English Grammar: Tenses Overview

Overview of Tenses

• Tenses are used to express time in language, indicating when an action takes place.
• There are three main categories of tenses: past, present, and future.

Present Tense

• Used to describe an action that is happening now.
• Forms:
  • Simple: base form of the verb (e.g. I go, you eat, she writes)
  • Progressive: verb "to be" in the present tense + present participle (e.g. I am going, you are eating, she is writing)
  • Perfect: present tense of "to have" + past participle (e.g. I have gone, you have eaten, she has written)
  • Perfect Progressive: present tense of "to have" + been + present participle (e.g. I have been going, you have been eating, she has been writing)

Past Tense

• Used to describe an action that happened in the past.
• Forms:
  • Simple: past tense of the verb (e.g. I went, you ate, she wrote)
  • Progressive: past tense of "to be" + present participle (e.g. I was going, you were eating, she was writing)
  • Perfect: past tense of "to have" + past participle (e.g. I had gone, you had eaten, she had written)
  • Perfect Progressive: past tense of "to have" + been + present participle (e.g. I had been going, you had been eating, she had been writing)

Future Tense

• Used to describe an action that will happen in the future.
• Forms:
  • Simple: future tense of the verb (e.g. I will go, you will eat, she will write)
  • Progressive: future tense of "to be" + present participle (e.g. I will be going, you will be eating, she will be writing)
  • Perfect: future tense of "to have" + past participle (e.g. I will have gone, you will have eaten, she will have written)
  • Perfect Progressive: future tense of "to have" + been + present participle (e.g. I will have been going, you will have been eating, she will have been writing)

Other Tenses

• Conditional: used to describe hypothetical or uncertain situations
  • Forms: if-clause in the simple past, main clause in the conditional (e.g. If I won the lottery, I would buy a house)
• Subjunctive: used to express doubt, uncertainty, or possibility
  • Forms: similar to the present tense, but with some irregularities (e.g. I suggest that he take a break)