Tenses

Tenses and their Identification

Tenses need to be memorized and their uses understood. We will go through a quick and easy method to successfully memorize and identify tenses.

Tenses fall under three categories:

1.The Present Tense                        

2.The Past Tense                   

3.The Future Tense

These tenses are further subdivided into four categories.

1.        The Present Group of Tenses

            a.         Simple Present Tense

            b.        Present Continuous Tense

            c.         Present Perfect Tense

            d.        Present Perfect Continuous Tense

2.        The Past Group of Tenses

            a.         Simple Past Tense

            b.        Past Continuous Tense

            c.         Past Perfect Tense

            d.        Past Perfect Continuous Tense

3.        The Future Group of Tenses

            a.         Simple Future Tense

            b.        Future Continuous Tense

            c.         Future Perfect Tense

            d.        Future Perfect Continuous Tense

Tenses can easily be identified by their helping verbs which need to be memorized.

	The Present Group of Tenses
1.	Simple Present Tense	First form of the Verb, Verb I + s/es in case of 3rd. person singular pronoun. e.g. sings
2.	Present Continuous Tense	is, am, are, followed by the verbs ending with the letters ‘ing’. e.g. going, doing etc.
3.	Present Perfect Tense	Has, have + 3rd. form of the Verb. e.g. has done, have spoken etc.
4.	Present Perfect Continuous Tense	Has been, have been + Verbs ending with the letters ‘ing’. e.g. has been crying, have been playing.

           

	The Past Group of Tenses
1.	Simple Past Tense	Second form of the Verb. e.g. They served us coffee.
2.	Past Continuous Tense	Was, were, followed by the verbs ending with the letters ‘ing’. e.g. was dancing, were singing etc.
3.	Past Perfect Tense	Had + 3rd. form of the verb. e.g. had done, had spoken etc.
4.	Past Perfect Continuous Tense	Had been + verbs ending with the letters ‘ing’ e.g. had been singing etc.

	The Future Group of Tenses
1.	Simple Future Tense	Will, shall + Verb I e.g. will invite etc.
2.	Future Continuous Tense	Will be, shall be followed by the verbs ending with the letters ‘ing’. e.g. will be inviting etc.
3.	Future Perfect Tense	Will have, shall have + 3rd. form of the verb. e.g. will have done, shall have done etc.
4.	Future Perfect Continuous Tense	Will have been, shall have been + verbs ending with the letters ‘ing’ e.g. will have been doing, shall have been doing etc.

Now let us study the following examples:

Present Group:
1	Simple Present	He studies.
2	Present Continuous	He is studying
3	Present Perfect	He has studied/ They have studied
4	Present Perfect Continuous	He has been studying/ They have been studying.
Past Group:
5	Simple Past	He studied.
6	Past Continuous	He was studying/ They were studying.
7	Past Perfect	He had studied.
8	Past Perfect Continuous	He had been studying.
Future Group:
9	Simple Future	He will study/ We shall study
10	Future Continuous	He will be studying/ We shall be studying.
11	Future Perfect	He will have studied/ We shall have studied.
12	Future Perfect Continuous	He will have been studying/ We shall have been studying.

Table if Irregular Verbs 

base form	past simple	-ed
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bend	bent	bent
bet	bet	bet
bite	bit	bitten
bleed	bled	bled
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
breed	bred	bred
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
burn	burnt/burned	burnt/burned
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
cut	cut	cut
do	did	done
dig	dug	dug
draw	drew	drawn
dream	dreamt/dreamed	dreamt/dreamed
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
fight	fought	fought
find	found	found
fly	flew	flown
forget	forgot	forgotten
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	got
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden
hit	hit	hit
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
lean	leant/leaned	leant/leaned
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
let	let	let
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
quit	quit	quit
read /ri:d/	read /red/	read /red/
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
set	set	set
shake	shook	shaken
shine	shone	shone
shoe	shod	shod
shoot	shot	shot
show	showed	shown
shrink	shrank	shrunk
shut	shut	shut
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
speak	spoke	spoken
spend	spent	spent
spill	spilt/spilled	spilt/spilled
spread	spread	spread
speed	sped	sped
stand	stood	stood
steal	stole	stolen
stick	stuck	stuck
sting	stung	stung
stink	stank	stunk
swear	swore	sworn
sweep	swept	swept
swim	swam	swum
swing	swung	swung
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tear	tore	torn
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
understand	understood	understood
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn
win	won	won
write	wrote	written