Lesson 4

TENSES
Diagram will be used to explain tenses (Diagram akan digunakan dalam uraian
mengenai tenses).
1. The Present Tenses
a. Present simple
Time : any time, all the time, no particular time. (kapan saja, sepanjang waktu,
tidak ada waktu yang tertentu)
Attitude : concern only to state the fact of action without reference to time.
(hanya memperhatikan pada kenyataan dari peristiwa yang terjadi tanpa
merujuk ke waktu).
The pattern : Subject + verb infinitive (I)

Examples:
a) General, true statement (umum, pernyataan yang selalu benar) :
 The Earth goes round the sun.
 Most of us probably eat too much fish.
 It snows in Alaska.
b) Describing the regular or permanent features (menggambarkan keadaan yang
teratur atau sudah tetap)
 I live in a small town on West coast.
 I speak Indonesia and English.
 My class begins at 11.40.
c) Describing an event which depends on fixed timetable or schedule
(menggambarkan suatu peristiwa yang bergantung pada jadwal yang telah
pasti)
 There is a train to Jakarta from here every half hour. The next train leaves
at 15.40.
 I’ve been accepted by The University of Mataram. My course starts on
August.
Paragraph using simple present tense:
Prices of basic commodities such as rice, sugar, cooking oil, coffee and flour are
stable now. These items are basic necessities because people need them every
day. Mr. Karim is a store owner who sells these basics items. He sells sugar,
rice, eggs, and cooking oil in his store. Every day people come to buy these
goods, and according to his report there is a small increase of people
consumption of these commodities. For example, the sale of rice and sugar
increases by one percent every month. However, in spite of these increases,
prices remain relatively stable.
Sentence transformation (trasformasi kalimat)
1. Sentence transformation for present tense employing the verb “to be”
Transformasi kalimat yang menggunakan “to be” adalah dengan merubahnya
menjadi:
(1) pertanyaan dengan menempatkan “the verb to be” di awal kalimat;
(2) kalimat negative, dengan menambahkan “not” setelah ‘to be’ pada kalimat
tsb.
Examples:
 There are two farmers in the paddy field. (statement)
Are there two farmers in the paddy field? (interrogative), atau:
How many farmers are in the paddy field?
There are not (aren’t) any farmers in paddy field. (negative)
 Segara Anak lake is in East Lombok.
Is Segara anak lake in East Lombok?
Where is Segara Anak lake?
Segara Anak lake is not (isn’t) in East Lombok.
Exercise 15:
Make sentences on your own (sendiri) using forms of the verb to be, by
transforming the sentences bellow:
1. The new tomato variety is resistant to pests.
2. The cost of maintenance of farm equipment is high.
3. There is not one good onion harvest in the area this season.
4. The new farm equipment is a two-hand tractor.
5. In traditional agriculture the fertility of the soil is often as the limiting factor.
2. Sentence transformation for present tense:
The simple present tense dirubah menjadi negative atau positif dengan
menambahkan “auxiliaries (kata bantu) does untuk singular subject, dan do
untuk plural subject. Untuk kalimat negative dibuat dengan menambahkan
not.
Examples:
 Anita visits her grandmother twice a month.
Does Anita visit her grandmother twice a month?
How many times does Anita visit her grandmother a month?
Anita does not (doesn’t) visit her grandmother twice a month.
 Hairy fruits (rambutan) grow abundantly in Suranadi West Lombok.
Do hairy fruit trees grow abundantly in Suranadi West Lombok?
Where do hairy fruit trees grow abundantly?
Hairy fruits do not (don’t) grow abundantly in Suranadi west Lombok.
 Farmers fertilize their soil with manure at the sowing date.
Do farmers fertilize their soil with manure at the sowing date?
When do farmers fertilize their soil with manure?
What do farmers do to their soil at the sowing date?
Farmers do not (don’t) fertilize their soil at the sowing date.
Exercise 16:
Transform several sentences below on your own using forms of present tense!
1. I have a present for you.
2. Hard-working farmers work from morning until evening.
3. They see a strange flash light in the sky.
4. Rapid decomposition of fallen debris and a web of rootlets usually occur in
the hot, wet condition.
b. Present Continuous Tense
Time: Now, the moment of speaking, this week, this period of time we are in.
(sekarang, waktu saat membicarakan, minggu ini, jangka waktu dimana
kita sedang berada saat membicarakan).

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Attitude: We are talking about an action which is unfinished, incomplete, in
progress. (kita membicarakan suatu peristiwa yang belum selesai, belum
komplit, sedang berlangsung).

The pattern : subject + to be + verb-ing

Time markers generally used for present time are:

Now, today, tonight, this week, these days

Examples:
a) Going on at this moment of speaking (sedang berlangsung pada saat
sekarang):
? What are you doing?
+ I am making a birthday cake for my sister.
+ Andini is sleeping right now
+ Mary and Mark are talking on the phone.
b) Going on during this period of time (sedang berlangsung pada periode waktu
sekarang) :
? What are you doing nowadays?
+ Oh, I am still working at the same place. (atau)
I am learning to play guitar.
+ I am taking five courses this semester
+ She is writing another novel this year.
Paragraph using the present continues tense:
I am holding a post-card of a village in Central Java and I am now looking at the
details in the picture. This picture shows a typical scene in a village in Indonesia.
There is a big thatched-roofed house and a big yard in front of it. In the yard a
man is sun-drying wet paddy. His wife is threshing rice while their children are
playing with a pedal thresher. The picture also shows some women in the
background. They are harvesting rice with ani-ani, the traditional tool for
harvesting local varieties.

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Sentence transformation for present continuous tense:
To change sentences in the present continues tense, one should place
(meletakkan) the verb to be in front of the statement to make an interrogative,
and adding the negation (negatif) ‘not’ to form negative.
Examples:
 The women are shelling peanut.
Are the women shelling peanut?
What are the women doing?
Who are shelling peanut?
The women are not shelling peanut.
Exercises 17
Use SIMPLE PRESENT or PRESENT CONTINUOUS for the verbs in the
brackets!
1. Water (boil) ……………… at he 100 degrees centigrade.
2. Hamid (not/go)……………….. to the cinema very often.
3. Ratna (be)….. in Britain for three months. She (learn)…………… plant
tissue culture.
4. How many cigarettes (you/smoke) …………………a day?
5. Where (be) Amir? He (plant)…………. some tomatoes in the garden.
6. The River Amazon (flow) into the Pacific Ocean.
7 The kettle (boil) …………….. Can you turn it off, please?
8. The government (be) …. worried because the number of people without
jobs (increase)………...
Exercises 18:
Transform several sentences below on your own using forms of present
continuous tense!
1. At the moment, she is living with her parents.
2. Good boy is leading at the moment.
3. I’m constantly having to remain you tidy up your room.
4. The students are taking a short course in fertility and healthy of soil.
5. Tom is being foolish.
6. Next week, Hasan is going to employ many workers to harvest the
cabbages.
7. There will be the time for questions after the meeting.
8. She is going to develop a big and modern flowers nursery.
9. I’m not going to sell my house.
10. Prof. Mansur Ma’shum is leaving for Canada to present his soil research
results soon.
2. The Past Tenses
a. Past Simple Tense
Time: a time before now, earlier than now. (satu waktu sebelum sekarang,
lebih dahulu dari sekarang)
Attitude: describes something which began and ended before the present,
or a completed act. (menggambarkan sesuatu yang dimulai dan
berakhir sebelum sekarang, atau kejadian yang telah
selesai/komplit).
The pattern : subject + verb past (II)

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Examples:
1. We leaved Selong at 8.30 am and drove straight to Lembar.
2. I was born in a little village in the North Lombok, and went to school there
until I was eighteen.
3. The French revolution broke out in 1789.
4. When I dropped my cup, the coffee spilled on my lap.
5. Albert lived in Paris for ten years, but now he is living in Rome.
Paragraph using the past tense:
Mr. Made joined the government transmigration program to South Sulawesi six
years ago. He and his family went to a new place where he believed his family
could improve their economic welfare. At their new home, the Made family grew
cacao and coconut trees on a large piece of land given by the government. In
four years Made sold his cacao fruit to the domestic market.
Sentence transformation for present tense:
Transformasi kalimat ‘past tense’ menjadi kalimat tanya dilakukan dengan
menambahkan auxiliary verb ‘did’ di awal kalimat pada singular maupun plural
subject. Sedangkan perubahan menjadi kalimat negative dilakukan dengan
menambahkan auxiliary did not (didn’t).
Examples:
 The farmers increased their rice production in 2017.
Did the farmers increase their rice production in 2017?
When did the farmers increase heir rice production?
The farmers did not (didn’t) increase their rice production in 2017.
 IRRI introduced a new variety of rice in 2006.
Did IRRI introduce a new variety of rice in 2006?
When did IRRI introduce a new variety of rice?
What did IRRI introduce in 2006?
Who did introduce a new variety of rice in 2006?
IRRI did not (didn’t) introduce a new variety of rice in 2006.
 They were not at home when Agus came yesterday.
Where were they when Agus came yesterday?
Who were not at home when Agus came yesterday?
They were at home when Agus came yesterday

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Exercise 19:
Transform several sentences below on your own using forms of past tense!
1. The government introduced the national Bimas project in 1969.
2. The French Revolution broke out in 1789.
3. We watched a documenter film about ‘gendang beleq’ at school yesterday.
4. Albert Einstein was a school dropout during his childhood.
b. Past Continuous Tense
Time : a time before now, earlier than now.
Attitude : describes something which began in the past but which had not
finished at the time of speaking. (menggambarkan suatu kejadian yang
dimulai pada waktu lalu tetapi belum selesai pada saat
membicarakannya).
The pattern : subject + past form of to be + verb-ing

Examples:
1. Because she was feeling very tired after long trip in the forest, she was still
lying there under the trees, fast asleep, when the bears returned.
2. It was raining when we left Praya.
3. The children were standing when the teacher came into the room.
Paragraph using the past tense and past continuous tense:
It was a sad event which occurred one bright morning in the transmigration site
in Lampung, South Sumatra. As usual, Madi went to work on his farm early in
the morning. When he arrived at his farm, a herd of wild buffalos was
destroying the young paddy plants. Madi shouted for help but no one was
listening to him because there was nobody nearby (dekat). Instead, one of the
buffalo saw Madi. The animal chased him while he was running for his life.
Fortunately, Madi was not hurt.

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Exercise 20.
Put the verb into the correct form, PAST SIMPLE or PAST CONTINUOUS.
1. Hasan (fall)………….. off the ladder while he (paint)…………….. the ceiling.
2. What (you /do)…………………..at this time yesterday?
3. While Devy (prepare)……………….. the seeds, Ana (come)……..……
4. It (begin) ……….. to rain when I (walk)……….. home from the peanut field.
5. I (not/go)………….. to campus yesterday because I (no/be) very well.
6. Mr. Sabirin (spend)……….. a lot of money yesterday. He (buy)
………………. premium soybean seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and knapsack
hand sprayer.
7. Government of Indonesia (introduce)…………………national BIMAS project
in 1969.
3. The Perfect Tenses
a. Present perfect tense
Time : A moment or period of time between “before now” and “now”. (satu
saat atau satu periode waktu antara ‘sebelum sekarang’ dan
‘sekarang’).
Attitude : We are talking about an action which took place at an unspecified
time before now. We are usually more interest in the result of the
action rather than in the action itself. (kita sedang membicarakan
satu kejadian yang telah berlangsung pada satu waktu yang tidak
tertentu sebelum sekarang. Kita selalu lebih tertarik pada hasil dari
kejadian dari pada kejadian itu sendiri).
The pattern : subject +have / has + past participle of a verb (III)
The time markers usually used in perfect tenses are: just, already, yet, not yet,
ever, never, recently, lately, in the last few … etc.

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Examples:
+ Somebody has drunk up all my juice. (result: empty glass)
+ Why are you crying? What has happened? (result: tears streaming down
your face)
+ Dino and Dina have conducted research on the cross-breeding of spinach
since 2000.
+ I have already eaten. + I have already studied chapter one.
+ He has been able to send his two children to college in Central Java.
b. Present Perfect Continuous Tense
Time: An unspecified time in the period between “before now” and “now”.
(satu saat yang tidak tertentu antara ‘sebelum sekarang’ dan
‘sekarang’).
Attitude: We are talking about something which began but did not necessarily
finish in the period between ‘before now’ and ‘now’. We interested in
the process of the action (kita sedang membicarakan sesuatu
peristiwa yang telah dimulai tetapi tidak terlalu penting telah
selesainya pada periode waktu antara sebelum sekatang dan
sekarang. Kita mementingkan proses dari peristiwa tsb.).
The pattern : subject +have / has + been + verb-ing

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Examples:
+ He has been sitting there for hours just staring at the wall.
+ The rate of inflation has been falling slowly since the beginning of the year.
+ I have been working on this problem since nine o’clock this morning and I
still haven’t solved it.
+ Have you been waiting long? (You are still there and wait)
c. Past Perfect Simple
Time: Earlier than a time before now. (lebih dahulu dari sekarang)
Attitude: We use this tense when we want to make it clear that action A took
place in a time before and separate from the time when action B took
place. (Kita menggunakan tense in ketika kita ingin membuat kejelasan
bahwa kejadian A berlangsung pada satu waktu sebelum kejadian B dan
dua kejadian itu berlangsung terpisah).
The pattern : subject +had + past participle of a verb (III)

Examples:
1. I gave my wife the present which I had bought it the day before.
action B action A

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2. When I arrived at the station, the train had already left.
action B action A

3. The film had started when I arrived.

action A action B

4. It was my first time in an aero plane. I was very nervous because I had not
flown before.
action B
action A

5. The thief simply walked in. Someone had forgotten to lock the door.
action B action A

Passage using past perfect tense:

Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Prizes Winner of 1970
In December 1970, Norman Borlaug, an American from Iowa, received Nobel
Peace Prize. Before Borlaug received this prestigious (bergengsi) international
award, he had worked at the Mexican research center in cooperation with the
Rockefeller Foundation. Also, Bourlaug had conducted lengthy research on
wheat (gandum) breeding which had led him to the invention of high-yielding,
semi-dwarf wheat varieties. These new wheat varieties helped many countries
such as Mexico and India fight hunger. Indeed (sesungguhnya), until today,
Bourlaug has become a star performer as a wheat breeder. Before Bourlaug
accepted the Nobel Prize, the chairman of the Committee had praised him as
the man who had provided bread for the hungry world and who had changed
peoples’ perspectives.
d. Past Perfect Continuous
The commonest use of this tense is to provide the past form of the present
perfect continuous.
The pattern: subject + had been….. ing
Exercise 21:
Observe each sentence bellow, and decide whether it is Correct (C) or Incorrect
(I). Make it CORRECT for the incorrect!
1. Had you seen Murni in the last few days? (C / I)
2. Amira really loves the “Titanic” film. She seen it eight times. (C / I)
3. Ron hasn’t studied very hard this semester. (C / I)
4. I have been working at the tea plantation for three years (C / I)
5. Do you see the canola crop when you visited Australia last month? (C / I)
6. When Siti get home yesterday afternoon, she find that someone
had broken into her flat and have stolen her camera. (C / I)
7. I was very tired when I arrive home. I had been working hard all the day
harvesting peanut. (C / I)
8. We had been tillage the soil for half an hour when there was a terrible storm.
(C / I)
9. Beni is out of breath. He has been running. (C / I)
10. The house was very quiet when I got home. Everybody had went to bed.
(C / I)
4. The Future Tense
Time: A moment or period later than now
Attitude: We are making a simple statement of fact about something which will
definitely ‘happen; or ‘not happen’.
The pattern: 1. subject +will / shall + a verb infinitive (I)
2. Subject + to be + going to + verb infinitive (I)

The time markers usually used are: next year, next week, in two weeks, in the
future.

Will versus Be Going To

To express a PREDICTION – either WILL or BE GOING TO is used:
a. According to the weather report, it When the speaker is making a
will be cloudy tomorrow. prediction (dugaan) about something
b. According to the weather report, it s/he thinks will be true or will occur in
is going to be cloudy tomorrow. the future, either will or be going to
c. Be carefull! You will hurt yourself. is used.
d. Be carefull! You are going to hurt There is no difference in meaning
yourself. between (a) and (b).
There is no difference in meaning
between (c) and (d).
To express a PRIOR PLAN – only BE GOING TO is used.

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e. A: Why did you buy this paint? When the speaker is expressing a prior
B: I am going to paint my plan, only be going to is used.
bedroom tomorrow. In (e): speaker B has made a prior plan.
f. I talked to Bob yesterday. He is She decided to paint her bedroom
tired of taking the bus to work. He last week. She intends to paint her
is going to by a car. That is what bedroom tomorrow.
he told me. In (f): the speaker knows Bob’s intention
to buy a car. Bob made the decision
in the past and he intends to act on
this decision in the future.
To express WILLINGNESS or UNWILLINGNESS /REFUSAL (keinginan atau
penolakan), only WILL is used.
g. A: Who will do the washing up? In (g): speaker B means: “I am happy to
B: I will do. do the job”. He is not making a
h. A: Mr. Albert is very busy at the prediction to do the job, not on
moment. purpose.
B: That’s all right. I will wait. In (h): speaker B feels sure about the
i. A: I don’t understand this problem. teacher’s willingness to help.
B: Ask your teacher about it. She So, in (g) and (h) will is an appropriate
will help you. word.

Will / shall.
The classical form:
I / We + shall move You + will move
Examples:
+ We shall see who is faster.
+ There will be time for questions after the lecture.
+ If it rains, we shall go by car.
+ In next 10 years, Indonesian farmers will fly to the moon.
Shall: For offering (menawarkan keinginan)
Examples:
 That parcel looks heavy. Shall I carry it for you?
 What time shall we meet tonight?
 Shall I lockup, or will you do it?
Paragraph using the future tense:
The Indonesian government will build a big hydroelectric power plant in
Kalimantan in next two years. The plant will be the best and the largest in
Indonesia. Hundreds of engineers are going to take part (mengambil peranan)
in this huge project. These engineers will use waterfalls and rivers to provide
power for the plant. The government hopes that hydroelectric power plant will
open job opportunities to hundreds of workers and engineers. When the project
is completed, the government also hopes that it will provide electricity for all
parts of Kalimantan.

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Sentence transformation for future tense:
The future tense with to be + going to + simple form of the verb is changed
into interrogative by putting the auxiliary verb to be in front of statement. A
negative is formed by providing the sentence with a negation not.

Example:
1. The women are going to thresh the wet paddy.
2. Are the women going to thresh the wet paddy?
3. Who are going to thresh the wet paddy?
4. What are the women going to thresh?
5. The women are not going to thresh the wet paddy.

Exercise 22:
Transform several sentences below on your own using forms of future tense!
1. Next week, Hasan is going to employ many workers to harvest the
cabbages.
2. There will be the time for questions after the meeting.
3. We shall see who is the fastest in the Formula 1 championship this year.
4. She is going to develop a big and modern flowers nursery.
5. I’m not going to sell my house.
6. Prof. Mansur Ma’shum is leaving for Canada to present his soil fertility
research results soon.

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