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I've been working on a set of posts on tense. They outline tense in its pure sense as a contrast of temporal references. Misunderstanding the role of tense and of time in general in languages can cause quite a few problems in attempting to explain how to use and when to use certain forms to students. These articles are designed to help teachers separate the idea of tense from those of aspect and other time-related concepts. The information is universal for all languages, but so far I have only done examples for English.

Two posts are finished so far, the main post, and a second with examples and explanations of present tense forms.

Part I: http://calleteach.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/tense/

Part II: http://calleteach.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/tense-part-ii-present/

If anyone would like to assist by providing examples in other languages, I would welcome the help (please only native/fully fluent speakers of those languages).

I hope some of you will find this information useful. Please leave a comment if you do (or if you have any questions). I will post an update when the articles for the past and future are posted (later this week probably).
_________________
The first step to teaching is realizing that you don't know nearly enough yourself.

My Blog: http://calleteach.wordpress.com

[Lexicon]

Here is the past tense section:

http://calleteach.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/tense-part-iii-past/
_________________
The first step to teaching is realizing that you don't know nearly enough yourself.

My Blog: http://calleteach.wordpress.com

[Lexicon]

And finally, future...

http://calleteach.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/tense-part-iv-future/
_________________
The first step to teaching is realizing that you don't know nearly enough yourself.

My Blog: http://calleteach.wordpress.com