Nonpast tense
Encyclopedia
A nonpast tense is a grammatical tense
that distinguishes a verbal action as taking place in times present or future, as opposed to past tense
. This can be illustrated in English, where future is not a separate form of the verb, as demonstrated by forms such as I hope he gets [nonpast] better tomorrow, where the future modal
will is not required the way a true tense would be. (Compare past tense I hope he got better yesterday, where the gets form is not grammatical.)
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
that distinguishes a verbal action as taking place in times present or future, as opposed to past tense
Past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
. This can be illustrated in English, where future is not a separate form of the verb, as demonstrated by forms such as I hope he gets [nonpast] better tomorrow, where the future modal
Modal verb
A modal verb is a type of auxiliary verb that is used to indicate modality -- that is, likelihood, ability, permission, and obligation...
will is not required the way a true tense would be. (Compare past tense I hope he got better yesterday, where the gets form is not grammatical.)