Verb tenses

The tense of a verb tells you when a person did something or when something existed or happened. In English, the main tenses are:
the present (e.g. I am, she laughs, they love, we begin)
the past (e.g. I was, she laughed, they loved, we began)
the future (e.g. I will/shall, she will laugh, they will love, we will/shall begin)
These main tenses can be further subdivided, as follows:
the present continuous she is laughing
the past continuous she was laughing
the future continuous she will be laughing
the present perfect she has laughed
the present perfect continuous she has been laughing
the past perfect she had laughed
the past perfect continuous she had been laughing
the future perfect she will have laughed
the future perfect continuous she will have been laughing
Note that the continuous is also called the progressive.
Different tenses are typically formed either by adding -ed or -ing to the basic form of the verb (known as the stem), or with the help of other
verbs known as auxiliary verbs such as am, was, have, has, had, and will.