Do Verbs Make you Tense?
If so, join the club. Lots of people get nervous when they hear terms like ‘present perfect’ or ‘future progressive.’ What does it mean? In case you want to know, here’s an overview of the twelve English verb tenses.
In a series of upcoming articles, I’ll be delving deeper (that was future progressive!) into each of the twelve tenses.
What exactly is a verb tense? When you make a statement, you usually have to indicate if you are referring to a situation that exists now, existed in the past or will exist in the future. You will often need to indicate the duration of the action, event or situation. Is it momentary or enduring? You may also need to clearly show the temporal relationship of actions, events and conditions that comprise a situation you are explaining.
A verb expresses the time of an action, event or condition by changing its form. Verbs are helped in this function by temporal references, auxiliary verbs, and modals.
The following chart shows the subtle differences among the 12 English verb tenses.
| Past | Present | Future | |
|
Simple |
An action that ended at a point in the past. |
An action that exists in the moment, is usual, or repeated |
An action that is planned for the future |
| I ate dinner yesterday. | I usually eat dinner at 7. |
I will eat dinner at 8 pm tomorrow. | |
|
Progressive |
An action was happening (past progressive) when another action happened (simple past). |
An action that is happening right now. |
An action that will be happening over time, in the future, when something else happens. |
| Uses the auxiliary ‘to be.’ | I was eating dinner when she called. | I am eating dinner now. |
I will be eating dinner at 8 pm tomorrow. |
| Perfect | An action that ended before another action in the past. | An action that happened at an unspecified time in the past. | An action that will end before another action or time in the future. |
| Uses the auxiliary ‘to have.’ | I had eaten dinner before she came over. | I have eaten many dinners at 7 pm. | I will have eaten dinner before you arrive. |
|
Perfect Progressive |
An action that happened over time, in the past, before another time or action in the past. |
An action occurring over time that started in the past and continues into the present. |
An action occurring over time, in the future, before another action or time in the future. |
| Uses the auxiliaries ‘to have’ and ‘to be.’ | I had been eating dinner at 7 pm for many years before I started eating at 8 pm. | I have been eating dinner at 8 pm for some time now. | By the end of the month, I will have been eating my dinner at 8 for five weeks altogether. |
The following chart of temporal references from the English Grammar Handbook at the Athabasca University site is helpful for seeing the subtle time differences between the verb tenses. It’s a good way to see at a glance which tense you need to express your idea. Notice that there is some overlap between the tenses.
| Past | Present | Future | |
| Simple | Simple Past | Simple Present | Simple Future |
| yesterday last year/ month/ etc. before for five weeks/days/etc. one year/ month ago |
every morning / day / etc. always usually frequently sometimes |
tomorrow tonight next week/month/etc. soon in the future |
|
| Progressive | Past Progressive | Present Progressive | Future progressive |
| while when |
now right now this week/minute/etc. |
when after as soon as before |
|
| Perfect | Past Perfect | Present Perfect | Future Perfect |
| before already by the time until then/last week/etc. after |
until now since ever never many times/ weeks/years/etc. for three hours/ minutes/etc/ |
by the time you go (somewhere) by the time you do (something) already |
|
| Perfect Progressive | Past Perfect progressive | Present Perfect Progressive | Future Perfect Progressive |
| before for one week/hour/etc. since |
for the past year/ month/ etc. for the last 2 months/ weeks/etc. up to now for 6 weeks/hours/etc. since |
by the time for ten days/weeks/etc. by |