English tenses
Presented by Ntombikayise Mhlongo

What is a tense?
• A category of verbal inflection expressing the time at,
during, or over which a state or action denoted by a verb
occurs.
• There fore verb tenses tell us when things happen
(Mori, 2014)

12 tenses
• Present Simple
• Present
Continuous/Progressive
• Present Perfect
• Present Perfect
Continuous/Progressive
• Past Simple
• Past
Continuous/Progressive
• Past Perfect
• Past Perfect
Continuous/Progressive
• Future Simple
• Future Perfect
• Future
Continuous/Progressive
• Future Perfect
Continuous/Progressive

Present simple tense
• When you are referring to habitual actions, actions that
you always or never do
• When you are referring to unchanging truths
• When you are making general statements of fact
(infinite convergence,2014)

Indicators
• Always
• Whenever
• Everyday
• Usually
• Often
• Frequently
• Sometimes
• Rarely
• Occasionally
• never

Examples
1. I make revision every Friday
2. They pass me here Often
3. We like English examination
4. She sometimes makes me happy
5. She comes from America

Simple past tense
• When an activity or situation is completed in the past
• To refer to past habits
(infinite convergence,2014)

Indicators
• Last night, week, year, month, Saturday, semester, etc.
• Yesterday
• Ago

Examples
1. She graduated comb ridge university last year
2. He invited me a week ago
3. He is the young boy who broke the window last night
4. I met her last month
(Hassan,2012)

Present perfect tense
• When an activity happened at an unspecified time in the
past (before the present)
• When an activity has been repeated several times before
now
• When an activity was very recently completed before
now
• When an activity is not completed in the past
(infinite convergence,2014)

Indicators
• Before
• Ever
• Never
• So far
• Already
• Yet
• Just
• Recently
• since

Examples
1. I recently broke my watch so I don’t know what time it
is.
2. David has just succeeded the president election
(Hassan,2012)

Present progressive tense
• When an activity is in progress now at the moment of
speaking
• When an activity began before now and continues into
the future without stopping.
• When an activity is temporary
• When an activity is developing and changing.
(infinite convergence,2014)

Indicators
• Right now, at this moment
• Still
• This year, week, month, etc.
• As we speak

Examples
1. David is working ministry of youth and sport this year
2. He is still helping needy persons
(Hassan,2012)

Future tense
• To indicate that an activity or event will
• take place at a time in the future

Indicators
• Tomorrow
• Next Saturday, week, month, year, etc.

Examples
1. I am going to school tomorrow
2. Next week Monday is my birthday
(Hassan,2012)

The following tenses are combinations of the tenses we have
just reviewed

Past Perfect tense
• refers to activities that happened before a specific time
in the past.
• Form: had + past participle
(infinite convergence,2014)

Past Progressive tense
• refers to activities continuously in progress around a time
in the past.
• Form: was or were + verbing
(infinite convergence,2014)

Past perfect progressive
• Refers to an activity was continuously in progress
before a specific time in the past.
• Form: had + been + verbing
(infinite convergence,2014)

Past perfect progressive
• Refers to actions that have been continuously in
progress before now.
• Form: have or has + been + verbing
(infinite convergence,2014)

Future perfect tense
• The future perfect expresses the idea that an activity will
occur before some future time.
• • Form: will + have + past participle
(infinite convergence,2014)

Future progressive tense
• Refers to activities that will be continuously in progress
around some future time.
• Form: will + be + verbing
(infinite convergence,2014)

Future Perfect Progressive
• Refers to activities that will be continuously in progress
before a future time.
• Form: will + have + been + verbing
(infinite convergence,2014)

summary
(Pantichuana,2010)

Acknowledgements
• Hassan Nur, A.(2012). 12 tenses of English grammar
[online]. Sudan: Slideshare. Available from:
https://www.slideshare.net/taaxowebs/12-tenses-of-
english-grammer-15000138 [accessed 15 August 2020].
• Infinite convergence solutions.(2014). English tenses
[online]. Bengaluru: Slideshare. Available from:
https://www.slideshare.net/appapurapu/tenses-30675182
[accessed 15 August 2020]

Acknowledgements
• Mori, L.(2014).English verb tenses [online]. Pontedera:
Slideshare. Available from:
https://www.slideshare.net/LuisellaMori/english-verb-
tenses-30528628 [accessed 15 August 2020]
• Pantiuchina, O.(2010).English tenses [online].Vilnius:
Slideshare. Available from:
https://www.slideshare.net/aoksana/english-tenses-
5610444 [accessed 15 August 2020]