Tenses chart | Important Rules & 10 Useful Examples:

The tenses chart helps us to understand tenses at a glance. Read all about tenses with the help of infographics.

Definition:

Tense is the form of a verb that shows the time of an action, event, or state in relation to the time of the main clause in which it appears.

Tenses are used to describe when an action or state occurs in the past, present, or future. Tenses are used to describe when events happen and how things change over time.

12Tenses in English

Understanding tenses can help you figure out the difference between something that happened in the past and something that will happen in the future.

tenses chart

There are three main types of tenses in English grammar:

  • Past
  • Present
  • Future

Tenses are sometimes called time-frames because they refer to specific points in time. To talk about what happened in the past, you would use the past tense verb form.

  • The dog ate meat and bone.
  • The dog is eating meat and bone right now.

For example, consider this sentence:

  • I ran five miles today at the gym before I went to work.

 The verb ran is in the past tense because it describes something that happened in the past, while went is in the present tense because it describes something that happens habitually.

There is a complete tense chart that helps us to understand the tenses.

Tense Chart: 

TenseFormulaExample
Simple PresentSub + verb(1st) + e/es + objHe goes to the office by car
Simple PastSub +verb(2nd) + objHe went to the office by car
Simple FutureSub + will/shall + verb(1st) + objHe will go to the office by car
Present continuousSub + is/am/are +verb(ing) +objHe is going to the office by car
 Past continuousSub + was/were+ verb(ing)+objHe was going to the office by car
Future continuousSub +will be/ shall be+ verb(ing)+objHe will be going  to the office by car
Present  PerfectSub + has/have + verb (3rd) + objHe has gone to the office by car
Past PerfectSub + had + verb (3rd) + objHe had gone to the office by car
Future PerfectSub + will have + verb (3rd) + objHe will have gone to the office by car
Present perfect  continuousSub + has/ have + been +verb (ing) + objHe has been going to the office by car
Past perfect continuousSub + had + been + verb (ing) + objHe had been going to the office by car
Future perfect continuousSub + will have been + verb (ing) + objHe will have been going to the office by car

So in this tense chart, we are completely describing the tenses with formulas and easy examples.

Tense Chart infographic

tense chart
image credit: gazabnews.com