Glosario / Glossary

tense:

tense [1]: pronounced with greater muscular tension than the norm. Contrast lax. Often, tense sounds are slightly higher [1] (more close) than their lax counterparts, and may differ in other ways. [Spanish: tenso]

tense [2]: a grammatical category, usually associated with verbs, that indicates the time of an event in relation to the present moment or other reference point. Typical tenses are past, present, and future. In some languages there is more than one past or future tense, depending on how near or remote the event is to the present. In other languages, there may be only a two-way distinction, between past and non-past (which includes present and future), or between future and non-future (which includes past and present). Compare aspect. [Spanish: tiempo]