Sequence of Tenses
The different tenses of the verb divide themselves into 2 camps: those under the umbrella of primary sequence and those under the umbrella of secondary/ historic sequence.
Why do we need bother about what ‘sequence’ a particular tense belongs to? Because it has an impact on the relationship between verbs in the main clause and verbs in subordinate clauses.
N.B. The main clause is the bare bones of the sentence. It is the clause that can stand by itself. For a sentence to exist there must be a main clause.
The subordinate clause is any clause that is not the main clause. It is dependent on the main clause. It cannot exist as a sentence alone. The etymology of ‘subordinate’ should be helpful in remembering this: ‘sub (below) – ordo (rank).’ I.e. it is always inferior in rank to the main clause.
Which tenses belong to which sequence?
Identifying which tenses are primary and which are historic can be established by a sure-fire litmus test. Create a sentence with an indirect statement (a form of subordinate clause) and see how the tense of the verb in the main clause affects the tense of the verb in the indirect statement.
Primary tense verbs do not alter the tense of the verb in the subordinate clause.
Historic sequence tenses shove the verbs in the subordinate clause further into the past. And can also have an effect on the mood of the verb in the subordinate clause, though this is something that will be explored later on.
So if we have as the original statement ‘he is guilty’ we get:
Primary
Present: ‘I say that he is guilty.’
Perfect: ‘I have said that he is guilty.’
Future: ‘I will say that he is guilty.’
Future Perfect: ‘I will have said that he is guilty.’
Historic
Imperfect: ‘I was saying that he was guilty.’
Aorist: ‘I said that he was guilty.’
Pluperfect: ‘I had said that he was guilty.’
If you ever forget which tenses belong to which sequence just create an indirect statement. It’s a fail-proof litmus test.
