WALKTHROUGH

English Verb Tenses

An easy guide for both students and teachers of English

2020 edition

M. Solti
 CONTENTS
CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH TENSES
WHAT IS A TENSE?
PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE
PAST SIMPLE TENSE
PRESENT PROGRESSIVE TENSE
PRESENT PERFECT TENSE
PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE TENSE
PAST PERFECT TENSE
PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE TENSE
FUTURE SIMPLE TENSE
FUTURE PROGRESSIVE TENSE
PAST PROGRESSIVE TENSE
FUTURE PERFECT TENSE
FUTURE PERFECT PROGRESSIVE TENSE
PSEUDO-TENSES
USED TO
WOULD ALWAYS
FUTURE IN THE PAST
FINAL THOUGHTS
LIST OF IRREGULAR VERBS
 CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH TENSES
The English language has 12 tenses, and they are divided like this:

Here we see how each of the three time periods (past, present, and
future) has the same four parts - Simple, Progressive, Perfect, and Perfect
Progressive. The Progressive and the Perfect parts are also called aspects,
and they use a helping (or auxilliary) verb to build the Tense. The
Progressive aspect uses be, and the Perfect aspect uses have. The Perfect
Progressive uses both.

In this guide we will start from the Simple Tenses, and slowly
show the differences between all of them, as well as provide some
practice on how to use them.
 WHAT IS A TENSE?
In easy terms, a Verb Tense in English is a way of changing the
main verb of a sentence to show when an action happened or when a state
was true. There are many types of verbs in English, but to make this guide
as simple as possible, let us say that all verbs are used to show either an
action (go, play, read, run...) or a state (be, sleep, think, love, hear...), and
they can be active or passive.

Many students of English usually get confused when learning

about Tenses for the first time, and this is very normal. After all, each
language has its own way of building stories, right? For example,
Japanese language has no Future Tense. Instead, it uses context or time
references (such as tomorrow or next week) to show that a sentence is in
the future.

The most important thing to remember when choosing which

tense to use, is to NOT TRANSLATE from your own language into
English. This will be difficult at first, but with practice you will be able
to ask yourself “when did this happen?” and based on that choose the
correct tense.

Another important thing to remember is the feeling of time. Is the

action you are talking about quick and instant (e.g. jump)? Does this
action take some time to complete (e.g. talk)? Do you want to talk about
an experience in general, or about a special situation? In all of these cases
the tense you use will help you to express your thoughts precisely and
clearly.

So, let us start discovering the wonderful world of English Tenses

together.
 PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE
FORM: [VERB] + s/es in third person (he/she/it)

Examples:
You speak English. Do John likes coffee.
you speak English? You Does John like coffee?
do not speak English. John does not like coffee.

USAGE:

Repeated Actions, Facts, Generalizations:

The Present Simple’s most basic use is to show an action which

is repeated or happens usually. This action can be a person’s habit, a
hobby, something people like to do, but also something that happens in
nature without human participation.
Examples:
I play tennis every Wednesday. David never drinks milk.
She does not use a computer. Joshua does DIY in his free time.
Does he eat broccoli? Susan goes to sleep early.

When you use the Present Simple in this way, you want to talk
about quick actions which are often repeted. This is usually true when
talking about people’s hobbies, habits, etc. Most of the time you will use
the Present Simple in this way with verbs which show action rather than
state because actions can normally be repeated, but a state is usually
either permanent, or lasts a long time.

The Present Simple is also used to talk about a person’s character,

personality, likes and dislikes, and generally things which are true for that
person. It is also used to show facts about someone or something, for
example a person’s job, hair color, height, the location of a building, etc.
However, we can also use it to talk about general characteristics which may
or may not be true for a group of people, animals, plants or other things.
These characteristics are called “generalizations”.
Examples:
Cats like milk. David works at a bank.
Birds do not like milk. Sarah has black hair.
John gets angry easily. Tokyo is a small city.*

* - For this example, reality is not important. It doesn’t matter that Tokyo is, in real life, a huge
metropolis; if the speaker believes that Tokyo is a small city, they will use the Present Simple
because they believe this fact is true.

Scheduled Events in the Near Future:

We can also use the Present Simple to talk about an action or

event which is scheduled to happen in the near future. Most often you
will see the Present Simple used in this way when talking about train and
bus schedules, but it is also possible to use it for any other future event,
as long as the event has a scheduled starting or finishing time.

Examples:
Sarah’s train leaves at 8.* The bus for Sheffield leaves at 6.
When does the show start? Do we go there tonight?
The meeting starts this evening. When do we board?
*- In this sentence, “Sarah’s train” means the train Sarah is planning to take. It does not mean she
is the owner of the train.

Non-Progressive Verbs:

Some verbs in English don’t normally have an -ing form, or using

the -ing form with them changes their meaning. Those verbs are called
non-progressive. The Present Simple is used with these verbs instead of
the progressive aspect when we want to talk about actions which are
happening right now.

Examples:
I am at home. (X I am being at home)
John needs help with his homework. (X John is needing help)
I want a new toy. (X I am wanting a new toy)
I see an old house. (X I am seeing and old house)
Here is a list of the most common non-progressive verbs:

appear believe belong care cost

dislike exist expect feel forget
have hate hear hope imagine
include know like look love
mind need own prefer realize
remember see seem smell suppose
taste understand want

As you can see, all of these verbs are used to describe a state, not
an action. So, non-progressive verbs are those which have the meaning
of a feeling, emotion, posession, etc.

Active and passive sentences in the Present Simple Tense:

An active sentence most often has a subject, a verb, and an object.

In other words, we are describing the action (verb) that someone (subject)
is doing, and the person or thing which receives that action (object). We
can also add any extra information we want, such as time or place
references.

Let’s look at an example:

David cooks lunch every Sunday.

To make a passive sentence, we need to focus on the object, because for

a passive sentence the subject is not important and can be deleted:

David cooks lunch every Sunday

Lunch is cooked every Sunday (by David)

 PAST SIMPLE TENSE
FORM 1: [VERB] + ed (for regular verbs)
FORM 2: [VERB] second column (for irregular verbs*)

Examples:
I played basketball yesterday. John had coffee this morning.
Did I play basketball yesterday? Sarah went shopping on Sunday
I did not play basketball yesterday. The movie began 5 minutes ago.
USAGE:

Completed action, or a series of completed actions in the past:

Just as the Present Simple Tense is used to show common, usual,

or repeated actions, the Past Simple is used to show actions which started
and finished in the past. When we use it, we are focusing on the fact that
an action happened, and we are not interested in how long it took or was
it repeated or not. It is important to remember, however, that when we
are using Past Simple we have a specific time in mind, whether we
mention that time in the sentence or not.

Examples:
I made lunch yesterday. I went to Australia last year.
I studied French. Springfield was a beautiful city.
John broke the window. Sarah drew a nice picture.

When telling a story, the Simple Past is used to paint a picture of

several actions happening one after the other. This helps us to create a
feeling of connected actions with the listener.

Example:
Yesterday was a very busy day for me. I woke up at 6, made breakfast,
took a shower, went to the bank, washed my car, called John, and I did
all that before 11 am.
* - list of the most common irregular verbs will be given at the end of this guide.
Longer action in the past:

If an action started in the past, lasted some time, and finished in

the past, we can use the Past Simple to focus on how long this action
took. To do that, we should add a time reference such as “for” or “all”.

Examples:
I watched TV for 5 hours yesterday.
John played the piano all night, I couldn’t sleep at all.
I studied French for 3 years, but I didn’t remember much.

It is important to remember that the action we are talking about is

not connected to the present. We are using the Past Simple to focus on
the action itself in a sort of “time bubble”. If we want to show that this
past action has a connection with the present, we need to use another
tense or a different structure.

Past facts or generalizations:

If the Present Simple is used to show facts or generalizations

which are true - or believed to be true - now, then the Past Simple is used
for the same reason but in connection with the past.

Look at these examples:

Present Simple: David works at a bank.

Past Simple: David worked at a bank.

Present Simple: Sarah has black hair.

Past Simple: Sarah had black hair.

Once again, it is not important if the fact is/was true or not, only
that the speaker believes it to be/have been true.
Past Simple with time clauses:

When we want to make a complex sentence, in other words a

sentence which has a lot of information, we need to use different types of
clauses to present this information in an organized and easy to understand
way. Clauses are like small sentences which do have meaning but do not
have all other elements of a full sentence such as subject, verb, or object.
There are different types of clauses based on what kind of information
they have, or which words they are made of. For example, there are noun
clauses, verb clauses, time clauses, etc. Every complex sentence has at
least one main clause and one or more subordinate clauses which are
connected to the main clause. The main clause carries most, or all, of the
meaning in the sentence, and a subordinate clause provides some extra
information.

Let us look at an example of a complex sentence with a few clauses:

I lived in a green house and had a dog when I was a child.

Here we have a main clause, conjunction, subordinate verb clause, and a

subordinate time clause.

If we want to make a sentence in Past Simple with a time clause

which starts with “when”, we have to remember that the action given in
the when-clause is considered to be first.

For example:

When I finished cooking she started washing the dishes.

She started washing the dishes when I finished cooking.

These sentences have the same meaning, and it is not important if

we put the when-clause at the beginning or at the end of the sentence. In
both cases one person finished cooking first, and after that the other
person started washing the dishes.
Active and passive sentences in the Past Simple Tense:

Active: They built this house in 1953.

Passive: This house was built in 1953.

Notice how the passive forms of the Present Simple Tense and
Past Simple Tense are similar: in both cases we need to use the helping,
or auxillliary, verb “to be” and put the main verb in the past, but the only
difference is that in Past Simple passive the auxilliary also gets a past
form:

Present Simple passive: The car is washed on Sunday.

Past Simple passive: The car was washed on Sunday.

It is important to say here that using the Present Simple passive

has the feeling of continuity; in other words, the listener feels like the ac-
tion we are talking about does not only happen once but is repeated many
times. In the example above, “the car is washed on Sunday”, the listener
will feel like this action happens every Sunday. On the other hand, using
the Past Simple passive means that the action only happened once and is
not repeated.

The Past Simple passive is most common when we want to talk

about the history of a person, company, or building. You will probably
notice that many biographies start with “John Smith was born in...”. This
is because using the Past Simple passive helps us to put the most import-
ant information first, and create distance from the speaker.
 PRESENT PROGRESSIVE TENSE
FORM: am/is/are + [VERB]-ing

Examples:
I am writing a book. John is sitting.
Am I writing a book? We are watching TV.
I am not writing a book. They are doing their homework.

USAGE:

Actions happening at the time of speaking:

The original and the most basic use of the Present Progressive
Tense is to talk about actions happening, or not happening, right now, at
the moment of speaking. We can also use the Present Progressive to talk
about some states, such as “sleep”, but remember that most feelings,
emotions, etc. cannot take the -ing form and cannot be used in the Present
Progressive Tense.

Longer actions in progress now:

One interesting thing in English is that the word “now” can mean
not only the moment of speaking, but can also be used for any period of
time which is not finished yet. Now can mean “this moment”, “this
week”, “this century”, etc. depending on the context of the sentence and
on the nature of the action which we are talking about.

Since this is our first time discussing a progressive aspect, it is a

good point to note that each and every progressive form (Present, Past or
Future), in other words each verb-ing form, has the feeling of progress,
of an action which naturally takes some time to complete (even if we are
not doing the action at the moment of speaking), and that is why it is
called progressive, or sometimes continuous.
Take a look at the following examples:

David is studying to become a doctor. He is reading many books and

learning new things all the time.

I’m working on a new project right now, so I’m very busy during the
week.

I’m trying to lose weight, which means I can’t have any cake... sorry.

In all of the above examples we are using the Present Progressive

Tense to create an image of a long action, one which is not happening right
now at the moment of speaking, but which takes a long time to do. Studying,
reading, learning, working, trying - all of these actions are by their nature
long actions; they cannot normally be completed quickly. So, it is only
natural to use a structure which creates a feeling of progress and of continued
action when we talk about them. Later on we will see how different
progressive tenses are used to focus on how long an action takes or how it
relates to other actions, but for now it is most important to remember that all
-ing forms create a feeling of long action.

WARNING! Always + Present Progressive:

When they want to talk about a person’s habits, or about things

which happen often, many students make the common mistake of using -ing
with adverbs of frequency (always, often, usually, sometimes, rarely, never,
etc). So, we get sentences like “my mother always cooking lunch”. This is a
very easy mistake to make, but if not corrected it can become
a problem later in life because this combination has a special meaning
in English: it means you are angry or frustrated by another person’s
action. For example, if we say “John is always leaving the door open” it
means that we dislike John’s action and want him to stop doing that.

Here is another example:

Oh God, Sarah is so annoying. She’s always talking so loudly!

Using Present Progressive Tense for the future:

Sometimes we can use the Present Progressive to talk about an

action which will happen in the near future. To do this, we need to meet
two conditions: 1) the action needs to be planned or scheduled; and 2) it
needs to be in the relatively near future.

In the English language, we have several ways of talking about

the future. Naturally, the most common way is to use one of the future
tenses we have available, but sometimes using a different structure can
help us to focus on other important factors of the action. Specifically, by
using the Present Progressive with a future meaning, we are telling the
listener that this is an appointment we had planned before and it may be
difficult to change the plans we made.

Look at the following conversation:

A: Hi David, how are you?

B: Hey Jack. Not bad. Just getting back from practice. You?
A: I’m good. Listen, are you doing anything this Saturday?
B: Well, I’m meeting Sarah around 4. Why do you ask?
A: Oh, well, I wanted to see if you want to hang out at my place.
B: Oh. Ummm, sure... I’ll drop by around 8 or so, if that’s OK.
A: Yeah, sure.
B: Great. See you then.
A: See you!

In the above example, person B uses the Present Progressive to

ask a question about the future with the meaning of “do you have any
plans for this Saturday”. In the same way, person A responds with the
same structure to show that they had already made an appointment to
meet another person on that day. Later on, person B uses “will” because
they are not 100% sure about the time.

The future use of Present Progressive is most common when

talking about appointments and scheduled meetings.
Active and passive sentences in the Present Progressive Tense:

Active: They are repairing the machines.

Passive: The machines are being repaired.

The Present Progressive passive is not very common in everyday

spoken English. It is most often used when we want to create a feeling of
many things happening at the same time, but it is not important who or
what is doing those actions.

Here is an example:

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming to our
press conference today. We are aware that the data leak situation at our
company is a difficult issue for everyone involved, but we would like to
assure you all that we are doing everything in our power to prevent any
further damages. All of our PCs are being updated as we speak, our
shareholders are being notified of the issue, and system vulnerabilities
are being patched. We hope to have the situation under control within
24 hours.”
 PRESENT PERFECT TENSE
FORM: has/have + [VERB]-ed / Past Participle

Examples:
I have been to Japan. I have seen that movie already.
Have you been to Japan? She has visited France before.
I have not been to Japan. He has written many books.

USAGE:

Talking about experiences:

The Present Perfect Tense is, we can say, unique, because it is not
connected to a point in time, unlike other tenses. Its main use is to show
that we have the experience of doing something, or feeling something,
but we do not need to say when we did or felt it. In fact, we should NOT
use the Present Perfect with a specific time (such as yesterday, last week,
etc.).

For many students of English the idea of a “non-specific time”

can be very confusing. Let us try to explain it in this way:

Specific time can be understood as a unique point in time which shows a

fixed and unchangeable time reference. For example, if we say “yes-
terday” the listener can understand that we are refering to the day before
today. If we say “last week”, it is understood that we are refering to the
period from last Monday to last Sunday.

Non-specific, or unspecified, time can be understood as a time period

with no fixed points. In other words, we are giving the listener an empty
frame and telling him “the action I am talking about happened at some
point within this time period, but the exact time is not important”. We
can use such phrases as “before”, “until now”, “so far”, “in the last 5
years”, etc. to create a non-specific time frame.
 So, to repeat, if we want to talk about a specific time in the past,
we cannot use the Present Perfect Tense. Which brings us to another
common mistake: telling the difference between “last” and “in the last”.

The phrase “last week” is a specific time because it points to a fixed

period in time. For example, if today is Friday, October 23rd 2020, then the
phrase “last week” refers to the time period from Monday, Oct. 12th to
Sunday, Oct. 18th 2020. Also, in the same case, if we say “last month” then
that refers to the fixed period from September 1st to Septem-ber 30th. In
comparison, the phrase “in the last...” can be used with the Present Perfect
Tense because it refers to a non-fixed point within a time frame. So, if today
is October 23rd and we say “in the last month” what we mean is “this action
happened at some point in time between Septem-ber 1st and September 30th,
but the exact time is not important.” The same is true for any reference using
last - last week, last month, last year, etc.

Let us look at some examples:

O I went to the new cafe last night.

X I have gone to the new cafe last night.

O I have been to Hong Kong twice in the last year.

X I have been to Hong Kong twice last year.

O I have worked on three projects in the last 6 months.

X I have worked on three projects last 6 months.

O We bought many souvenirs on our last trip.

X We have bought many souvenirs on our last trip.

As we can see, the best way to talk about an action which

happened at a specific past time is to use the Past Simple Tense.

Also, using “this” (for example today, this week, this month, etc.)
with the Present Perfect is fine, because the time period we are talking
about is still not over, and so it is considered non-specific.
Talking about change over time and accomplishments:

Usually, when we want the listener to understand that we are

talking about how the situation we are describing has changed over some
period of time, it is common to use the Present Perfect to show this
change or progress.

Look at these examples:

Oh dear! You’ve grown so much!

The Board of Directors has focused more on expansion since the merger.
English has become one of the most spoken languages globally.

Similarly, we can use the Present Perfect to talk about one or more
accomplishments of a person, group of people, or the entire human race.

For example:

Our daughter has learned how to read.

The class has finished preparing for the school festival.
Humans have been to space.

Talking about an unfinished action:

If we want to talk about an action which is not yet completed, but

we are expecting it to be finished soon, we can use the Present Perfect to
show this situation. It is common to use “still” or “yet” in this case.

For example:

It’s already 6 and John hasn’t arrived yet.

Susan hasn’t mastered French, but she is conversational.
You still haven’t finished your homework?!?
Already, Yet and Still:

The Present Perfect Tense is very often used with the adverbs
“already” (in positive sentences), “yet” (in negative sentences and ques-
tions), and “still” to mean “the period of time until now”. But, there is
something very important to bear in mind when using the Present Perfect
in this way:

When making a sentence with “already”, intonation can change

the meaning. If we say the adverb with a stronger accent, it can mean that
the speaker is annoyed by this topic.

For example, compare these two conversations:

A: Son, have you finished your homework yet?

B: Yes, I’ve already done it.
A: Good job! Let me get you some ice cream.
B: Thanks, mom!

A: Son, have you finished your homework yet?

B: Yes, I’ve ALREADY done it!
A: Don’t you use that tone with me!
B: Sorry, mom.

Similarly, we need to be careful when using “still”, because it can

also have a negative effect. In the example conversations below, person
A is the supervisor and B is the subordinate. Notice the difference in the
supervisor’s reaction tone:

A: John, have you finished that report I asked you for?

B: I’m sorry, I haven’t done it yet. I’ll finish it in about an hour.
A: OK, no problem.

A: John, have you finished that report I asked you for?

B: I’m sorry, I still haven’t done it. I’ll finish it in about an hour.
A: You STILL haven’t finished?!? Are you serious?!
Active and passive sentences in the Present Perfect Tense:

Active: Many people have visited Tokyo Tower.

Passive: Tokyo Tower has been visited by many people.

The passive form of Present Perfect is quite commonly used in

everyday English. You can find it anywhere - from brochures, travel guides,
and company leaflets, to textbooks, memoirs, and novels. This is partly
because the focus of the Present Perfect itself is on the experience a person
has, so the passive form likewise reflects this relationship.

Here are some examples of everyday uses for the Present Perfect passive:

A: Did you finally buy a new PC?

B: Yeah, the old one has been fixed so many times it just wasn’t worth
it anymore.

A: Is Mary in a bad mood again?

B: Well, she has been known to throw a tantrum...

A: Teacher, can you explain the Present Perfect again?

B: I’m sorry, but this has been done a week ago. I’m not sure if we
have time to go over it again.
 PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE
TENSE
FORM: has/have + been + [VERB]-ing

Examples:
I have been waiting for hours!
Have I been waiting for hours?
I have not been waiting for hours.

USAGE:

Talking about how long an action is:

The Present Perfect Progresive is probably one of the easiest and

simplest tenses to master. Its main (and honestly almost only) use is to
describe a period of time during which an action was happening. It is
important to note, however, that the action which we are talking about
started in the past and is still happening as we speak, so it is still true.

For example:

A: Honey, Johnny has been sleeping all day. I think he has a fever.
B: Should we take him to a doctor?

A: I have been working at this company for 12 years.

B: Wow! Have you never though about changing your job?

A: OK young man, that’s enough! You’ve been playing that game for
hours! Time to do your homework!
B: But, MOOOOM!

As you can see, in each example there is a time reference (“all

day”, “for 12 years”, and “for hours”). The time reference we use does
not need to be specific, but it should be used with the Present Perfect
Progressive. It is also fine to say “for a long time”, etc.
Talking about recent events and habits:

It is possible to use the Present Perfect Progressive without a time

reference, but in this case it has the meaning of “recently” or “lately”. The
difference between the two, when spoken, is that “recently” is used more
often and “lately” is generally used in negative sentences as well as
questions. Also, “recently” is more common with actions which took place
once, and “lately” with actions which can be repetitive.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

My job is getting really tough, and I’ve been feeling super tired.
Have you been exercising? You look like you lost weight!
I’ve been watching a lot of French dramas recently.
I haven’t been reading much lately.

Non-progressive verbs:

With non-progressive verbs (remember the chapter about Present

Simple Tense?) we would normally use the Present Perfect instead of the
Present Perfect Progressive to achieve the same meaning.

For example:

O I have had that book for years.

X I have been having that book for years.

Active and passive sentences in the Present Perfect Progresive Tense:

Active: John has been publishing many books.

Passive: Many books have been being published by John.

As you can imagine, the Present Perfect Progressive passive is

extremely rare in real-life English, and you will probably never see it
outside of an exam environment, so we really do not have to explain it in
great detail.
 PAST PERFECT TENSE
FORM: had + [VERB]-ed / Past Participle

Examples:
I had studied English before moving to London.
Had I studied English before moving to London?
I had not studied English before moving to London.

USAGE:

Even though many students find it difficult to master the Past

Perfect Tense because the difference between Past Perfect and Present
Perfect is often poorly explained, the Past Perfect is in fact one of the
simpler tenses to learn.

In some schools both the Past Perfect and Present Perfect are
taught by using a timeline to visualise the reference point of tenses, and
because of this approach many students end up thinking that the biggest
difference between Present Perfect and Past Perfect is that Present Per-
fect is used for a “closer” past and Past Perfect for a more distant past.
This is very wrong, especially because it is almost impossible to place
tenses on a linear, or straight, line since their reference points are so di-
verse and can cover both the past and the present.

Therefore, it is extremely important to NOT TRY TO COMPARE

the Present Perfect and the Past Perfect. Their names may be similar, but
this is where the similarities end.

Completed action before another action in the past:

The main use of Past Perfect is to show which of two or more past
actions is the oldest; or to show that an action happened before an event,
accomplishment, specific time reference, etc. That is all. Do not be confused
by near and distant past - using Past Perfect does not mean the action
happened a long time ago; maybe it happened a few hours ago.
Let us look at some examples:

When I arrived at the pub, my friends had already left.

I had already finished the project when she told me the client cancelled.
We had just renovated the house before the flood.
David had been to Kopenhagen before, so he could act as our guide.

In all of the examples above we want to put focus on one action

which happened before the other actions or references in the sentence. In
the first example, the action of friends leaving happened before the action
of the speaker arriving. In the second example, the act of finishing the
reports happened first, etc.

Longer actions in the past:

With some non-progressive verbs we normally use the Past

Perfect to show that an action started in the past and lasted for some time,
even though we would normally use the Past Perfect Progressive to
achieve this same goal.

For example:

We had had that TV for many years before it became obsolete.

He had owned many cars in his life, but this one has always been his
favorite.

Past Perfect with specific time:

Unlike the Present Perfect, the Past Perfect can be used with a
specific time reference (yesterday, in 1995, last week, etc.). However, if
we use adverbs such as “before” or “after” we can also use the Past
Simple since it is obvious which action happened first. In the example
below, both sentences are correct:

He had met Susan five times last week before they became a couple.
He met Susan five times last week before they became a couple.
 Do try to remember, though, that on the previous page we could
choose between the Past Simple and the Past Perfect because we had a
specific time reference in the sentence (last week). If there is no such
reference, the Past Perfect needs to be used.

For example:

X She never ate real sushi before she came to Japan.

O She had never eaten real sushi before she came to Japan.

Active and passive sentences in the Past Perfect Tense:

Active: John had published many books.

Passive: Many books had been published by John.

The usage of Past Perfect Passive is not rare, but it is also not very
common. It will most usually be found in stories and narratives, when the
speaker (or writer) is trying to make the sentence sound more serious and
deep.

For example:

They had been traveling for four days, only stopping to rest when they
had to. It had been a long and difficult winter, and their supplies were
low.
 PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE TENSE
FORM: had + been + [VERB]-ing

Examples:
I had been waiting for hours!
Had I been waiting for hours?
I had not been waiting for hours.

USAGE:

Talking about how long an action was:

Just like the Present Perfect Progressive, its brother the Past
Perfect Progressive will be used to describe a period of time during which
an action was happening. The only difference between the two is that the
Present Perfect Progressive shows that the action which we are talking
about started in the past and is still happening as we speak, but the Past
Perfect Progressive shows an action which started in the past, lasted some
time, and finished before another action or event in the past.

Here are some examples:

Pr.P.P.: Johnny has been sleeping all day.

Pa.P.P.: Johnny had been sleeping all day before I woke him up.

Pr.P.P.: She has been working there for 5 years.

Pa.P.P.: When the company closed, she had been working there
for 5 years.

In the Present Perfect Progressive (Pr.P.P.) examples the action is

still happening while we are speaking, and in the Past Perfect Progressive
(Pa.P.P.) ones the action finished before another action happened. In both
cases we are interested in how long the action took.
 The action which follows the action in the Past Perfect
Progressive will usually be in the Past Simple. This is true for both the
Past Perfect and the Past Perfect Progressive.

Finally, just like with all progressive tenses, non-progressive verbs

which would normally be used in the Past Perfrect Progressive will need to
be put into the Past Progressive to achieve the desired effect.

For example:

X He had been owning that car for 5 years before he sold it.
O He had owned that car for 5 years before he sold it.

X This book had been belonging to my sister all her life before she
gave it to me.
O This book had belonged to my sister all her life before she gave it to
me.

Active and passive sentences in the Past Perfect Progresive Tense:

Active: John had been cooking dinner for hours.

Passive: Dinner had been being cooked for hours (by John).

As you can imagine, the Past Perfect Progressive passive is just

as extremely rare in real-life English as the Present Perfect Progressive
passive, and you will probably never see this one either outside of an
exam environment.
 FUTURE SIMPLE TENSE
FORM 1: will+ [VERB]
FORM 2: am/is/are + going to + [VERB]

Examples:
I will go shopping later. I am going to meet Ben.
Will I go shopping later? Am I going to meet Ben?
I will not go shopping later. I am not going to meet Ben.

USAGE:

The Future Simple is one of the most confusing structures for

most students of English, as well as teachers, because the modal verb
“will” used here as an auxilliary has so many different functions; which
makes the Future Simple both difficult to explain and difficult to fully
understand. Not to mention, both the “will” form and the “to be going to”
form belong to the same tense. But, let us try to simplify the proper usage
for both forms here in a way which will, hopefully, help most learners
master the Future Simple.

The English language uses four most common ways to talk about
future actions and events:

Future Simple: I will meet John tomorrow.

Pres. Progressive: I am meeting John tomorrow.
Future Simple: I am going to meet John tomorrow.
Future Progressive*: I will be meeting John tomorrow.
* - to be explained in detail in the next chapter

Basically, we need different structures to talk about:

1) Quick decisions;
2) Planned appointments;
3) Already made decisions; and
4) Predictions.
 One of the main differences between the structures on the
previous page is in how sure are we that the action will happen. It helps
here to consider “will” as your safe choice. Whenever you want to talk
about the future, you can use “will”, and the listener will understand that
you are talking about a future action. However, because “will” has such
a large area to cover, it is not very strong. Therefore, it is most commonly
used to show decisions that were not planned, but made instantly, on-the-
spot. In comparison to this, the Present Progressive is most commonly
used with actions which were planned or scheduled (like we talked about
in the chapter on the Present Progressive), specifically with personal
appointments, arrangements, and plans.

But, if we have “will” for most unplanned future actions and

Present Progressive for planned future actions, why then do we need “to
be going to”? Well, we also need something to show a decision, a strong
plan, or a prediction which is very likely to happen.

So, if you do not want to dig deeper into the differences between
future structures, at least remember this:

• Use will to talk about a decision you just made;

• Use Present Progressive to talk about appointments;
• Use to be going to to talk about already made decisions.

Now, let us look at the above-mentioned four points in detail:

Using will for quick decisions:

As mentioned above, will is most commonly used when talking

about a decision made at the time of speaking. Look at this example:

A: Did you send that email to Mr. Smith?

B: Oh, no! I forgot! I’ll send it now.

In this example, person B has just decided to do the action of sending an

email, so they use will.
 Quick decisions are often connected with offers, agreements,
refusals, promises, and requests. This is made possible by the previously
mentioned modality of “will”. Look at the examples below:

You look tired. I’ll get you some water. offer

A: Can you give me back the money you borrowed last week?
B: Sure, I’ll have it for you tomorrow. agreement

A: I’m sorry, Sir, but Ms. Smith is in a meeting right now.

B: Oh, well, in that case I won’t wait here. refusal

I promise I won’t tell anybody what you just said. promise

Will you help me bring in these boxes, please? request

It would feel very unnatural to use any -ing form in the above
situations if it is obvious from the context that the speaker has just made
the decision they are talking about.

Talking about planned appointments:

For a more detailed description, go to the chapter about Present

Progressive. Here we will give just a few examples:

A: Can you meet me tomorrow at 3?

B: Sorry, Susan is coming over to help me with homework.
A: Oh, ok. What time will you finish?
B: Probably around 5, but we’re going to the cinema later.
A: OK. Have fun.
B: Thanks!

It would also be possible to use to be going to instead of the

Present Progressive, but it would feel unnatural to the listener.
Talking about already made decisions:

This is the basic use of to be going to. We can use it for any
decision made before the moment of speaking, regardless of the topic.
For example:

I am going to have shrimp for lunch tomorrow.

Susan is going to meet David at 5.
I am going to become a doctor when I grow up!

An important difference between to be going to and the Present

Progressive that we have to mention here is that to be going to shows the
listener that we decided to do something, but maybe we haven’t made
arrangements to do it yet, but with the Present Progressive the focus is on
the fact that we have already arranged to do it. Honestly, though, this dif-
ference is very small and most often in life you will be able to use either
one of these structures - however, for those who want to master the tenses
entirely, this can be an important point.

Making predictions:

A “prediction” is our opinion about a future action, state, or event

which may or may not come true. We can make predictions about
anything, including ourselves, people around us, and the whole world.
However, sometimes those predictions are based on evidence or
experience, and have a much higher chance of coming true. For this
reason we can use will and to be going to to show this difference in
probability.

Generally speaking, will predictions have a much lower chance of

coming true than to be going to predictions, and it is also possible to
modify them with other words and phrases to measure this probability
even closer (such as: probably, likely, most likely, definitely, I suppose,
I guess, I bet, etc.).

Look at some examples of predictions with will:

I think the new client will like the modified design.
Susan will probably be late, so let’s start without her.
I suppose John will join us after work.
I bet David will hate that movie.
I guess I’ll see you later then.

It is possible to replace will with to be going to in the examples

above, but it is usually not possible to replace to be going to with will
because to be going to is used under special circumstances.

One of those special circumstances is that we use to be going to

when the reason for our decision is given in context. Here are some
examples:

OMG, this photo looks horrible! Susan's definitely going to delete it!
That sandwich I had for lunch tasted strange... I’m going to be sick.

A: Wow, David is already drinking his fourth beer.

B: Yeah, he’s going to get super drunk soon.

In all of the examples above we have the reason why we believe

the action we are talking about will happen - the photo is bad, so the
person decides to delete it; the sandwich tasted strange, so the person
feels bad; and David’s friends can see him drinking, so they can decide
the result based on that. For this reason, predictions with to be going to
have a very high probability. Still, we can enhance them even more by
adding definitely (e.g.: Tom is definitely going to be late).

Time clauses with Future Simple:

If you remember, we talked about clauses in the chapter on Past

Simple. Here we will just say that clauses starting with “when” and “if”
cannot contain will or to be going to:

O I want pizza for dinner when I come home tonight.

X I want pizza for dinner when I will come home tonight.
Active and passive sentences in the Future Simple Tense:

Active: He will finish dinner by 8pm.

Passive: Dinner will be finished by 8pm.

Active: Someone is going to decorate the Christmas tree tonight.

Passive: The Christmas tree is going to be decorated tonight.

Both the will and the to be going to passive forms of the Future
Simple are quite common in spoken English, especially when we want to
focus on a result of a project or on a prediction which does not include
the subject.
 FUTURE PROGRESSIVE TENSE
FORM 1: will be + [VERB]-ing
FORM 2: am/is/are + going to be + [VERB]-ing

Examples:
I will be waiting for Susan at the airport when she arrives.
Will I be waiting for Susan at the airport when she arrives?
I will not be waiting for Susan at the airport when she arrives.

I am going to be eating dinner at 7pm tonight.

Am I going to be eating dinner at 7pm tonight?
I am not going to be eating dinner at 7pm tonight.

USAGE:

After we have rested a little bit from that massive Future Simple
explanation, we can look at another comparison of will and to be going
to forms, this time with the -ing as well. But fear not - the Progressive
aspect of the Future Tense is much, much easier to learn.

To begin with, unlike in the Future Simple, in the Future

Progressive we can freely exchange the will and to be going to forms in
most of the cases. This means that "I will be watching TV" and "I am
going to be watching TV" are almost identical, and you do not have to
worry about any huge change in meaning.

Interrupted action in the future:

The main usage of Future Progressive is to show that a future

action will be interrupted by another future action at some point. Look at
this example:

I will be finishing work when she calls.

I will be writing this book when the pizza delivery person arrives.
 In both cases we have a longer action happening at the time of a
shorter action - so, in other words, the longer action is interrupted by the
shorter. To illustrate this, we put the longer action into the Future
Progressive and the shorter into Present Simple (also remember we
cannot use "will" or "to be going to" with time clauses).

It is also possible to talk about interruptions which may or may

not happen, in a sort of "just in case" situation. Look at the following
examples:

I will be sleeping over at John's house tonight if you need me.

If Sarah calls, tell her I'll be having a meeting until 8pm.
We'll be playing cards at David's place later, in case you decide to join us.

Actions happening at a specific time in the future:

We can also use the Future Progressive Tense to talk about future
actions at a specific point in time in the future. In this case, instead of one
future action interrupting another action, we have a time reference. Take
a look at these examples:

Tonight at 10pm I will be taking a bath.

At 9am tomorrow the CEO will be giving a speech at the Plaza Hotel.
All good children will be sleeping at midnight.

Future actions happening at the same time:

Finally, we can use the Future Progressive to show two or more

actions happening at the same time in the future:

A: Do you have any plans for 7pm tonight?

B: Well, I will be vacuuming and Hellen will be making dinner.

In the above example the actions of vacuuming and making

dinner are scheduled to happen at the same time. We are not using the
Future Simple here because it would change the meaning.
 Notice the differences in these examples:

a) I will make dinner tonight.

b) I am making dinner tonight.
c) I am going to make dinner tonight.
d) I will be making dinner tonight.

In a) we have a quick decision, offer, or promise. In b) we have a

person's scheduled action. In c) we have a person's decision made before
the moment of speaking, and in d) we have a special usage of the Future
Progressive, not mentioned before. You see, the final use of Future
Progressive is when people want to sound more polite. Compare these
two examples:

A: John, do you wanna come over for dinner? Sarah's making meatloaf.
B: Sure! I love Sarah's cooking!

A: Mr. Smith, will you be joining us for dinner tonight at my home?

B: Thank you kindly, but I do not wish to impose.
A: Please, it is no imposition. My wife will be cooking anyway.
B: In that case, thank you very much. It will be my pleasure.
A: Splendid!

In the above example there is no grammatical reason to use the

Future Progressive instead of the other structures, except to sound more
polite and formal.

Active and passive sentences in the Future ProgressiveTense:

Active: John will be cooking dinner tonight.

Passive: Dinner will be being cooked tonight.

Once again, we have a passive form which is almost never used

in real life, just like most other progressive tenses.
 PAST PROGRESSIVE TENSE
FORM: was/were + [VERB]-ing

Examples:
I was waiting for Susan at the airport when she arrived.
Was I waiting for Susan at the airport when she arrived?
I was not waiting for Susan at the airport when she arrived.

USAGE:

As you can probably guess from the examples, the reason why we
are going back to past tenses after starting future is because the Past
Progressive Tense is identical to the Future Progressive Tense, and so
they are best learned side by side, for comparison.

Interrupted action in the past:

The main usage of Past Progressive is to show that a past action

was interrupted by another past action at some point. Look at this
example:

I was finishing work when she called.

I was writing this book when the pizza delivery person arrived.

Actions happening at a specific time in the past:

We can also use the Past Progressive Tense to talk about past
actions at a specific point in time in the past. In this case, instead of one
past action interrupting another action, we have a time reference. Take a
look at these examples:

Last night at 10pm I was taking a bath.

At 9am yesterday the CEO was giving a speech at the Plaza Hotel.
All good children were sleeping at midnight.
Past actions happening at the same time:

Finally, we can use the Past Progressive to show two or more

actions happening at the same time in the past:

A: What were you doing at 7pm last night?

B: Well, I was vacuuming and Hellen was making dinner.

There is one final note, however, connected with the difference

between Past Progressive and Past Simple - remember we use the Past
Simple with specific time to show when an action started or finished in
the past, and the Past Progressive to show an action which is in process
at a certain time in the past. Look at these examples:

Last night at 6pm, I ate dinner.

I started eating at 6pm.
Last night at 6pm, I was eating dinner.
I started earlier, and at 6pm, I was in the process of eating dinner.

Cancelled past actions (special use):

We usually use the Past Progressive to describe a planned action

which did not happen (it was cancelled). For example:

I was going to make dinner, but we ran out of meat.

I was going to call you, but my phone battery died.

Active and passive sentences in the Past ProgressiveTense:

Active: John was cooking dinner last night.

Passive: Dinner was being cooked last night.

Unlike the other progressive passive forms, this one is actually

used quite frequently in real life. It is most common when we want to
describe a background story.
 FUTURE PERFECT TENSE
FORM 1: will have + [VERB]-ed/past participle
FORM 2: am/is/are going to have + [VERB]-ed/past participle

Examples:
By the year 2025 I will have written 20 books.
Will I have written 20 books by the year 2025?
I will not have written 20 books by the year 2025.

You are going to have learned Swahili before you finish university.
Are you going to have learned Swahili before you finish university?
You are not going to have learned Swahili before you finish university.

USAGE:

And finally, here we are: at the gates of one of the two most
complicated tenses in the English language (the other is Future Perfect
Progressive, as you might have guessed by now). But, do not fear! The
Future Perfect and Future Perfect Progressive are actually very rare in
real life and both of them have only one or two uses. Despite their
structure sounding and looking quite complicated, they are somewhat
easy to master.

Completed action before a future event:

The easiest way to explain Future Perfect is through a story.

Imagine, then, that you have a plan to visit France. Maybe you have been
there already, maybe you have never been there before - no matter.
Anyway, you want to visit France. So, you start saving money for the
plane ticket, the hotel, etc. Every month you can save 100 dollars, and
your target is 2.000 dollars. In this case, you need to save money for 20
months to meet your target, so, just to be safe, you give yourself a 2-year
deadline. If it is now October 2020, that would make your deadline
October 2022. In other words, your goal is to travel to France by October
2022 at the latest.
 So, now we have three points of reference: the moment of
speaking, the moment of finishing saving (if everything goes well that
will be June 2022), and your travel deadline (October 2022). Let's make
a sentence:

By October 2022 (this is your deadline) I will (you are using "will"
because right now, at the moment of speaking, you are talking about a
future event) have saved (because the moment of saving money comes
before the deadline) enough money to go to France.

In other words, another action will finish before the deadline

comes, but from our point of view both that action and the deadline are
in the future, so we need a way to describe that relationship. This is why
we use the Future Perfect. Simple, right?

Let's look at some more examples:

By the time John comes home I will have already fallen asleep.
The CEO will have found out about the issue by the time you get to work.
We don't know if humans will have walked on Mars by 2030.

Active and passive sentences in the Future Perfect Tense:

Active: We will have saved enough money by October.

Passive: Enough money will have been saved by October.

Just like its active form, the passive form of Future Perfect is quite
rare in real life. Perhaps the best way to use it would be when telling a
story, to paint a picture with more variations of vocabulary.
 FUTURE PERFECT PROGRESSIVE
TENSE
FORM 1: will have been + [VERB]-ing
FORM 2: am/is/are going to have been + [VERB]-ing

Examples:
By the year 2025 I will have been writing for 10 years.
Will I have been writing for 10 years by the year 2025?
I will not have been writing for 10 years by the year 2025.

You are going to have been learning Swahili for 2 years before you finish
university.
Are you going to have been learning Swahili for 2 years before you finish
university?
You are not going to have been learning Swahili for 2 years before you
finish university.

USAGE:

Last but not least, the Future Perfect Progressive Tense. By now
it should have become easy for you to use the Future Perfect, so to
explain the Future Perfect Progressive let us make just one small change
in the explanation and example we gave above:

Duration of an action before a future event:

The basic difference between Future Perfect and Future Perfect

Progressive is that Future Perfect is used for a completed action before
another future action, and Future Perfect Progressive is used to describe
how long an action was before another future action.

Do you remember the story about going to France from the previ-
ous chapter? You want to go to France by October 2022 and you plan to
save money for almost 2 years to pay for the trip. In the previous chapter
the focus was on you finishing saving money; now it will be on how long
did it take you.
 Just for clarity, let us repeat the story from the previous chapter:
you want to go to France, so you start saving money for the plane ticket,
the hotel, etc. Every month you can save 100 dollars, and your target is
2.000 dollars. In this case, you need to save money for 20 months to meet
your target, so, just to be safe, you give yourself a 2-year deadline. If it is
now October 2020, that would make your deadline October 2022. In other
words, your goal is to travel to France by October 2022 at the latest.

Now again we have three points of reference: the moment of

speaking, the length of time you spent saving (if everything goes well
that will be 24 months), and your travel deadline (October 2022). Let us
make a sentence:

By October 2022 (this is your deadline) I will (you are using "will"
because right now, at the moment of speaking, you are talking about a
future event) have been saving (because we are focusing on the length
of time of one action at the moment of the deadline) money to go to France
for 24 months.

Compare with these sentences:

By June 2022 I will have been saving money to go to France for 20

months. By May 2022 I will have been saving money to go to France for
19 months.

One last point to note is that for non-progressive verbs we would

have to use the Future Perfect instead of the Progressive.

Active and passive sentences in the Future Perfect Progressive Tense:

Active: We will have been saving money for a year by October.

Passive: Money will have been being saved for a year by Oct.

Do we really need to comment? :)

 PSEUDO-TENSES
Congratulations, dear reader! You have successfully revised all
twelve tenses of the English language! We are very proud of you!

Now, before we finish this book, there is one more point we need
to cover: pseudo-tenses. The word "pseudo" means, in most basic terms,
"fake" or "false". So, in other words, we will talk about structures which
behave like tenses but are not really tenses. These are "used to", "would
always" and "future in the past".
 USED TO
"Used to" is one of the most commonly used structures in English.
Its main purpose is to show a habit or a repeated action which happened
regularly in the past, but which does not happen now, as well as to talk
about past facts or generalizations.

Look at these examples:

When I was a high school student I used to practice basketball.

We used to walk on the beach every night.
George used to be my best friend.

All of the above examples show an action or, in the case of

George, a state which was true for a period of time, or which was
repeated, in the past but not anymore. To show this characteristic, we use
"used to". Note, however, that when trying to make a question with "used
to" we need to change the structure a little:

Did you use to play tennis as a child?

This question form is considered casual English, and in formal

situations it is better to use the Past Simple:

Did you play tennis as a child?

Active and passive sentences with "Used To":

Active: David used to make dinner.

Passive: Dinner used to be made by David.

The passive form of used to is quite common in everyday

English, especially when talking about facts. For example:

These buildings used to belong to King Richard III.

He used to be known as "Wild Bill" before he became a sheriff.
Used To vs. Would

You will often hear sentences such as these:

When I worked at ABC company, we would often have office parties.

We would visit my grandparents every spring when I was a child.

So, why do we use would here, and not used to? The answer is
simple: used to is more common when introducing a topic, and would is
more common when giving details for a previously introduced topic.
Generally speaking, used to can usually replace would, but would usually
cannot replace used to. In the examples above, we have a topic already
set up: in the first sentence the speaker is describing the period of time
when they worked at ABC company, and in the second example the
speaker describes their childhood.

Consider the following examples:

O When I was in High school I used to practice basketball.

O When I was in high school I would practice basketball.

BUT:

O I used to play the violin. O George used to be my best friend.

X I would play the violin. X George would be my best friend.

In the left examples we have a topic introduction with no details,

so used to is OK, but would feels very unnatural. In the right examples,
however, we have a state, not an action, and would cannot be used with
past states.

A combination story is also possible. Look at this example:

When I was 14 years old I used to practice basketball. I would get up

every morning at 6, have practice once before school, and again after
school. I wouldn't get home before 8pm.
 WOULD ALWAYS
Would always is very similar to used to, in the sense that it is also
used to describe past habits. However, would always has three special
characteristics which make it unique: 1) It is used to describe somebody's
intentional action; 2) it cannot be used for states, facts, or generalizations,
only for actions; and 3) it can be used to describe frustration, amusement,
or irritation with someone's past actions.

Let us look at some examples:

A: Hey, do you remember Jessica Donovan from high school?

B: Jessica? Jessica... Oh, Yeah! I do! She would always wear pink, right?

A: Can you tell me a little about your parents, Mr. Davies?

B: Well, my mother would always shout at me for every little thing. And
my father... my father would always come home smelling of alcohol after
work.

It is possible to replace "always" with other adverbs if we wish to

describe a different frequency. Most common ones are often, usually,
sometimes, normally, constantly, occasionally, seldom, etc.

Tom would always talk about his girlfriend.

Tom would sometimes talk about his football club.
Tom would never talk about his brother.

However, be careful with "would never", because this structure

can also be used to show that the speaker finds another person's action
difficult to believe:

A: Have you heard that Bob stole 25.000 dollars from the company?
B: No! Really!? Bob would never do that!
Active and passive sentences with "Would always":

Active: My mother would always make strawberry jam.

Passive: Strawberry jam would always be made by my mother.

The passive form of would always is almost the same as that of

used to in terms of being quite common in everyday English, especially
when talking about past habits. For example:

The laundry would always be washed by a maid.

In the 14th century, books would only be written by monks.
 FUTURE IN THE PAST
Finally, we arrive to the last chapter of this guide - future in the past.
This is another structure using "would", but it is quite different from the
previous ones we described. It is called "future in the past" because we need
two reference points to use it, similar to the Future Perfect Tense.

Let us look at an example:

I thought you wouldn't be late.

We believed John would be a good match for your team.
I was sure Sarah was going to make dinner tonight.

As we can see, future in the past has both a "would" structure and
a "was going to" structure. They can sometimes replace each other, but
usually they have different meanings. Just like with the Future Simple,
the "would" structure is used for promises, offers, quick decisions, etc.,
and "was going to" is used for decisions and plans.

The two reference points we mentioned earlier are: 1) a phrase

pointing to the past (I thought, I told you, I was sure...); and 2) a future
reference from the point of view of the past reference, not the moment of
speaking. To simplify, imagine that last Monday you talked to your friend
David and he invited you to his house for dinner that weekend. At that
time (past reference) he mentioned something about how his wife Sarah
is planning to cook dinner on Saturday, so you understood that David was
inviting you to eat Sarah's cooking. However, when you came to their
house on Saturday, the dinner was pizza. Naturally, you are surprised, so
you say: "oh, I thought (meaning that you had this idea on Monday) that
Sarah was going to (from the point of view of Monday the idea of Sarah
cooking dinner is in the future, but the moment of speaking is in the
present so from the present point of view both references are in the past,
which is why we are using "was" and not "is") cook dinner tonight." Easy,
right?
Active and passive sentences with Future in The Past:

Active: I knew someone would send the email by 3pm.

Passive: I knew the email would be sent by 3pm.

Active: I knew someone was going to send the email by 3pm.

Passive: I knew the email was going to be sent by 3pm.

The passive form of Future in The Past is actually quite common

when discussing present results of past actions.

Look at the following examples:

I knew this would happen! Why did you add so much

pepper?! I told you he was going to make that mistake.
I had a feeling this would be the best vacation ever!
He promised he would call me.
I knew you would finish reading this guide!
 FINAL THOUGHTS
Dear reader, whether you are a student of English, a teacher, or just
someone who likes reading about English grammar, we salute you! It is not
easy trying to find some kind of order in this chaos which is English
language, we know. However, you deserve to be praised for your efforts and
you deserve to feel good about what you have achieved so far.

We hope this guide comes in handy as either a reference book, a

reminder, or maybe even a source from which you learn something new.

Thank you sincerely for reading this far, and may your future
learning efforts be forever fruitful!

The author.
 LIST OF IRREGULAR VERBS
Verb Past Simple Past Participle Verb Past Simple Past Participle
A E
arise arose arisen eat ate eaten
awake awoke awoken F
B fall fell fallen
bear bore borne feed fed fed
beat beat beaten feel felt felt
become became become fight fought fought
begin began begun find found found
bend bent bent fit fit, fitted fit, fitted
beset beset beset flee fled fled
bet bet/betted bet fling flung flung
bid bid bid fly flew flown
bind bound bound forbid forbade forbidden
bite bit bitten forget forgot forgotten
bleed bled bled forego forwent foregone
blow blew blown forgive forgave forgiven
break broke broken forsake forsook forsaken
breed bred bred foretell foretold foretold
bring brought brought freeze froze frozen
broadcast broadcast broadcast G
build built built get got got (BrE) /gotten (AmE)
burn burnt/burned burnt/burned give gave given
burst burst burst go went gone
buy bought bought grind ground ground
C grow grew grown
cast cast cast H
catch caught caught hang hung hung
choose chose chosen hang hanged hanged
cling clung clung have had had
come came come hear heard heard
cost cost cost hide hid hidden
creep crept crept hit hit hit
cut cut cut hold held held
D hurt hurt hurt
deal dealt dealt K
dig dug dug keep kept kept
dive dived/dove (Am) dived kneel knelt knelt
do did done know knew known
draw drew drawn L
dream dreamt /dreamed dreamt /dreamed lay laid laid
drink drank drunk lead led led
lean leant /leaned leant /leaned
drive drove driven
leap leapt /leaped leapt /leaped
learn learnt /learned learnt /learned
leave left left
Verb Past Simple Past Participle Verb Past simple Past Participle
L - continued S - continued
lend lent lent shrink shrank shrunk
let let let shut shut shut
lie lay lain sing sang sung
light lit /lighted lit /lighted sink sank sunk
lose lost lost sit sat sat
M sleep slept slept
make made made slay slew slayed /slain
mean meant meant slide slid slid
meet met met sling slung slung
misspell misspelt misspelt slit slit slit
mistake mistook mistaken smell smelt /smelled smelt /smelled
mow mowed mowed/mown smite smote smitten
O sow sowed sown /sowed
overcome overcame overcome speak spoke spoken
overdo overdid overdone speed sped /speeded sped /speeded
overtake overtook overtaken spell spelt /spelled spelt /spelled
overthrow overthrew overthrown spend spent spent
P spill spilt /spilled spilt /spilled
pay paid paid spin spun spun
plead pleaded/ pled pleaded/ pled spit spat spat
prove proved proved/proven split split split
put put put spoil spoilt /spoiled spoilt /spoiled
Q spread spread spread
quit quit quit spring sprang sprung
R stand stood stood
read read read steal stole stolen
rid rid rid stick stuck stuck
ride rode ridden sting stung stung
ring rang rung stink stank stunk
rise rose risen stride strode stridden
run ran run strike struck struck
S strive strove striven
saw sawed sawn /sawed swear swore sworn
say said said sweep swept swept
see saw seen swell swelled swelled /swollen
seek sought sought swim swam swum
sell sold sold swing swung swung
send sent sent T
set set set take took taken
sew sewed sewn/sewed teach taught taught
shake shook shaken tear tore torn
shear sheared sheared/shorn tell told told
shed shed shed think thought thought
shine shone shone thrive thrived /throve thrived /thriven
shoot shot shot throw threw thrown
show showed shown thrust thrust thrust
Verb Past Simple Past Participle
T - continued
tread trod trodden /trod
U
understand understood understood
uphold upheld upheld
upset upset upset
W
wake woke woken
wear wore worn
weave wove /weaved woven /weaved
wed wedded /wed wedded /wed
weep wept wept
win won won
wind wound wound
withdraw withdrew withdrawn
withhold withheld withheld
withstand withstood withstood
wring wrung wrung
write wrote written
Practice:
Try to find the most suitable tenses to complete the following
paragraph:

Maren always __________ (used to / would) smoke his pipe,

which he ________ (get) from his father, after a day’s work had been
done; leaning his left elbow on the woven fence in front of his house,
gazing towards his garden. His wife _______ (bake) a pie inside, and
the tangy but sweet smell of its stuffing filled the evening air. The suns
had already set and the clerics ________ (expose) the Narwen crystal to
illuminate the night. Far away on the cove______ (lie) the clerics’ castle
and the crystal _____ (be) in the highest tower so its light would spread
across the Telian land, obstructed only by the cliffs. It ______ (be) a
peaceful night, without wind. “Darling?” –“Yes, dear?” –“______ (not
come) inside and eat?” Maren _______ (look) at his loving wife stand-
ing in the doorway, who _______ (seem) so beautiful to him, immersed
in gentle, pale violet light from the crystal. “It _______ (soon be) time,
won’t it?” The woman smiled full of grace and gently _____ (put) her
hand on her stomach: “Oh, not for another month or so.”
After they _____ (have) dinner, Maren and Layenna _____ (talk) for a
while and then, according to the custom, each ______ (retire) to their
own chamber for the night. His wife was to give birth, which meant
Maren ____ (be) forever forbidden from sharing a bed with her again.
After all, the Tellian people could only have a single child. That is one of
the reasons why the Narwen crystal was made such a long time ago; the light
it ______ (shine) gave them extraordinarily long life, more than ten
times the life span of all other creatures in the world. They ____ (be) the
only ones who could use the craft.
Answer:
Maren always used to smoke his pipe, which he had gotten from
his father, after a day’s work had been done; leaning his left elbow on the
woven fence in front of his house, gazing towards his garden. His wife
was baking a pie inside, and the tangy but sweet smell of its stuffing
filled the evening air. The suns had already set and the clerics had ex-
posed the Narwen crystal to illuminate the night. Far away on the cove
lied the clerics’ castle and the crystal was in the highest tower so its light
would spread across the Telian land, obstructed only by the cliffs. It was
a peaceful night, without wind. “Darling?” -“Yes, dear?” –“Won’t you
come inside and eat?” Maren looked at his loving wife standing in the
doorway, who seemed so beautiful to him, immersed in gentle, pale vio-
let light from the crystal. “It will soon be time, won’t it?” The woman
smiled full of grace and gently put her hand on her stomach: “Oh, not for
another month or so.”
After they had dinner, Maren and Layenna talked for a while and then,
according to the custom, each retired to their own chamber for the night.
His wife was to give birth, which meant Maren was forever forbidden from
sharing a bed with her again. After all, the Tellian people could only have a
single child. That is one of the reasons why the Narwen crystal was made
such a long time ago; the light it shone gave them extraordi-narily long life,
more than ten times the life span of all other creatures in the world. They
were the only ones who could use the craft.