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1BUSINESS ENGLISH
UNIT 5
TENSE, VOICE AND ASPECT
DEFINITIONS
Tense (Tempus), voice (Genus verbi) and aspect (Aspekt) are categories used in the grammatical des-
cription of verbs.
Tense is connected with time, but the choice of a tense form (Zeitform) is often conditioned
by factors that have nothing to do with time.
Voice is connected with the relationship between agents (Handlungsträger / Handelnde) and
the actions (Handlungen) they perform (vollziehen).
Aspect is connected with the way an action is viewed by the speaker or writer.
Most verb forms are three-dimensional. The following sentence may serve as an example: The shares
were being sold at a pittance1 of their previous value2. The verb form were being sold can be assigned
to three categories: (1) past tense, (2) passive voice, (3) progressive aspect.
TENSE
In modern English we can distinguish seven tenses:
1) Present Tense: This reflects the strength of the economy.
2) Past Tense: This reflected the strength of the economy.
3) Present Perfect Tense: This has reflected the strength of the economy.
4) Past Perfect Tense: This had reflected the strength of the economy.
5) Future Tense: This will reflect the strength of the economy.
6) Present Conditional Tense: This would reflect the strength of the economy.
7) Perfect Conditional Tense: This would have reflected the strength of the economy.
Several difficulties need to be taken into consideration here. First, certain tense forms tend to be
less frequent in German than in English. A good example is provided by können and be able to +
INFINITIVE. In English it is perfectly natural to say They have been able to increase their market share
(Present Perfect Tense) or They had been able to increase their market share (Past Perfect Tense), but
in contemporary German the verb können sounds rather unnatural here. In order to avoid constructons
like sie haben (or hatten) ihren Marktanteil erweitern können, many Germans will use the verb
gelingen: es ist (or war) ihnen gelungen, ihren Marktanteil zu erweitern.
Nonetheless, the perfect and past perfect tenses of the verb können are by no means obsolete, as
can be seen from the following examples:
Und er demonstriert einmal mehr, dass der islamistische Terror noch längst nicht eingedämmt ist. Im Ge-
genteil, er hat womöglich3 seine Operationsbasis erweitern können. (Die Zeit 10.11.2003)
Er hatte seinen Einflußbereich beträchtlich erweitern können. (Michael Richter, Irland im Mittelalter (Berlin
/ Hamburg / Münster: LIT: 166)
The second point that needs to be considered is that German students often make mistakes even in
cases where the same tense is used in English and German. Consider the following sentences:
If you apply for a job in England you will have to write your letter in English.
Wenn Sie sich um eine Stelle in England bewerben, werden Sie Ihren Brief in englischer Sprache
verfassen müssen.
1
pittance: a very small amount.
2
zum Bruchteil ihres früheren Wertes
3
Note that womöglich corresponds to the verb may: it may have been able to extend its operational basis.
, 2
Germans tend to use will after if in order to make it perfectly clear that they are talking about the
future, but this is neither correct nor necessary because the idea of futurity is clearly expressed in the
main clause (you will have to write (...)).
The third point is that German and English use different tenses in sentences indicating the duration
of a state or action:
The sales manager has been ill since Easter. ‹Present Perfect Tense›
Der Verkaufsleiter ist schon seit Ostern krank. ‹Present Tense›
He has been working in the purchasing department since 1998. ‹Present Perfect Tense›
Er arbeitet schon seit 1998 in der Einkaufsabteilung. ‹Present Tense›
In this type of sentence additional problems may be caused by the fact that the German word seit
corresponds to two English words – for and since. Here are two sentences which show the difference
between for and since:
The economic situation has been deteriorating since 2005.
The economic situation has been deteriorating for months.
In the first of these sentences 2005 denotes a specific time unit (a year) which is considered as a point
in time, while in the second sentence the word months refers to a period of time. This is why we have
to use since in the first sentence and for in the second one. We could make the time indication in the
second sentence more precise by adding a numeral like three or four, but we would still have no
choice but to use for because the emphasis is on the duration 4 of the deterioration rather than on the
point in time at which the deterioration began.
We now come to the fourth point, which concerns reported speech 5. When direct speech is turned
into indirect speech, it is often necessary to change the tense of the verb in the dependent clause. The
basic rules can be deduced6 from the following examples:
Direct Speech Indirect Speech
(1) The economic stimulus package7 is too expensive. He says the economic stimulus package is too expen-
sive.
(2) The economic stimulus package will be too expen- He says the economic stimulus package will be too
sive. expensive.
(3) The economic stimulus package has been very ex- He says the economic stimulus package has been very
pensive. expensive.
(4) The economic stimulus package is too expensive. He said the economic stimulus package was too ex-
pensive.
(5) The economic stimulus package will be too ex- He said the economic stimulus package would be too
pensive. expensive.
(6) The economic stimulus package has been very ex- He said the economic stimulus package had been very
pensive. expensive.
If the introductory verb (say, tell, claim, explain, etc.) is in the present tense, direct statements can be
reported without any changes of tense (examples (1)-(3)), but if the introductory verb is in the past
tense, certain tense changes need to be made:
present tense > past tense (example 4)
future tense > present conditional tense (example 5)
present perfect tense > past perfect tense (example 6)
The commonest mistake made by Germans is the use of would instead of was in sentences like (4).
There are two reasons for this. First, the German subjunctive (wäre) is often used in reported speech
4
Dauer
5
Reported speech may also be described as indirect speech (indirekte Redewiedergabe).
6
deduce sth from sth: etwas aus etwas herleiten
7
Konjunkturpaket
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