In most grammar books they will teach you that there are three forms to a verb (infinitive: V1,

Past: V2,
Past Participle: V3) whereas there are in fact six. Look at the table below.

Table 1

Base Infinitive Present simple Present Participle Past simple Past Participle
(V1) (V2) (V3)

be to be am/is/are being was/were been

continue to continue continue(s) continuing continued continued

think to think think(s) thinking thought thought

In order to form all tenses there are just five rules you should remember. Look at the list below.

Table 2

1: Future Will + Base (V1)

2: Perfect Have + Past Participle (V3)

3: Continuous Be + Present Participle

4: Passive Be + Past Participle (V3)

5: Modals Can, could, should, would, etc… + Base (V1)

Once you have remembered these five rules, more complex tenses can easily be constructed without
having to think very hard. Imagine you need to use the Future Perfect Continuous. A lot of students will say:
‘will be doing’, ‘will have doing’ or ‘will have been’ but very rarely find the correct answer. Therefore by
making the following table students can easily find the correct answer.

(Source: ‘English Tenses Made Easy’ by W. Shearmur)

Table 3

Future will base

(V1)

Perfect + have Past participle

(V3)

Continuous + be Present Part.

Future Perfect = will have been Present

Continuous (V1) (V3) Participle

Example: I will have been swimming when you arrive.

Now Go swimming you arrive

| | | |

The result when you arrive is that I will have started and finished to swim. As swimming is a long process
the continuous is used.

(Source: ‘English Tenses Made Easy’ by W. Shearmur)

The main problem then is trying to remember how to use each tense. The following table will help you do
this.

Table 4
Tense Time Past Present Future

Three rules: Two rules: Two rules:

1: Definite past time. 1: Habits. 1: Future facts.
------------------- -------------------- -------------------
- 2: Timetables. -
Simple 2: Chronological order. 2: Unplanned future
-------------------- actions.
------------------- -------------------
-
3: Historical events.

Three rules:
1: Time up to now.
------------------- -------------------- -------------------
- 2: Present result at the -
Past result at a given present time. Future result at a given
Perfect
past time. future time.
--------------------
------------------- 3: Indefinite past time. -------------------
- -

Three rules:
1: Action happening at
time of speaking
------------------- -------------------- -------------------
- 2: Action happening -
Continuous Action happening around the present time. Action happening around
around a past time. -------------------- a future time.
------------------- 3: Future planned action. -------------------
- -------------------- -
4: Something that is
about to happen.

Action that continued Action that has continued Action that will have
Perfect Continuous for some time before up to the present time. continued for some time
another action. before a future time.

Something to notice is that in all three times (past, present, future) the perfect is used to talk about
results at a given time. The same goes for the continuous, which is used to describe an action happening
around a given past, present or future time.

(Source: ‘English Tenses Made Easy’ by W. Shearmur)