English Grammar: Tenses Overview

Overview of Tenses

Tenses are verb forms that indicate the time of an action or event.

Main Tenses

1. Present Tense

• Used to describe an action that is happening now
• Verb form: base form of the verb (e.g. I go, you go, he/she/it goes, we go, they go)
• Examples:
  • I am studying for my exam.
  • She eats breakfast at 8 am.

2. Past Tense

• Used to describe an action that happened in the past
• Verb form: -ed (e.g. I walked, you walked, he/she/it walked, we walked, they walked)
• Examples:
  • I went to the store yesterday.
  • They played soccer last week.

3. Future Tense

• Used to describe an action that will happen in the future
• Verb form: will + base form of the verb (e.g. I will go, you will go, he/she/it will go, we will go, they will go)
• Examples:
  • I will attend the meeting tomorrow.
  • They will graduate next year.

Other Tenses

1. Present Perfect Tense

• Used to describe an action that started in the past and continues up to the present
• Verb form: has/have + past participle (e.g. I have eaten, you have eaten, he/she/it has eaten, we have eaten, they have eaten)
• Examples:
  • I have studied English for three years.
  • They have lived in Paris since 2010.

2. Past Perfect Tense

• Used to describe an action that happened before another action in the past
• Verb form: had + past participle (e.g. I had eaten, you had eaten, he/she/it had eaten, we had eaten, they had eaten)
• Examples:
  • I had eaten breakfast before I went to school.
  • They had never seen that movie before.

3. Future Perfect Tense

• Used to describe an action that will be completed at a specific point in the future
• Verb form: will have + past participle (e.g. I will have eaten, you will have eaten, he/she/it will have eaten, we will have eaten, they will have eaten)
• Examples:
  • I will have graduated by next summer.
  • They will have finished their project by the end of the month.

4. Conditional Tenses

• Used to describe hypothetical or uncertain situations
• Verb forms:
  • Zero conditional: present simple (e.g. If you heat ice, it melts.)
  • First conditional: present simple + will (e.g. If it rains, I will take an umbrella.)
  • Second conditional: past simple + would (e.g. If I won the lottery, I would buy a house.)
  • Third conditional: past perfect + would have (e.g. If I had studied harder, I would have passed the exam.)