There are three stages: the past (past), present (present), and tomorrow (future). Each time step consists of different tenses. The verbs in the English tenses are not inflected. The exception is the 3 Person singular in the present tense.
There are three main types of sentences and each has four further types:
- Present Tense
- Past Tense
- Future Tense
On the following page, we first examine the following listed tenses.
12 tenses in English.
- Present Indefinite tense
- Present Continuous Tense
- Present Perfect Tense
- Present Perfect Continuous Tense
- Past Indefinite/ Simple Tense
- Past continuous Tense
- Past perfect Tense
- Past perfect continuous Ten
- Future Indefinite/ Simple Tense
- Future continuous tense
- Future perfect Tense
- Future perfect continuous Tense
Terms in English | Examples |
Present Tense | |
Present Simple tense | I study English. |
Present | I am studying English. |
Simple Present Perfect | I have just Studied English. |
Present Perfect Continuous | I have been studying English all day. |
Past tense | |
Past Simple | I Studied English last year. |
Past Continuous /Progressive | I was studying English the whole evening. |
Past Perfect | I had studied English When I heard a sound. |
Past Perfect Continuous / | I had been studying when i heard a sound. |
Future Tense | |
Future Simple | I will study. |
Future Continuous/Progressive | I will be studying English in high school. |
Future Perfect | I will have studied the whole English book by tomorrow. |
Future Perfect Continuous/Progressive | I will have been studying English all day by this evening. |
Other styles of Future Tense | |
Future Simple | I want to study English again next semester. |
Going to-future | I’m going to study English all afternoon. |