Verb tenses in English

What are verbs?

A verb is a word that expresses an action, occurrence, or state of being. Here are some examples to illustrate these categories:

Action: run, jump, write
Occurrence: happen, become, occur
State of being: is, are, was

In sentences, verbs often indicate what the subject is doing or what is happening to the subject. For example:

She runs every morning. (Action)
It rained all night. (Occurrence)
He is happy. (State of Being)

Verbs can change form depending on tense, person, number, and mood, making them central to the structure and meaning of sentences.

All about verb tenses:

English verbs can be conjugated into various tenses to indicate when an action or state of being occurs. Here is an overview of the main verb tenses in English:

Simple tenses:

• Present simple: Used for habitual actions, general truths, and states of being.
  • Example: I eat breakfast every day.
• Past simple: Used for actions completed in the past.
  • Example: I visited Paris last year.
• Future simple: Used for actions that will happen in the future.
  • Example: I will call you later.

Continuous (progressive) tenses:

• Present continuous: Indicates an action that is happening now or around now.
  • Example: I am writing a letter.
• Past continuous: Indicates an ongoing action in the past, often interrupted by another past action.
  • Example: She was reading when the phone rang.
• Future continuous: Used for actions that will be ongoing at a specific time in the future.
  • Example: At 8 PM, I will be watching TV.

Perfect tenses:

• Present perfect: Used for actions completed at an unspecified time before now or for actions that started in the past and continue up to now.
  • Example: I have lived here for ten years.
• Past perfect: Indicates that one action was completed before another action in the past.
  • Example: I had already eaten when she arrived.
• Future perfect: Used to describe an action that will have been completed by a certain point in the future.
  • Example: By next month, I will have finished this project.

Perfect continuous tenses:

• Present perfect continuous: Indicates an action that started in the past, continues to the present, and may continue into the future.
  • Example: I have been waiting for you since 2 PM.
• Past perfect continuous: Used for an action that was ongoing up until another action in the past.
  • Example: She had been working there for three years before she got promoted.
• Future perfect continuous: Indicates an action that will have been ongoing for a certain duration by a specific time in the future.
  • Example: By next year, I will have been working here for five years.

Additional Notes:

• Conditional tenses: While not strictly “tenses” in traditional grammar, conditional forms like the present conditional (would go) and past conditional (would have gone) are used to discuss hypothetical or conditional situations.

Each tense can have variations to indicate person, number, and sometimes voice (active or passive), making English verb conjugation quite complex. Remember, the context and time reference in a sentence often dictate which tense to use. This chart can be a helpful reference tool.

	Past	Present	Future
Simple	I called my friend yesterday.	I call my friend every day.	I will call my friend tomorrow.
Perfect	I had called my friend before I left for the store.	I have called my friend too much this week.	I will have tried calling my friend 10 times after this call.
Continuous	I was calling my friend when she stopped by to visit me.	I am calling my friend right now.	I will be calling my friend when he lands tomorrow.
Perfect continuous	I had been calling my friend every day to wake him up before he finally got an alarm.	I have been calling my friend for help since childhood.	I will have been trying to call my friend for five hours.

For further study:

◦Auxiliary verbs vs Helping verbs vs Modal verbs
◦ Be verbs (irregular verbs)
◦ Do vs Have in English
◦ Do vs Make
◦ /-ed/ sounds (words ending in /-ed/)
◦ Have (to have)
◦ Irregular verbs (defined)
◦ Irregular verbs (list)
◦ Laying vs Lying
◦ Modal verbs