Tenses in English | Grammar
Present Tense - describes something happening right now.
Past Tense - describes something that happened before.
Future Tense - describes something about to happen.
Present Simple - refers to a present continuous tense (the verb stays in the same form)
Past Simple - refers to a past simple tense (the verb changes its form)
Past Continuous - refers to a past continuous tense (the verb remains the same)
Future Simple - refers to a future simple tense (the verb stays the same)
Future Continuous - refers to a future continuous tense (the verb becomes regular)
The present simple tense is very similar to the present perfect tense except that it does not use the past participle form. To express the idea of something being done at the moment, use the verbs “to go”, “to live”, “in order to”, and “for the purpose of”. You should also avoid using words like “did”, “will”, and ‘would’, since they suggest actions already completed.
The simple past tense is used to describe events that happened in the past. When referring to something that was completed at some point in time, use the simple past. To say that someone did something in the past, use the simple past - they passed, they finished, etc...
Example: I will play tennis tomorrow.
The future tense is used when talking specifically about future plans, dates, times of day, etc. For example, if I say, “We are meeting for dinner tomorrow night,” I’m implying that we’re planning to meet sometime soon, but not necessarily in the near future. If I said “I hope to finish my homework by Friday afternoon,” I mean that I want to get it done by then.\
This tense is used to talk about future actions. It uses the present progressive tenses (present continuous) combined with “will”/“shall”.
Example: He walked to school, I saw him walking.
Example: I am playing tennis today.
This tense uses the past participle form of a verb as its auxiliary verb. It expresses an action completed in the past but continuing in the present. This tense includes the following verbs: know, have, show, ask, do, begin, make, seem, say, get, start, finish, give, become, take, want, etc.
The future perfect tense shows what will happen after some specific event occurs. Use the future perfect continuous tense (future continuous) combined with ‘will’ and ‘have’.
The past perfect tense indicates that an action was done before another action occurred. This tense combines the past tense with the preposition “had”.
Example: If he sees me, he will run away.
A conditional sentence is used when talking about actions that may or might occur in the future. Its structure is “if + conditional clause”. Example: If he asked her out right now, she would probably say yes.
Exercises
1) Tense - present participle vs past participle
In these sentences, what tense is appropriate?
The woman who works as an interpreter is studying English at the university.
The woman who works for the university is studying English at the University.
2) Tense - past simple vs past perfect
Which tense should be used in these sentences?
My family visited Italy last summer.
We had visited Italy last year.
3) Tense - continuous vs progressive
Which tense should be use in the following sentence?
We were watching TV while having breakfast.
We were watching television while eating breakfast.
Here we have some examples of tenses in English. You may use these sentences while practicing pronunciation exercises. Remember to say each word out loud before checking yourself.
Thank you! :)
Simple Present
Simple past
Present Perfect Tense
Future Perfect Tense
Past Perfect Tense
Found this study material helpful?
Rate our website service and free notes repository on Google Reviews!
Discussion & Study Inquiries (0)
Ask questions, request missing past papers, or share revision tips
No comments yet. Be the first student to start the discussion or request past papers!