12 Verb Tenses

The 12 Verb Tenses In English:

• Present Simple
• Present Continuous/Progressive
• Present Perfect
• Present Perfect Continuous/Progressive
• Past Simple
• Past Continuous/Progressive
• Past Perfect
• Past Perfect Continuous/Progressive
• Future Simple
• Future Perfect
• Future Continuous/Progressive
• Future Perfect Continuous/Progressive
 Present Simple

• When you use present simple, you are using a routine.

• It’s something that you always do every day, month or year.
• Or it’s something that you never do.

EXAMPLES:
• I, You, We, They: travel every day.
• He, She, It: travels every day
 Present Simple
• to talk about something that exists or happens regularly
• She goes out every Saturday night.
• It always rains here in winter.
• I start work at 7.30 a.m.

• to refer to a future situation in certain cases and in some subordinate

clauses
• The bus arrives in London at 6 p.m.
• I'll make us some coffee when we get home).
 Present Continuous/Progressive
• you are referring to what is happening right now.
• it can be an action that is not yet complete.

EXAMPLES:
• I: am traveling right now.
• You, We, They: are traveling right now.
• He, She, It: is traveling right now.
 Present Perfect

• Although it’s easy to confuse this verb tense with present simple, the main
difference is that the action is complete for present perfect.
• You are looking at the result right now without any words referring to time.

EXAMPLES:
• I, You, We, They: have traveled to France.
• He, She, It: has traveled to France.
 Present Perfect Continuous/Progressive

• An action starts in the past but it’s still continuing now.

• You have been performing the action and still are performing the action in
the present.

EXAMPLES:
• I, You, We, They: have been traveling for a day.
• He, She, It: has been traveling for a day.
 Past Simple

• For past simple, it includes a finished action and time.

EXAMPLES:
• I, You, We, They, He, She, It: traveled to France yesterday.
 Past Simple

• it’s used to talk about things or situations which happened in the past, that
is, before the present time of speaking.
• to refer to an event or situation which happened once and is now finished
• I met Lisa yesterday.
• We ate a huge breakfast this morning.
• They walked ten miles that day.
• You told me that before.
 Past Simple
• to describe a situation that lasted for a longer time in the past but is now
finished
• He went to college for four years.
• My family lived in Oxford in the 1980s.
•
• to talk about an event that happened regularly or repeatedly but is now over
• She called for help over and over again.
• We ate out every night last week.
• I phoned him three times today).
 Past Continuous/Progressive

• When you use past continuous, you are often using two actions.
• However, one action is not finished in the past, and another is complete
interrupting the other action.

EXAMPLES:
• I, He, She, It: was traveling by bus when the deer crossed the road.
• You, We, They: were traveling when the deer crossed the road.
 Past Perfect

• This verb tense uses two actions at two different times. Before the second
action occurs, the first action is complete.

EXAMPLES:
• I, You, We, They, He, She, It: had traveled by car when the bus arrived.
 Past Perfect Continuous/Progressive

• This very tense has a complete action that happened before a second
action. But in this case, you can describe how long.

• PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS/PROGRESSIVE EXAMPLES:

• I, You, We, They, He, She, It: had been traveling for one hour when the car
broke down.
 Future Simple

• This verb tense is about planning things to do in the future. For example,
what will you do tomorrow or next week?
• Instead of using “will”, you can use “going to” for future tense.

EXAMPLES:
• I, You, We, They, He, She, It: will travel to France tomorrow.
 Future Simple
• to give or ask for information about the future
• How long will the journey take?
• to talk about things that we think are likely or possible to happen in the
future, but which aren’t completely certain
• I think she’ll retire soon
• to refer to conditional situations, namely things that will or may happen if
something else occurs
• If it’s hot I’ll go swimming later.
• to make promises or threats, or to state decisions at the time of speaking
• Fine, I’ll call you soon.
• I’ll never speak to you again.
 Future Continuous/Progressive

• The action is not complete, when another action happens in the future. This
is similar to past continuous, but it refers to the future.

EXAMPLES:
• I, You, We, They, He, She, It: will be traveling when you arrive.
 Future Perfect

• An action will be completed in the future before another is completed.

EXAMPLES:
• I, You, We, They, He, She, It: will have traveled to France by the time you
arrive.
 Future Perfect Continuous/Progressive

• An action will be continuing in the future when it is interrupted by another

action.
• It often includes an indication of how long the action has been happening.

EXAMPLES:
• I, You, We, They, He, She, It: will have been traveling for one hour when you
arrive.