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What are Tenses?

Tenses are grammatical constructs that clarify a time reference. By changing the tense you can express exactly when an event or action happened in relation to the time you are speaking. Correct use of English tenses is necessary if you want to be able to use the language fluently.

To form a tense you need to conjugate the verb. Basic tenses in all languages include the past, present and future tense but there are more complex tenses to express more subtle meanings about the timing of an event.

English tenses can seem difficult for learners but all languages have these structures and the conjugations of English are actually simpler than those of many others languages.

 

How to Form English Tenses

The correct use of English tenses enables you to express the exact time of an event, giving you subtle control over your language.

Tenses help you to explain if an event happened once a long time ago or many times this week, whether you are planning to do something tomorrow or next year, or whether you are performing an action right now or do the same action regularly every day.

Here is a list of the English tenses with verb examples for each tense, using ‘she’ and ‘they’ as the pronouns, and one regular verb (to walk) and one irregular verb (to eat) to form the tense:

 

Present tense

Simple present	Present continuous
She eats	She is eating
They walk	They are walking

Past tense

Simple past	Past continuous
She ate	She was eating
They walked	They were walking

Perfect tense

Present perfect simple	Present perfect continuous
She has eaten	She has been eating
They have walked	They have been walking
Past perfect (pluperfect)	Past perfect continuous
She had eaten	She had been eating
They had walked	They had been walking
Future perfect	Future perfect continuous
She will have eaten	She will have been eating
They will have walked	They will have been walking

Future tense

Simple future	Future continuous
She will eat	She will be eating
They will walk	They will be walking
She is going to eat	She is going to be eating
They are going to walk	They are going to be walking

Conditionals

Simple present conditional	Conditional present continuous
She would eat	She would be eating
They would walk	They would be walking
Conditional past	Conditional past continuous
She would have eaten	She would have been eating
They would have walked	They would have been walking

 

Forming conditional phrases

There are four kinds of conditional phrase:

• The Zero Conditional
  (if + present simple, … present simple)
  If you go to the desert, it is hot
• The First Conditional:
  (if + present simple, … will + infinitive)
  If it is hot tomorrow, we’ll go to the beach.
• The Second Conditional:
  (if + past simple, … would + infinitive)
  If I had a car, I would drive to London.
• The Third Conditional
  (if + past perfect, … would + have + past participle)
  If I had gone to the party, I would have seen them.

Ing-words

Gerund	Present participle
She is eating	She likes eating
They are walking	They like walking

Used to + verb

The words ‘used to’ followed by a verb is used to express an action that happened habitually in the past but not anymore. For example:

I used to play the piano (but I don’t anymore)

They used to go swimming every weekend (but they don’t anymore)

She used to study French (but she doesn’t anymore)

The Subjunctive

The subjunctive is not normally called a tense; it is usually called a ‘mood’. The subjunctive mood is used to convey doubt about a situation. It can also be used to convey urgency, suggestions, demands and other emotions.

Unlike some other languages, such as Spanish, which use the subjunctive a lot, the subjunctive is not used very often in English.

The subjunctive mood is used to describe a hypothetical situation:

When talking about hypothetical situations or wishes, we can use the subjunctive mood. So we might use ‘I were’ instead of ‘I was’ and ‘be’ instead of ‘are’:

If I were rich, I would buy a big house

If I were the Queen, I wouldn’t have worn that hat

 

The subjunctive can be used to express a wish:

I wish I were there

I wish I were taller

The subjunctive can also be used for demands and suggestions:

He insisted that you be there (‘be’ used instead of ‘are’)

It’s essential that they be told the truth (‘be’ used instead of ‘are’)

I suggest that he leave the car in the garage (‘leave’ used instead of ‘leaves’)

What do you think about using tenses in English?

Are you confident using the different tenses in English?

Which of the English tenses do you find the most difficult?

How do you use the subjunctive in your own native language?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.