English Tense in Brief

 

Friends, in this post we are going to discuss the most important part of English Grammar and that’s TENSES in nutshell.

Friends, we have been dealing with the tenses since our Childhood. The tenses are the most important part of English Language and Grammar as well. Just building vocabulary and having fluency with communicative approach is not sufficient.....

Friends, without understanding tenses and having a sound command over this part of Grammar, it seems quite difficult to write, understand and speak correct English. 

 In English language there are three theses: Present, Past and Future. In each these we have four different aspects or Sub-tenses Simple, Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous. The basic structure of each aspect has been given and highlighted in red colour.

 

Present Tense:

Simple Present Tense: (S+V1+O)

Friends, this tense is used in certain situations like .....

1.     To express the universal or eternal truths.

2.     To express the present truth.

3.     To express the routine or habitual actions.

4.     To describe the actions which are in progress.

5.     To describe Object, Place and People.

6.     To express exclamatory sentence.

 

Present Continuous Tense: (S+am/is/are+V1+ing+O)

In this tense, the main verb is used in the progressive form and some forms of the verb ‘be’ or auxiliary verbs are used before the main verb in the sentence.

 

Frinds, there are certain situations in which we are supposed to make use of this tense and those situations are:  

 

1.     When action is in progress at the time of speaking.

2.     It is used to show that the action is temporary which is not expected to continue for a long time.

3.     Action concerned with future.

 

Present Perfect Tense: (S+have/has+V3 +O)

Friends, this tense is used to express the action or activity which is just completed in the past but the completed action or activity has still relevance with the present moment where we are talking about ....

In this tense the word perfect tells us the action is completed and the word present shows the relevance of the completed action with present.

In this tense the focus is given on the completed action and its result. There is no relevance of the time at all.

Example:

He has read War and Peace. (No time relevance)

I have been to Delhi. (No time relevance)

They have just disused it with him. (No time relevance)

 

Present Perfect Continuous Tense: (S + have/has + been + V1 + ing + O)

This tense is the combination of the present perfect and present continuous or progressive tense.

Example- Ajay has been teaching in this institute since 16^th August 2009

This example tells us that the action of teaching by Ajay started in the past on 16^th August 2009...continued throughout the years from 2009 to till probably to the moment of speaking and still it is going on......  

Example: Ajay has been playing cricket for the last two hours.

 

Past Tense:

Simple Present Tense: (S+V2+O)

This tense is used to refer an action or activity or event that took place sometime in the past before the moment of speaking and speaker thinks so.

This tense takes the structure of S + V2 +O. There are certain situations in which this tense is used. Those situations are:

 

1.    Action took place in the past.

2.    Used for single action.

3.    Used to express the habitual actions in the past.

 

Past Continuous Tense: (S+was/were+V1+ing+O)

In this tense, the main verb is used in the progressive form and some past forms of the verb ‘be’ or auxiliary verbs are used before the main verb in the sentence.

Friends, there are certain situations in which we are supposed to make use of this tense and those situations are:  

1.     Action progressed in the past but not now.

2.     Overlapped time of actions performed in the past.

3.     Used to show different actions at the same time in the past.

Past Perfect Tense: (S+had+V3+O)

The past perfect tense consists of the helping verb ‘had’ followed by the V3 or III form of the main verb.

Ex:-When I met my friend in the canteen yesterday, he had eaten his lunch

In this example the first highlighted verb i.e. ‘Met’ is in simple past whereas the second, ‘had + eaten,’ is in Past Perfect.

• Used to show a sequence of events in the past:

If we are talking about the number of events took place in the past and willing to point out the sequence of the same them this tense can be used for it.

Examples-After I had read the newspaper, I completed the homework.

                 -When I arrived at the office yesterday, the meeting began.

                 - When I arrived at the office yesterday, the meeting had begun.

 

The first sentence suggests that the two actions may have happened simultaneously at the same time whereas the second example clearly tells us that one action happened earlier than the other.

 

Past Perfect Continuous Tense: (S+had+been+V1+ing+O)

 

The past perfect continuous tense is all about the action started in the past, continued in the past and completed in the past itself. 

 

Examples-I had been living in Delhi.

                  I had been living in Delhi before I moved to Pune.

 

 

Future Tense:

Simple Present Tense: (Shall/Will/+V1)

This tense is used to talk about the future activity or action and Shall/Will is used with V1

Example-  I shall come even if it rains.

               - He will join us soon. 

Future Continuous Tense: (Shall/Will/+be+V1+ing)

(Mike) This tense is used to express the future action which will be in middle of doing something at a certain time in future. Like He will be joining.....She will be coming....I shall be writing......etc. 

 

Future Perfect Tense: (Shall/Will/+have+V3)

This tense tells us that certain action will be completed by some time in future.

 Example  -The zoo will have closed by the time we get there.

                  -Raj will have left when we arrive there.

Future Perfect Continuous Tense: (Shall/Will/+have+been+ V1+ing)

This tense is used to express the action which will be going on in future and completed in future itself. This tense is quite rarely used in our day today communication.   

Examples-

•      By 2020, Rajiv will have been running the school for ten years.

•      When I see you next time, you will have been working as the Manager.

•      When I turn thirty, I will have been playing piano for twenty-one years.

 

So Friends, thank you for exploring the blog_post. I hope you have understood the tenses and its different aspects in brief.

Thank you !