What are Tenses in Grammar?
International English Language Testing System ( IELTS )
Talk to ExpertEnglish Tenses: Imagine describing your morning routine by saying, "I wake up early, have breakfast, and then catch the bus." These sentences use simple present tense, which describes habits, facts, and general truths. But what if you want to talk about something happening right now? Here's where the present continuous tense comes in. You could say, "I am waking up (right now) and am having breakfast." Expressing all these events with time would not be possible without the use of tenses rules. Tenses in English add a crucial layer of meaning to your sentences, allowing you to express the timing and duration of actions.
Mastering the 12 tenses in English grammar is the key to establishing effective communication in English with confident expression. Tenses, a form of verb, are a set of certain rules that help us to make sentences in English for different sets of time. Adjoining your knowledge of tenses rules with a good vocabulary can help you articulate impressive sentences to hold good conversations among your peers.
This blog includes the tenses definition, tenses rules, tense chart and 12 types of tenses in English grammar with examples. Students can find in-depth details on tenses in this article and they can also download the Tenses in English grammar with examples PDF by clicking on the “Download Guide” button given at the top of the page.
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Table of Contents:
- What is Tense?
- 12 Types of Tenses in English Grammar
- What is Present Tense?
- What is Past Tense?
- What is Future Tense?
- Tense Chart
- 12 Tenses Examples
- How to Learn the 12 Tenses Easily?
- What is Tense FAQs
What is Tense in Grammar?
Tenses, the building blocks of sentences, are a form of the verb used to express the time of an action and its degree of completeness. The tenses help us to express the time of an event, the time when a person did something or the time when something happened.
Types of Tenses in English Grammar
Tenses are of three main types, as given below.
- Present tense
- Past tense
- Future tense
To describe the degree of completeness of an action or a situation, the above grammar tenses are further divided into 4 parts each, thus giving us the 12 tenses in English grammar. So, we can say that there are 4 types of present tense, past tense and future tense each.
All tenses in English are given in the table below.
| 12 Tenses in English | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Types of Tenses |
Present Tense |
Past Tense |
Future Tense |
| Indefinite/Simple |
Past Indefinite Tense |
Future Indefinite Tense |
|
| Continuous |
Past Continuous Tense |
Future Continuous Tense |
|
| Perfect |
Past Perfect Tense |
Future Perfect Tense |
|
| Perfect Continuous |
Past Perfect Continuous Tense |
Future Perfect Continuous Tense |
|
Now that we have understood “What is the meaning of tense” and "How many tenses are there in English", let us continue to understand each of the 12 tenses in English briefly, followed by the tenses chart that contains the rules for making sentence structure in English.
What is Present Tense?
A present tense describes the work/habit that is occurring at present and the degree of its completeness is described by 4 different tenses. Below we have listed all 4 present tenses to help you understand what is the difference between either of them and where and when to use them. We have also given the rules for each present tense later in the tense chart below.
- Present Indefinite Tense: Also known as the Simple Present tense, these tenses do not clearly describe whether the work (that is talked about in the sentence) is still ongoing or is complete. Usually, by simple present tense, we describe a habit, a daily routine, a general fact, the current moment or a near future event.
- Present Continuous Tense: These tenses describe that an action/condition is occurring in the current moment and may continue into the future.
- Present Perfect Tense: This tense describes an action that has been started in the past and has been completed until the current time. This means that the Present Perfect tense describes the work/action that has been “completed” however, some of its effect remains in the present time as well.
- Present Perfect Continuous Tense: These tenses describe an action that has started in the past and is still continuing in the present/current time. These actions are not “complete” and are continuing till the present time.
What is Past Tense?
A past tense describes an action that has been completed/happened or a state/situation that existed in the past. The 4 types of past tenses in English are described briefly below.
- Past Indefinite Tense: Also known as the Simple Past Tense, this tense describes an action that has happened in the past or a situation that occurred in the past. Present Indefinite tense is used to describe past actions:
- that are described by time (such as by using words - yesterday, last, ago, never, etc.),
- that have occurred as a habit in the past, and
- which are described using “since” as an adverb
- Past Continuous Tense: This tense describes an action that continued to occur for some certain time in the past.
- Past Perfect Tense: This tense describes an action already completed before the start of another event in the past. It also sometimes describes the actions that were completed at a certain point in the past.
- Past Perfect Continuous Tense: This tense describes actions that started and continued till a certain point in time in the past. This tense also describes an action/situation that continued till another action/situation occurred in the past.
What is Future Tense?
The future tense describes a situation that doesn’t exist in the present moment or an action that has not happened in the present yet and may happen in the future. The 4 different types of future tenses in English are given below.
- Future Indefinite Tense: Also known as the Simple Future Tense, the Future Indefinite Tense describes the actions that are going to happen in the near future or in the coming time.
- Future Continuous Tense: Also known as the future progressive tense, this tense is used to describe an action that will continue or remain in progress in the future. It is simply the future form of the present continuous tense.
- Future Perfect Tense: This tense is used to describe the actions that will be completed by a certain time in the future.
- Future Perfect Continuous Tense: Also known as the Future Perfect Progressive Tense, the future perfect continuous tense is used to describe actions that will remain progressing until a certain time in future.
Tenses Chart
The rules and examples of all the 12 tenses are given in the tenses chart below.
Where, V1 = first form of verb, V2 = second form of verb and V3 = third form of verb.
Note: You can make sentences in English by using the above tenses rules, you just need to have prior knowledge of all three forms of the commonly used verbs (V1, V2 and V3) and a clear understanding of the subject and object in a sentence.
However, it must be noted that the above ones are the basic rules of tenses for making affirmative sentences through each of the mentioned tense rules. The rules slightly differ in each of the 12 types of tenses when making affirmative, negative and imperative sentences. The rules for making affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences in each of the above-discussed tenses will be discussed in their specified articles. and their examples will be discussed in the later part of this article.
To download the Tense Chart (with rules and examples) PDF, click on the "Download Guide" button on the top right corner of the page.
12 Tenses Examples
The examples of the 12 tenses in English grammar are given below.
| Tenses Examples |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tenses |
Present Tense |
Past Tense |
Future Tense |
| Indefinite |
I go shopping every weekend. |
I went shopping yesterday. |
I will go shopping tomorrow. |
| Continuous |
I am going shopping right now. |
I was going shopping when you called. |
I will be going shopping at 3 pm tomorrow. |
| Perfect |
I have gone shopping already. |
I had gone shopping before the stores closed. |
I will have gone shopping by the time you arrive. |
| Perfect Continuous |
I have been going shopping all afternoon. |
I had been going shopping for hours when I finally found what I needed. |
I will have been going shopping for two hours by the time we meet. (Check out Future Plans) |
Tenses Exercise
Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verb in parentheses.
- She _______ (study) every day.
- They _______ (not like) spicy food.
- I _______ (watch) a movie yesterday.
- She _______ (study) for her test last week.
- I was _______ (watch) a movie when you called.
- I will be _______ (work) at 3 PM tomorrow.
- They will be _______ (play) basketball at the park at 5 PM.
- I had _______ (finish) my homework before dinner.
- They will have _______ (not play) basketball by the end of the week.
- They will have been _______ (play) basketball for two hours by the end of the game.
Answers:
- studies
- don't like
- watched
- studied
- watching
- working
- playing
- finished
- not played
- playing
How to Learn the 12 Tenses Easily?
Learning the 12 tenses in English involves memorising the tense rules and then regularly putting them into practice to improve your usage of tenses in speaking and writing. Now here is the strategy to learn the tenses easily:
- Group the tenses: Separate the tenses in past, present and future tenses.
- Understand the action type described by the different sub-types: Understand which type of actions are described by the different sub-classes of tenses viz. simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous tenses.
- Write down your understanding of each tense as writing promotes learning.
- Keep on reading different books and different examples so you will get to learn the usage of tenses in different cases.
- Practice speaking English with the usage of tenses. Make sure you speak with a fluent/native/expert English speaker so that you will have scope to identify and correct your mistakes.
Tip: Create short stories or examples to associate with type of tenses to create a storyline and memorise easily.
This was all about the verb tenses, 12 the types of tenses with examples and formulas, and the tenses rules chart with examples (tenses chart). If you wish to download the 12 tenses in English PDF, you can do so by clicking on the "Download Guide" button on the top right corner of the page.
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English Language Test | Score |
|---|---|
IELTS | Overall score of 5.5 to 8.0 with minimum of 5.5 to 7.5 in each section |
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What is Tense FAQs
Q. What is the use of tenses in different English language proficiency exams?
A. Tenses are important for scoring well in different English exams like IELTS, TOEFL, PTE and Duolingo for the following reasons:
- Correct understanding of tenses shows your grammar accuracy (subject-verb agreement, verb conjugation).
- The ability to inter-convert sentences easily from one tense form to another demonstrates your ability to express actions in different timeframes (past, present, future).
- Tenses help you understand the “reading passages” and “listening tasks” which are present in most of the English exams.
- With your good knowledge of tenses, you can even eliminate the wrong choices in multiple-choice questions and thus get to a correct choice in the exam.
Q. What is tense definition?
A. In grammar, tenses show the time of an action or state of being expressed by a verb. Tenses indicate when something happened (past), is happening (present), or will happen (future).
Q. What is the present perfect tense?
A. The Present Perfect Tense is used to describe an action that has started in the past and continues up to the present time. This tense focuses on the completion of the action, not the exact time of the start of the action in the past.
Q. How many types of tenses are there in English grammar?
A. There are 3 main types of tenses in grammar, each of which is further classified into 4 types (Simple, Continuous, Perfect, and Perfect Continuous), totalling 12 tenses. These 12 tenses in English help to express the status and degree of completeness of an action or the existence of a situation. Each tense serves a specific purpose in describing when an action occurs and whether it's ongoing, completed, or anticipated.
All the tenses in English are given in the table below.
| Tenses in English | ||
|---|---|---|
| Present Indefinite Tense |
Past Indefinite Tense |
Future Indefinite Tense |
| Present Continuous Tense |
Past Continuous Tense |
Future Continuous Tense |
| Present Perfect Tense |
Past Perfect Tense |
Future Perfect Tense |
| Present Perfect Continuous Tense |
Past Perfect Continuous Tense |
Future Perfect Continuous Tense |
Q. What are V1, V2 and V3 in tenses?
A. V1, V2, and V3 refer to the different forms of verbs used in English tenses. Here is a brief explanation of each:
- V1 (First form of the verb):
- Used in present and past simple tense and the present, past and future forms of the continuous and perfect continuous tenses.
- Examples of the first form of verb: play, sing, eat, go
- V2 (Second form of the verb):
- Used exclusively in simple past tense
- Examples of the second form of the verb: played, sang, ate, went
- V3 (Third form of the verb):
- Also known as the past participle
- Used in perfect tenses and passive voice
- Examples of the third form of the verb: played, sung, eaten, gone
Examples of V1, V2 and V3 verbs in sentences:
- V1: I play tennis every Sunday. (Simple Present Tense)
- V2: I played tennis last Sunday. (Simple Past Tense)
- V3: I have played tennis for ten years. (Present Perfect Tense)
Understanding these verb forms is crucial for constructing correct sentences in various tenses and voices in English.
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