Types of tenses and examples in English

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Tenses in English grammar express time. They tell whether an event is happening, has happened or will happen in the future. Tenses are manifested by the use of different forms of verbs. In English, a verb will always denote time, taking different forms to indicate precisely when an activity occurred.

Broadly, tenses are classified into three categories:

Past tense, present tense and future tense

In each of these three categories, there are four different aspects involved; to further show the nature of the action involved. These include perfect or complete tense, perfect continuous, progressive or continuous and indefinite or straightforward. This brings the total number of possible tenses to 12.

Past Tense

This tense denotes activities that have already happened. Sometimes past tense will be referred to as simple past tense.

For example, ''we stayed at the camp all night.''

Past continuous tense is used when a speaker is referring to an activity that is ongoing in the past. Example: ''We were playing golf at the villa.''

Past perfect tense denotes an activity in the past that had already been completed. Example: ''We had already eaten dinner before she had come.''

Past perfect continuous is a verb used to denote an activity that started in the past before another activity. Example: ''I have been playing the guitar since elementary school.''

Present Tense

This is used to indicate activity or occurrence that is happening now. You might hear of simple present, also referred to as indefinite present, which is used to refer to an activity or occurrence that is happening as it is being spoken or written about.

Present continuous tense refers to an activity that is continuing or has not completed. Example: ''She is sweeping the compound.''

Present participle tense is used to denote an activity that started in the past, has been continuing and has just been ended. This tense does not show a specific time, and it can be used to describe an activity that started in the past before another. Example: ''I have just completed my evening studies.''

Present perfect continuous is a tense that describes an occurrence that started in the past, continued into the present and it is still happening. It can also be used when describing an activity that started and then ended. Example: ''I have been trying to contact her parents.''

Future Tense

This tense describes activities that have not happened. The simplest of these is the simple future tense, which is formed by adding the words 'will' and 'shall.' Example: ''We will leave by noon.''

Future continuous tenses are used to describe actions or occurrences that are continuing in the future. It is normally used by adding 'ing' on the verb word in a simple future tense. Example: ''He will be attending my sister's wedding.''

Future perfect tense describes an action that will be completed in the future just before another action starts. Example: ''I will have completed 3 years of study by March this year.''

Future perfect continuous tense describes an action that continues and will be completed at a specified time. Example: ''I shall have married her for three years by June 2020.''

If you are still wondering how many tenses there are in English, ask yourself how many you can use comfortably. To a native speaker, the different tenses come out naturally as they speak, but to non-natives, there is a bit of confusion.

Uses of Tenses

Tenses are verbs that indicate or describe the time that an action occurred.

Simple Tenses

These are used to describe a single action in the future, the present, or the past.

Simple Past Tense: ''I wore the shoes on Sunday.''

Simple Future Tense: ''I will wear the shoes on Sunday.''

Simple present tense: ''I wear the shoes daily.''

Continuous or Progressive Tenses

These tenses are different in that they talk about events that are continuing or have not ended.

Past progressive tenses: ''She was washing her dog when I walked in.''

Future progressive tense: ''She will be washing her dog when you call her.''

Present progressive tense: ''I am washing my dog. ''

Perfect Continuous or Progressive Tenses

These tenses describe 'when the action started' and 'how long it will take.' The tenses will have adverbs 'for' and 'since' as an indication of the continuous nature of the tenses. Examples:

Present perfect progressive indicates an occurrence or activity that began in the past and continues, or it just happened recently. Example: ''She had been working in that firm until her retirement last month.''

Past perfect progressive describes an event that begun in the past and continued for some time in the past. Example: ''The cow has been chewing cud for over two hours now.''

Future perfect progressive describes an activity that is ongoing and will continue. Example: ''I will have worked for the company for ten years by May this year.''

If you still have a problem identifying where to use which tense, you can get English assignment help online .