Tenses made easy: Present, Past and Future

Tenses made easy

There are three tenses present, past and future. Here Tenses made easy explains the present, past and future tense in simple English. Every tense has indefinite, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous forms. Also Tenses made easy will give simple examples here to explain the tenses. The explanation of tenses is bellow. Tenses indicate the tense of an action in a sentence that is generally performed or focused on by the subject of the sentence. Actions are called verbs. Verb’s change depending on the tense and other topics. Because verbs are the most important elements of the sentences. Also, English sentences, verbs are of paramount importance in English grammar too.

Verbs (action words) have 3 tenses: past, present and future. Past is Used to explain what has happened in the past (for example, earlier in the day, yesterday, last week, three years ago). Present is about Something that is happening or that is happening continuously. Also, Future is about the maximum time describes what must happen anyway (for example, later, tomorrow, next week, next year, three years from now).

The tenses are mainly divided into three types.

Types are below..

1. Present Tense

2. Past Tense

3. Future Tense

Each of the types of tenses has four forms.

Present Tense Forms:

• Present Indefinite Tense
• Present Continuous Tense
• Present Perfect Tense
• Present Perfect Continuous Tense

Past Tense Forms:

Past Indefinite Tense

Past Continuous Tense

Past Perfect Tense

Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Future Tense Forms:

Future Indefinite Tense

Future Continuous Tense

Future Perfect Tense

Future Perfect Continuous Tense

Present Tense (Simple)

This tense does not describe the action that is taking place now/at present. Also this tense shows the habitual or usual acts. It also, tells the general and permanent statements.

In this tense third person singular ends in ‘s’ or ‘es’

EXAMPLE

He goes to school daily.

Anwar eats balanced-diet.

She picks flowers in her hand…

We can use helping verb do and does in this tense to make negative and interrogative sentences. Also does with singular and do with plural.

In negative we use ;do, or does before not

I do not like fast-food

In interrogative we use do or does in the beginning of sentence.

Activities for present indefinite Tense

I ——————— at a bank. work. works.
She ——————– with her parents. live. lives.
Cows ———————– on grass. feed. feeds.
He ———————- a handsome salary. earns.
Jannet ———————- to be a singer. want. wants
Bushra ———————– delicious cookies. make. makes
Arham and her husband ——————- in Singapore. live. lives
Rohi and Sania ———————- to play card games. like. likes

Present Continuous Tense

This tense describes the action that is taking place now/at present.

Also, It is made from the present of ‘to be’ with the ‘ing’ form of the verb.

There are many well-known and fun activities for the present continuous, such as those that involve mimicry and those that use images of busy street scenes. There are also some things you can find in photocopiable activity books for the present simple, such as schedules. where students have to fill in the blanks by asking themselves questions, the easiest and clearest way to show the meanings and usages of the present simple and present continuous is to contrast them. What is most commonly used in the classroom is that it can also be difficult to find speaking and writing activities with a natural blend of the two tenses. Also, these activities aim to end this deficiency once and for all!

Examples

• I am walking to the door.
• The doctor is examining the patient.

Also, We can use ‘not; after helping verbs to make negative sentences.

We also use helping verb to make interrogative sentences. The sentence also starts with helping verb and ends with question mark.

Activities for present continuous Tense

1. Hurry up! We are waiting for you.
2. What are you doing? I am writing letters.
3. He is working in France at the moment.
4. He doesn’t like to be disturbed when He is working.
5. That baby is getting bigger everyday.
6. Who is the girl standing on the table?
7. I am since waiting for the workshop to open.
8. I am seeing Bushra tomorrow.
9. The world is expanding and has been since its beginning.
10. My brother is living at home for the moment.

Present Perfect Tense (simple)

Present perfect tense tells us about an act completed by now. However, It does not tell us when this completed act happened.

The present perfect refers to associate degree action or condition that occurred at an some time within the past (such as what we have a tendency to talked about) or starts in the past and continues to the current (such because the last hour). This tense consists of the have / has + past cluster of words.

We use Has or Have with the third form of verb in this tense.

We use not after has or have to make negative sentence.

Also, We use Has or Have at the start of the sentence to make interrogative sentence..

To make the present perfect tense positive, we use: ‘have’ /’has’ + past participle. Form past participles by adding “ed” to regular verb (action words) (for example, “play” becomes “play”). When you add “ed” (d. “Study” becomes “learned”), some action words will change their spellings. We also have some completely irregular verbs (again, if you don’t know how to use the end of the verb “-ed”, here are some help)

Example

I have completed my task.

I have not completed my task.

Have I completed my task?  

Present perfect tense (continuous)

We use the present perfect continuous tense when we wish to describe an action. That action is incomplete and still is going on.

Has or Have use in this tense followed by been and ing form of the main verb. Also, for and since are used in this tense.

For is for a given length of time till now and since is for some definite point of time.

We have been living in this house since 1987.

It has been raining since morning.

Raining

Past Tense (simple)

The simple past tense, sometimes called the past tense, is used to indicate actions completed in time before the present.​​ The simple past tense is the basic past tense of English. The time of the action can be in the recent past or in the past tense. The distant past and the duration of the action are irrelevant. The general past tense of regular verbs is indicated by the ending -d or -ed. An example of a simple past tense verb used in a sentence is “I went to the park.” The speaker completed his activity in the park, so he uses the normal past tense verb to “go.”

We use the past tense when we want to talk about some past act. We also, put our verbs in to the past simple tense if we want to describe actions happening one after the other.

Also In this tense we use the second form of the verb.

Example

My father died five years ago.

We use did helping verb to make negative and interrogative sentences.

He did not go to school.

Did he go to school?

I did not like noodles.

Past Indefinite Tense (Activities)

• I ……………… articles on different topics. (Wrote, Write)
• They…………… football in that field. (Play, played)
• She……………. coffee to tea. (Prefer, preferred)
• He……………… to the library yesterday. (Went, Gone, Go)
• We………………. for shopping in this market last week. (Come, came)
• We…………….. a movie in this Cineplex yesterday. (Watched, Watch)
• You…………. to shop in that market. (Used, Use)
• I……………… different kinds of songs, especially modern. (Sing, sang)
• I……………… to melodious songs last evening. (Listened, List)
• He…………. to travel around the world. (Loved, Love)

Past Tense (continuous)

We use past tense continuous for a past action. The action in this tense is continue. Also, one action completed and the other is still going on.

Also, we use the past continuous for the longer unfinished action and the past simple for the shorter completed action.

The helping verbs of this tense are was and were.

For making negative we use not after was or were.

Also In interrogative sentence we use was or were in the start of sentence and ends with question mark.

Example

He was singing a song.

He was not singing a song.

Were they singing a song?

 

Past perfect tense

This tense describes an action completed before the last moment. Also, this tense bears the same relation to the past time as the present perfect tense does to know.

Past Perfect, also known as Plus-Perfect, is a tense used to talk about actions that have been completed before a certain point in the past. The ideal past tense is to talk about what happened before other things. Go out and get a newspaper. Some examples of perfect past can be seen in the following sentence: He met: She met him before the party He left: The plane took off when I arrived at the airport. : He wrote an email before apologizing.

This tense often associates with the time clauses. Also, We can use the clause in reported speech.

Helping verb had with third form is used in this tense.

Example.

We had taken our seats.

The students had completed their work.

We use not after had to make negative sentence.

Also, we us had in the beginning of sentence to make interrogative sentence..

Past perfect continuous tense

The past Perfect continue in the past (also called perfect progress in the past) means that an action from the past continues to another point in the past. The continuation at perfection consists of was + the participle of the present verb (root + -ing).

We use this tense when we wish to describe an action that was not completed by a certain date or time in the past. Also, we use ‘had been’ and ing form of the main verb.

Example

He had been living in this house since 1988.

I had been attending the office for two days.

The students had been attending the class since Monday.

Future Tense (simple)  

Future indefinite means that the action or event has not yet occurred and will occur later. Example: She wants to watch TV. This example shows that the action of gazing has not yet occurred and should occur in the future.

We use future indefinite tense to describe an act that is going to happen in future.

So, there are a number of ways to make the future tense.

• Use of Shall will with the form of the verb.

We use shall with first person singular and plural.

Also, we use will with second and third person.

• Use of going to with the first form of the verb.

Example

I shall not believe you.

She will know the answer tomorrow.

You are going to hear my speech.

 Future continuous tense

The Future continuation refers to unfinished actions or events that occur after the current event. For various purposes, the future is continuous. The future continuum can be used to project into the future.

We use this tense to describe an action in progress at some future moment. In this tense we also use shall be and will be followed by ing form of the verb.

Example

They will be taking rest at 3. o’ clock.

Future perfect tense  

Future Perfect is used to act for future events with a specific end date. For example: “Shannon was already working in the garden at that time.” The essence of these verb forms is that you point to the future, but there will be a pause before this hypothetical future.

This tense tells us about an act that will be completed by a certain future date.

Also, In this tense we use shall have and will have followed by third form of the verb.

Example

She shall have left the country by tomorrow.

Future perfect continuous tense

We use the future perfect continuous to indicate that something will continue until a certain event or a certain point in the future. Five minutes, two weeks, and Friday are available for future runtimes. Very sturdy.

This tense also sometimes called the future perfect progressive. That describes actions that will continue up until a point in the future. The future perfect continuous consists of will + have + been + the verb’s present participle (verb root + -ing).

Example

They will have been living in this house since 1988.

She will have been feeling boredom for many days.

Boredom