2.9 Tense
According to Master 2004: 1, tense in grammatical aspect is typically marked on the verb which refers to the time of event or state denoted by the verb in relation
to some other temporal reference point. Additionally, MacKay 1987 states
, “Tense means „time‟, and the verb tenses show the time of the action describe by the verb”. It means that to form tenses
correctly we must know the principal parts of the verb or the form of the verb itself. As it has been mentioned above that tense means time, English has sixteen
different tenses. These sixteen tenses are different to one another. The differences happened in the forms of the used verbs and the time of verbs action takes
places.As we know that the principle parts of the verb are present form and past participle form. In this research, the researcher only focuses on the verb in the
simple pasttense because this researc h is about students‟ recount text which used
simple past tense as one of the language feature in recount text.
Departing to the theories above, tense is a grammatical category, typically marked on the verb, that deictically refers to the time of the event or state denoted by the
verb in relation to some other temporal reference point.
2.10 Simple Past Tense
Simple past tense is a verb tense the second principal part of a verb indicating action that occurred in the past and which does not extend into the present,
Nordquist 2006.
Azar 1989: 32 said that “The simple past tense is used to talk about activities or
situations that began and ended at a particular time in the past.” The simple past is
used to indicate an action completed in the past. It often occurs with adverbs or adverb phrases of past time. Then, according to Hornby 1986: 85, simple past
tense is to indicate activities or states in the past, without indicating any connection the present.
According to Hornby 1986: 91 the simple past tense is normally used: a.
To indicate an action complete in the past. b.
To indicate that an activity or state was continuing at the time when another activity occurred.
c. If he chief interest in a past activity is not in the point or period of past time
but in the activity itself, and its continuity. d.
If we wish to indicate that two or more activities or states were continuing at the same time, and to put into prominence the continuous nature of the
activities or states. e.
For habitual and repeated activities in the past.
According to Azar 1989: 70, there are many time signals, which show the simple past tense, they are:
a. A few days ago
Example: I went to the beach a few days ago. b.
A few minutes ago Example: I woke up a few minutes ago.
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