CHAPTER IX.
DR. VERB’S THREE TENSES AND NUMBER AND PERSON.
TENSE OR TIME
TIME
FUTURE
PAST
PRESENT
“NOW, Dr. Verb,” said Judge Grammar, the next day, “we have well examined this that you call your ‘Song of the verb To be.’”
“Conjugation, my lord, if you like,” said Dr. Verb, bowing.
“I do like, certainly,” replied the Judge. “Conjugation is a much better word than song—longer and more respectable, and in every way more suited to Grammar-land. Con-ju-ga-tion—this conjugation of the verb ‘to be.’ We require you to explain it.”
“With pleasure, my lord. You see, it is divided into three verses.”
“Verses!” exclaimed Serjeant Parsing. “You know it is not to be called a song, Dr. Verb.”
“Quite so, quite so,” said Dr. Verb, bowing again. “Well, Tenses, then. It is divided into three tenses, the Present Tense, the Past Tense, and the Future Tense, which mean the present time, the past time, and the future time; and your lordship knows that all time must be either present time, or past time, or future time. Just as when you are reading a book. There is the part you have read, that is the past; the part you are going to read, that is the future; and the part you are reading now, that is the present.”