Tenses
The concept of time can be split into:
- The Present - What you are currently doing.
I eat, I am eating
- The Past - What you did some time back.
I ate, I was eating
- The Future - What you will do later.
I will eat, I will be eating
In the English language, tenses play an important role in sentence formation.
The tense of a verb shows the time of an event or action.
There are four types of tenses. Simple, Perfect, Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous and each of these has a present, past and future form.
PRESENT TENSES
In Simple Present, the action is simply mentioned and there is nothing being said about its completeness.
I eat.
I sleep.
I play.
In Present Continuous, the action is on-going/ still going on and hence continuous.
I am eating.
I am sleeping.
I am playing.
In Present Perfect, the action is complete or has ended and hence termed Perfect.
I have eaten.
I have slept.
I have played.
PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
In Present Perfect Continuous, the action has been taking place for some time and is still ongoing.
I have been eating.
I have been sleeping.
I have been playing.
PAST TENSES
In Simple Past, the action is simply mentioned and understood to have taken place in the past.
I ate.
I slept.
I played.
In Past Continuous, the action was ongoing till a certain time in the past.
I was eating.
I was sleeping.
I was playing.
Past Perfect is used to express something that happened before another action in the past.
I had eaten.
I had slept.
I had played.
Past Perfect Continuous is used to express something that started in the past and continued until another time in the past.
I had been eating.
I had been sleeping.
I had been playing.
FUTURE TENSES
Simple Future is used when we plan or make a decision to do something. Nothing is said about the time in the future.
I will eat.
I will sleep.
I will play.
The future continuous tense is used to express action at a particular moment in the future. However, the action will not have finished at the moment.
I will be eating at 9 a.m.
I will be sleeping when you arrive.
I will be playing at 5 p.m.
Future Perfect expresses action that will occur in the future before another action in the future.
I will have eaten before 10 a.m.
I will have slept before you arrive.
I will have played before 6 p.m.
FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
Future Perfect Continuous is used to talk about an on-going action before some point in the future.
I will have been sleeping for two hours when you arrive.
I will have been playing for an hour when it is 5 p.m.
