Tense
Simple Present
Present Continuous
Present Perfect
Simple past
Past continuous
Past Perfect
Simple Future
Use
- action in the present taking
place regularly, never or
several times
- facts
- action taking place in the
moment of speaking
- action taking place only for a
limited period of time
- action that happened or
finished in the past and has an
effect in present.
- action that started in the past
and continues up to present
- action that took place in the
past (completed action in the
past, at a specifici time)
- actions taking place at the
same time
- action in the past that is
interrupted by another action
Form
- takes ‘s’ with singular
subjects.
- doesn’t take ‘s’ with
plural subjects
always, every …, never,
normally, often, seldom,
sometimes, usually..
am/is/are + (verb+ing)
at the moment, just, just now,
Look!, now, right now
has/ have + past participle
of the verb
already, ever, just, never, not
yet, so far, till now, up to
now
- regular verbs take ‘ed’
- irregular verbs change in
form
yesterday, 2 minutes ago, in
1990, the other day, last
Friday
was/ were + (verb+ing)
an action that happened before had + past participle of the
another action in the past.
verb
- spontaneous decision (will)
- prior plans (be going to)
Time Expressions
- will + main verb
- be going to + main verb
while, when
already, just, never, not yet,
once, until that day
tomorrow, next, in,