TENSES for easy understading

1. Submitted by,
SHAGASHRA V S
I B.Ed (English)

2. What is a Tense?
 Tenses are the form taken by a verb to show the time of an action
or the state of an event.
 Verb tenses tells when things happen.
There are three types of Tenses:
BASED
ON
TIME

3. Each of these three tenses have four forms to show continuity or
completeness of the action and time.
SIMPLE CONTINUOUS
PERFECT
PERFECT
CONTINUOUS

4. SIMPLE TENSE:
Describes an action but does not say whether it is finished or not.
CONTINUOUS TENSE:
Describes an unfinished action.
PERFECT TENSE:
Describes a finished action.
PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE:
To combine the complete tenses and the incomplete tenses to
describe an action which is in progress and then finished.

5. SUBJECT AND VERB FORM
I - Person
II - Person
III - Person

6. There are TWELVE POSSIBLE TENSES

7. PRESENT TENSE
SIMPLE PRESENT:
1. True in the present
2. Habits
3. General facts/truths
4. Future timetables/schedules
EXAMPLES:
1. She is sixty years old.
2. I always drink coffee at
work.
3. The Earth revolves
around the Sun.
4. My train arrives
tomorrow.

8. PRESENT CONTINUOUS:
1. Happening now
2. Fixed plans
3. Temporary actions
4. Trends
5. Longer actions in progress
now
EXAMPLES:
1. I'm eating lunch now.
2. I am meeting my friends
after work.
3. I'm working in New York
this week.
4. She is studying to
become a doctor.

9. PRESENT PERFECT:
1. Action completed in the
immediate past
2. Event in the past at an
unspecified time
3. Duration from the past
until now
4. Change over time
5. Repeated events in the past
until now
EXAMPLES:
1. She has completed the
home work.
2. She has been to Paris.
3. He has been a teacher since
2002.
4. Your English has improved
since the last time we met.
5. We have had four exams
so far in this semester.

10. PRESENT PERFECT
CONTINUOUS:
1. Actions happening recently
(lately)
2. Duration from the past until
now
3. Temporary actions
4. Actions going on for a
period of time
EXAPMPLES:
1. She has been exercising a
lot recently.
2. He has been teaching for
ten years.
3. I've been practicing for five
years.
4. It has been raining. The
sidewalk is wet.

11. PAST TENSE
SIMPLE PAST:
1. Series of completed actions
2. Habits in the past
3. Completed action in the
past
4. Duration in the past
EXAMPLES:
1. Raj killed a snake
yesterday.
2. John played the piano
when he was a child.
3. I went to bed at 10 last
night.
4. We played baseball all day.

12. PAST CONTINUOUS:
1. Action before & after a
specific time
2. Interrupted continuous
past action
3. Parallel actions
EXAMPLES:
1. Yesterday at noon, I was
eating lunch.
2. I was watching a movie
when she called.
3. I was reading while my
brother was playing guitar.

13. PAST PERFECT:
1. An action completed
before a past action
2. Reported speech
3. A period of time before an
event in the past
EXAMPLES:
1. When we arrived, the class
had already begun.
2. My student said that he
hadn't done his homework.
3. We had owned our house
for twenty years before we
sold it

14. PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS:
1. Continued action in the past,
before an action in the past
2. "If"- impossible condition
3. Cause of something in the past
4. Reported speech
EXAMPLES:
1. He had been waiting for
an hour when she finally
arrived.
2. If I had been paying
attention, I wouldn't
have got into an
accident.
3. He went on a diet
because he had been
eating too much.
4. She said that John had
been helping her study
for months.

15. FUTURE TENSE
SIMPLE FUTURE
1. Willingness: (will + verb)
2. Future Fact
3. Plan or Intention (be going
to + verb)
4. Prediction
EXAMPLES:
1. I will help you with your
homework tonight.
2. My Mother will get a
Foot Ball today
3. I'm going to watch a
movie tonight.
4. It is cloudy. It's going to
rain

16. FUTURE CONTINUOUS:
1. Action in progress at a time
in the future
2. Emphasis of future plans
and intentions
3. Interrupted action in the
future
4. Parallel actions in the future
EXAMPLES:
1. They'll be coming to visit
us next week.
2. She will be taking an exam
at 2 p.m. tomorrow, so don't
call her then.
3. I will be waiting for you
when you arrive tonight.
4. While he cooks dinner, she
will be watching TV.

17. FUTURE PERFECT:
1. A completed action before
something in the future
2. Duration before something in
the future
3. Question form
4. Negative statements
EXAMPLES:
1. By the time you arrive, I
will have finished the
project.
2. By Friday, she will have
had my car for a whole
week.
3. Will she have graduated
from college by then?
4. By 2020, I won't have
completed my PhD.

18. FUTURE PERFECT
CONTINUOUS
1. Cause of something in the
future
2. Duration before something
in the future
EXAMPLES:
1. He will be tired by the
time he arrives because
he will have been
travelling all day.
2. She will have been
working at the company
for ten years by the time
I retire.

19. SUMMARY
SIMPLE I study English I studied English
I will study
English
CONTINUOUS
I am studying
English
I was studying
English
I will be studying
English
PERFECT
I have studied
English
I had studied
English
I will have studied
English
PERFECT
CONTINUOUS
I have been
studying English
I had been
studying English
I will have been
studying English

20. THANK YOU