Verb Tenses

1. Simple Tenses

1. Simple Present Tense

This tense is used to show something that happens regularly or does not happen regularly. This also shows a habit. Commonly, this tense is used to answer the question: What do you do? Or in other words, what do you do for a living? Or simply,  what’s your job?

examples:

"I teach."

"She makes pizzas."

"I write blogs."

"He photographs."

These sentences follow this sentence pattern: 

                 Subject + Verb in Simple Present Form/Present Form

2.  Simple Past Tense

This tense shows something that happened/finished in the past at a particular time. 

In this case, “adverbs of time” are usually used.

Adverbs of Time tell when an action happened, for how long, and how often.

Here are lists of adverbs that can be used to show time, general, or specific.

Adverbs that tell when

today, later, lately, soon, now, last year, last month, the other day, yesterday, tomorrow, tonight, this afternoon, this morning, tomorrow morning, at one ‘Oclock, five O’clock

Adverbs that tell how long

a night, all day, for a year, for a month, since 1997, since morning, since yesterday, for a week, for two days, for four years

Adverbs that tell how often

often, seldom, rarely, usually, frequently, always, never, occasionally, regularly, sometimes, once a week, twice a day, thrice every year, monthly, yearly, daily, hourly

Since the Simple Past Tense talks about a particular time, adverbs that tell when should be used.

examples:

 "Maddie went to the ice cream store yesterday."

"We went to New York last year."

"I took my medicine lately."

These sentences follow this sentence formula:

                      Subject + Verb in past participle + Adverb of Time

3. Simple Future Tense

This tense shows that something is going to happen or be done at a specific time in the future.

This follows the formula: 

                      Subject+ will + Verb in base form + Adverb of Time

examples:

"The team will play volleyball next weekend."

"She will buy a new bag tomorrow."

Question:

Is it really necessary to use an adverb of time?

NO, depending on the message to be relayed. If there is a need to state a specific time, an Adverb of time should be used. If there is no sure of the time, an adverb of time may not be used.

examples:

"Maddie ate pizza yesterday."

If it should be known to everyone that it was yesterday Maddie ate pizza, then the adverb of time "yesterday" should be included. But if only the fact that Maddie ate pizza should be known and not the specific time, then saying “Maddie ate pizza.” will do.

Additionally, if someone talked to already has an idea of when a certain action happens, happened, or will happen, there is no need to use Adverbs of Time.

see this sample conversation:

Friend 1: Hi! Will you attend the party tomorrow?

Friend 2: Yes, I will attend the party.

In Friend 2's response, “tomorrow” is not used, why? Because it is already obvious and understandable to the one talked to that the party will be tomorrow.

If an adverb of time is used, the conversation will sound like this.

Friend 1: Hi! Will you attend the party tomorrow?

Friend 2: Yes, I will attend the party tomorrow.

The response sounds redundant. It does not directly mean that it is grammatically wrong. But in English grammar, precision matters too.

2. Perfect Tenses

1.  Present Perfect Tense

Present Perfect Tense shows something that happened in the past before now, but at a non-specific time. It also shows that something happened in the past regularly or many times. This is something related to the present, but it shows something from the past.

This tense follows the sentence pattern:

Subject + Present Tense of "have" (have/has: "have" if the subject is plural and "has" if singular + Past Participle of the Verb

example:

           "Rose has eaten kimchi before."

The above sentence means that Rose ate kimchi sometime before, but it is not known exactly when.

2. Past Perfect Tense

Past Perfect Tense has nothing to do with the present. Now is not important. It also shows two actions in the past, and that one of the actions happened before the other action.

It usually follows the sentence pattern:

Subject + had (past tense of has/have: regardless of the subject, singular or plural) + Past Participle of the Verb + object or complement if any + the other action that happened after the first action

The first action is the Past Perfect Tense.

examples:

Notice the first act, "practiced". Steve did the practice first before he did the second act which is "went (the past participle of "go") to the competition".

The two sentences are combined using the SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTION, "BEFORE".

The sentence structure should not be confused. Whatever words are used to connect the two actions, the focus should remain on the first and second actions. Just like the above example, "I had already bought an umbrella when it started to rain.".

To break the parts down, "bought" is the first action, and it happened first before the second action/event took place. It means that I had bought an umbrella already before the rain started to fall.  It does NOT matter who did the action, as the clue to finding the past perfect tense is the word “had” identifying the first action.

3. Future Perfect Tense

Future Perfect Tense shows two actions in the future. Now is also not important in this type of tense, just like the Past Perfect Tense. This shows that one action will have happened first before the second action will have happened.

This follows the sentence pattern:

Subject + will + have + Past Participle of the Verb + object or complements if any +  Second Action/Event

NOTE: Only "have" is put after "will" regardless of the subject (singular or plural).

Meaning: Before next month arrives, I will have finished my first semester.

"I will have finished." Here is the first action. "By next month" is the second action. Although it is not stated in the sentence, there is still a clue that means “before next month arrives".

3. Progressive Tenses

1.  Present Progressive Tense

This tense shows what is happening right now.

This follows the sentence pattern:

               Subject + be verb (is/are/am) +  the “ing” form of the Verb

If the subject is singular, "is" is used. If plural, "are".

examples:

"Teddy is eating an apple."

Teddy - subject 

is - be verb 

"is" is used because the subject "Teddy" is singular (single person). 

eating- "ing" word  

   

"They are eating apples."

"are" is used because the subject "they" is plural.

If asked, “What are you doing?”, the following can be example answers:

"I am eating bananas."

"I am walking to school."

"I am riding a bus." 

2. Past Progressive Tense

Past Progressive Tense shows an action that was continuing at a certain time in the past.

This follows the sentence pattern:

                  Subject + be verb (was/were) + "ing" form of the Verb

If the subject is singular,  the "was" is used. If the subject is plural, "were".

examples:

                  "Teddy was eating an apple."

Teddy is just one person, hence "was" plus -ing verb "eating" is used.

                   "Mandy and Teddy were eating apples."

"were" was used based on the fact that Mandy and Teddy are two people, making the subject plural. Plus the "ing" form of the verb "eating".

3. Future Progressive Tense

This tense shows something that will be happening continuously at a time in the future.

This follows the sentence pattern:

                        Subject + will+ be + "ing" form of the Verb 

 The same pattern will be used regardless of the subject. This means to say, whether the subject is singular or plural, the sentence pattern will remain the same.

          examples: 

               " Anita will be walking to class. "

                 "Rey and Anita will be buying a new bag." 

Notice both sentences. Sentence 1 has a singular subject while sentence 2 has a plural one, but their sentence pattern never changed.

4. Perfect Progressive Tenses

1. Present Perfect Progressive Tense

Present Perfect Progressive Tense shows that something started before now and has continued and may continue even longer. This tense is not very much different from the present perfect tense.

The highlight of this tense is on the time that the action goes on or for how long. It also tells that an action has started before, but just does not tell exactly when.

This follows the sentence pattern:

    Subject + have/has + been (past participle of "be") + "-ing"+ how long adverbs

The "have/has" in this pattern makes the tense "perfect" and the "been + "-ing" makes it "progressive", giving the "perfect progressive"

examples:

              "I have been waiting for years."

              "She has been searching for a long time."

The sentences above tell that the "waiting" and "searching" started because of the word "been" and that they are continuing because of the "-ing", "waiting" and "searching".

As mentioned, this tense also highlights the length of time that the action goes on. In the two example sentences, "for years" and "for a long time" are used. These phrases are called adverbs of time.

There are three types of adverbs of time.

1.    Adverbs that tell when

                        yesterday, lately, tomorrow, in the afternoon, this morning, the

another day, last year, last month, last November, etc.

2.  Adverbs that tell for how long

              for a century, for months, for years, for a long time, all day, all night, the whole afternoon,  an entire hour,  for a day, all week, for a few minutes, etc.

3.  Adverbs that tell how often

                       twice, thrice, a couple of times, once, a few times, etc.

The adverbs of time used in the example sentences are the adverbs that tell for how long.

When the Present Perfect Progressive Tenses are written, adverbs telling for how long are used since an action that goes on is talked about.

Question: Can present perfect and present progressive be used interchangeably?

                       The answer to that is YES since they have the same meaning. However, sometimes, only one of them is correct especially if the information that needs to be provided includes how many times an action is done or for how long it is done.

Check the illustration below:

If each sentence structure is checked, the adverbs of time used can be noticed. In the Present Perfect Tense, the "when" adverb is used. In the Present Perfect Progressive, the "how long" adverb. 

2. Past Perfect Progressive Tense

Past Perfect Progressive Tense shows that something was happening in the past and may have been going on before something else happened.

This follows the sentence pattern:

Subject + had + been + -ing + how long adverbs + object or complement if any + second action/event

"had" is used since the past is talked about. "Had" is the past participle of "has/have". Regardless of the subject, singular or plural, "had" should be used for this tense.

example:

          "Dani had been sitting for two hours when Mandy came."

Meaning: Dani had been sitting continuously for a duration of two hours until Mandy came.

"Dani had been sitting" here is the first action/event, and "Mandy came" is the second action/event. The two acts/events are connected by the subordinating conjunction, when.

The first action is the Past Perfect Progressive Tense because of this: "had been sitting”. Dani’s sitting had been happening for two hours before Mandy came.

For it to be easier to identify the Present Perfect Progressive, this should be kept in mind: the focus should always be on the length of time an action has been done. In short, the focus on the adverb that tells FOR HOW LONG and on the phrase “had been” should not be lost.

3. Future Perfect Progressive Tense

Future  Perfect Progressive Tense emphasizes a continuous action in the future that lasts continuously.

This follows the sentence pattern:

   Subject + will + have (regardless of the subject singular or plural) + been + -ing Verb  +    how long adverbs + object or complement if any

example:

               "They will have been studying for a month."

Future Perfect Progressive Tense has a similar meaning to the Future Perfect Tense when the example sentence above is written into:

               "They will have studied for a month."

NOTE:  But because Perfect Progressive Tense is both perfect and progressive, the continuous action for some period of time should be emphasized: “how long” adverbs should be emphasized.