As the title suggests my presentation1 is concerned with what, speaking generally, might be described as temporal expressions, or how time is construed linguistically.2 The presentation has two foci: first, the aim is to focus on temporal expressions in English primarily because it seems likely that such a discussion might be of some use in the business of teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL). Secondly, my concern is also with certain general issues: in fact I would like to open this talk with a brief discussion about the nature of human language. Now, I have a feeling that while discussing some features of the English language would be readily recognized as relevant to the teaching and learning of esl/efl, the relevance of the second issue might not appear obvious. It may be useful then to begin with a few words concerning why an understanding of the nature of human language is relevant to the teaching of language, whether the language being taught is a mother tongue or an other tongue.