Verb Tenses

These are the tenses of the English verb “to play”

Pr. Simple: We play card games in the evening.

Pr. Continuous: We are playing now.
Pr. Perfect: We have played two games.
Pr. Perfect continuous: We have been playing cards.

Past simple: We played tennis last week.

Past Continuous: We were playing with some friends.
Past Perfect: We had played tennis the day before.

Each tense depends on what we want to say according to the reference in time (timeline)

Roughly speaking, the actions will be described taking into account the moment when they
we took place. The choice whether a tense will be simple, continuous or perfect responses
to make emphasis on the action itself.
The past simple
We use the past simple for an action in the past “I bought this jacket yesterday”. The time
of the action (yesterday) is over.

The present perfect

We use the pr. perfect to talk about the past and about the present. When we use the pr.
perfect, we look back from the present. For example, we can use the pr. Perfect for an
action in a period leading up to the present.

“The café has just opened” (The café is open now)

The period referred to by the pr. Perfect can be very long. It can cover the whole of history
or the whole of someone’s life up to the present.

“Have you ever ridden a horse?” (Yes, but not since I was twelve)

We can also use the pr. perfect for a state lasting up to the present

“I’ve had these skis for years”

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