Definite, or Determined, Time:
| Present Imperfect: | I am (now) loving. |
| Present Perfect: | I have (now) loved. |
| Past Imperfect: | I was (then) loving. |
| Past Perfect: | I had (then) loved. |
| Future Imperf. | I shall (then) be loving. |
| Future Perf. | I shall (then) have loved. |
To express the Present and Past Imperfect of the Active and Neuter Verb the Auxiliary do is sometimes used: I do (now) love; I did (then) love.
Thus with very little variation of the Principal Verb the several circumstances of Mode and Time are clearly expressed by the help of the Auxiliaries, be, have, do, let, may, can, shall, will.
The peculiar force of the several Auxiliaries is to be observed. Do and did mark the Action itself, or the Time of it[23], with greater force and distinction. They are also of frequent and almost necessary use in Interrogative and Negative Sentences. Let does not only express permission; but praying, exhorting, commanding. May and might express the possibility or liberty of doing a thing; can and could, the power. Must is sometimes called in for a helper, and denotes necessity. Would expresses the intention of the doer; should simply the event. Will in the first Person singular and plural promises or threatens; in the second and third Persons only foretells: shall on the contrary, in the first Person simply foretells; in the second and third Persons commands or threatens[24].
Do and have make the Present Time; did, had, the Past; shall, will, the Future: let the Imperative Mode; may, might, could, would, should, the Subjunctive. The Preposition to placed before the Verb makes the Infinitive Mode. Have, through its several Modes and Times, is placed only before the Perfect Participle; and be, in like manner, before the Present and Passive Participles: the rest only before the Verb itself in its Primary Form[25].
The Passive Verb is only the Participle Passive, (which for the most part is the same with the Indefinite Past Time Active, and always the same with the Perfect Participle) joined to the Auxiliary Verb to be through all its Variations: as, I am loved; I was loved; I have been loved; I shall be loved: and so on through all the Persons, Numbers, Times, and Modes.
The Neuter Verb is varied like the Active; but, having somewhat of the Nature of the Passive, admits in many instances of the Passive form, retaining still the Neuter signification; chiefly in such Verbs as signify some sort of motion, or change of place or condition: as, I am come; I was gone; I am grown; I was fallen[26]. The Verb am in this case precisely defines the Time of the action or event, but does not change the nature of it; the Passive form still expressing, not properly a Passion, but only a state or condition of Being.