Tenses in English
What is tense? A tense is a form of the verb that allows you to express
time. The tense of the verb tells us when an event or something existed or
when a person did something. Past, present, and future are the three
main types of tenses.
PRESENT PAST
FUTURE
The three tenses are further divided to speak four forms for each tense.
Simple Tense Continuous Tense
Perfect Continuous
Perfect Tense
Tense
The links below are to lessons for each of the 12 basic English tenses*.
For each tense we look at:
Structure: How do we make the tense?
Use: When and why do we use the tense?
Basic Tenses with Regular Verbs
The usual structure of basic tenses with regular verbs is:
+ positiv subject + auxiliary + main verb
e
- negati subject + auxiliary + not +
ve main verb
? questi auxiliary + subject + main verb
on
And here are the forms of the main verb that we use to construct the
tenses:
base past simple past present
V1 V2 participle V3 participle -ing
work worked worked working
Basic Tenses with Irregular Verbs
The usual structure of basic tenses with irregular verbs is essentially the
same as for regular verbs:
+ positiv subject + auxiliary + main verb
e
- negati subject + auxiliary + not +
ve main verb
? questi auxiliary + subject + main verb
on
Here are the forms of the main verb that we use to construct the tenses:
base past simple past present
V1 V2 participle V3 participle -ing
sing sang sung singing
