The time is a grammatical Trait making it possible to locate a made (which can be a state or a action , sometimes called lawsuit ) in the axis of the time of the stating compared to three stakes: passed, present, future, which can then be subdivided. The temporal indications are often accompanied by uelles indications Aspect which are more or less dependant for him.

In the majority of the Indo-European Languages), time is indicated mainly (but not exclusively) by the Verbe at the time of its Conjugaison. In other languages, the time of the lawsuit is indicated exclusively by Adverbe S (what is current in the insulating languages like the Mandarin), or by the qualifying adjective (in Japanese, for example, when the word of quality is Prédicat yew).

Examples:

• French: it eats → time present, i.e. the lawsuit (“action”) to eat proceeds in the present of the enonciator (who can be the past of the reader-receiver - reader of a Dialog in a Récit with the past, listener of a printer record - within the framework of the Situation of communication);
• Mandarin: 我們見過面了 wǒmen jiàn-guo miàn the “We (already) met”, stated with the past, which indicates the particle 過 - guo , indicating a past (experiment); the verb, 見 jiàn “to see” (in the expression 見面 jiàn miàn “to see the face here” → “meeting”) does not only indicate with him any temporal concept;
Japanese
• : 寒い (です). samu-i , “I am cold” (or “the weather is cold”, according to the context) ~ 寒かった samu-katta , “I were cold”. Here samu-i is a word of quality (term more suitable than qualifying adjective , the statement not including/understanding neither verb neither subject, nor nominal word to which it can be adjecté ).