Unlocking the English Tenses Lesson 1: an overview of the tense system

So, how many tenses are there in English, actually? Well, 3! English has a past, present, and future tense, and each of these tenses has four aspects:

Simple

Progressive/continuous

Perfect simple

Perfect progressive

The fact that each tense has these same 4 aspects is great news for learners, because if you understand the past progressive for example, chances are you will understand the present and future progressive also, which is like hitting three birds with one stone! The English tenses consist of the following:

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The Past Tense

1. Past simple (the second form of the verb: ate, saw, took, walked, moved, talked, stopped, etc.)

“I walked to the city center to see my friend.”

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2. Past continuous (was/were + the “ing” form of the verb)

“While I was walking to the city center, I stopped for coffee.

3. Past perfect simple (had + the third form of the verb)

After I had drunk my coffee, I continued on my way.”

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4. Past perfect progressive (had been + the “ing” form of the verb)

I had been walking for about fifteen minutes before I got to my destination.”

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The Present Tense

1. Present simple (first form of the verb)

“I walk to the city center every day to see my friend.”

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2. Present progressive (is/are + the “ing” form of the verb)

“I am walking to the city center to see my friend right now.”

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3. Present perfect simple (have/has + the past participle/3rd form of the verb)

“I have walked to the city center?to see my friend many times.”

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4. Present perfect progressive (have/has been + the “ing” form of the verb)

“I have been walking to the city center to see my friend for years.”

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The Future Tense

1.?Future simple (will/going to + the first form of the verb)

“I think I will walk to the city center to see my friend.”

“Yes, I have decided?- I am going to walk to the city center to see my friend.”

2. Future progressive (will be + the “ing” form of the verb)

“I will be walking to the city center to see my friend at 15:00, so don’t call me then as I won’t answer.”

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3. Future perfect simple (will have + the third form of the verb)

“By 16:00 I will have walked to the city center to see my friend.”

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4. Future perfect progressive (will have been + the “ing” form of the verb)

“By 15:15, I will have been walking to the city center to see my friend for 15 minutes.”

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Over the next 12 weeks, we will go through each of these tenses in depth in our free “Unlocking the English Tenses” course, which will be posted here on my LinkedIn blog every Wednesday, so please stay tuned for more useful information on this interesting grammar topic!

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