Learn ALL 16 TENSES Easily in under 30 Minutes Present Past Future Conditional

(upbeat music)

• Hello, lovely students,

and welcome back to English with Lucy.

I have an amazing video for you today

if I do say so myself.

I am going to teach you
all of the English tenses.

Lots of you have been asking
me for a tenses review,

and I say, go big or go home.

The saying to go big or go home

means to put in all your
effort or to do nothing at all.

I’d rather put in all of my effort.

So today in under 30 minutes,

we will go through all 16 tenses.

You will walk away from this lesson

with a much better understanding
of all the English tenses.

What is more is that I
have created a free PDF

that goes with this lesson.

It’s got everything we’re
going to discuss today,

lots of examples, and
it’s also got exercises,

so you can put what you’ve
learned in this lesson

into practise in those exercises.

If you would like to
download that free PDF,

just click on the link
in the description box,

enter your name and your email address,

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Okay, so today we’re learning
all 16 tenses in English,

and I’m going to give
you loads of examples

so that you can learn them
and use them yourself.

Firstly, I think it’s
best to have an overview,

and then we can go more
in depth into each group.

I know that going over 16
tenses all in one lesson

may seem like a lot and it is,

this is a big lesson,

but they do share a
lot of characteristics,

so seeing them all together

can make them easier
to learn and remember.

Let’s go through them first.

We have the present simple;

I eat chocolate.

The present continuous;

I am eating chocolate.

The present perfect;

I have eaten chocolate.

The present perfect continuous;

I have been eating chocolate.

Then we move on to the past simple;

I ate chocolate.

The past continuous;

I was eating chocolate.

The past perfect;

I had eaten chocolate.

Whenever I say had,

I can’t help but go up.

I had eaten. (laughs)

And the past perfect continuous;

I had been eating chocolate.

Oh, I just can’t not do that.

Now, moving on to the future.

We have the future simple;

I will have a toothache

after all this chocolate, just kidding.

I will eat chocolate.

The future continuous;

I will be eating chocolate.

The future perfect;

I will have eaten chocolate.

And the future perfect continuous;

I will have been eating
chocolate. (laughs)

Last group we have is conditionals.

The conditional simple;

I would eat chocolate.

The conditional continuous;

I would be eating chocolate.

The conditional perfect;

I would have eaten chocolate.

And finally, the conditional
perfect continuous;

I would have been eating chocolate.

Can you see how many
similarities there are

between all of these tenses?

Now let’s look a little more closely,

starting with the present tenses.

The first tense that you learn in English

is usually the present simple,

and that’s for good reason.

It’s actually the tense
that native speakers use

in around 50% of their written
and spoken communication.

We do use the other present
tenses quite often, too,

so they are all really, really important.

The present simple, I work on Tuesdays.

This is used to talk
about general statements,

habits, and facts.

The present continuous;

I am working now.

This is used to talk about actions

that are happening right now.

The present perfect;

I have worked at a pub.

We use this to talk about
past events or past actions

that have present consequences.

And the present perfect continuous;

I have been working for three hours today.

This is used to talk about an action

that started in the past and
continues to the present.

Okay, the structure of the present simple;

like its name, it is fairly simple.

We have the subject plus
the base form of a verb,

except from in the third person singular,

and this always catches most students out

when they’re relatively
new to learning English.

In the third person singular, we add an S.

So for I, you, we, and they,

it’s, I work, we eat, they play, you do,

but the he, she, and it,

it is, she works, he cleans, it smells.

Another exception is be,

the verb to be.

To be has its own forms
in the present simple,

I am., you are, he, She,
it is, we are, they are.

As I said before,

we use the present simple to
talk about general statements,

facts, and habits.

We also use it to talk
about schedule events

like plane and train times.

Here are some examples.

I am a woman.

My name is Lucy.

This is a general statement or fact.

Mary meets her friends on Friday evenings.

That’s a habit.

The train to London leaves at 8:00 PM.

That’s a schedule event in the future.

Our dog eats the cat’s food,

and that’s habit.

Habit we’re trying to
conquer at the moment.

We don’t know why he started doing it,

but he has since we moved house. (laughs)

I hope all of that’s clear.

There are lots more examples in the PDF,

and there is a quiz for every tense.

So please do download that.

The link is down below
in the description box.

Right, let’s move on to
the present continuous.

We use the present continuous
to talk about things

that are happening at
the moment of speaking,

but be careful in general
there is an exception

we can’t use state verbs,

words like hate, love, want, for example.

There is an exception there,

and I will mention it.

It’s to do with slang.

The structure of the present continuous

is subject plus be plus verb-ing.

It writes subject plus be plus verb-ing.

You can use that.

Here are some examples.

I am teaching English.

They are baking cookies.

We can also use this
tense to talk about things

that we think are temporary.

Compare these two sentences.

James lives in Manchester.

James is living in Manchester.

In the first sentence,

I use the present simple

because I think that his state
is more or less permanent,

but in the second sentence,

I use the present continuous

because I think his
situation might be temporary.

He’s living in Manchester now,

but I don’t know what might happen

in a few weeks or a month.

Perhaps he’s studying there,

or he’s working there for a short time.

Now you will hear native speakers

use state verbs in the present
continuous in this form,

or to show this meaning.

I am loving my christmas jumper right now.

Love is a state verb.

I’m not meant to use it,

but it means right now,

a trend that I am enjoying

is my christmas jumper, (laughs)

which I must say,

I think this is a very
nice christmas jumper.

I actually had another option today.

It was between this one,

which have wore last year,

but I got this one on
a secondhand website,

very happy with myself.

Anyway, back to the tenses, (laughs)

you’ll also hear people say,

oh no, I’m hating that song right now.

It means it’s a temporary state,

some reason right now I don’t
enjoy that song temporarily.

I’m hating it.

So when you hear teachers say,

never use a state verb
in the present continuous

take that with a pinch of salt.

We also use the present continuous

to talk about arrangements.

This means that we are
planning to do something

in the future,

and it involves another
person or business.

Let me show you an example.

I am having my haircut on Tuesday.

Sarah is meeting her parents tomorrow.

They are plans, but they
depend on someone else.

Let’s take a look at some examples.

Kate is studying business,

temporary situation happening now.

We are meeting our friend
next Friday in Edinburgh,

arrangement involving someone else.

We are driving home.

We are doing this right now in the moment.

It is snowing, for example,

it did actually snow the other day,

it was magical,

but enough about my weather, (laughs)

let’s move on to the present perfect.

The structure of the present perfect

is subject plus has or have
plus the past participle.

There are three main ways

that we use the present
perfect in English.

The first is to talk about things

that started in the past
and continue to the present.

It’s very important to remember

that they are unfinished actions.

When we talk about these events or states,

we often mention how long
they’ve been going on for

or when they started.

For example, I have lived
in the UK all my life,

or she has been at university since 2020;

William and I have been
married for three months.

Oh, it’s our three month
anniversary nearly,

how exciting, (laughs)

the second way that we
use the present perfect

is to talk about our
experiences up to the present.

When we do this,

we don’t talk about exactly
when something happened.

We are just generally telling somebody

about our life experiences.

For example, she has been
to Canada three times.

We have met the queen.

I have read all of the Harry Potter books.

Finally, we also use the present perfect

to talk about past events and actions

that have consequences in the present.

For example, I have eaten
breakfast so I’m not hungry,

or Mike has lost his keys so
he’s going to be late for work.

Let’s move on to the last of the presents,

the present perfect continuous.

I’ve just realised,

I looked like a present,

and I’m talking about the present tenses.

Maybe I should have just made a video

about the present tense this
dresses present. (laughs)

Now we use the present perfect continuous

to talk about something
that’s started in the past

and continues to the present,

and that might sound very
similar to the present perfect,

but there are a few key differences.

One big difference is the structure.

We use the structure subject plus has/have

plus been plus verb-ing.

I have been eating chocolate
as we discussed before.

Now with the present perfect continuous,

we often use it to talk about things

that we have been doing
uninterrupted that haven’t finished.

We use this tense to emphasise

how long something has been happening.

For example, I’ve been watching
that TV show for weeks.

I’m emphasising how long I
have been watching the TV show,

or Ellen has been replying to
emails for two hours already.

We use it to talk about things

that have been done recently or lately.

For example, look, it’s been snowing,

or I’ve been practising
my football skills

a lot recently. (laughs)

That’s such a lie.

Remember we generally

don’t use the present perfect continuous

to talk about states.

You wouldn’t say I have
been belonging to a band

for a long time.

You would say, I have belonged
to a band for a long time.

Some more examples,

they’ve been trying to call you all day,

or she hasn’t been feeling well lately.

Okay, we made it through
the present tenses.

Let’s move on to the past tenses.

We’ll have a quick overview,

and then we’ll go into more detail.

We have the past simple.

I worked abroad last summer,

that talks about past finished actions.

We have the past continuous.

I was working at 2:00 PM yesterday,

that describes a continuing action

at some point in the past.

We have the past perfect.

I had worked there for two
years before I got my promotion.

That’s used to describe past actions

that happened before
another past action or time.

And we have the past perfect continuous.

I had been working there for two years

before I finally got my promotion.

Very similar to the previous one,

but we’ll go into more detail.

We use the past perfect continuous

to talk about past actions

that continued to a past point in time.

Let’s start with the past simple,

this one is nice and easy.

It’s the second most common
tense that English speakers use.

We use it to talk about events

that happened before the present moment.

These must be finished events or actions,

and we often say when they happened,

although that’s not obligatory.

The structure is the subject
plus regular verb-ed.

However, lots and lots
of verbs are irregular,

and I do actually have a video

on some of the most common irregular verbs

that could be really useful.

So I will leave that link
down in the description box.

An example, I went to bed
at 10:00 PM last night,

or Dennis ate a box of
chocolates for breakfast.

Live your life, Dennis.

That sounds like my kind
of breakfast. (laughs)

Another example, my husband
bought me flowers last week,

are not true though.

Not true; maybe next week. (laughs)

Okay, let’s move on to
the past continuous.

The structure of this tense

is subject plus was or
where plus verb-ing.

We can use this tense to
talk about actions or states.

One way in which we
use the past continuous

is to say what was happening

at a specific moment in the past.

For example, Tom was cooking
dinner at 7:00 PM yesterday.

We can also use it

to give background
information about something.

For example, Will was speaking to me

whilst I was trying to record a video,

or it was snowing when I went outside.

We also use it to say
that an ongoing action

was interrupted by another action.

In this case,

it’s usually paired with another
clause in the past simple.

We were eating dinner when he arrived.

We were eating dinner over
this long period of time,

and he arrived right then,

or they were chatting about their holiday

when Ben called them.

Let’s move on to the past perfect.

The past perfect tense is
used to talk about events

that happened before another event

or up to a certain time in the past.

Again, it is often used
with the past simple.

The structure is as follows,

subject plus had plus past participle,

and if you don’t do that when you say had,

you’re not my student.

Let’s take a look at some examples.

When I arrived at the bus stop,

the bus had already
left, already happened,

or you had travelled to 10 countries

before your second birthday,

or she had worked at the
company for five years

before it closed,

or we had already eaten dinner

so we weren’t hungry
when dinner was served.

Finally, let’s discuss the
past perfect continuous.

The structure is subject
plus had been plus verb-ing.

Now the past perfect and
the past perfect continuous,

what a mouthful,

are often used interchangeably
by native English speakers.

There’s no difference in overall meaning.

Take a look at these two sentences;

there’s no real difference
in overall meaning.

I had worked there for five
years when the company closed,

or I had been working there for five years

when the company closed.

No real difference, we can say either.

However, you should
use the continuous form

in these two situations.

If you are talking about
an action in the past

that continued up to a certain
time and continued after it,

or if you’re talking
about a repeated action

that happened in the past
up to a certain point.

Let’s take a look at some examples.

They had been walking for hours

before they decided that they were lost,

or the orchestra had been
practising for months

before the concert happened.

In the words of Bon Jovi,

I think we’re living on a prayer

because we are officially halfway there.

It’s time to move on.

If you’re still here,

you’re doing really well,
really, really well.

Let’s have a quick overview
of the future tenses.

We use them to talk about
events after the present moment.

We have the future simple.

I will work in the summer.

This is used to talk
about events or actions

that we believe will happen in the future.

We’re nearly certain.

We have the future continuous.

I will be working at two o’clock tomorrow.

We use this for actions at a
specific moment in the future.

We have the future perfect.

I will have worked there
for two years on Sunday.

We use this to talk about
an event or an action

that is planned or expected to happen

before a certain time in the future.

And we have the future perfect continuous.

I will have been working
there for two years on Sunday.

Very similar to the last,

we’ll talked about that.

We use this to talk about
an action that will continue

up to a certain point in the future.

Let’s take a closer look now.

The future simple,

the easiest way to talk about the future.

The structure is subject plus will

plus base form of the verb.

We can use it to talk about things

that we think will happen in the future.

I think it will rain tomorrow.

I’m sure you’ll love this book.

We can also use it to
make offers or promises.

I’ll help you carry those boxes.

Richard will call you tomorrow.

And finally, we can use
it to talk about facts

in the future.

It will be our first wedding
anniversary next year,

or our house will be 300 years old soon.

Let’s move on to the future continuous.

The structure is subject
plus will be plus verb-ing.

This tense is used to talk about actions

that will be in progress
at a certain point in time.

These actions will start
and end in the future,

but we don’t know when.

I will be eating dinner
at 8:00 PM tomorrow.

I don’t know when I’ll finish.

It also indicates that an
action will be carried out

over a period of time,

not simply in an instant.

I’ll be playing tennis tomorrow.

That will be a considerable
amount of time,

maybe 30 minutes to an hour,

not just a second.

We also have the future perfect.

We use the future perfect to
talk about actions or states

that will be completed

before a certain point
of time in the future.

We often use time clauses
with the future perfect,

like by or when I’m older.

I’ll show you lots of examples,

but first the structure,

subject plus will have
plus past participle.

Some examples, I will have
retired by the time I’m 65.

We’re using by there to
show that final point,

or you will have finished the popcorn

before the film starts,

or come over at 9:00 PM,

my parents will have
left by then. (laughs)

Finally, we have the
future perfect continuous.

This tense describes actions
that will be continuing

at a certain point in the future.

When you use this tense,

you’re thinking about the
duration of that action

up to a certain point in time.

The structure is subject

plus will have been plus verb-ing.

She will have been living in Cardiff

for three months in August,

or when I retire next month,

I will have been working
here for three years.

Like with most other continuous tenses,

we don’t usually use state verbs.

It should be,

I will have had my cat for
five years this Christmas,

rather than I will have been having my cat

for five years this Christmas.

You also can’t use the
future perfect continuous

to talk about finished actions.

You just have to use the
future perfect instead.

Finally, the last four tenses

are the conditional tenses,

and I do actually have a
full video on these tenses,

which I will leave in the description box,

but I’d like to go over
them briefly today.

We use these tenses to talk
about hypothetical situations

or an event that depends
on another event or state.

These conditional tenses

often form part of conditional sentences,

but they don’t always have to.

Let’s have a brief overview.

We have the conditional simple.

I would work abroad if I could.

We use this to talk about
hypothetical actions

in the present.

We have the conditional continuous.

I would be working abroad
now if I wasn’t stuck here.

We use this to talk about
hypothetical continuous actions

in the present.

We have the conditional perfect.

I would have worked abroad last year,

but I didn’t get my visa.

We use this to talk about
hypothetical actions in the past,

and we have the conditional
perfect continuous.

I would have been working here for longer

if I had got my visa earlier.

We use this to talk about
hypothetical actions

that started in the past and continued.

It’s formed with the subject

plus would plus the base form of the verb.

I would travel in first class.

She would walk to work.

Now, these sentences don’t
really have a lot of meaning

on their own.

So they usually coupled with another idea.

I would travel in first
class if I won the lottery,

or she would walk to
work if she lived closer.

Would can be replaced with,
could, should, or might,

but this does change the meaning.

I am currently considering
creating another video

on modal verbs.

There’s one from years ago,

but I feel it needs updating.

If you’d like a lesson on modal verbs,

let me know in the comment
section down below.

If I see enough of you,

then I’ll know it’s worth making.

Some examples, ge could
get a dog if he wanted.

You should see a doctor.

I might go to the beach tomorrow.

Let’s take a look at the
conditional continuous.

When we use the conditional continuous,

we put the focus on the duration
of a hypothetical action.

This means that we use this tense

to talk about a longer action
when we want to emphasise,

or we want people to focus on
how long an action would take.

The structure is subject

plus would be plus verb-ing.

It expresses an unfinished

or continuing hypothetical action.

An action which is the probable result

of an unreal condition.

It’s easier if I just show you examples.

It can sound a little grammary. (laughs)

Grammary is not a word,

don’t use that.

Actually, I think that’s quite good.

If we hear a grammatical
explanation that we don’t like,

I think we should call it grammary.

I think it’s quite fun.

Nope, that’s way too
grammary for me. (laughs)

I would be writing
emails if I was at work,

but I’m not at work,

so I’m not writing emails.

He would be walking his dog right now

if he hadn’t broken his ankle,

but he has broken his ankle, so he’s not.

You can use could, should,
and might in these sentences,

but again, it changes the meaning.

You should be unpacking
the shopping I just bought,

or I could be sitting on a
beach in Jamaica right now.

Now let’s take a quick look
at the conditional perfect.

When we want to change the past,

we use the conditional perfect tense.

Of course, we can’t
really change the past,

so this is hypothetical.

We talk about what we would have done.

The structure is subject

plus would have plus past participle.

I would have told John not to come.

I would have bought that house,

but I couldn’t afford it at the time.

She would have cooked a bigger meal,

but she didn’t know you were coming.

Again, You can replace it
with could, should, or might.

I could have bought that
house, but I didn’t.

You should have told me,

we could have gone if we’d known about it.

They might have said,

but I can’t remember.

Finally, the last tense
that brings us to tense 16.

It is the conditional perfect continuous.

We use it to talk about
the hypothetical results

of an action that started in the past.

We use the continuous tense
to focus on the duration.

As I said before,

we look at conditional grammar

in way more detail in
my conditionals video,

which I have linked in
the description box.

But just as a brief overview,

the structure is subject plus
would have been plus verb-ing.

I would have been wearing my
red dress if I had washed it.

He would have been working in Dubai

if he hadn’t taken the job in London.

Again, you can use it with
could, should, and might.

You should have been
feeling better yesterday.

She could have been living in Japan

if she had taken that
language course at university.

Right, that is it for today’s lesson.

I can’t believe we’ve covered
the 16 tenses, that’s amazing.

Now it’s time for you to
test your understanding.

I’ve got a huge amount
of examples and exercises

and all of the explanations in my PDF.

Just click on the link
in the description box,

enter your name and your email address,

you sign up to my mailing list.

The PDF comes directly to your inbox,

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Don’t forget to connect with
me on all of my social media.

I’ve got my Instagram,

I’ve got my Facebook,

I’ve got my website,
englishwithlucy.co.uk,

where I’ve got a fabulous
pronunciation tool.

You can click on all the phonemes,

and hear how they’re pronounced

and words containing those phonemes.

It was quite fun word.

E, word,

no.

(air whooshing)

You can also follow our
vlogging channel, Lucy Bella,

where we document and log our lives

here in the English countryside,

and every single video is fully subtitled,

so you can use it for listening practise

and to acquire vocabulary.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

(lips smacking)

This is used to talk
about an accent. (beep)

Is someone in my garden?

(things rattling)

Oh God, (laughs) I put my
phone in alarm. (laughs)

That’s a scheduled event.

That’s a scheduled event.

What’s wrong with me?

Interchangeably

(tongue clucking)
(Lucy laughing)

(upbeat music)