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TENSES

The document discusses different tenses in English grammar. It explains that tense indicates time and is divided into past, present, and future. There are several types of tenses that indicate the specific time or ongoing nature of an action, including simple and continuous forms. For example, present perfect tense describes completed actions, like "I have seen the movie." Future perfect tense refers to an action that will be finished by a certain future time, such as "She will have forgotten him by then." In total, there are 12 discussed tenses that precisely capture the temporality of actions, states, and events through the form of the verb.

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Lovely Faith Domingo Calusin
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136 views5 pages

TENSES

The document discusses different tenses in English grammar. It explains that tense indicates time and is divided into past, present, and future. There are several types of tenses that indicate the specific time or ongoing nature of an action, including simple and continuous forms. For example, present perfect tense describes completed actions, like "I have seen the movie." Future perfect tense refers to an action that will be finished by a certain future time, such as "She will have forgotten him by then." In total, there are 12 discussed tenses that precisely capture the temporality of actions, states, and events through the form of the verb.

Uploaded by

Lovely Faith Domingo Calusin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TENSES

Introduction
Tense is an English grammar concept. It represents the form taken by the
verb to comprehend the situation referred to in time. For example, in the
sentence, Yash walked for 2 hours and then he went to sleep, the past tense
verb form, walk(+ed) signals the time of the walk in the past. Tense is used to
assign a time factor to the sentence. Tenses just like time are divided into 3
parts-

 Past tense - I swam


 Present Tense - I swim
 Future Tense - I will swim

Before we start with the More complicated divisions there are three rules we
should keep in mind-

 Only indicative forms of verbs are tensed.


 All the tenses have progressive and non-progressive forms for eg, I
work here/I am working here, are both Present tense. 
When a verb form is a very important complex, which involves more than
one auxiliary, it is the first auxiliary that is marked for tense, not the main
verb.
Types of Tenses 
 Present Tense

 Simple Present Tense:: It is used to express daily tasks, facts,


and universal truths. The present tense is used to express what is
happening or happens daily or is a fact in itself. Adding the letter
s or es makes a simple present tense.

Like- Likes
You, We, They: Like to play outside.
He, She, It: likes to play outside
for example-

 She writes a book.


 Moon comes out at night.
 New Delhi is the capital city of India.

 Present Perfect Tense: The present perfect tense is used to


describe actions that are completed.

I, You, We, They: have killed time.


He, She, It: has killed time.
for example-

 I have seen the movie you love the most.


 He has been to India 

 Present Perfect Continuous Tense: We use the present perfect


continuous when the focus is on an action that is not yet finished
or completed.

I, You, We, They: have been playing for a day.


He, She, It: has been playing for a day.

for example-

 I have been waiting for the car for an hour.


 It has not been raining since last Friday.

 Past Tense

 Simple Past Tense: Used to indicate an action that happened in


the past. It often comes with an adverb of time. Sometimes it can
be used without an adverb of time. Used for past habits. 

for example-

 I went to school.
 You worked very hard in exams.
 She did not

 Past Continuous Tense: The past continuous tense is a very


important tense in English. We use it to express what we were in
the middle of doing at a particular moment in the past. 

I, she, he, it- was playing in the garden.


They, We - were playing in the garden
for example-

 I was cooking last night for my sister’s children.


 They were not playing scrabble when I checked on them.

 Past Perfect Tense: The past perfect tense is easy to understand


and to use in a sentence. This tense talks about an event which
happened in the past. If two actions happened in the past, the
past perfect tense is used to display the action that took place
earlier.

I, he, she, it, we, they  - had arrived at the station


for example-

 We were too late when the movie started. 


 I thought I had seen the movie before but I was wrong.

 Past Perfect Continuous Tense: Used to denote an event that


started before a certain point in the past and continued up to
some time in the past.

I, he, she, we, it, you, they - had been sleeping on the couch when
I arrived.
for example-

 Sita was very tired. She had been dancing.


 Had the student been roaming outside the classroom?

 Future Tense

 Simple Future Tense: The period of time after speaking a


sentence is considered future tense.

This tense is used to express future events and happenings.

Rule – Will/Shall + Verb (Ist form)

I, He, she, it, we, you, they - will/shall play the piano tomorrow.

for example-

 Sita will ask the questions tomorrow.


 They will never speak about this.

 Future Continuous Tense: It is used to express an action that is


going or continuing in the future. e.g. He will be distributing
promotion letters in the office tomorrow at 12 o'clock. In the
example, the action will commence in the future (tomorrow) and
action is assumed to be continued till sometime in the future.

I, he, she, you, it, they, we- will be arriving at the airport
tomorrow.  

for example-

 I will be playing football on the ground tomorrow.

 She will be writing a letter.

 Future Perfect Tense: It is used to express an action that will


happen/occur in future and will be completed by a certain time in
future. We use the future perfect to say that something will be
finished by a particular time in the future.

I, he, we, she, they, it - will have dinner at 10 pm

for example-

 She will have forgotten him by then. 

 She will not have written a letter.

 Future Perfect Continuous Tense: It is used to talk about


actions that will start at a fixed point of time in the future and will
go on for some time in the future. 

The future perfect continuous focus on the duration of an activity


that will be in progress before another time or event in the
future. 

Example:

 Tomorrow at 4 pm, I will be on my way to Kolkata. 


 It is also used to talk about planned actions or actions
expected to happen.

  Relatives will be staying at Aunt Mina’s house.

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