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ABSTRACT This study looks at tense in Ikwere language in Rivers State of the South-South of Nigeria. The primary purpose of this study is to explore into tense in the language; identify types of tense and the different makers that mark tense in the language. The intuitive knowledge of the researcher being a native competent speaker and the interviews of competent native speakers of the language were the instruments for the data collection. The study adopts Current generative grammar and X-bar as the appropriate theories to analyze the data collected. The study under tense was considered three major headings: the past, present and future tenses. The study reveals that the past tense is marked by the -rv suffix realized on the verb root. In Ikwere, the present tense is marked by zi, a low tone vowel. While the In Ikwere, the future tense is marked with the auxiliary verb ‘yà which has a CV syllable structure and a low tone. ‘yè’ and ‘yò’ are allomorphs of the morpheme ‘ yà’ which is conditioned by the vowel of the following verb. Also, the study reveals that in the language, there is a tripartite tense system; the present, past and future. The study later recommends works on other verbal categories to enhance the available literature in the language
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