Just about every language teacher has heard this bad joke: “The past, present, and future walked into the same bar; it was a tense scene.” It’s no joke, though, when second-language learners develop a deep understanding of how a verb system’s use of tense, voice, and mood allow for clarity of thought and nuance of expression in English and in the second language.
Tense- Past, present, and future are bluntly expansive concepts of time, but we often need a sharper focus on sequences of action. The perfect tenses exist, for example, to denote actions completed in each of three time frames. The present perfect denotes actions completed before the present, as in ‘”she has finished her homework and is now able to relax.” The past perfect, also known as the pluperfect, allows one to emphasize completion of a past action prior to a second past event, as in “because she had failed to revise her essay, she received low marks.” The future perfect is a great way to contemplate future accomplishments which must be completed before enjoying subsequent rewards, as in “you will have mastered many skills and concepts at D’Evelyn which will make your path through college easier.” Here grammar reinforces the action steps necessary for achievement of a goal.
Voice- English teachers regularly warn students not to use the passive voice in formal writing. Active voice verbs (when the subject performs the action, as in “Shakespeare adapted Plutarch’s biography of Caesar”) suit the crisp declarative style of academic expository writing. It is good, nevertheless, to know when the passive voice (when the subject has the action done to it) enables nuance. Should you want to avoid responsibility, say, ”mistakes were made.” Feeling grief, we say, “our hearts were broken.” The passive voice shines when we wish to focus on an event and/or our reaction to it, rather than analyze who is responsible for it.
Mood- This term (derived from the Latin noun modus, method or manner) communicates the speaker’s viewpoint or mode of communicating. The infinitive mood denotes pure action, not limited to who performs it: “To err is human;” It’s better to have loved and to have lost than to have never loved at all.” Infinitives offer a method of communicating simple truths. A bossy person’s favorite mood is the imperative: “Find and read multiple sources, then write your outline!” The indicative is our mode of communicating facts: “I found five sources, then wrote my outline.”
When we deploy the subjunctive mood, we delve into unreality, potentiality, hope, and will. “Your outline would have been better if you had read the sources before writing it.” We might travel abroad this summer.” “May the Force be with you.” And in the Latin translation of Genesis, G-d uses the subjunctive when He wills creation with the words “Fiat lux…” Let there be light, indeed, since having a second language allows students to expand their modes of communicating and illuminating their world through speech.
The PHurrowed Brow 