Tenses are used to write about something that has happened in the past, is happening in the present, or will happen in the future. It also tells us whether or not the task is complete. In a sentence, verbs tell us what is happening and tenses tell us when it happens.
There are different types of tenses within the three types. Let us learn about them.
There are four types of present tenses:
Simple present tells the reader when something is happening right now or regularly. You may need to add -s or -es to the end of the verb when writing in simple present. For example,
Present perfect is used for a situation that happened at some point in the past or which began in the past and finished in the present tense. You can use the past participle of the verb (for example, learned, entered, played, etc.) for the present perfect tense. For example:
Present Continuous is used in the following situations:
To tell us about something that began in the past and which is still happening, present perfect continuous is used. To use this tense, you can add has/have along with the present participle of a verb (for example, thinking, doing, eating, going, etc.) Here are some examples:
When we learn tenses in English grammar, past tense is an important topic.
For events that have happened or that existed in the past, you should use simple past tense. Simple past tense is used to tell us that an action has been completed. Here are some examples:
Past perfect is used to tell us about something that has happened in the past. It is used to tell us how the events played out, or that tell us about an earlier event. Past perfect is more exact than simple past. The formula for past perfect is had + past participle of the verb.
Here are some examples:
For an action that happened in the past or something that was continuing in the past, past continuous tense is used. You can use was/were with the past participle of the verb for past continuous tense. Here are some examples of past continuous:
The past perfect continuous tense tells us about an activity that began in the past and continued till another moment in the past. The verb's root + -ing suffix is used in the past perfect continuous tense. Past perfect continuous is used in the following situations:
Here are some examples:
To tell us something that is yet to take place, simple future is used. You can add will + the root form of a verb (go, do, think, etc.) to create simple future sentences. It doesn’t matter if the subject is singular or multiple. For simple future tense, you can also use is, am, are along with +ing. For example:
Future perfect is used to tell us about an event that will happen in the future before another action takes. It is used for a completed event in the future. To create a future perfect sentence, you can add will + the past participle of the verb. The formula is the same whether the subject is singular or popular. For example:
For actions that are going to continue into the future, perfect continuous tense is required. For this, you need to use will + be + present participle of the verb (+ing form).
The future continuous tense can only be used with action verbs since they can be done over a period of time. Seeing, thinking, and running are all examples of action verbs. Here are some examples of perfect continuous tense:
Actions that will continue until some point in the future are written in the future perfect continuous, which is also known as the future perfect progressive. You need to use the present participle of the verb (+ing) to form a future perfect continuous tense. When we use the future perfect continuous tense to tell us about an action, we are looking ahead in time and back on how long it took. We can assume that the action began sometime in the past, is now in progress, or will be completed. For example:
The past, present, and future are tenses of verbs. Things that have already happened are written in terms of past tense. Things that are happening right now or that are ongoing are best written using the present tense. Things that haven't happened yet are explained in the future tense (e.g., tomorrow, next month, next year, etc.). We hope that you’ve learned Tenses for Kids for Class 1 after reading this article.