English Verb Tenses Guide Learn About Simple Perfect and Continuous Tenses
Hi I’m Martin.
Welcome to Oxford Online English.
In this lesson you can learn about English
verb tenses.
Are you confused about your simple, perfect
and continuous tenses?
Do you know how many verb tenses there are
in English?
In this lesson, you can get a big picture
understanding of English verb tenses.
You’ll learn what connects English verb
forms, which will make it easier for you to
learn and understand verb tenses in English.
Let’s start with an overview of the topic
so that you understand what you’re dealing
with.
Every English verb form has two parts.
The first part is the time: past, present
or future.
The second part is the aspect: simple, continuous,
perfect, or perfect continuous.
So, there are three times and four aspects.
You can combine these in twelve different
ways.
Pause the video if you want more time to look
at the table.
Let’s do a quick test.
Can you recognise these three verb forms?
I was having dinner this time yesterday.
He’s been sitting there for hours.
Where will you be next week?
Do you know the answers?
Let’s check!
In the first sentence, the time is past, and
the aspect is continuous: it’s past continuous.
In the second sentence, the time is present,
and the aspect is perfect continuous: it’s
present perfect continuous.
In the third sentence, the time is future,
and the aspect is simple: it’s future simple.
You don’t need to remember all of this now.
What you should remember: all English verb
forms are made of these two parts: time plus
aspect.
One more point: different teachers, books
and courses sometimes use different words
for these things.
For example, some books use the word ‘progressive’
instead of ‘continuous’.
So, instead of ‘present continuous’, they
say ‘present progressive’.
Other words have the same problem.
For example, the words ‘tense’ and ‘aspect’
are used in different ways by different people.
Our advice?
Don’t think too much about the words.
Focus on the ideas.
I understand it can be confusing, but this
is really not your problem that people don’t
use these words consistently!
Next, let’s talk more about time.
I said we’re going to talk about past, present
and future, but really, we’re mostly going
to talk about the future.
Why—why is the future different?
English verbs have past and present forms.
For example:
be – was
do – did
want – wanted
So, to make a present form past, just change
the present verb to the past verb, like this:
I go shopping once a week.
→ I went shopping once a week.
She’s running in the park.
→ She was running in the park.
We haven’t seen it yet.
→ We hadn’t seen it yet.
It doesn’t matter if the aspect is simple,
continuous, perfect or perfect continuous.
Using a present or a past verb decides whether
the meaning is present or past.
That’s almost too simple, right?
But what about the future?
There are no future verb forms; you can’t
change the verb to make it future.
So, you have to add something before the verb.
For example:
I’ll be waiting for you outside the station.
When are you going to tell her?
He might join us later.
Now, you can see why the future is more complicated.
There are many things you can add before the
verb to give it a future meaning.
You saw examples with will, be going to and
might, but there are other possibilities.
It’s also very common to use present verb
forms with a future meaning, like this:
What are you doing this weekend?
Class starts at 10:00.
So, talking about the future is more complex.
There isn’t one way to give a verb a future
meaning in English, and there’s also a large
overlap between the present and the future.
What should you remember from all this?
Remember that every verb has only one past
form, and only one present form, but there
are many possible future forms.
There isn’t one ‘future tense’ in English.
Now, let’s talk about aspect.
Look at three sentences:
I went to Rome last year.
I go to work by bus.
I’ll go with you.
What are these three verb forms?
They’re all simple: past simple, present
simple, and future simple.
You can see that for the past and present
simple, you just use the present or past form
of the verb, without adding anything.
For the future simple, you need to add something,
like will or going to.
In general, simple verb forms describe two
things:
One: single actions.
Two: repeated actions or states.
So, I went to Rome or I’ll go with you describe
single actions in the past or the future.
I go to work by bus describes a repeated action
in the present.
The present simple can’t generally be used
to talk about single actions.
The present simple generally expresses repeated
actions or states.
The past and future simple can be used to
talk about single actions, repeated actions
or states.
For example:
I went to Rome every year until 2012.
I’ll go with you on Tuesday and Wednesday,
but I can’t on Thursday.
So, what about continuous verb forms?
Let’s start with three examples:
I was eating dinner at seven o’clock last
night.
I’m eating a tuna sandwich.
This time next week, I’ll be eating fresh
seafood on an island!
These three sentences are all continuous:
past continuous, present continuous and future
continuous.
Can you see what connects them?
First, all continuous forms use the verb be,
together with an -ing verb.
So, to make a continuous form, take the verb
be in the past, present or future, then add
your main verb with -ing on the end.
For example:
She was telling me a really interesting story.
They aren’t helping at all.
It’ll be getting dark at five o’clock.
What about the meaning of continuous forms?
Can you see what connects these examples?
Continuous forms describe things which are
incomplete.
Generally, continuous forms are used to talk
about one moment in time.
So, you say I was eating dinner at seven o’clock
last night because you’re talking about
a moment in time (seven o’clock), and something
incomplete—you hadn’t finished your dinner
at that moment.
In the sentence She was telling me a really
interesting story, you’re talking about
a moment in time when she was in the middle
of her story.
You use a continuous form because, at that
moment, she hadn’t finished her story.
Okay, but what about perfect verb forms?
Again, let’s start with some examples:
He hadn’t finished speaking.
She’s finished all her homework.
We‘ll have finished everything by Friday.
What do you notice?
All perfect tenses use the verb have in the
past, present or future form.
After have, you use a past participle to make
the perfect form.
So, for example, to make the past perfect,
you take the past form of have, which is had,
and add a past participle.
For example:
We hadn’t thought about it.
I had never tried miso soup before.
For the future perfect, take the future form
of have, which could be will have, and add
a past participle, like this:
I’ll have finished all my exams by this
time next year.
What about the meaning of perfect verb forms?
Can you see anything which connects these
three sentences?
Perfect verb forms connect two points in time.
For example, He hadn’t finished speaking
is past perfect.
This connects two different times or actions
in the past.
To understand this, you need a longer sentence
with more information.
For example:
He hadn’t finished speaking when everybody
started to leave.
The perfect form connects the two different
actions.
This is the best way to think about perfect
verb forms: perfect verb forms connect two
points in time.
How does this work in the present?
This is present perfect.
What two points in time does this connect?
It connects the present and the past.
She’s finished her homework in the past
(before now), and now her homework is done
and ready to be checked (in the present).
What about the future?
This is the future perfect.
In this case, it connects the present to a
point in the future.
When you say We’ll have finished everything
by Friday, you mean that you’ll finish everything
some time between now and Friday.
You don’t know exactly when you’ll finish
everything, but you know that it will be somewhere
in this period between now and the future.
Finally, let’s look at perfect continuous
forms.
Here are three examples to begin:
She’d been feeling much better.
We’ve been waiting for ages.
By the end of the day, we’ll have been working
without a break for 14 hours.
What do you notice?
You can see that perfect continuous forms
are a mix of the perfect and the continuous,
which is logical, right?
They’re perfect forms because they use a
form of have plus a past participle, which
in perfect continuous verb forms is always
the same: been.
They’re continuous forms because they use
be plus a main verb with -ing.
How do you set the time of a perfect continuous
form?
You set the time by changing the form of have.
Use a past, present or future form of have,
plus been, plus a verb with -ing.
Let’s practise!
Here’s a sentence in the present simple.
I walk through the forest.
Can you change this sentence into the three
perfect continuous forms: past, present and
future?
Pause the video and try it!
Ready?
Let’s check your answers:
I had been walking through the forest.
I’ve been walking through the forest.
I will have been walking through the forest.
Did you get them right?
Next, let’s talk about the meaning of perfect
continuous forms.
Again, the meaning is a combination of the
two aspects: perfect and continuous.
So, the meaning is perfect because these forms
connect two points in time.
I had been walking through the forest…
…when something else happened.
For example:
I had been walking through the forest for
hours before I realised I was lost.
Like you saw before, the perfect aspect is
used to connect two points in the past.
What about the continuous side?
What meaning does that add?
It adds the idea of something incomplete or
temporary.
If you say, She’d been feeling much better,
this suggests she was feeling ill either before
or after she was feeling better.
If you say, We’ve been waiting for ages,
you mean that you still haven’t got what
you came for.
The action—waiting—is incomplete.
If you say, By the end of the day, we’ll
have been working without a break for 14 hours,
you mean that your work still won’t be finished
at the end of the day.
The past and future perfect continuous forms
are rare, but you still need them sometimes.
Okay, so now you’ve seen an overview of
all the English verb forms.
First of all, remember that this lesson is
meant to give you the big picture.
You’ve seen what connects different English
verb tenses, and how verb forms are different
from each other.
However, you’ve seen the most general connections
and differences.
This can help you to understand English verb
forms, but remember that every English verb
form has its own specific uses and meanings.
Want more practice for this topic?
Make sure you check out the full version of
this lesson on our website.
It includes a quiz to help you review and
practice what you’ve learned in this class.
That’s all from us.
Thanks for watching!
See you next time!