The main tenses

Lessons (1a): Revising the basics

If you study English in Britain or the USA, you need to know the names of all the English tenses.

You will also need about twenty grammar words: Noun, pronoun, adjective; verb, adverb, modal verb, phrasal verb; sentence, subject, object; negative; active, passive; irregular; article; conditional; comparative, superlative.

But let's start with the names of the tenses, past and future, simple and continuous.

 

Test yourself - do you know your English tenses?

1) First read this page.

2) Then click here for self-tests.

3) If you aren't perfect, do some of the lessons.

 

THE PAST TENSES	Example	Function
PAST SIMPLE	"I went to work three times last week"	It is past; it is finished.
PRESENT PERFECT	"I have been to work three times this week."	It is not finished. (Perhaps I have finished work, but this week is not finished.) We are talking about the past and thinking about the present. Perfect tenses have simple forms ("Sarah has finished work") and continuous forms ("Sarah has been working hard.")
PAST PERFECT	"I had been to work three times before I met the boss."	I met the boss in the past. I went to work before I met the boss. Two different times in the past, one before the other.
PAST CONTINUOUS	"I was going to work this morning when I saw an eagle."	For a past action (going to work) ... ...which was interrupted by something (the eagle).
THE PRESENT TENSES	Example	Function
PRESENT SIMPLE	"I teach English. It's my job." "Do you live in Beijing?" "They love ice cream."	A normal activity or a permanent state.
PRESENT CONTINUOUS	"Right now, I'm teaching grammar." "I'm living in England for six months." "They're making ice cream."	A temporary activity.
THE FUTURE TENSES	Example	Function
THE "GOING TO" FUTURE	"I'm going to meet John tomorrow."	A plan for the future – a plan I made yesterday, or last week.
THE "WILL" FUTURE	"I'll go shopping this afternoon."	A plan for the future - a decision I made 5 seconds ago.
THE FUTURE PERFECT	"I'll have finished before the office shuts at 5 o'clock."	A prediction - it will happen before a specified future time.
PRESENT TENSES FOR THE FUTURE	"Quick! The ferry goes in ten minutes!" I'm going shopping this afternoon."	Sometimes we use a present simple or a present continuous to talk about the future.
VOICES	Example	Function
Active and PASSIVE	"John saw the eagle." "The eagle was seen by lots of people."	We use the passive if we don't know who did the action; or we don't want to say who did it.