English Grammar Tenses and Verb Forms Explained
English Grammar: Tenses and Verb Forms
Present Perfect Simple
Used to describe actions or states that began in the past and continue to the present, past actions that have effects on the present, or past experiences.
Past Perfect Simple
Used to describe actions that happened before another action in the past, or to express an action that had occurred before a specific moment in the past.
Present Perfect Continuous
Used to highlight the duration of an action up to the present moment, to describe actions that are ongoing, that started in the past and continue in the present, or to describe actions that have just finished and have visible effects in the present.
Past Perfect Continuous
Used to describe continuous actions that were happening in the past before another action took place, or to emphasize the duration of a past action.
Gerund
Used after:
- Verbs like: admit, avoid, consider, deny, dislike, enjoy, finish, imagine, mind, miss, practise, resist, spend, suggest, understand, love, like, hate…
- Expressions like: can’t stand, can’t bear, can’t risk, it’s no use, it’s (not) worth…
- Prepositions and phrasal verbs
- come + go + gerund
- As a Subject
Infinitive
Used after:
- Verbs like: afford, agree, appear, ask, arrange, beg, care, decide, expect, encourage, fail, force, hope, intend, learn, manage, offer, order, plan, pretend, promise, refuse, request, seem, teach, tell, try, wait, want, warn, wish…
- Semi-modals: have (got) to, used to, be going to, be able to…
- Adjectives
- too/enough
- would like, love, hate
- To express purpose (to/in order to/so as to)
Infinitive without ‘to’
Used after:
- Modal verbs: must, can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, (needn’t & dare).
- Expressions: would rather, had better
- Certain verbs: let, make, feel, hear, see, smell
Gerund & Infinitive: Special Cases
- FORGET + gerund: to forget a past event or action
- FORGET + infinitive: to forget to do something
- REMEMBER + gerund: to remember a past action
- REMEMBER + infinitive: to remember what needs to be done
- REGRET + gerund: to regret a past action
- REGRET + infinitive: to regret what will be said in formal language
- MEAN + gerund: to describe the possible consequences of a decision
- MEAN + infinitive: to express an intention or a plan
- STOP + gerund: to suspend or put an end to something
- STOP + infinitive: to interrupt an action in order to do something else
- TRY + gerund: to make a suggestion or offer a possible solution to a problem
- TRY + infinitive: to try to do something
- NEED + gerund: action
- NEED + infinitive: intention, objective
Adjectives: Order
Typical order:
- OPINION (practical, handy, simple…)
- SIZE (big, tiny, large…)
- AGE (old, modern, new…)
- COLOR (silver, dark, shiny…)
- NATIONALITY (spanish, british…)
- MATERIAL/TYPE (plastic, metallic, wooden….)
Vocabulary
- energy-saving: to reduce the consumption; ahorrar energia
- wind-up: put into operation a gadget mechanism; darle cuerda
- handy: little and manageable gadget; de mano
- inefficient: not functioning appropriately; ineficient
- battery-operated: a gadget that works with batteries; que fnciona con pilas
- impractical: something that is not easy to use or that isn’t useful
- comply with: obey something for example law; obedecer
- take part in: to be involved in something; tomar parte en algo
- ban: prohibit or forbid to do something; prohibir
- tolerate: to have an open-minded attitude
- control: to be able to manage something
- be unable to: not being capable of doing something; ser incapaz
- restrict: to limit something; limitar
- report: to inform in a formal way; informar
- be considerate: take others into account; ser considerado
- issue: tell something in authority; mandar
- break: for example with the law do something illegal; romper
- threat: by aggressive actions makes you do things you don’t want do; amenazar
- disruptive: to interrupt or disturb; que estorba
- antisocial: the attitude of being solitary apart from society; antisocial