Penny Ur said, “writing is widely used within foreign language courses as a convenient means for engaging with aspects of language other than writing it self. For example: Learners not down new
vocabulary copy out the grammar rules do written tests.
13
Beside the definition, she stated “the purpose of writing, in principle, is the expression of ideas, themselves should arguably as seen as the most
important aspect of the writing.
14
Writing and idea is connection, it means we can express our ideas by writing. Willga M. Rever defined writing or composition, “as the expression of ideas in a consecutive way, according to graphic
convention of the language, the ultimate aims of writing at this stage is to be able to express himself in a polished literary from which requires the utilization of a special vocabulary and a certain refinement
of a structure.
15
It can be concluded from the definitions given that writing should be seen as the way to express ideas from the writer’s knowledge and resources without forgetting the linguistic rule, so the writing
will be full of meaning.
C. English Tense
1. The Meaning of Tense
English has great variety of tense. The students must learn the tense to support their language skills. Tense is “a form of a verb used to indicate the time, and sometimes the continuation or
completeness, of an action in relation to the time of speaking. From Latin tempus = time.”
16
According to Jhon Lyons, the word “tense” derived from the Latin words “tempus” meaning “time”.
17
Tense is always related to the verb. According to J. Martyn Walsh and Anna Kathleen, “Tense denote the time of the action indicated by a verb. The time is not always the same as that indicated by
13
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 162
14
Ibid., p.163
15
Willga M. Rever, Teaching Foreign Language Skills, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980, p. 242
16
http:www.englishclub.comgrammarverb-tenses_sys-what.htm
17
Jhon Lyons, Linguistic semantic an Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 312
the name of tense.”
18
Tense is a method that we use in English to refer to time—past, present and future. Many languages use tenses to talk about time. Other languages have no tenses, but of course
they can still talk about time, using different methods. Besides the verb, tense sometimes accompanying by auxiliary verb. Marcella Frank said “tense
is a special verb endings or accompanying auxiliary verb signal the time an event takes place.”
19
We do not confuse between the word time and tense. According to AS Hornby, “The word time stand for a concept with which all mankind is familiar, divided into past, present, and future. The words
tense stands for a verb form or series of verb forms used to express a time relation. Tense may indicate whether an action, activity, or state is, was, or will be complete, or whether it is, was, or will be in
progress over a period of time.”
20
Verb is an important part in tense. Verb is divided into two classes, namely regular and irregular verb. Most different tenses of a verb are formed from the verb’s principal parts. The principal parts are
the present, the simple past, and the past participle. In regular verb the simple past and the past participle is made by adding –ED to the present
form. listen
listened listened play
played played
Irregular verbs the present, past and past participle may be different. It can be formed by changing a vowel of the present form;
drink drank
drunk Sometimes a different word maybe used for a principal part;
go went
gone
18
J. Martyn Walsh and Anna Kathleen walsh, A Complete Guide to Good English, Ohio:Mc Cormick – Mathers Publishing Company, Inc., 1072, P;30
19
Marcella Frank, Modern English: A Practical Reference Guide, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice – Hall, Inc., 1972, P. 47
20
AS Hornby, Guide to Patterns and Usage in English Oxford: Oxford University Press,1975 P.78
Sometimes all the principal parts are the same; let
let let
For a better understanding of principal parts, see the chart below:
PRINCIPAL PARTS OF VERB Regular Verb
Present
hope study
start
Past
hoped studied
started
Past participle
hoped studied
started
Irregular Verb Present
come do
hurt
Past
came did
hurt
Past participle
come done
hurt
Those principal parts of verbs are very valuable for making the forms of tense; therefore before studying the tense, the students are better to pay attention on the principal parts of regular and irregular
verbs. In this “skripsi”, the writer will discuss three tenses system including their form and use, can
show in the following:
2. The Forms of Tens e
