En gramática, el tiempo gramatical se refiere al tiempo referencial de una oración, y puede diferenciarse en dos tipos principales: a) el tiempo absoluto, que es medido desde el hablante y en relación con el momento de la enunciación; yb) el tiempo relativo, que se mide en relación con el ya mencionado tiempo absoluto. Los tiempos absolutos a su vez suelen separarse informalmente en tres momentos: pasado, presente y futuro. Estos tres posibles valores retratan las ideas intutivas de antes/anterior, ahora/simultáneo, después/posterior. Dados dos sucesos el tiempo gramatical expresa si el uno ocurre antes que el otro (el primero es pasado respecto al segundo), ambos son simultáneos (el primero es presente respecto al segundo y viceversa) o si uno de ellos ocurre después que el otro (el primero es futuro respecto al segundo). Algunas lenguas identifican a veces presente y futuro como un único tiempo gramatical (pasado/no-pasado) y otras introducen diferencias entre pasado lejano, pasado reciente o futuro inmediato y futuro reciente.

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In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns. Basic tenses found in many languages include the past, present, and future. Some languages have only two distinct tenses, such as past and nonpast, or future and nonfuture. There are also tenseless languages, like Chinese, which do not have tense at all. On the other hand, some languages make finer tense distinctions, such as remote vs. recent past, or near vs. remote future. Tenses generally express time relative to the moment of speaking. In some contexts, however, their meaning may be relativized to a point in the past or future which is established in the discourse (the moment being spoken about). This is called relative (as opposed to absolute) tense. Some languages have different verb forms or constructions which manifest relative tense, such as pluperfect ("past-in-the-past") and "future-in-the-past". Expressions of tense are often closely connected with expressions of the category of aspect; sometimes what are traditionally called tenses (in languages such as Latin) may in modern analysis be regarded as combinations of tense with aspect. Verbs are also often conjugated for mood, and since in many cases the three categories are not manifested separately, some languages may be described in terms of a combined tense–aspect–mood (TAM) system.

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