A nonpast tense (
abbreviated
An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
) is a
grammatical tense that distinguishes a verbal action as taking place in times present or future, as opposed to
past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some ha ...
. This can be illustrated in English, where future is not a separate form of the verb, as demonstrated by forms such as ''I hope he
gets''
onpast''better tomorrow'', where the future
modal ''will'' is not required the way a true tense would be. (Compare past tense ''I hope he
got better yesterday'', where the ''gets'' form is not grammatical.)
Grammatical tenses
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