E AcadTenses - Grammer
Tenses
The word “Tense” denotes the form of a verb that shows the time at which the action happened.
Example: Ria goes to school
The word “goes” in the above sentence is a verb and it denotes present tense and refers to the present time.
Tense | Simple | Progressive | Perfect | Perfect Progressive |
Present | I play. | I am playing. | I have played. | I have been playing. |
Past | I played. | I was playing. | I had played. | I had been playing. |
Future | I shall play. | I shall be playing. | I shall have played. | I shall have been playing. |
Present Tense
Present Tense | Form |
Simple | Plain infinitive but -s or -es are added to bare infinitives I play basketball every week. |
Progressive | Adding present participle (verb + ing) to the present forms of the auxiliary Am/is/are + present participle I am playing basketball now. |
Perfect | Have/ has + past participle Be verb + ed/en I have just played basketball. |
Perfect Progressive | Have/ has + present participle (verb+ ing) I have been playing basketball for 3 hours. |
Past Tense
Past Tense | Form |
Simple | The past tense form of the verb is used. I played basketball yesterday. |
Progressive | Was/were + present participle (verb + ing) I was playing basketball the whole evening. |
Perfect | Had+ past participle I had played basketball before Mary came. |
Perfect Progressive | Had+ been+ present participle
I had been playing basketball when Mary came. |
Future Tense
Future Tense | Form |
Simple | ‘shall’ or ‘will’ is used with the base form of the verb. I will play basketball next week. |
Progressive | Shall/ will + be + present participle I will be playing basketball next Saturday. |
Perfect | Shall/will + have+ past participle I will have played basketball by tomorrow. |
Perfect Progressive | Shall/will + have+ been+ present participle I will have been playing basketball. |