I think I’m going to call it the imprecise tense, or maybe the inexact tense. I haven’t decided yet.
It’s a very important tense, and we need to use it more often.
But it must be used precisely.
It is not used to convey imprecision of understanding in the subject (e.g. “these new-fangled computery thingies”), it is used to convey imprecision in the object of the sentence (e.g ”I’ve got some datary stuff on this topic”).
We are taught to be precise and professional in our speech, especially when presenting information or writing professional reports.
The problem is that precise language can be misleading.
It overstates the accuracy of what we’re talking about, appealing to the “precision bias” in us all.
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