Literate is an adjective, and like all other adjectives, it does not have tense modification. In English grammar the tense (or the "point in time") is indicated by the verb. To show the literate status of a person we need to change the tense of the verb "to be". * (Past tense): He WAS a literate man * (Present tense): He IS a literate man * (Future tense): He WILL BE a literate man As you can see, the adjective literate does not change in any of the sentences.