Tenses at glance - 51
Prior Information
What is a subject?
To View subject, Base Verb and other verb Forms Click Grammarmail
He types fast.
He is typing a letter.
He was typing a letter.
He will be typing a letter.
He has typed a letter.
He typed a letter yesterday.
He has been typing a letter since morning.
In the above sentences the same verb ‘type’ takes different forms
TENSES --63 INTRODUCTION
Tense of a verb indicates the time of action (present/past/future etc.), it also shows continuation or completion of an action. Different tenses take different verb forms . Knowledge of tenses is very much essential for sentence formation (with reference to time). The different forms of the verb type are called TENSES. There are 12 tenses in English.
| Present (simple), present continuous, present perfect, present perfect continuous. - 4 |
| Past (simple), past continuous, past perfect, past perfect continuous - 4 |
| Future (Simple), future continuous, future perfect and future perfect continuous. - 4 |
| Tense | Base Verb e.g. Write |
| Present (Simple) | Write/writes |
| Present Continuous/Progressive | writing |
| Present Perfect | Have/has written |
| Present Perfect Continuous | Have/has been writing |
| Past (Simple) | Wrote |
| Past Continuous | Was writing |
| Past Perfect | Had written |
| Past Perfect Continuous | Had been writing |
| Future (Simple) | Will/shall write |
| Future continuous | Will be writing |
| Future perfect | Will have written |
| Future perfect Continuous | Will have been writing |
NOTE: Shall usage is not common, it is used with I and we only.
The underlined words and sentences in the following model sentences are not the part of the structure,
They are used to balance the particular Tense form.
1. Present Tense
This Tense is used
To express habitual action e.g. He prays five times a day.
To express universal truth e.g. The sun rises in the East.
To express future action e.g. She comes tomorrow.
Sports commentaries e.g. Kapp enters semi final.
News paper headlines e.g. The sports minister resigns.
Used in exclamatory sentence e.g. Here come Shane Joe
Structure - Subject + present form of the verb + other words
e.g. He speaks seven languages.
2. Present Continuous/progressive
Action that is happening now and is not yet completed and also to say something planned in future
Structure – Subject + is/are + verb (Present participle) + other words
Clara is reading a news paper now.
3. Present Perfect
This tense is used when an action is completed recently and has connection with the present. It is also used when an action is completed short time ago. It is not similar to Past tense.
Structure – Subject + have/has + verb (Past participle) + other words
Clara has read the news paper just now (the news paper is kept open.)
4. Present Perfect Continuous/progressive
Action begins (in the past >>>>>> continues in the present (time)
Structure – Subject + have/has + been + Verb (Present participle) + other words
Clara has been reading news paper since morning (or)
Clara has been reading news paper for three hours
5. Past tense
This tense is mostly used in stories. It denotes that the action is completed in the past . The time adverbial ‘yesterday’ ‘last week’ etc is used with this tense (Time adverbial is not used in present perfect tense)
Structure – Subject + Verb (past form) + Time adverbial (yesterday, last week etc.)
Clara read newspaper yesterday or in the morning etc.
6. Past Continuous/progressive
This tense is used for an action that was going on at a certain time in the past. It is often used with the past tense
Structure – Subject + was/were + verb (Present participle) + other words.
Clara Was reading news paper, when I saw her yesterday.
7. Past perfect
When two actions occur in the past, It is not clear which action happened earlier, to avoid this confusion the past perfect Tense is used.
Structure – Subject + had + Verb (Past participle) + other words + (Past tense structure)
Clara had read news paper before she went to bed (The action of reading news paper took place she went to bed read is past participle verb form and went is past tense verb form)
8. Past perfect continuous/progressive
This is used mainly, to show that an action had been in progress, when something else has happened.
Structure – Subject + had been + present participle + other words.
Clara had been reading news paper for five years when I met her in 2011
9. Future tense
Future Tense used to express some action in future
Structure – Subject + shall./will + verb (Present form) + other words
Clara will read the news paper in the evening
10. Future continuous/progressive tense
It is also used for action that will begin before a certain time in the future and end after it, and also It is used when we plan some future action in advance
Structure – Subject + will/shall + be + verb (Present participle) + other words
Clara will be reading news paper this time tomorrow
11. Present perfect
It is used to express completion of an action by a certain future time
Structure – Subject + will/shall + have + verb (Past participle) + other words
Clara will have read the news paper when you meet her after an hour.
12. Present Perfect continuous/progressive
This tense refers to some action in progress for some time in future
Structure – Subject + will have been + present participle + other words
Clara will have been reading news paper for 10 years by the end of this month. (Clara is completing 10 years of news reading.)
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