Mastering English Tenses, Verbs, and Grammar
Present Tense
Present Simple (Subject + Verb + Object)
1. Personal fact
= I like tea
2. General truth
= Australians speak English.
3. Habitual action
= I go to work Monday to Friday.
4. Public information
= The plane leaves at 14:00 from T4.
Present Continuous (Verb to be + Gerund)
1. A continuous action happening as we speak.
= I am writing on the board.
2. A fixed plan/arrangement
= I am having dinner with my friend tomorrow.
Present Perfect (Have/Has + Past Participle)
1. An action that started in the past and continued until now or completed
= I have lived in Madrid since 2019.
2. Life experience
= I have been overseas ten times.
Past Tense
Past Simple
1. A completed action in the past or at a specific time.
= I lived in Sydney in 2014.
2. A habitual action completed in the past.
= I went fishing every weekend with my dad when I was a kid.
Past Continuous (To be + Gerund)
1. A continuous action that happened at a specific time in the past.
= I was at tennis training between 19:30 – 21:30 at night.
2. A continuous action interrupted by a completed action in the past.
= I was sleeping when David cooked breakfast.
3. Simultaneous continuous action in the past
= I was dancing while Roy was drinking.
Past Perfect (Had + Past Participle)
1. An action that happened in the past before another action in the past.
= You had eaten all the food when I arrived.
Future Tense
Future Simple
1. A confirmed action at a specific time in the future.
= I will cook breakfast tomorrow morning.
2. Opinion about the future.
= Spain will win the next World Cup.
3. Confirmed immediate action
= The doorbell rings. I will get it!
Future Continuous (will be + gerund)
1. A confirmed action happening at a specific time in the future.
= This time tomorrow you will be studying.
2. A future continuous action during which another action is completed.
= I will be sleeping while David gets home.
Future Perfect (will have + past participle)
1. A completed action that will happen before a fixed time or action in the future.
= I will have eaten dinner by 20:00.
Going to Expression (verb to be + going to)
1. Prediction confirmed by guidance.
= Look! The car is going to crash.
Future Intention (will)
1. A future plan
= She is going to Spain in May.
Verb vs. Gerund
Gerund = verb + word with ing (gerund)
= I like watching movies. (A gerund functions like a noun)
When the formula is: verb to be + word with ing (there is NO gerund)
= She is watching TV. (Is watching = verb = present continuous)
Articles
Specific article (specific element) = The (I am going to buy the red car) = that specific one over there
Indefinite article (non-specific element) = A or An (I am going to buy a red car.) = any red car
Nouns
Person, Place, Animal, Object (Thing)
For example: Teacher, School, Dog, Table
Verbs
An action/doing word.
For example: Eat, Drink, Run, Walk
Verb “to be” = is, am, are (present) / was, were (past)
Adverbs
An adverb modifies or describes a verb (1), adjective (2), or another adverb (3) in a sentence.
1. She is running quickly. (“Quickly” is the adverb describing how she “is running”, which is the verb.)
2. The car is extremely fast. (Extremely is the adverb describing the fast (adj) car.)
3. She ran very quickly. (Very is a form of adverb defining the adverb ending in “ly” – quickly.)
Adjectives
Describing words
Descriptive: beautiful, small, charming
Demonstrative: this, that, these, those
Quantitative: few, several, more
Possessive:my, your, his, her, its, our, their