Tenses

A verb is a word which suggests what a subject is, what it does or what happens to it.
Hence there is a possibilityof relating the functions of the verb to the past, present or future.

The forms of each Tense

1. Simple
2. Continuous
3. Perfect
4. Perfect continuous

Simple eat, eats

Present Continuous is/am/are eating
Perfect Have/Has eaten
Perfect continuous have/has been eating
Past Simple ate
continuous was/were eating
Perfect had eaten
Perfect continuous had been eating
Future simple shall/will eat
Continuous shall/will be eating
Perfect shall/will have been eaten
perfect continuous shall/will have been eating

The simple present

Eat, eats do, does cows eat grass with a plural subject, the base from of the verb is
used - they, we, I, you.
Ex. cows eat grass

With singular subject (other than I & you) the s/es form of the verb in used (singular, he, she,
it none)
Acow eats grass
This tense denotes a permanent truth, habitual action, imperative& exclamatory

Present continuous
 Is/an/are + (verb) ing
Important uses are
To show an action going on at the moment
1. The child is sleeping
To show an action in the immediate future.
1. I am going home next Monday

Present perfect
Singular has. Plural have.
Have/Has + Past participle
Ex- The plane has landed.

1. To express an action that has just finished

2. To express a past action the results of which are still felt or observed.
a. I have worked in this office for 2 years

Present Perfect continuous

Have/has been + (verb) ing.
To show an action which began in the past and is still continuing

Simple past.
Did + verb = eat + did = Ate
Write + did = wrote

Important uses
To denote an action that occrued in the past.
Ex – My friend died last year
Habitual action in the past
Ex – when I was in Delhi I went to temple every week-end

Past continuous
Was/were + (verb) ing

Important uses
To show the continuity of a past action
Ex (1) he was working all the morning.
To denote an action that was continuing when another action took place.
Ex- It was raining so the match stopped.
To show repeated action.
He was always demanding more salary

Past Perfect
Had + past participle.
It is used to indicate the earlier of two actions. The later action is indicated by the simple part.
Ex. The train had left by the time I reached the station.

The past perfect continuous

Had been + (verb) ing
Shows an action which started sometime in the past and continued without break till a latter
point of time in the past when something happened
Ex- I had been reading for hours before he came

Simple Future
Shall / will + verb
Ex- I will come with you

Future Continuous
Shall/will + be + verb (ing)
I shall be visiting my friends during the vacation.

Future perfect
Shall /will + have + past + participle. This tense shows that a certain action will be completed
by a certain future time.
She will have finished cooking by now

Future perfect continuous

Shall/will + have been + verb (ing)
This tense is rarely used. Its purpose is served by future perfect.