16 TENSES IN ENGLISH

There are 16 Tenses in English. There are:

• Simple Present Tense
• Present Continuous Tense
• Present Perfect Tense
• Present Perfect Continuous Tense
• Simple Past Tense
• Past Continuous Tense
• Past Perfect Tense
• Past Perfect Continuous Tense
• Simple Future Tense
• Future Continuous Tense
• Future Perfect Tense
• Future Perfect Continuous Tense
• Past Future Tense
• Past Future Continuous Tense
• Past Future Perfect Tense
• Past Future Perfect Continuous Tense

1. Simple Present Tense

This tenses are used to denote something that is fixed, habitual or an essential truth. Because it is often related to the incident at about past, present and future, this at least has the Tenses description for a certain time.

FORM:

(+) Subject (s) + Verb1 + Object (o)

ex: She ate the rice

(-) S+do/does not+Verb1+O

ex: She doesn’t eat the rice

(?) Do/Does + S + Verb1 + O

ex: Does she it the rice?

I, You, They, We use do when it come to negative and question sentence. While He, She, It use does.

2. Present Continuous Tense

This tenses are used to express an action which is actually being done at this time.

FORM:

(+) S + to be + Verb-ing + O

ex: They are riding the bicycle

(-) S + to be + not + Verb-ing + O

ex: They are not riding the bicycle

(?) to be + S + Verb-ing + O

ex: Are they riding the bicycle?

3. Present Perfect Tense

This tenses are used to express your experience. This sentence can used to say that you have never had a certain experience. Present Perfect Tense didn’t use to describe specific event.

FORM:

(+) S + Has/Have + Past Participle (V3)

ex: I have met her once before

(-) S + Has/Have + not + past participle (V3)

ex: I Have not met her before

(?) Has/Have + S + past participle (V3)

ex: Have You met her before?

4. Present Perfect Continuous Tense

Present Perfect Continuous Tense is used to show that something started in the past and has continued up until now. ”for two hours’, ‘for two weeks’, ‘since yesterday’ are all durations which can be used with this sentence. Without the durations, the tense has a more general meaning of “lately.” We often use the words “lately” or “recently” to emphasize this meaning.

FORM:

(+) S + have/has + been + Verb-ing + O

ex: We have been practicing our English since Monday.

(-) S + have/has + been + Verb-ing + O

ex: We have not been practicing our English

(?) have/has + S + been + Verb-ing + O

ex: Have they been practicing their English?

5. Simple Past Tense

We used this tense to talk about the past.

FORM:

(+) S + Verb2 + O

ex: She studied math last night

(-) S + did + not + Verb1

ex: She did not studied math last night

(?) did + S + verb1 + O

ex: Did She studied math last night?

6. Past Continuous Tense

This tense is used to say when we were in the middle of doing at a particular moment in the past.

FORM:

(+) S + was/were + Verb-ing

ex: He was reading

(-) S + was/were + not + Verb-ing

ex: He wasn’t reading

(?) Was/were + S + Verb-ing

ex: Was He reading?

7. Past Perfect Tense

The Past Perfect expresses the idea that something occurred before another action in the past. It can also show that something happened before a specific time in the past.

FORM:

had+past participle

ex: I had Listen to the radio when she come home

8. Past Perfect Continuous Tense

We use the Past Perfect Continuous to show that something started in the past and continued up until another time in the past. “For five minutes” and “for two weeks” are both durations which can be used with the Past Perfect Continuous. Notice that this is related to the Present Perfect Continuous however, the duration does not continue until now, it stops before something else in the past.

FORM:

S + had + been + Verb-ing

ex: Lina had been study at the university for 1 year before she left to Korea.

9. Simple Future Tense

often called will. because, the modal auxiliary verb in this sentence is will.

FORM :

(+) S + WILL + Verb1

ex: I will dance

(-) S+WILL+not+Verb1

ex: I will not dance

(?) will + S + Verb1

ex: Will she dance?

10. Future Continuous Tense

Future Continuous has two different forms: “will be doing ” and “be going to be doing”. Future Continuous forms are usually interchangeable.

FORM:

(+) S + will be + Verb-ing

ex: I will be going to mosque.

(-) S + will not  be + Verb-ing

ex: I won’t be going to church

(?) will + S + be + Verb-ing

ex: Will you going to mosque?

11. Future Perfect Tense

This sentence is used when we talk about the past in the future.

FORM:

(+) S + Will + have + Verb3

ex: I will have finished by 6 PM

(-) S + will + not + have + Verb3

ex: I will not have finished by 6 PM

(?)  Will + S + have + Verb3

ex: will you have finished Verb3

12. Future Perfect Continuous Tense

We use the future perfect continuous tense to talk about a long action before some point in the future.

FORM:

(+) S + Will + have + been + Verb-ing

ex: Andra will have been drawing the sketch

(-) S + will + not + have + been + Verb-ing

ex: Andra Won’t have been drawing the sketch

(?) Will + S + have + been + Verb-ing ?

ex: Will Andra have been drawing the sketch?

13. Past Future Tense

this tense is used to express the events that WILL be done, BUT in the past, not the present.

FORM:

(+) S + would + Verb1

ex: I would go

(-) S + Would + not + Verb1

ex: I wouldn’t go

(?) Would + S + Verb1?

ex: Would you go?

14. Past Future Continuous Tense

Past Future Continuous tells an action would be in progress in the past.

FORM:

(+) S + was/were + going to be + Verb-ing

ex: She was going to be Cooking this morning

(-) S + was/were + not + going to be + Verb-ing

ex: She wasn’t going to be cooking this morning

(?) Was/were + S + going to be + Verb-ing

ex: was she going to be cooking this morning?

time signals for this tense is time in the past like, this morning, yesterday, last night, last week and so on.

15. Past Future Perfect Tense

This tense is restates the action stated in Future Perfect Tense but with different time dimension, it is in past time whilst the Future Perfect is in future time (not happen yet).

FORM:

(+) S + would + have + Verb3

ex: I would have drunk the milk last night

(-) S + would + not + have + Verb3

ex: I wouldn’t have drunk the milk last night

(?) Would + S + have + Verb3

ex: Would you have drunk the milk last night?

16. Past Future Perfect Continuous Tense

Past Future Perfect Continuous Tense emphasizes on the course and the duration of the action. Past Future Perfect Continuous Tense is used to tell an action which would have been happening until a certain time (period) in the past.

FORM:

(+) S + would + have + been + verb-ing

ex: Chris would have been working for 6 years when he get fired

(-) S+ would + not + have + been + verb-ing

ex: Chris wouldn’t have been working for 6 years when he get fired

(?) Would + subject + have + been + verb-ing?

ex: Would Chris have been working for 6 years when he get fired?