran into a
youngster whom i had not noticed.
9. This is the book for which I have paid a juge sum
of money out of my saviings.
10. Here comes the friend I have talked to you
about.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

11. The salesmas gave John the cakes he had

asked for.
12. I have often been thinking about the problem you
talked to me last month.

Chapter 3.

Exercise 14.
A. c. B.b. C.c . D.c E.c F.c .G.c .

Exercise 15.
1. Dan Chişu confesses he has taken to writing his
memories and he thinks it would take him three
more years to see the volume in bookshops.
2. He continues to work on this project, although he
is not convinced of the success of his efforts.
3. After the storms of these weeks, the barn behind
the house is almost falling down.
4. Grangmother finished her story and went to bed.
5. The children started to like their grandparents’
house and they asked their parents to go there
more often.
6. The sportsmen kept on training several hours
every day.

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English Tense and Aspect for Romanian Learners

7. The investigations continued during the month

off January as well, but no sign, no kind of
evidence, not even a new witness was found.
8. The boys continued to run because nobody was
tired and because the competition had not
finished yet.
9. The movie becomes more and more interesting,
nay, captivating, that is why nobody is uttering a
word.
10. The water kept on dropping from the ceiling and
it has already damaged a corner of the wall
without a window.

Exercise 18.

1. I had almost fallen asleep when the sudden ring

of the phone disturbed me and I could not sleep
till morning.
2. They had been in that little village near the forest
for two days when they found out that their
firends were spending their holidays nearby.
3. He lived for quite a time in a block of flats
downtown.
4. They lived in the countryhouse for ten years.
5. Lately they have been living in the suburbs.
6. He has been teaching in this school for more
than 15 years and most of his former students
said only nice words about him.

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