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Abstract

The present research aims at highlighting the importance of selecting the right English tenses in obtaining the intended meanings in English . Tense refers to the grammatical category that locates an action or event in time. In English, there are three primary tenses: past tense, present tense, and future tense. Each of these tenses has four aspects: simple, progressive, perfect, and perfect progressive, which further describe the nature of the action or event in relation to the time in which it occurred. This study is based on the main hypothesis that the improper selection of the English tenses hinders M1 students from communicating the intended meanings. In order to validate or reject this hypothesis, this study invested quantitative and qualitative methods in data collection. The tools used for collecting data were a questionnaire comprised of 20 questions which was administered to fifty students chosen randomly from the whole population of Master one students of English, Department of English, Souk-Ahras University, and a test that was given to a sample of thirty students of the same population. The results obtained from this study showed that students do not master all the twelve English tenses. Moreover, they face difficulties with complex tenses and they get confused when choosing between some tenses that have approximate or similar uses. In addition, students are not fully aware of the significance of selecting the right English tenses to convey the intended meanings.

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