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Glite Dictionary
present-tense morpheme

present-tense morpheme

7.3
A small ending added to a verb to show present time, like the -s in runs
  • noun
  • /ˈprɛzənt tɛns ˈmɔrfim/
  • Specialized
translation icon : morfema de tiempo presente
  • In English, the -s in 'runs' is the third-person singular present-tense morpheme.

Examples

  • In the word 'runs', the present-tense morpheme is 's'.

  • Many languages use a specific present-tense morpheme to distinguish habitual actions.

  • The absence of a present-tense morpheme in some verbs can make tense ambiguous.

  • The present-tense morpheme is essential in English verbs.

  • In English, the present-tense morpheme -s is essential for forming the third person singular of verbs.

  • The present-tense morpheme in the verb 'cooks' helps clarify that the action is occurring now.

  • Some verbs do not have a present-tense morpheme, which can lead to confusion in understanding the timeframe.

Surface Forms

present-tense morpheme singular
present-tense morphemes plural

Morphology

present-tense + morpheme

The phrase is directly compositional: it names a morpheme (an indivisible unit of meaning) that encodes the present tense, so a learner who knows 'present(‑tense)' and 'morpheme' can infer it denotes the morphological marker for present tense. This function is cross‑linguistically common (many languages have tense‑marking morphemes), making the meaning predictable and transparent to B1 learners who know the constituents.

Etymology

Present-tense morpheme names a small word part we add to a verb to show the action happens 'now'. The part is the morpheme (a tiny ending or change) and present-tense means the present time, so the whole term points to the little marker that tells us a verb is in the present.