When do we use the terms "timetable," "time frame," and "timeline"?

[Joe Carillo]

Question from Ed Song, December 3, 2009:

When do we use “timetable,” “time frame,” and “timeline” when referring to how long a process takes, what should take place at a given time, or what happened from one point in time to another?

My reply to Ed:

These three terms—“timetable,” “time frame,” and “timeline”—are actually not dependent on how long a process or action takes place. They can be used for time durations as infinitesimally short as fractions of a microsecond at the sub-atomic level, or as exponentially long as the billions of years that it took for life on Earth to be what it is today. Our choice of term will depend on more utilitarian and task-oriented considerations.

A “timetable” is a schedule that shows a planned order or sequence of activities; it’s what is normally also called “program of activities” leading to the completion of a project or the holding of an event. It is usually used in the sense of the forward planning of activities. Here’s an example of the sense and usage of “timetable”: “We gave him a detailed timetable for accomplishing his assigned project and he is following the deadline for each activity religiously.”

A “time frame” is a specific period of time imposed on someone to finish some action or project; it usually concerns itself only with the beginning date/time and end date/time of the action or activity. Example: “Beat reporters of daily newspapers operate under a very tight daily time frame that requires them to be out in their beats by 10:00 a.m. and to submit their regular news output no later than 6:00 p.m.”

A “timeline” is a table listing important events for successive years within a particular historical period; generally, the time spans involved in a “timeline” are much longer than those involved in a “timetable” for day-to-day activities. However, we can’t generalize on this long time duration because “timeline” is also now loosely used to mean “timetable” in the sense of a schedule of day-to-day events and procedures.

Click this link for an illustrative example of a timeline in Wikipedia.

[Mwita Chacha]

I have espied that the sequence of tenses is flawed in the sentence ''We gave him a detailed timetable for accomplishing his assigned project and he is following the deadline for each activity religiously.'' So I propose these two sentences as the grammatically perfect constructions to replace it: ''We have given him a detailed timetable for  accomplishing his assigned project and he is following the deadline for each activity religiously'' and ''We had given him a detailed timetable for accomplishing his assigned project and he was following the deadline for each activity religiously''

[Joe Carillo]

The following sentence you presented is quoted speech in the first person plural, meaning that it’s being made at the very moment of its writing or utterance:

“We gave him a detailed timetable for accomplishing his assigned project and he is following the deadline for each activity religiously.”

In such cases, the sequence of tenses of the verbs used depends on what the writer or speaker precisely has in mind as to when the actions referred to had taken place; we really can’t second-guess him or her on that score. Indeed, when “we gave him a detailed timetable for accomplishing his assigned project” is said, we really have no way of knowing when the “give” action took place (unless, of course, preceding statements had specified the time frame). The “giving” could have taken place at some precise time in the past that only the speaker knows (simple past-tense “gave”), or at some indefinite time in the past (past perfect “had given”), or perhaps not long before the moment of speaking (present-perfect “have given”)—only the writer or speaker knows. We therefore have no firm basis for determining or arguing whether his sequence of tenses is faulty or not, so it’s advisable to leave the statement as is:

“We gave him a detailed timetable for accomplishing his assigned project and he is following the deadline for each activity religiously.”

It’s a grammatically and semantically airtight sentence.