A TENSE may be defined as that form of a verb which indicates the time and the state of an action or event.

OR

In grammar, an inflected form of a verb indicating the time of a narrated event in relation to the time at which the narrator is speaking.

Time is often perceived as a continuum with three main divisions, past, present, and future, defined in relation to the time when the event is described. Other categories, including mood and aspect, may further specify the action as definite or indefinite, completed or not completed, lasting or non lasting, and recurring or occurring once.

Tense Indefinite Continuous Perfect Perfect Continuous

Present He Plays He is playing He has Played He has been Played

Past He played He was playing He had Played He had been Played

Future He will Play He will be playing He will have Played

He will have been Played