617: Present Tense Aug 16, 2016

Although there is the term 'present tense', it has multiple forms and different meanings. The present tense can be used to indicate truths that would not change for the past, present or future, such as 'fire produces heat', or 'two times three is four', and this is called the state present. The habitual present indicates events that are continuous or repeating, such as 'I eat breakfast every day. In African American English, this is taken a step further with the habitual 'be', such as in 'she be working' to mean generally that she has a job. The instantaneous present is used to show that an action has just occurred but it is also completed at the time of the speech, such as if a commentator were to say "Jones falls and injures his knee". There are other uses of the present that don't indicate present action at all. The historic present states past actions in the present for emphasis, such as "Booth opened the door, pulled back the trigger, and shoots Lincoln". Here, the first two verbs were in the past tense, but the last was in the present. Finally, the present can be used to indicate a future action usually with an adverb, such as "I fly out tomorrow".