COLEGIO SANTA MARIA REINA

UNA OBRA De Hermanas De La Caridad Del Sagrado Corazón De Jesús

English department.

Handout Tenses
Student’s name: Daniela Sanchez Class: IV° Medio B

 Simple Present
The present tense is the base form of the verb:

I work in London.

But with the third person singular (she/he/it), we add an –s:

She works in London.

Present simple questions

Look at these questions:

• Do you play the piano?

• Where do you live?
• Does Jack play football?
• Where does he come from?
• Do Rita and Angela live in Manchester?  Where do they work?

We use do and does to make questions with the present simple. We use does for the third person singular (she/he/it) and do
for the others.

Present simple negatives

Look at these sentences:

• I like tennis but I don't like football. (don't = do not) 

I don't live in London now.
• I don't play the piano but I play the guitar.
• They don't work at the weekend.
• John doesn't live in Manchester. (doesn't = does not)
 Angela doesn't drive to work. She goes by
bus.

We use do and does to make negatives with the present simple. We use doesn't for the third person singular (she/he/it) and
don't for the others.

Present simple and present time

We use the present simple to talk about:

• something that is true in the present:

I'm nineteen years old.

I'm a student.
He lives in London.
• something that happens regularly in the present:
 I play football every weekend.

 something that is always true:

The human body contains 206 bones.

Light travels at almost 300,000 kilometres per second.

We often use adverbs of frequency like sometimes, always and never with the present simple:

I sometimes go to the cinema.

She never plays football.

 The Simple Past

Simple Past (also called past simple, past indefinite or preterite) is a verb tense which is used to show that a completed action
took place at a specific time in the past. The simple past is also frequently used to talk about past habits and generalizations.
Read on for detailed descriptions, examples, and simple past exercises.

Simple Past Forms

The simple past is formed using the verb + ed. In addition, there are many verbs with irregular past forms. Questions are
made with did and negative forms are made with did not.

• Statement: You called Debbie.

• Question: Did you call Debbie?

• Negative: You did not call Debbie.

Simple Past Uses

USE 1 Completed Action in the Past

Use the simple past to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. Sometimes, the
speaker may not actually mention the specific time, but they do have one specific time in mind.

Examples:

• I saw a movie yesterday.

• I didn't see a play yesterday.

• Last year, I traveled to Japan.

• Last year, I didn't travel to Korea.

• Did you have dinner last night?

• She washed her car.

• He didn't wash his car.

USE 2 A Series of Completed Actions

We use the simple past to list a series of completed actions in the past. These actions happen 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on.

Examples:

• I finished work, walked to the beach, and found a nice place to swim.

• He arrived from the airport at 8:00, checked into the hotel at 9:00, and met the others at 10:00.

• Did you add flour, pour in the milk, and then add the eggs?
USE 3 Duration in the Past

The simple past can be used with a duration which starts and stops in the past. A duration is a longer action often indicated by
expressions such as: for two years, for five minutes, all day, all year, etc.

Examples:

• I lived in Brazil for two years.

• Shauna studied Japanese for five years.

• They sat at the beach all day.

• They did not stay at the party the entire time.

• We talked on the phone for thirty minutes.

• A: How long did you wait for them? B: We waited for one hour.

 The Simple Future

The simple future is a verb tense that’s used to talk about things that haven’t happened yet.

Examples:

 This year, Jen will read War and Peace. It will be hard, but she’s determined to do it.

How to Form the Simple Future

The formula for the simple future is will + [root form of verb].

Ex: I will learn a new language. Jen will read that book. My brothers will sleep till noon if no one wakes them up. You
will see what I mean.

There is another way to show that something will happen in the future. It follows the formula [am/is/are] + going to + [root

form verb].

Ex: I am going to learn a new language. Jen is going to read that book. My brothers are going to sleep till noon if no
one wakes them up. You are going to see what I mean.
How to Make the Simple Future Negative

To make the simple future negative, the formula is will + not + [root form].

Ex: Jen will not quit before she reaches her goal. Make sure you arrive on time tomorrow because the bus will not
wait for you. He will not say anything bad about his boss. I will not finish my homework in time for class.

Using the “going to” construction, the formula is [am/is/are] + not + going to + [root form].

Ex: Jen is not going to quit before she reaches her goal. Make sure you arrive on time tomorrow because the bus is
not going to wait for you. He is not going to say anything bad about his boss. I am not going to finish my homework
in time for class.
How to Ask a Question

To ask a question in the simple future, the formula is will + [subject] + [root form].

• Will Jen finish War and Peace over the summer? Will I have the discipline to study Spanish every day? What will you
buy with the money you found?
The formula for the “going to” construction is [am/is/are] + [subject] +going to + [root form].

• Is Jen going to finish War and Peace over the summer? Am I going to have the discipline to study Spanish every day?
What are you going to buy with the money you found?

 Present Perfect Tense

The present perfect tense refers to an action or state that either occurred at an indefinite time in the past (e.g., we have

talked before) or began in the past and continued to the present time (e.g., he has grown impatient over the last hour). This

tense is formed by have/has + the past participle.

The construction of this verb tense is straightforward. The first element is have or has, depending on the subject the verb is

conjugated with. The second element is the past participle of the verb, which is usually formed by adding -ed or -d to the

verb’s root (ex. walked, cleaned, typed, perambulated, jumped, laughed, sautéed) although English does have quite a few

verbs that have irregular past participles (e.g., done, said, gone, known, won, thought, felt, eaten).

These examples show how the present perfect can describe something that occurred or was the state of things at an

unspecified time in the past.

• I have walked on this path before.

• We have eaten the lasagna here.

You can use the present perfect to talk about the duration of something that started in the past is still happening.

• She has had the chickenpox since Tuesday.

 Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect, also called the pluperfect, is a verb tense used to talk about actions that were completed before some point
in the past.
We were shocked to discover that someone had graffitied “the boys were here” on our front door. We were relieved that
“the boys” had used washable paint.

The past perfect tense is for talking about something that happened before something else.

The Past Perfect Formula

The formula for the past perfect tense is had + [past participle]. It doesn’t matter if the subject is singular or plural; the

formula doesn’t change.

Excercises

1.- Change the sentence to the other tenses

Simple present The boys paint houses very fast

Simple past The boys painted houses very fast

Simple future The boys will Paint houses very fast

Present perfect The boys have painted houses very fast

Past perfect They boys has painted houses very fast

2.- Complete the summary chart

Tense Main Rules Formula Example

Fort he simple present, S+V.INFINITIVO+C She reads the newspaper

whit the subject he, she, it HE/SHE/IT+V(S)+C every day
wue use the
Simple Present infinitive+s.And for the
others subject, like I, yu,
they…we use the infinitive

Fort he past simple with S+V.REGULAR/IRREGULAR+C You worked very hard last
regular verbs we use the week
infinite+”ed” or “d”. And
Simple Past
for irregular verbs we
have tu see the list of the
irregular verbs

Fort he simple future, we S+WILL+V.INFINITIVO+C We will come to school by

have to use the auxiliary bus
Simple Future verb “will”+ infinite

To form the perfect S+HAVE+V.PAS.PARTICIPIO+C She has finished her

present, the auxiliary verb homework
”to have” is used in the
present and the past
participle of the verb. For
regular verbs, the past
Present Perfect
participle is the simple
form of the past. The
perfect present is used for
actions thatoccurred in a
non-specific time before
now.

We use it for actions that S+HAD+V.PAS.PARTICIPIO+C He had returned my car at

occurred before another last
action in the past. As in
the perfect present, the
Past Perfect
perfect past ir formed
with the auxiliary verb “to
have” and the past
participle.