CHAPTER XX.

ON THE TENSES.

s. 573. Notwithstanding its name, the present tense in English, does not express a strictly _present_ action. It rather expresses an habitual one. _He speaks well_=_he is a good speaker_. If a man means to say that he is in the act of speaking, he says _I am speaking_.

It has also, especially when combined with a subjunctive mood, a future power--_I beat you_ (=_I will beat you_) _if you don't leave off_.

s. 574. The English praeterite is the equivalent, not to the Greek perfect but the Greek aorist. _I beat_=[Greek: etupsa] not [Greek: tetupha]. The true perfect is expressed, in English, by the auxiliary _have_ + the past participle.

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