Tenses: Understanding Time in Grammar

English grammar concept tenses is a critical topic that is studied from junior classes to senior classes. It helps to give a basic understanding to students about how to phrase a sentence referring to a certain time in that sentence. Vedantu is the platform for you to provide you with all the important questions that can appear in exams from this chapter. The revision notes from this chapter are so well organized that it helps students to get a clear understanding of all the topics, also examples are included in each topic that helps students to relate it to the particular situation and understand it in a better way.

Vedantu is the #1 online learning portal that helps you to get the best study material for English grammar concept Tenses. You can get expert teacher guidance to clear all your doubts about tenses and get a better result. This chapter is very important for your syllabus as well as for your spoken English because with this you will be able to phrase the correct sentences. So to get a complete understanding of this topic, you can study revision notes for Tenses - Introduction, Types of Tenses with Explanation, and Examples prepared by Vedantu.

Introduction

Tenses in English grammar concept represent the form taken by the verb to comprehend the situation referred to in time. For example, in the sentence, Yash walked for 2 hours and then he went to sleep, the past tense verb form, walk(+ed) signals the time of the walk in the past. Tense is used to assign a time factor to the sentence. Tenses just like time are divided into 3 parts-

• Past tense - I swam

• Present Tense - I swim

• Future Tense - I will swim

Before we start with the More complicated divisions there are three rules we should keep in mind-

• Only indicative forms of verbs are tensed.

• All the tenses have progressive and non-progressive forms for eg, I work here/I am working here, are both Present tense.

When a verb form is a very important complex, which involves more than one auxiliary, it is the first auxiliary that is marked for tense, not the main verb.

Types of Tenses in English

• Present Tense

• Simple Present Tense:: It is used to express daily tasks, facts, and universal truths. The present tense is used to express what is happening or happens daily or is a fact in itself. Adding the letter s or es makes a simple present tense.

Like- Likes

You, We, They: Like to play outside.

He, She, It: likes to play outside

for example-

• She writes a book.

• Moon comes out at night.

• New Delhi is the capital city of India.

• Present Perfect Tense: The present perfect tense is used to describe actions that are completed.

I, You, We, They: have killed time.

He, She, It: has killed time.

for example-

• I have seen the movie you love the most.

• He has been to India

• Present Perfect Continuous Tense: We use the present perfect continuous when the focus is on an action that is not yet finished or completed.

I, You, We, They: have been playing for a day.

He, She, It: has been playing for a day.

for example-

• I have been waiting for the car for an hour.

• It has not been raining since last Friday.

• Past Tense

• Simple Past Tense: Used to indicate an action that happened in the past. It often comes with an adverb of time. Sometimes it can be used without an adverb of time. Used for past habits.

for example-

• I went to school.

• You worked very hard in exams.

• She did not

• Past Continuous Tense: The past continuous tense is a very important tense in English. We use it to express what we were in the middle of doing at a particular moment in the past.

I, she, he, it- was playing in the garden.

They, We - were playing in the garden

for example-

• I was cooking last night for my sister’s children.

• They were not playing scrabble when I checked on them.

• Past Perfect Tense: The past perfect tense is easy to understand and to use in a sentence. This tense talks about an event which happened in the past. If two actions happened in the past, the past perfect tense is used to display the action that took place earlier.

I, he, she, it, we, they - had arrived at the station

for example-

• We were too late when the movie started.

• I thought I had seen the movie before but I was wrong.

• Past Perfect Continuous Tense: Used to denote an event that started before a certain point in the past and continued up to some time in the past.

I, he, she, we, it, you, they - had been sleeping on the couch when I arrived.

for example-

• Sita was very tired. She had been dancing.

• Had the student been roaming outside the classroom?

• Future Tense

• Simple Future Tense: The period of time after speaking a sentence is considered future tense.

This tense is used to express future events and happenings.

Rule – Will/Shall + Verb (Ist form)

I, He, she, it, we, you, they - will/shall play the piano tomorrow.

for example-

• Sita will ask the questions tomorrow.

• They will never speak about this.

• Future Continuous Tense: It is used to express an action that is going or continuing in the future. e.g. He will be distributing promotion letters in the office tomorrow at 12 o'clock. In the example, the action will commence in the future (tomorrow) and action is assumed to be continued till sometime in the future.

I, he, she, you, it, they, we- will be arriving at the airport tomorrow.

for example-

• I will be playing football on the ground tomorrow.

• She will be writing a letter.

• Future Perfect Tense: It is used to express an action that will happen/occur in future and will be completed by a certain time in future. We use the future perfect to say that something will be finished by a particular time in the future.

I, he, we, she, they, it - will have dinner at 10 pm

for example-

• She will have forgotten him by then.

• She will not have written a letter.

• Future Perfect Continuous Tense: It is used to talk about actions that will start at a fixed point of time in the future and will go on for some time in the future.

The future perfect continuous focus on the duration of an activity that will be in progress before another time or event in the future.

Example:

• Tomorrow at 4 pm, I will be on my way to Kolkata.

• It is also used to talk about planned actions or actions expected to happen.

• Relatives will be staying at Aunt Mina’s house.