Timeline Use Examples

Repeated actions in time I walk to school everyday.

Simple Present
Generalisation People in England speak English.

Actions happening right now I am talking to 3B.

Present Continuous
Planned actions 

Jack is flying to London.
in the near future

Completed actions Elisa gave me a book.

Simple Past
Specific timing Our flight to Palermo took off at 8am.

I was talking to prof. Buratti, 


Interrupted actions
when a soccer ball hit me in the face.
Past Continuous
Gabriele was playing soccer 

Parallelism in the past
while Sofia was walking around.

Unspecified time I have been to London.

Present Perfect
I have taught at La Zolla
Duration until now
since January/for 5 months.

Present Perfect Duration until now I have been teaching at La Zolla 


Continuos and still going on since January/for 5 months.
 Timeline Use Examples

Andrea didn’t show up at the exam,

Past Perfect Past before the past
because he hadn’t heard his alarm.

Duration before something 
 We had been trying to call him for 2

Past Perfect Continuous in the past hours, when he finally came to school.

Actions in the future I will teach at La Zolla next year.

Future
Future plans 
 I’m going to fly to Spain
still unspecified in the summer.