Verb Tenses
Note: descriptions of verb forms and tenses vary. Here we present a simple overview of the tenses and forms of English which is useful for the classroom.
In grammar a tense (from the Latin tempus) is a form of a verb used to indicate roughly the time when the action described by the verb takes place.
In English there are 3 basic tenses: Past, Present and Future.
When a verb is in the past, it generally refers to an action which took place before now. Likewise, a future verb refers to an action which will happen after now and a present verb refers to something happening right now.
Within these 3 basic categories we have further divisions:
- Simple Forms
- Continuous Forms
- Perfect Forms
- Perfect Continuous Forms
Active Tenses
This table shows the Active Tenses.
| Tense | Simple Form | Progressive Form | Perfect Form | Perfect Continuous Form |
| Past | Past Simple: I walked. | Past Continuous: I was walking. | Past Perfect: I had walked. | Past Perfect Continuous: I had been walking. |
| Present | Present Simple: I walk. | Present Continuous: I am walking. | Present Perfect: I have walked. | Present Perfect Continuous: I have been walking. |
| Future | Future Simple: I will walk. | Future Continuous: I will be walking. | Future Perfect: I will have walked. | Future Perfect Continuous: I will have been walking. |
Passive Tenses
Each of the Active Tenses has a corresponding Passive Tense.
| Tense | Simple Form | Progressive Form | Perfect Form | Perfect Continuous Form |
| Past | Past Simple: The food was eaten. | Past Continuous: The food was being eaten. | Past Perfect: The food had been eaten. | Past Perfect Continuous: The food was being eaten. |
| Present | Present Simple: The food is eaten. | Present Continuous: The food is being eaten. | Present Perfect: The food has been eaten. | Present Perfect Continuous: The food is being eaten. |
| Future | Future Simple: The food will be eaten. | Future Continuous: The food will be being eaten. | Future Perfect: The food will have been eaten. | Future Perfect Continuous: The food will have been eaten. |
Other Tenses
Likewise, there are several other forms used in English: the infinitive the imperative and Modal Verbs.
Sometimes it is difficult to know exactly which tense to use. Often these problems are to do with selecting the right tense, e.g.
