ALL English Tenses in 20 Minutes Basic English Grammar
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hi everybody my name is alicia in this
lesson i’m going to give an introduction
to english tenses for this lesson i’m
going to give a short introduction to
when to use each of the english tenses
i’m also going to share an example of
what that tense looks like in a sentence
or in a question so this is just a quick
guide if you want more information about
any of these tenses you can try
searching the youtube channel or our
website for a video specifically about
one of these tenses so i hope this is
helpful for you okay so let’s get
started the first group of tenses i want
to look at is the present tense so for
today’s lesson i’ve organized it into
three categories present
past and future tenses so let’s begin
with the present tense so in each
category i have four different tenses i
have simple continuous perfect and
perfect continuous you might know
continuous as progressive they mean the
same thing continuous and progressive
mean the same thing for this lesson
so let’s begin with the present simple
tense present simple tense is a tense we
use for general facts for regular
actions and for schedules so this is
stuff that doesn’t change
like he speaks english for example she
doesn’t speak spanish that’s a simple
fact
for regular action so things you do
every day or every week for example
and schedule so that means like a bus or
an airplane or
maybe a car schedule something that
maintains a regular schedule an example
two examples of using the present simple
tense first
i work on mondays so here work is my
verb i work on mondays simple present
tense a negative i don’t eat lunch at
two o’clock so these are simple present
tense statements in this case they’re
just simple statements of fact really
okay so let’s continue to the next one
the second tense is the present
continuous tense
the present continuous tense
so present continuous tense we use for
continuing actions and that means
actions that are happening now so for
example i’m teaching i’m standing i’m
speaking those are actions happening now
so we use it for continuing actions now
like physical actions
we also use it for trends so things
happening in your society right now for
example so examples would be like that
tv show is becoming popular or the world
is getting warmer for example so these
are things happening now also
we can use it for one-time actions as
well
and this relates a little bit to future
tense which i’m going to talk about
later too but something happening just
one time in the future we can use the
continuous form to describe that so for
example i’m working this saturday so
sometimes students ask what’s the
difference why is it i’m working this
saturday and not i work this saturday
remember we talked about the present
simple tense we use that for regular
actions for general facts so if you
usually work on saturdays you should use
the present simple tense i work on
saturdays if however this saturday is
special and you don’t usually work on
saturdays you should use the continuous
tense i’m working this saturday so it
sounds like that’s not a typical thing
for you i’m working this saturday okay
let’s go on to the third tense the third
tense is the present perfect tense the
present perfect tense so we use the
present perfect tense for general life
experience or lack thereof so lack
thereof means no no life experience not
having a life experience so something
that you did in the past
but not at a specific point in time the
specific point in time is not so
important here or maybe we don’t know so
example
a negative example he has never been to
spain he has never been to spain in this
case no life experience of going to
spain is what this means so this is an
example of present perfect tense here we
have
he has remember we need to attach has or
have before our past participle verb
form here so for more information about
this tense you can check the channel
there’s more information there so let’s
continue on to the next tense now the
next tense is the present perfect
continuous tense present perfect
continuous we use this tense for actions
that started in the past and continue to
the present so something you started
doing
in the past some point in the past it’s
not always important when
but that action continues so you use
this a lot to talk about your studies
for example we use words like for and
since and maybe a go with this as well
so an example of this
i’ve been studying english for two years
so here we see i’ve been this i’ve is
the contracted the reduced form of i
have i have been
studying so this is the continuous or
the progressive form in this case i’ve
used the word for i’ve used four because
i’m using two years which is a length of
time we can use since for example i’ve
been studying english since 2016.
so we use since before a specific point
in time
we can use a go as well
usually we pair it with synths i’ve been
studying english
since two years ago you’ll notice when
we use a go however we change from using
in my first example 2016
to a length of time since two years ago
so there are a few different changes you
need to make there but you can check the
other video on the channel for more
information about that grammar point
okay let’s move on to the second group
for today which is the past tense let’s
look at the four points in the past
tense here
first one is the past simple or just
simple past tense simple past tense is
used for actions that started and
finished in the past so for example i
taught simple present tense earlier so i
used past tense i taught simple present
tense because the action started and
finished in the past another example
i worked all night i worked all night so
work is my verb i use simple past tense
worked because the action started and
finished in the past
another example a negative they didn’t
come they didn’t come to the party they
didn’t come to the office the action was
in the past it refers to something that
did not happen in the past so there was
no action in the past but it’s over it’s
finished so we use simple past tense to
talk about these simple actions that
started and finished in the past okay
let’s go on to the past continuous tense
then past continuous is for actions that
were continuing in the past so this one
is one we often use with a specific
point in time along with it so let’s
look at an example first
we were listening to music we were
listening to music yesterday or we were
listening to music at 8 8pm when were
you listening to music when was that
action continuing at 8pm or yesterday so
it’s common to include a point in time
with this grammar point another example
like i was doing something something ing
form there so um this is one that’s uh
some people have questions about like
why should i use that when should i use
that it’s typically used in response to
someone’s question like what were you
doing last night for example or what
were you doing this morning so you want
to know someone’s activities at a
specific point in time you can use this
grammar point to respond to that
question okay let’s move along to the
past perfect tense our next one past
perfect tense is for actions that were
completed or not completed at a
non-specific
point in the past at a non-specific
point in the past
so this one is kind of difficult and
it’s perhaps not used quite so much in
everyday conversation this is used a bit
more in writing this is a grammar point
that’s especially helpful when we want
to show kind of a timeline in our
writing to show that an action happened
before another action in the past we can
use the past perfect tense so here’s a
couple of examples
uh first one
they hadn’t departed yet so here hadn’t
is the reduced form of had not they
hadn’t departed yet and i had taken my
lunch break
so we would use sentences like these if
we’re telling a story so we’re telling a
story about the past and we want to show
that one action happened before another
action when we want to talk about the
earlier action so the thing that
happened earlier like more in the past
we use the past perfect tense then we
can use the simple past tense to explain
the action that happened closer to the
present
so for example
i had taken my lunch break when i saw
the delivery man came or something like
that so you can see my second point
there that’s kind of a strange example
but
you see that my second point there uses
the simple past tense i saw the delivery
man came so i had taken my lunch break
further in the past
when i saw the delivery man came so
that’s simple past tense so this is
probably more common in writing but it
is used in speaking as well too so this
is what we use a past perfect tense to
do okay let’s move on then to another
challenging point uh past perfect
continuous tense past perfect continuous
these uh these are sentences or
questions
for actions that started in the past and
continued to like an unspecified point
in the past so the action has finished
as well that’s a key difference with the
present perfect continuous with present
perfect continuous the action is
happening now still that behavior still
continues key point though with past
perfect continuous is that the action
started at some point in the past and
then continued and finished as well but
at some unspecified point so maybe we
don’t know exactly when the action
finished but it’s done it’s complete so
let’s look at an example
they had been waiting since 3 pm
so here they had been waiting this shows
us that there was some waiting period so
the the waiting started at 3 p.m and the
waiting continued and continued and
continued we don’t know when the waiting
finished but this grammar point shows us
that the waiting has finished we’re
finished waiting that’s done we wanted
to talk only about this period of time
the people were waiting in the past so
this is the grammar point that we used
to talk about things that were happening
over a period of time in the past and
then finished
so this is something again we use when
telling stories we’re showing a sequence
of events actually okay let’s move along
then to the last group for today’s
lesson the future tense future tense
let’s start with the future
simple tense future simple tense this is
for actions that are planned or
unplanned for the future
there are actually a lot of different
things we can do to make the future
simple tense some very common ways of
making future simple are through using
will and won’t and going to and not
going to
and earlier in this lesson i mentioned
using the continuous tense the present
continuous tense the ing form of a verb
to make statements about the future also
so there are many ways to make a simple
future statements let’s look at a couple
of examples
first i’ll have a glass of wine this
uses will isle isle is the reduced form
of i will have a glass of wine that’s a
future statement
also he’s going to cook dinner in this
one i’ve used going to to express that
so these are just simple things about
planned or perhaps unplanned like he’s
not going to cook dinner would be an
unplanned action in the future or
something that’s not going to happen in
the future rather okay so let’s go on to
the future continuous tense now future
continuous tense
this is for actions you think
uh will or will not be continuing in the
future in the future something you think
will be continuously happening in the
future let’s look at an example
i’m not going to be working at company a
i’m not going to be working at company a
so here you can see we have going to i’m
not going to
plus we have a verb in the continuous
tense i’m not going to be working at
company a meaning in other words i’m not
going to have a job at company a or i’m
not going to
continue my position at company a in the
future that’s my thought now in the
present about the future so at that time
in the future like in one year for
example i will not be working at that
company or i’m not going to be working
at company a so that’s the idea behind
the future continuous tense okay let’s
move along to the future perfect tense
then so
so future perfect tense refers to
actions that you think will have started
some point in the future so remember
you’re thinking in the present right now
but this grammar point is used to talk
about something something you imagine in
the future
that starts at some point and you think
might
be continuing into the future maybe
something
started and maybe continues this is the
idea here so let’s look at an example
uh
i will have lived in china for two years
i will have lived in china so here i’m
using will to show it’s a future tense
statement i will plus have lived this is
the same thing that we use for the
present perfect tense that we talked
about earlier that past participle plus
have or has but we’re attaching it to a
future tense will i will have lived in
china for two years so when would we use
this so if for example someone asks you
a question about your future
and they say like hmm
so where do you see yourself in like
2020 for example or where do you imagine
you’re going to live in 2020 for example
you could say oh i will have lived in
china for two years so meaning at that
time in 2020 i will have lived in china
for two years so that means not now but
in the future at that point in time in
the future i will have started
living in china and that will have
continued for two years so that’s what
that means that’s a guess about the
future a future time period that
something will have continued
in the future so again quite a
challenging grammar point but
something definitely to look into so
again not used perhaps as much as the
present perfect tense but great for
storytelling and for imagining your
future too okay so let’s move on to the
last point for today’s lesson the future
perfect continuous tense future perfect
continuous
this is a tense that you use similar to
the last one but for actions you think
will or won’t have started and will be
continuing so something that’s going to
have uh started again in the future
something started and the action will
have continued into the future example
i won’t have been eating meat for three
months i won’t have been eating meat for
three months so for this one let’s
imagine
that you decided last month to stop
eating meat so that’s fine actually for
this for this sentence that’s okay you
made a decision last month to stop
eating meat
then someone asks you
um about your progress like how’s it
going
like what are you going to do next month
and you can say to yourself
well at that point next month by next
month in the future
you can use this sentence i won’t so
won’t negative will not i won’t have
been eating meat for three months for
three months so that means from the
point in time i started it in the past
until this point in the future so not
present but into the future
this entire time my behavior not eating
meat
that’s going to have continued so you’re
making a guess about the future so at
this future point in time that behavior
i started in the past will have
continued and continued and continued
and at this point it will be three
months three months total for that
behavior so we use this to talk about
something
some future thing that will have
continued or will be continuing into the
future so will have continued meaning
something that started in the past and
continues into the future or will be
continuing meaning it’s still going into
the future as well so there are a couple
of like very very subtle grammar points
to consider there too so that those are
a couple of maybe tough grammar points
but they’re really good for storytelling
and for talking about your future as
well okay so i know that this was a lot
of information in this lesson if you
have some questions about where to find
more details about any of these grammar
points you can check the youtube channel
our youtube channel has some resources
for these grammar points there’s also
some information on the website if you
don’t see it on the website or on the
youtube channel yet please have a little
bit of patience we are making new stuff
all the time and we’ll hopefully have
this available for you soon so please
keep checking back in with us great so
that’s everything for this lesson i hope
that it was useful for you if you have
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