English Grammar: Verb Tenses and Conditionals Explained
English Verb Tenses and Structures
Present Perfect
Form: HAVE/HAS + PAST PARTICIPLE (-ED or irregular form)
Examples:
- I have forgotten his name.
- I haven’t talked to Ana.
- I love New York! I have been there 2 times already, and I can’t wait to go back.
Keywords:
- SINCE: desde (specific moment, e.g., last week, yesterday)
- EVER: siempre
- LATELY: últimamente
- JUST: solo
- FOR: durante (a month, hours, six years)
Present Perfect Continuous
Form: HAVE/HAS BEEN + VERB + -ING
Examples:
- I have been studying all morning.
- She hasn’t been cooking.
- Has he been writing his composition?
Future Simple
Form: WILL or WON’T + VERB
Examples:
- I will arrive soon.
- I will meet them next Friday.
- The phone is ringing. I will answer it.
Future Perfect
Form: WILL or WON’T + HAVE + PAST PARTICIPLE (-ED or irregular form)
Examples:
- By next month, I will have passed all my exams.
- I will have finished my studies before I start my new job.
Narrative Tenses
Narrative tenses are used to talk about past events and to tell stories. The most common is the past simple, along with past continuous and past perfect continuous.
Past Simple
Form: V + (-D or -ED) or PAST SIMPLE TABLE / DIDN’T + V INFINITIVE / DID + S + V INFINITIVE
Examples:
- I found a puppy by the side of the road.
- I didn’t drink water last night.
- Did she come for a new surgery?
Past Perfect
Form: HAD or HADN’T + PAST PARTICIPLE (-ED or irregular form)
Examples:
- The train had just left when I arrived at the station.
- She had only owned one car before she bought her new Mini Cooper.
- I’d been depressed for a long time before I changed jobs.
Past Continuous
Form: V (TO BE) WAS (I, HE, SHE, IT) / WERE + V + -ING
Examples:
- Your dog was playing with its toys when I arrived.
- I wasn’t studying maths at that time.
- Were you eating candies when I entered the room?
Past Perfect Continuous
Form: HAD or HADN’T + BEEN + V + -ING
Example: I had been working.
I can’t believe it is still raining. It’s been raining for a week now!
The Future in the Past
Form: WAS/WERE + GOING TO or P.C. (used often for an intention that didn’t happen) or WOULD + VERB (only in literary contexts)
Examples:
- He said he was going to see the match, but it was cancelled.
- I already told Kylie that when he arrived, we would go out for dinner.
Vacation on Jamaica – Composition Example
I was in Jamaica for 10 days. During those days, I visited the city and met its people, and they were very kind to me and my best friend. During those days, we went to the beach and sunbathed. I was going to visit a beach that I really liked, but in the end, I didn’t go. I was walking around the city when I saw someone famous on the street while my best friend was at the hotel. I had seen movies of him and was surprised to see him in person.
Of everything I saw, what I liked the most was Dunn’s River Falls because it was very special. For us, it was such a beautiful trip that we will repeat later because Jamaica, for me, has been one of the places with the most things to see, and there have been some that we didn’t see.
Type Test Examples
- In spite of the wind and the snow, she walked to the town lonely.
- I’m so tired. Someone is knocking at the door. I will open it.
- If I were you, I would go to the happy birthday party with her.
- Antonia has been working here for 9 months.
- Bimba and Lola designed four new collections since last summer.
- Charles used to have a very hairy and blond moustache when I was young.
- Chris gave me a ring full of diamonds. She would be upset if she lost it.
- Have you ever seen a ghost at night?
- He has bought a new house in Pine Lake States, New Jersey.
- I have known you since I was a child.
- I must leave now. I promise not to be late this afternoon.
- If I were you, I would go to the happy birthday party with her.
- If I were a millionaire, I would buy a plane and a yacht.
- If I had gotten my medicine degree last course, I could be a good surgeon.
- If it is sunny tomorrow, I will ride on my horse.
- If you had been more clever, you would have met my boss.
- If you had won the lottery, you would buy me a house.
- Laptops are very useful; on the other hand, they’re expensive.
- Last night, a destructive hurricane hit the coast of Jamaica.
- She will meet you outside the hotel next Sunday.
- Unless Susana studies hard, she won’t pass the driver’s exams.
- Wow!!! Beyoncé has directed over…
Conditional Sentences
Conditional sentences are statements discussing known factors or hypothetical situations and their consequences.
Zero Conditional
Form: IF + S + PRESENT SIMPLE, S + PRESENT SIMPLE (HE, SHE, IT: verb with -S)
Examples:
- If you mix red and blue, you get purple.
- An ice cube melts if you put it in the sun.
First Conditional
Form: IF + S + PRESENT SIMPLE (SINGULAR S), S + WILL + V INFINITIVE
Example: If I study hard this week, I’ll go to your birthday on Sunday.
Second Conditional
Form: IF + S + V (-D, -ED or PAST SIMPLE TABLE), S + WOULD + V INFINITIVE
Examples:
- If I won the lottery, I would buy a house.
- You would speak Japanese if you lived in Japan.
Third Conditional
Form: IF + S + PAST PERFECT (HAD + -ED or PAST PARTICIPLE), S + WOULD HAVE + V (-ED or PAST SIMPLE TABLE)
Examples:
- If I had studied medicine, I would have been a surgeon today.
- I wouldn’t have been happy today if I had not studied music.
Mixed Conditionals
Used to discuss unreal scenarios in the past and their impact on the present.
Form 1: If + (had + V past participle table or ed / past perfect) + S + V (have/has + v in past participle table or ed / present perfect).
Form 2: If + (had + V past participle table or ed / past perfect) + would + S + V in infinitive.
What is Language?
The principal method of human communication, consisting of words used in a structured and conventional way and conveyed by speech, writing, or gesture.
Examples of “Used To”
- We used to live in New York when I was a kid.
- There didn’t use to be a supermarket there.
- I used to go swimming every Thursday when I was at school.
Usage: We use the “used to do” structure to talk about an activity that we did regularly in the past (like a habit) or a situation that was true in the past.
Examples: Question Words and Second Conditionals
- If you were Joe Biden, what would you do? …to avoid conflicts between Russia and Ukraine? IF I WERE JOE BIDEN, I WOULD DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO SOLVE THE CONFLICT BETWEEN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE.
- What would you do if you were the President of the United Nations? What would you do to achieve more cooperation among the European countries? IF I WERE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED NATIONS, I WOULD MAKE A DOCUMENT TO HELP IMPROVE COOPERATION BETWEEN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
- It is 2024. You have been elected President of the United States of America. What would you do to achieve “peace” if you were President of the United States of America? IF I WERE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, I WOULD STOP WARS IN THE WORLD TO ACHIEVE PEACE.
- What would you do if you were a millionaire? IF I WERE A MILLIONAIRE, I WOULD TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD.
- What would you do / write if you were a famous writer? IF I WERE A FAMOUS WRITER, I WOULD WRITE A FANTASY BOOK.
- What would you do if you were a very famous and rich singer? IF I WERE A VERY FAMOUS SINGER, I WOULD TOUR AROUND THE WORLD.