International audienceAfter presenting in this article the two main approaches that have grammaticalized DA, ROI, DANG, VUA, SAP and SE and have conferred on them, first the label of tense markers, and then the label of aspect markers, we call those approaches into question by showing their limits and propose another one founded on the basic semantics of these terms. We then carry out a short comparison between those coverbs in Vietnamese, an isolating language, and verbal tenses in French, an inflectional language. Finally we study the temporal structure of discourse and reported speech (direct, indirect and free indirect) in the Vietnamese literature and press.Dans cet article, après avoir présenté les deux principales approches dont les ...