Verbal Aspect vs Tense in Tagalog

English verbs have both tenses and aspects.

Strictly speaking there are only two tenses in English, being past and present (technically speaking the future is not a “real” tense, as it requires the use of modal verbs like “shall” or “will”).

A tense in English indicates when a certain action takes place.

Within each tense there are a few aspects being:

Simple

Continuous

Perfect

Perfect continuous

For example the present tense of the verb “to read” has the following aspects:

I read
I am reading
I have read
I have been reading (for….,since….)

Tagalog only has aspects, it doesn’t have any tenses.

Tagalog verbs have three aspects:

Completed aspect (completed action)

Incompleted aspect (the action is in progress)

Contemplated aspect (the action is “contemplated”).

The website http://www.seasite.niu.edu/tagalog/tagalog_mainpage.htm says the following about verbal aspect in Tagalog:

“Tense deals with time. Aspect on the other hand, is a different way of looking at things. Aspect is not concerned with when an event happened (like past, present, or future). Instead, aspect is concerned with whether or not an action has been completed” (http://www.seasite.niu.edu/tagalog/Grammar%20Activities/Grammar%202/Verbal%20Aspect/Verbalaspect-fs.htm).

The same source illustrates the difference between tense and aspect in the following way: To picture the difference, imagine that you are working for a company and that you have been given a specific job to do. Then imagine that there are two different people in the company who want to ask you a question about the job. The first person to ask you a question is the record keeper. He wants to know exactly when you worked on the task you were given. He will ask you if you worked on Friday, or Wednesday, etc. He isn’t concerned with anything else. You can imagine that on his T-shirt are big letters that say TENSE.

On the other hand, the other person who asks you a question is your immediate boss. He has a different way of looking at things. He wants to know if you finished the job or not. He doesn’t care what day or when you did it. You can imagine that on his T-shirt are big letters that say ASPECT.

Like your boss, Tagalog is concerned with aspect, not tense.

Example:

For example, the verb “to read” in Tagalog is formed by combining the root-word basa with one of the following affixes: mag-, -um- or –in, depending on if the sentence in which the verb is being used is actor-focus or object-focus.


Completed aspect: nagbasa-bumasa, binasa

Incompleted aspect: nagbabasa, bumabasa, binabasa

Contemplated aspect: magbabasa, babasa, babasahinAko ay (estudiante ng) Pilipino!!!