TENSE is a grammatical pattern that indicates the time of a situation. We have seen that the PRESENT tense has no special marker in Mvskoke.

We have also seen the FUTURE tense and the NEAR FUTURE, which are marked with -vrē and -vhan.

Mvskoke has more distinctions in the past tense. Mvskoke has a system of MEASURED TENSE, which means that there are different tenses based on how far back a situation was.

There are five categories of past time. This means that a verb like wvnvyetv ‘to tie’ has five different past tense forms.

Past 1: mehces ‘he/she did it (today/last night)’

Past 1 is a time period extending from a few minutes ago to last night (so up to about sundown of yesterday).

• The aspirating grade (h-grade) is one way to express the Past 1. The aspirating grade is used for an event that was successfully completed once. We can call this the PAST 1 PERFECTIVE.

• A different pattern is used for Past 1 when the action wasn’t completed. We can call this the PAST 1 IMPERFECTIVE. In this case:

✓ The verb stem is placed in the lengthened grade.

✓A suffix -îs is added to the verb stem. (The accent ^ is used here to indicate that the pitch falls on this suffix.)

✓ The sequence -îs + -es is normally contracted to -îs.

• You can add agent person markers and plural -vk before -îs.

Here are guidelines for using the two Past 1 tenses.

• When the event is successfully completed, use the h-grade.
• When the action was in progress, use -îs.

• For an adjective, use -îs on the verb owetv ‘to be’. (Adjectives describe states, and so aren’t completed.)

• For a negative verb, use -îs (since the action was not completed).

Past 2: mēcvnks ‘he/she did it (yesterday to a year ago)’

• Past 2 is formed by using the falling-tone grade with the suffix -vnk.

• You can add agent person markers and plural -vk before -vnk.

• When the verb is negative, use the zero grade instead of the f-grade. This verb uses the negative agent person markers.

• With an adjective, use Past 2 on the verb owetv ‘to be’.

Past 3: mēcemvts ‘he/she did it (a year ago up to 20 years ago)’

• Past 3 is formed by using the falling-tone grade with the suffix -emvte. -emvte is usually shortened to -emvt, except in questions.

• You can add agent person markers and plural -vk before -vnk.

• When the verb is negative, use the zero grade instead of the f-grade. This verb uses the negative agent person markers.

• With an adjective, use owetv ‘to be’ in Past 3.

Past 4: mēcvntvs ‘he/she did it (long ago)’

Past 4 is not used much today, though Earnest Gouge used it in 1914 in recounting stories he had heard. It may have been used with the lengthened grade.

• You can add agent person markers and plural -vk before -vntv.

Past 5: mēcvtēs ‘he/she did it (very long ago)’

Past 5 is generally used for something very long ago. It’s the main tense used in traditional stories. Someone who’s very old can use it about their childhood.

• Past 5 is formed by using the lengthened grade with the suffix -vtē. Statements end in -s and questions end in -te (not -v).

• You can add agent person markers and plural -vk before -vtē.

• When the verb is negative, use the zero grade instead of the l-grade. This verb uses the negative agent person markers. The suffixes -eko + -vtē contract as -ekatē.

• With an adjective, use owetv ‘to be’ in Past 5.

• The suffix -vtē has other uses that are not Past 5. When it’s used with the falling-tone grade, it can describe a more recent event.

Future: mēcvrēs ‘he/she will do it’

• Future tense is shown with -vrē. -vrē attaches to the verb stem with no lengthening. Statements end in -s and questions end in -te (not -v).

• Agent person markers appear before future -vrē. The following are the agent person markers in the future.

Negative future forms are possible. The suffix -eko ‘not’ and -vrē ‘will’ combine as -ekarē.

Near future: mēcvhanes ‘he/she is going to do it’

• The suffix -vhan is a near future marker meaning ‘going to’. -vhan attaches to the verb stem (without lengthening).

• The question form uses -v.

• Plural -vk appears before -vhan.

• Agent person markers follow -vhan.

• Notice that the agent person markers follow -vhan ‘going to’, but they come before -vrē ‘will’.

• The negative of -vhan is -vhan-eko, where -eko has different agent forms.

• The suffix -vhan ‘going to’ is used for casual statements about something that is going to happen (often in the near future). Future -vrē is used for promises, pledges, or proposals.

hēcetskvtēt owv? ‘have you ever seen it?’

• To ask ‘Have you ever seen it?’, you use this pattern.

• To say you’ve never done something, a verb in the zero grade is marked for person and followed by -vtē. Then sekot os ‘doesn’t exist’ is added.

mehcvtēt os ‘it seems he/she did it’

• When you use past 1, 2, or 3 to make a statement about an action, the hearer will assume that you saw the action take place.

• If you didn’t see the action, then you could qualify your statement with -vtē ‘seem, appear’.

• In words like this, -vtē can be confused with the Past 5 marker.

When it means ‘seem, appear’, -vtē appears on the main verb, and the stem is in the h-grade or falling tone grade. When it indicates Past 5, -vtē is on ometv ‘to be’, and the main verb and auxiliary are in the lengthened grade.

• You can also use -vtē ‘seem, appear’ for statements like the following.

mē̂cvtēs: recent -vtē

The suffix -vtē has two uses.

• With a verb in the lengthened grade, -vtē refers to a distant past.

• With a verb in the falling-tone grade, -vtē can refer to a more recent past (maybe only a week ago).

Notice that -vtē for a recent past is placed on the main verb, while -vtē for a distant past appears on auxiliary owetv ‘to be’.

kvrpētt os ‘it’s dried’

Tvlsen vtvyēs ‘I come from Tulsa’

Some verbs can refer to events in the lengthened grade and to states in the zero grade + -ē.

The pattern of zero grade + -ē is also used for events that describe a general property of someone or something.