Had been when used. English Times
Today we are talking about such an important section of English grammar as verb tenses. To build an English dialogue, to form your own speech, you need to know as many English verbs as possible, as well as verb tenses. A verb is an action, so it is the most commonly used part of speech in any language. How to use the time table in practice?
The catch is that there are only three verb tenses in Russian. There are many more of them in English. But in Russian there are types - perfect and imperfect, which indicate the completeness and incompleteness of the action. All these nuances are reflected in English in individual verb tenses.
Let's create a table of English tenses together and see what goes where and what's what.
In order to get a table of the formation and use of verb tenses, we need to distribute the tenses into sections - Indefinite, Perfect, Continuous, etc. Let's try to create such a table with you and see what comes of it. Let's not take any irregular verb, so as not to complicate the task. Let's make our table using the example of the verb work - to work.
Tense | Affirmative Form | Interrogative Form | Negative Form | Examples |
Present Simple | I/you/we/they work He/she work s | Do I/you/we/they work? Does he/she work? | I/you/we/they don’t work He/she doesn't work | Every day we work in the garden. |
Present Continuous | I am working You/we/they are working He/she is working | Am I working? Are you/we/they working? Is he/she working? | I am not working You/we/they aren't working He/she isn't working | Andy is working now. |
Present Perfect | I /you/we/they have worked He/she has worked | Have I/you/we/they worked? Has he/she worked? | I/you/we/they haven’t worked He/she hasn’t worked | I have just worked with my pupils. |
Present Perfect Continuous | I/you/we/they have been working He/she has been working | Have I/you/we/they been working? Has he/she been working? | I/you/we/they haven’t been working He/she hasn’t been working | We have been working for three hours already. |
Past Simple | I/you/he/she/we/they worked | Did I/you/he/she/we/they work? | I/you/he/she/we/they didn’t work | We worked in the garden yesterday. |
Past Continuous | I/he/she was working We/you/they were working | Was I/he/she working? Were we/you/they working? | I/he/she wasn’t working We/you/they weren't working | Tom was working in the orchard when you called. |
Past Perfect | I/you/he/she/we/they had worked | Had I/you/he/she/we/they worked? | I/you/he/she/we/they hadn’t worked | She said that she had worked with John in the studio. |
Past Perfect Continuous | I/you/he/she/we/they had been working | Had I/you/he/she/we/they been working? | I/you/he/she/we/they hadn’t worked | She had been working for an hour when I came. |
Future Simple | I/you/he/she/we/they will work | Will I/you/he/she/we/they work? | I/you/he/she/we/they won’t work | They will work tomorrow. |
Future in the Past | I/you/he/she/we/they would work | Would I/you/he/she/we/they work? | I/you/he/she/we/they wouldn’t work | She said that she would work the next day. |
Future Perfect | I/you/he/she/we/they will have worked | Will I/you/he/she/we/they have worked? | I/you/he/she/we/they won’t have worked | I will have worked with the article by noon. |
Future Continuous | I/you/he/she/we/they will be working | Will I/you/he/she/we/they be working? | I/you/he/she/we/they won’t be working | This time next Sunday we will be working with the article. |
Future Perfect Continuous | I/you/he/she/we/they will have been working | Will I/you/he/she/we/they have been working? | I/you/he/she/we/they won’t have been working | I will have been working at the article for a month when Tom joins me. |
Here is a table with examples of the use of verbs. You can download it on our website, and it will always help you in learning and memorizing verb tenses.
What else you need to know about verb tenses
Let's remember what adverbs are used with some tenses. This is necessary to know, because if you know the correct adverb, you will always be able to use the correct verb. We bring to your attention the main adverbs for the main verb tenses.
So, Present Simple:
- Today - today
- Every day/night/morning/week/year - every day/night/morning/week/year
- Always - always
- Seldom - rare
- Often - often
- Usually - usually
Adverbs used in the Present Continuous:
- Now - now
- All day - all day
- At the moment - at the moment
Present Perfect and its adverbs:
- Already - already
- Ever - ever
- Never - never
- Yet - yet
- Since - since; since
- Till - until
- Until - until
- Just - just now, already
- Yesterday - yesterday
- That day - on that day
- The day before yesterday - the day before yesterday
- Then - then
- Two days ago - two days ago (three, four days, etc.)
- Tomorrow - tomorrow
- The next day/night/week/year - the next day/night/week/year
- The day after tomorrow - the day after tomorrow
How to easily learn the table of times?
We remind you that you can download the times table on our website. We advise you to learn it so that you can easily and quickly cope with the exercises, as well as constructing sentences and dialogues in English.
There is one topic in language learning that we can probably talk about endlessly. Of course, we mean tenses in English. It is sometimes difficult for students new to the language to get used to the way English-speaking people divide their time for themselves. In fact, each tense form in English has its own analogue in Russian, we just don’t distinguish these forms into separate groups. Therefore, understanding tenses is not at all difficult, and today you will see for yourself.
First, let's do a quick overview of all the time groups so you have an idea of what we'll be talking about today. As in Russian, English sentences can be built in the past, present and future. But besides these tenses, English also has 4 tense forms, namely: Simple, Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous. In general, it turns out that one idea can be expressed in twelve temporary forms. Each form has a different way of forming verbs that appear in a sentence. With their help you can determine the time. Detailed table for clarity:
Formation of tenses in English | ||||
Time/View | Simple | Continuous or Progressive (long) | Perfect | Perfect Continuous / Progressive (perfect continuous) |
Past (past) | V2 | to be (2nd form) + V-ing | had + V3 | had + been + V-ing |
Present (present) | V1 | to be (1st form) + V-ing | have / has + V3 | have / has + been + V-ing |
Future (future) | will + V1 | will be + V-ing | will + have + V3 | will + have + been + V-ing |
Having briefly examined English tenses, let's move on to their more detailed study and consider the rules for forming tenses with examples.
Why are tenses needed in English?
But first I would like to dwell on the question of why tenses of the English language are needed and whether it is worth learning them all. The tense system in English helps to correctly convey your thoughts to others. That is, you can make it clear what action we are talking about. Was it in the past or present? Has it already ended or is it still going on? Or maybe it happens regularly? - all these questions will disappear on their own , if it is known what tense was used in the sentence.
“So I’m just starting to learn the language, and I’ll immediately have to learn all 12 tenses of the English language?” - you ask. Ideally, yes, you need to learn all tenses. But, most likely, you will not be able to do this at once. Therefore, start your training from the times of the Simple group. Knowing the simple tense, you will be able to explain what happened or will happen to you, what you need and why. But you shouldn’t limit yourself to this time, and therefore, having dealt with it, gradually continue to study other groups. The latest one to consider is the Perfect Continuous group. It is often resorted to when the language level of the students already “exceeds” the average, because the tenses of this group are used quite rarely and are used more to demonstrate their knowledge.
Tenses in English: Simple group
Simple | Present | Past | Future |
|
+ | V1 | V2 | will + V1 | |
— | do / does + not + V1 | did + not + V1 | will + not + V1 | |
? | Do/Does...V1? | Did...V1? | Will...V1? |
Present Simple
Present Simple or simple present tense , is perhaps the most used. The use of this English tense is necessary to express regularly repeated actions, habits, schedules and facts.
As you may have noticed from the table above, the present tense is formed using a verb in its initial form, that is, in the form in which the word is indicated in the dictionary. However, this form may vary slightly depending on the person and number. So, if an action is performed by a third person in the singular, the verbs have an ending -s (-es):
To form negative and interrogative sentences, the auxiliary verb do is used. If it is used with third persons in the singular, then this verb turns into does, because it takes away the ending -s (-es) from the semantic verb.
Examples:
As you can see, this tense does not have any complex grammatical rules.
Past Simple
Past Simple or simple past tense in English is used to express the same simple repeated actions, but only in the past. To form it, a verb in the second form is used. It comes in two types. If the verb is regular, then it is enough to add the ending –ed. If it is irregular, then you just need to memorize the second form, because each irregular verb has its own one. Compare:
In this case, the person performing the action does not affect the verb in any way, that is, for all persons the form of the verb is the same. Let's look at the use of this time using examples:
To form negative and interrogative sentences in this case, the auxiliary verb did is used. It takes over the function of the past tense determiner, so the semantic verb returns to its initial form:
Future Simple
Future Simple or simple future tense in English is used to express simple actions that will happen in the future. It has the auxiliary verb will in all three sentence forms:
She will help you. | She will help you. | |
I will explain you how to do this. | I'll explain to you how to do it. | |
They will share their main ideas. | They will share their main ideas. | |
You will not (won’t) remember anything. | You won't remember anything. | |
She won’t be available because she’ll turn off her phone. | She won't be available because she will turn off her phone. | |
They won't sign the documents. | They won't sign the documents. | |
Will you be with me? | You will be with me? | |
Will they like the description of the product? | Will they like the product description? | |
Will he lie or not? | Will he lie or not? |
Tenses in English: Continuous group
Continuous / Progressive (Long) | Present | Past | Future |
|
+ | to be (1st form) + V-ing | to be (2nd form) + V-ing | will be + V-ing | |
— | to be (1st form) + not + V-ing | to be (2nd form) + not + V-ing | will + not + be + V-ing | |
? | to be (1st form) ... V-ing? | to be (2nd form) ... V-ing? | Will... be V-ing? |
Present Continuous
Present Continuous (Present Progressive) or present continuous tense in English (also known as continuous tense in English) is a tense that shows that an action is ongoing, that is, in the process of being performed at a given moment in time. It is usually constructed using the auxiliary verb to be, which is expressed in three forms, depending on person and number:
Examples:
I am typing him a message right now. | I'm typing a message to him right now. | |
We are watching TV all day long. | We watch TV all day. | |
They are translating the text at the moment. | They are currently translating the text. | |
He is not (isn’t) reading now. | He's not reading now. | |
Jim isn’t writing a new post. | Jim doesn't write a new post. | |
I am not (‘m not) learning Turkish. | I don't study Turkish. | |
Is she working here till summer? | Is she working here until the summer? | |
Are you doing this on purpose, huh? | You're doing this on purpose, right? | |
Are they studying the course at the moment? | Are they currently studying this course? |
Past Continuous
(Past Progressive) or past continuous tense is used to show that some action lasted at a certain point in the past. Its formation also requires auxiliary and semantic verbs. The same verb to be acts as an auxiliary verb, but only in the past tense:
Pronouns | to be in the past tense |
I | was |
We | were |
The semantic verb is formed in the same way as for the present continuous tense.
Examples:
I was sleeping when he called me. | I was sleeping when he called me. | |
She was cooking while I was reading a newspaper. | She was cooking while I was reading the newspaper. | |
They were watching a cartoon when the electricity was suddenly cut off. | They were watching a cartoon when suddenly the lights went out. | |
He was not (wasn’t) surfing the Internet at 8 in the evening. | He wasn't surfing the Internet at 8 p.m. | |
They were not (weren’t) talking to each other when I came in. | They weren't talking to each other when I walked in. | |
I wasn't analyzing the results. | I didn't analyze the results. | |
Was she laughing during your presentation? | Did she laugh during your presentation? | |
Were they training in the evening? | Did they train in the evening? | |
Was she teaching her student at 3 p.m.? | Was she tutoring her student at 3pm? |
Future Continuous
Accordingly, the Future Continuous (Future Progressive) or future continuous tense shows an action that will occur at a specific moment in the future. All 3 sentence forms in this tense require an auxiliary verb will be and a semantic verb ending in –ing:
When I come back, they will be listening to music. | When I return, they will listen to music. | |
I will be passing the exam this time tomorrow. | Tomorrow at this time I will be taking the exam. | |
They will be rehearsing here at 9 p.m. | They will be rehearsing here at 9 pm. | |
Diana will not (won’t) be recording a song tonight. | Diana won't be recording the song tonight. | |
Unfortunately, I will not be spending time with my friends during my vacations. | Unfortunately, I won't be spending time with my friends during my vacation. | |
They will not be building a website this time on Monday. | They will not be developing the website at this time on Monday. | |
Will they be chilling the whole day? | Will they chill out all day? | |
Will she be washing the dishes when we go downstairs? | Will she be washing the dishes when we go downstairs? | |
Will they be conducting a research? | Will they do the research? |
Tenses in English: Perfect group
Perfect (Perfect) | Present | Past | Future |
|
+ | have / has + V3 | had + V3 | will + have + V3 | |
— | have / has + not + V3 | had + not + V3 | will + not + have + V3 | |
? | Have/Has…V3? | Had... V3? | Will... have V3? |
Present Perfect
Present Perfect or present perfect tense is a tense in English used to express actions that have completed by now. It differs from the simple past tense in that it places emphasis on the result in the present that caused an action in the past.
This tense form requires the auxiliary verb have, which changes to has for the third person. But with verbs used as semantic ones, not everything is so simple. They are answered by the past participles. The participle can be formed in two ways:
- If the verb is correct, then it is enough to add the ending –ed:
Example sentences:
The son has broken the window with a ball. | My son broke a window with a ball. | |
My children have already made the list of presents. | My children have already made a gift list. | |
I have heard this story many times. | I've heard this story many times. | |
I have not (haven’t) hurt people ever. | I've never hurt people. | |
She has not (hasn’t) decided yet. | She hasn't made a decision yet. | |
They haven’t learned these formulas by heart; that’s why I’m sure they have written cheat sheets | They didn't memorize these formulas, so I'm sure they wrote spurs. | |
Has she been to Europe? | Has she been to Europe? | |
Have you ever watched an eclipse? | Have you ever watched an eclipse? | |
Have they met him yet? | Have they already met him? |
Past Perfect
Or the past perfect tense is used to show that some action took place before a specific moment in the past. It is formed using the auxiliary verb had and the same past participles:
I had prepared a surprise for my children by 7 o’clock in the evening. | I have prepared a surprise for children by 7 p.m. | |
We had considered all suggestions by Friday. | We reviewed all proposals by Friday. | |
I wanted to visit her but she had moved already. | I wanted to visit her, but she had already moved. | |
She had not (hadn’t) spent too much time before she understood the concept. | It didn't take her long before she understood the concept. | |
They hadn’t finished the construction by the deadline. | They didn't finish construction by the deadline. | |
We hadn't published the magazine by Monday. | We had not published the magazine by Monday. | |
Had she edited everything by the end of the day? | Did she edit everything before the end of the day? | |
Had he learned the details carefully before he started doing the project? | Did he study all the details carefully before starting the project? | |
Had she come back by Thursday? | Was she back by Thursday? |
Future Perfect
Future Perfect or future perfect tense, as you might have guessed, shows that the action will be completed by a certain point in the future. To form this tense, in addition to the auxiliary verb have, you will need the verb will. The meaning is the past participle:
I will have changed everything by this time. | By this time I will change everything. | |
She will have been in the Maldives at 3 a.m. | She will be in the Maldives at 3 am. | |
The builders will have built the stadium by next winter. | Builders will build the stadium by next winter. | |
They will not (won’t) have spent much time on family until they understand its value. | They will not spend much time on family until they understand its value. | |
She won’t have reached her goals until she starts working. | She won't achieve her goals until she starts working. | |
I think George and Quincy won’t have made up before your birthday party. | I don't think George and Quincy will make up until your birthday. | |
Will they have made it by March? | Will they do it by March? | |
Will she have got his real intentions before they get married? | Will she understand his true intentions before they get married? | |
Tenses in English: Perfect Continuous group
Perfect (Perfect) | Present | Past | Future |
|
+ | have / has + been + V-ing | had + been + V-ing | will + have + been + V-ing | |
— | have / has + not + been + V-ing | had + not + been + V-ing | will + not + have + been + V-ing | |
? | Have / Has … been + V-ing? | Had... been + V-ing? | Will... have + been + V-ing? |
Present Perfect Continuous
Present Perfect Continuous or present perfect continuous tense is a tense used to show an action that began and lasted up to a certain moment or continues to last now.
It has auxiliary verbs have been, which change to has been for the third person. The semantic verb is the same verb that was used in Continuous tenses. Among all the English tenses of this group, the Present Perfect Continuous tense is the most commonly used:
It has been raining all day long. | It rained all day. | |
My friend has been persuading me to go with him for an hour. | My friend convinces me to go with him for an hour. | |
I’m tired because we have been creating a studio all night. | I was tired because we had been setting up the studio all night. | |
She has not (hasn’t) been learning French since she moved from Canada. | She hasn't studied French since she moved from Canada. | |
Bryan hasn’t been enjoying his weekends since his mother-in-law came to visit them. | Brian didn't enjoy the weekend because his mother-in-law was visiting. | |
We haven't been sleeping all night. | We didn't sleep all night. | |
How long have you been living here? | How long have you lived here? | |
Have you been fighting again? | Did you fight again? | |
Who has been touching my documents?! | Who touched my documents?! |
Past Perfect Continuous
The Past Perfect Continuous or past perfect continuous tense is used in the same way as the Present Perfect Continuous, only in this case the action ends at a certain point in the past. Sentences are formed in this tense using the auxiliary verbs had been and the semantic verb ending in –ing. Since this form is not used very often and there are not many options for its use, let's look at just a few examples:
Future Perfect Continuous
Future Perfect Continuous or future perfect continuous tense implies a certain moment in the future. Time is used in very rare cases. It uses the auxiliary verbs will have been and the same semantic verb:
That's all. We hope that the explanation of the topic helped you, and the use of tenses in English is no longer a problem for you. Try to use all tense forms as often as possible when speaking, make up examples with them, do various exercises on English tenses and make translations.
To avoid having to constantly return to this article, redraw or create your own table of English tenses. It will be like a cheat sheet for you. Refer to it periodically, even if you have finished studying this topic, since repeating what you have covered will never do any harm. If you still have a little confusion with the tenses at first, with enough practice you will quickly understand how to use them. The main thing is that we deal with all the tenses step by step and do not move from one group to another until we have completely mastered the material.
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Often tenses in English present difficulties for English learners. This is explained by the fact that the system of tenses in the English language is unlike the one used in the Russian language, although some parallels can still be drawn. However, the system of English tenses has an undeniable advantage - it has strict orderliness, logic, and obeys the laws of grammar.
English Times. a brief description of
There are a total of 12 tenses in the English language, which are divided into four groups:
- simple or indefinite(group of simple tenses);
- continuous or progressive(group of long or continuous tenses);
- perfect(group of perfect tenses);
- perfect continuous or perfect progressive(group of perfect continuous tenses).
In English, just like in Russian, an action expressed by a verb can occur in the past, present, or future. Accordingly, each of the above groups of tenses can be expressed in the past tense ( past tense), present tense ( present tense), or future tense ( future tense).
Each group of tenses in English expresses different situations.
Simpler times describe the fact of the origin of an action, regardless of the extent of this action. They are also used to describe actions that occur with some regularity.
Long times, as the name suggests, describe what happens over a period of time, usually specified by the moment in question. Also, verbs of this group of tenses are always constructed using the verb be, and the ending is always added to them "-ing".
Perfect tenses describe actions that have already been completed at some point in time. Verbs in this tense group are always used with an auxiliary verb have, and they are always in the past participle form.
Perfect Long Times, as the name implies, define the signs of times of a perfect and long group; they describe actions that lasted over a certain period of time. Verbs of this group use two auxiliary verbs - have And been, and have the ending " -ing".
Having remembered the simple rules given above, choosing between these groups of tenses will be much easier.
Table of English tenses with examples
To further simplify the understanding of the English tense system, below is a table showing the main cases of using certain tenses.
Past (past tense) | Present (present time) | Future (future tense) | |
Simple/Indefinite | The fact of the origin of an action in the past. | An action that occurs with some regularity. | An action that is to happen in the future. |
cooked | cook/cooks | shall / will cook | |
He cooked yesterday. He cooked yesterday. |
He cooks dinner every Friday. He cooks dinner every Friday. |
He will cook tomorrow. He will cook tomorrow. |
|
Continuous/Progressive be + verb + ing |
An action that occurs at a specified time in the past (usually expressed by another action in the Simple Past form). | Action that is happening now. | An action that will take place some time in the future, at some specified moment. |
was / were cooking | am / is / are cooking | shall / will be cooking | |
He was cooking when the phone rank. He was cooking when the phone rang. |
He is cooking now. He's cooking now. |
He will be cooking when you come. He'll be cooking when you come. |
|
Perfect have + verb |
An action that completed before another action in the past, or before a moment in the past. | An action that occurred at some unspecified point in the past, and the effect of which is often present in the present. | An action that will be completed before another action in the future, or before a time in the future. |
had cooked | has / have cooked | shall / will have cooked | |
He had cooked the dinner when the phone rang. He had already prepared dinner when the phone rang. |
He has cooked many meals. He prepared many dishes. |
He will have cooked dinner by the time you come. He will already have dinner ready by the time you arrive. |
|
have + been + verb + ing |
An action that occurred during a period of time before another action in the past, or before a point in the past. | An action that began in the past, and which occurs over a period of time, and continues in the present. | An action that will begin in the future, and which will occur for some period of time before another future action, or a point in the future. |
had been cooking | has/have been cooking | shall / will have been cooking | |
He had been cooking for a long time before he took lessons. He had been cooking for a while before he took the cooking class. |
He has been cooking for over an hour. He's been cooking for over an hour. |
He will have been cooking all day by the time she gets home. He'll have been cooking all day by the time she gets home. |
Signs of tenses in English
To a certain extent, each group of English tenses may have some signs that suggest and help to understand which tense to use in a particular case. And although such signs do not allow us to determine with absolute certainty which time will be the most correct in a given case, they still simplify the task of choice.
Such signs express the period or time in which the action takes place.
For example:
yesterday (yesterday) indicates simple past
every day (every day) indicates simple present
tomorrow (tomorrow) indicates simple future
while (while) indicates past continuous
now (now) indicates present continuous
There are many such marker words in English that express a moment or period in time, and many of them indicate whether an action happened in the past or will happen in the future, and they can suggest which tense group should be used. If you learn to recognize such sign words, it will greatly help when choosing tenses. However, it should be taken into account that some such feature words can be used in more than one tense group. Below is a table containing the main such words-signs and showing what time they indicate.
Past (past tense) | Present (present time) | Future (future tense) | |
Simple/Indefinite | Simple Past | Simple Present | Simple Future |
yesterday - yesterday last year / month / etc – last year / month / etc. one year / month ago – one year / month ago |
every morning / day / etc. – every morning / every day / etc. always - always usually - usually frequently / often – often sometimes - sometimes |
tomorrow - tomorrow tonight - this evening next week / month / etc. – next week / next month / etc. soon - soon in the future - in the future |
|
Continuous/Progressive | Past Continuous | Present Continuous | Future Continuous |
while – while when - when |
now - now right now - right now this week / minute / etc. – this week / this minute / etc. |
when - when after - after as soon as - as soon as before - before |
|
Perfect | Past Perfect | Present Perfect | Future Perfect |
before - earlier already - already by the time - by that time until then / last week / etc. – until this moment / until last week / etc. after - after |
until now - until now since - since then ever - ever never - never many times / weeks / years / etc. – many times / many weeks / many years / etc. for three hours / minutes / etc. – within three hours / minutes / etc. |
by the time you go (somewhere) – by the time you go (somewhere) by the time you do (something) – by the time you do (something) already - already |
|
Perfect Continuous / Perfect Progressive | Past Perfect Continuous | Present Perfect Continuous | Future Perfect Continuous |
before - earlier for one week / hour / etc. – within one week / one hour / etc. since - since then |
for the past year / month / etc. – during the last year / month / etc. for the last 2 months / weeks / etc. – during the last 2 months/weeks/etc. up to now - until now since - since then |
by the time - by that time for ten days / weeks / etc. – within ten days / weeks / etc. by – to (any moment) |
It is no secret that one of the most popular grammatical topics for students and those interested in English is still the topic: tenses in English. Interest in it is quite justified, since the cases of using one or another tense in English differ from their understanding in other languages and thereby cause many difficulties.
There are such lovers of conquering linguistic peaks who strive, at all costs, to master everything English tenses. But in reality, even the British themselves do not use half of them.
English tense table
Of course, sketchiness will help to understand the ornateness of this topic. English tense table is a wonderful visual aid and should always be at hand for every beginner learning a language.
Answer unambiguously the favorite questions of beginners: “ How many tenses are there in English?? What to prepare for? Why so many? pretty hard. You could say 24! (16 in the active voice and 8 in the passive) and frighten students with the abundance of tense forms, especially continuous, complete and complete-continuous, the analogues of which seem to have no analogues in their native language.
Tense | Simple | Continuous | Perfect | Perfect Continuous |
Present | I am doing |
I have been doing He has been doing |
||
Past | I did | I was doing | I had done | I had been doing |
Future | I will do | I will be doing | I will have done | I will have been doing |
Future in the Past | I would do | I would be doing | I would have done | I would have been doing |
You can reassure us by answering that in English there are also three time planes - past, present and future, and then we are faced only with shades of actions. True, the verb forms that you have to comprehend will not become smaller from this :)
Simple | Continuous | Perfect | |
Present | The work is done | The work is being done | The work has been done |
Past | The work was done | The work was being done | The work had been done |
Future | The work will be done | - | The work will have been done |
Let's leave this question to the world's leading philologists, who have been arguing about this for many years, and let's focus on the use of tense forms.
Tenses in English seem quite complex, but this is only at first glance. It is important to understand some principles:
Firstly, it is possible to draw a parallel when studying tenses with the Ukrainian and Russian languages. The difference is that grammatical means are used to convey shades of actions in English, while lexical means are used in Ukrainian and Russian.
Secondly, the formation of tenses in English is much simpler and more logical. Memorizing these forms usually does not cause difficulties for students. It is much more difficult to decide where and what form should be used. This is what we will pay special attention to.
Active Voice / Active Voice
Simple |
Continuous Long-term |
Completed |
Perfect Continuous Completed-long |
|
Data. Something we do with a certain frequency. Always used when you need to talk about a sequence of events. | Long procces. As a rule, it is translated by an imperfective verb. | Perfect action. Translated using perfective verbs. | An action that lasted a certain period of time and, accordingly, ended or ended at a certain moment. | |
Present The present |
I cook and pizza sometimes. - Sometimes I cook pizza. | I am cooking a pizza now. - Now I'm making pizza. | I have just cooked the pizza. - I just made pizza. | I have been cooking the pizza for half an hour. - I have been preparing pizza for half an hour (up until now). |
Past Past |
I cooked the pizza, wrote the letter and went to the shop. - I made pizza, wrote a letter and went to the store. | I was cooking the pizza yeasterday. - I cooked this pizza yesterday (for a while). | I had cooked the pizza by the meeting. - I prepared pizza for the meeting (the action ends at some point in the past). | I had been cooking the pizza for twenty minutes when my friends came. - I had been preparing pizza for twenty minutes when my friends arrived. |
Future Future |
I will cook a pizza tomorrow. - I will cook pizza tomorrow (there is no emphasis here on the duration or completion of the process, we are simply reporting the fact). | I will be cooking a pizza tomorrow. - I will cook pizza tomorrow (within a certain time). | I will have cooked a pizza by the meeting. - I will prepare the pizza for the meeting (that is, the pilaf will be ready by this time. | I will have been cooking a pizza for twenty minutes by the time my friends come. - I will have been cooking pizza for twenty minutes by the time my friends arrive. (This form is used very rarely and, as a rule, in book speech). |
Future in the Past denotes a future action relative to a specific moment in the past. As can be seen from the examples, the sentence necessarily contains a verb in the past tense in the main clause; without it, the use of Future in the Past is impossible. |
He said that he would cook a pizza tomorrow. | He said that he would be cooking a pizza tomorrow. | He said that he would have cooked the pizza by the meeting. | He said that he would have been cooking pizza for twenty minutes by the time his friends came. |
Passive Voice
Simple |
Continuous Long-term |
Completed |
Perfect Continuous Completed-long |
|
The present |
Letters are sent every day. - Letters are sent every day. | Letters are being sent now. - Letters are being sent now. | Letters have already been sent. - The letters have already been sent. | |
Past |
Letters were sent yesterday. - The letters were sent yesterday. | Letters were being sent at 5 yesterday. - Letters were sent at 5 o'clock yesterday. | Letters had been sent before he phoned. - The letters were sent before he called. | |
Future |
Letters will be sent tomorrow. - The letters will be sent tomorrow. | Letters will have been sent by 5 tomorrow. - Letters will be sent tomorrow before 5 o'clock. | ||
Future in the Past |
Tense agreement in English
If you have figured out the forms of construction of certain tenses and cases of their use, then the next difficulty may be tense agreement in English. Here you not only need to correctly construct the tense itself, but also understand the very principle of coordinating the main and subordinate parts of a sentence. This is difficult to explain at first glance. The good news is that special attention should be paid to the fact that if in the main sentence the verb is in the past form, then in the subordinate clause the verb must also be in one of the past tenses, and it does not matter whether it is about actions in the present or the future.
Table of tense agreement in English:
Time in direct speech | Present Indefinite | Present Continuous | Present Perfect | Past Indefinite | Past Perfect | Future Indefinite |
Time in indirect speech | Past Indefinite | Past Continuous | Past Perfect | Past Perfect | Past Perfect | Future Indefinite in the Past |
And the main thing is that in English you don’t need to know many tenses to communicate. After all, the British speak as easily as possible without a clutter of complex structures. The basic tenses (Present Simple, Past Simple, Future Simple) are quite enough, but it is also advisable to master the Present Continuous and Present Perfect. The use of complex tense forms in colloquial speech will only indicate your illiteracy.
Of course, for varied and sophisticated coherent speech while working and expressing your thoughts on paper, you should be patient and memorize the entire table of tenses. And we will be happy to help you, contact us, we offer classes in groups and individually:
Hello guys! Many will agree that the topic of this article evokes fear. Tenses in English - This combination of words can scare even an experienced English student, let alone a beginner.
Just about English times
- It is worth understanding that in English there are 3 pillars on which all grammar rests - “ to be», « to have" And " to do».
- Each of these whales can swim in three times: Present,Past And Future.
- In turn, Present, Past and Future will flow into the seas Simple,Continuous, Perfect And Perfect Continuous.
- In the meantime, whales (or whales) swim in these seas, they have babies, or rather, new forms are formed.
Are you confused? Let's take a closer look.
How to learn all tenses in English
You just need to sort everything out and systematize your learning until it becomes automatic. You will know how much you have studied and how much is still to come, then the study of times will not seem like something limitless and endless.
- Present Simple used to express a common, regularly repeated action.
- Past Simple used to express an action that happened in the past.
- Future Simple used to express an action that will happen in the future.
- Present Continuous used to express an action taking place at the moment.
- Past Continuous used to express an action that occurred at a certain point in time in the past.
- Future Continuous used to express an action that will occur at a certain point in time in the future.
- Present Perfect used to express a completed (or still ongoing) action, the result of which is associated with the present.
- Past Perfect used to express an action that ended earlier than another action or a specific moment in the past.
- Future Perfect used to express an action that will be completed by a specific point in time in the future.
Important! There is also the time Future in the Past, which we talked about in the corresponding article.
- Present Perfect Continuous used to express an action that began in the past and continues in the present, or the duration of the action is important.
- Past Perfect Continuous used to express an action that began at a certain point in the past and continued for some time before the beginning of another action.
- Future Perfect Continuous used to express an action that, having begun at a certain moment, will still continue at some point in time in the future.
How not to be afraid of tenses in English?
- Be prepared for the fact that you should have a good feel for the difference between times, from a logical point of view. The tenses in English and Russian are not 100% similar, so it is not always possible to draw a parallel.
- After getting acquainted with each new tense, you must practice it well by completing various grammatical exercises in order to remember the construction and, of course, the situation where we use this tense.
- It is important to learn irregular verbs. For this purpose, there are now special songs that consist of all irregular verbs. Give it a try. This is a very effective method for learning irregular verbs. Especially for music lovers.
- Study English tenses systematically, without trying to learn everything in one day. As soon as you begin to navigate one time, you can move on to the next. Then be sure to practice the mixed exercises where the tasks will be collected in order to check if you are not confused about these tenses.
- It is advisable to practice English every day for 15 minutes. In this case, the new store of knowledge will be stored in your memory for a long time and you will use it automatically.
- If you are studying English tenses on your own, look for useful videos on the Internet. On our website you will find many useful grammar video lessons. This is much more interesting and reliable than looking for rules anywhere on the Internet.
- Don't overwork yourself! It's important to give yourself rest. If you turn English into daily hard labor, it will not benefit you, but will only discourage you from learning it.
- When learning tenses in English, pay attention to whether your memory is visual or auditory. Based on this, you can understand which tasks are best to give preference to achieve the most effective result.
- Don't try to learn all tenses in English at once. To start, learn 5-6 basic tenses. This will be quite enough to communicate in English competently.
- As a result, it is important to be able to use these tenses in a conversation. This is quite difficult to do on your own. Suppose you can find rules, exercises and answers to them on your own, but understanding whether you use English tenses in your speech is not an easy task.
Conclusion
With English tenses there are usually 3 scenarios:
- The student decides that he doesn’t need tenses in English because he just wants to improve his conversational skills.
- The student finds a popular grammar textbook and slowly studies each tense on his own.
- The student turns to the teacher and trusts him on his path to mastery at times in full.
Which one do you choose?
Definitely the second and third! It is impossible to communicate in a language like a native speaker without knowing the tenses. Definitely, if you want to know English, tenses are very important. So which side should you approach them from?
The EnglishDom online school employs many experienced teachers who have already proven to many students that learning tenses is not a disaster.
Many students come to a free introductory lesson with the request “just not grammar,” and after a few lessons with the teacher, they take grammar tests and other interactive tasks with great pleasure. So don't be afraid! U can do it! Times are waiting for you :)
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