English Tenses: Future, Present, and Past Explained
Understanding English Verb Tenses
Future Tense
Will: Decisions made at the time of speaking.
General Affirmative Predictions: I / He / She / It / We… will learn (I / He / She / … + will + infinitive)
Negative: I / He / She / It / We… won’t learn
Interrogative: Will I / He / She / It / We… learn?
Going to: Future intentions or plans when decisions are already made. There is evidence that you can see now.
I’m going to swim, He / She… is going to swim.
Negative: I am not going to swim, He isn’t going...
Interrogative: Am I going to swim?
Future Continuous: To speak about something in the process during a period of time in the near future.
Affirmative: I / He / She / It… will be listening
Negative: I / He / She / It… won’t be listening
Interrogative: Will I / She / We… be listening?
Future Perfect: To speak about something that will be completed during a period of time in the future.
Affirmative: I / He / She / It / We… will have understood
Negative: I / He / She / It / We… won’t have understood
Interrogative: Will I / He / She / It… We have understood?
Present Tense
The present simple is used for things that happen repeatedly. It’s often used with the following adverbs of time: every day, usually, often, sometimes…
(I eat every day at school.)
It is used for long-term actions, scientific facts, or generalities.
(Elephants live in Africa and India)
Present Perfect Continuous: subject + have / has + been + verb (infinitive + -ing)
We use this to express the duration of an action that started in the past and continues in the present, or has just finished. We refer to something we have been doing for a period of time, for example: for two weeks, for two hours, for five minutes, since yesterday…
The present continuous is used to talk about something that is happening at the moment of speaking. (I’m writing a letter.) Something is happening at the moment, not necessarily as we speak.
(I’m looking for a job at the moment)
Present Perfect: subject + have / has + past participle of the verb
It is used to talk about something that started in the past and continues in the present. (I have been here for two hours.)
(My mother has been a teacher since 1955.)
To talk about experiences in life. (Have you ever been in love?)
To talk about a past action when we see the results in the present.
We use just, already, and yet with the present perfect.
Past Tense
Past Simple: subject + verb (past form)
To talk about a specific action that began and ended in the past. We use expressions like: last year, yesterday, last night… (Tomy stayed at home last night.)
We can express the duration of the past action: for all day, for years, for thirty minutes…
Tomy talked with me for two hours.
Past Continuous: Subject + was / were + verb + -ing
To describe a specific action that began and continued in the past, with the idea of duration.
(I was driving along East Street when I saw a fire. I was running when I met her.)
Past Perfect: subject + had + past participle of the verb
To refer to an action in the past that happened before another action in the past.
(They could not believe what had happened.)
(When I arrived, my grandmother had already started cooking.)
Past Perfect Continuous: subject + had been + verb + -ing
To refer to an action or event in the past that happened before another action in the past, with the idea of continuity.
(We had been waiting for hours when the train finally arrived.)