Do we talk about the past more in English, compared to other languages? This is something I was thinking about yesterday, when talking to someone in French about something that happened over the summer. I’ve always found using the main past tense (passé composé) in French a little cumbersome. Talking about the present is quite straightforward once you know the verbs you want to use, and structurally is quite similar to the present simple in English.
EDIT: I’m reposting this from May last year. Despite the title and featured image, it has nothing at all to say about the current political climate, being instead entirely concerned with grammar!
Q. How many tenses are there in the English language?
a) 3
b) 12ish
c) 2
If you said a), you were probably thinking the three were the past, present and future, but that’s incorrect.
If you said b), you’re probably an English teacher or have been an English student, and started ticking them off on your fingers: present simple, present continuous, present perfect simple…, but that’s not it either.
The answer is 2: past and present. You may be thinking that’s wrong. You may also be thinking Oh no, I told my students yesterday that the future perfect simple is a tense!
English-Language Thoughts 