The Four Present Tenses and their Ten Uses
In English, there are four present tenses:
✔simple present,
✔present perfect,
✔present continuous, and
✔present perfect continuous.
These four tenses have a total of 10 different uses. In next post, we’ll look at the form and uses of each tense.
➖Simple Present
▪️Form:
Use the base form of a verb, adding an /s/ to the end of the verb if the subject is singular. (Unless the verb is irregular, in which case other rules may apply)
▪️USES:
✔Use 1: Actions that are habitual or routine
Examples:
The sun rises.
I brush my teeth twice a day.
✔Use 2: General, timeless facts
Examples:
Spiders make webs.
Babies drink milk.
✔Use 3: Narrative style (used when recalling past events or announcing things that are happening in the moment)
Examples:
So I go to the store yesterday, and the clerk says “We’re closed!”
He hits the baseball out of the field and makes a home run!
✔Use 4: The “real” present (things that are happening right now), but ONLY when the verb is stative. Stative verbs* deal with the way the subject is, instead of what the subject does.
Examples:
That car looks old.
They think that’s a bad idea.
➖Present Perfect
▪️Form: Have or has + past form of a verb
▪️USES:
Use 1: Actions that started in the past, continue into the present, and may continue into the future
Examples:
The children have felt sick ever since they ate lunch. My neighbor has lived next door to me for two years.
Use 2: Separate actions that happened in the past and may happen again in the
future
Examples:
That man has traveled overseas several times.
We have eaten at that restaurant once or twice.
Use 3: Recently completed actions that still influence things happening in the present
Examples:
The sun has risen and you need to wake up. They have finished their meeting, so now they can go.
➖Present Continuous
▪️Form:
The present tense of “to be ” (am/is/are) + verb + ing
▪️USES:
Use 1: The “real” present (things that are happening right now), for all verbs except stative verbs
Examples:
I am sitting down right now.
He can’t come to the phone because he is working.
You can’t see the children because they are hiding.
Use 2: Temporary actions that may not be happening right now, but have not yet been completed
Examples:
I am taking an English course. The truck is being repaired. Plans are being made.
➖Present Perfect Continuous
We normally use the present perfect continuous to emphasise that something is still continuing in the present
▪️Form:
Have or has + been + verb + ing
▪️Uses:
Use 1: Actions that started in the past, continue into the present, and may continue into the future (note that this is the exact same use and meaning as Use 1 of present perfect)
Examples:
The children have been feeling sick ever since they ate lunch.
My neighbor has been living next door to me for two years.
❌
We do not normally use the present perfect continuous with stative verbs. We use the present perfect simple instead:
I've always been liking liked John.
What a long and winding road! As important as it is to live in the present, it’s hard to know exactly which present you live in, isn’t it?
➖Simple Past Tense
▪️Definition of the simple past tense:
The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite, is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now.
The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English.
The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important.
Examples:
John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.
My father died last year.
He lived in Fiji in 1976.
We crossed the Channel yesterday.
You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with certain past time expressions
frequency:
often, sometimes, always
I sometimes walked home at lunchtime
I often brought my lunch to school.
a definite point in time:
last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago
We saw a good film last week.
Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
She finished her work at seven o'clock
I went to the theatre last night
an indefinite point in time:
the other day, ages ago, a long time ago
People lived in caves a long time ago.
She played the piano when she was a child.
Note :
the word ago is a useful way of expressing the distance into the past.
It is placed after the period of time: a week ago, three years ago, a minute ago.
▪️Patterns of simple past tense for regular verbs
Affirmative
Subject + verb + ed
I skipped
Negative
Subject + did not + infinitive without to
They didn't go
Interrogative
Did + subject + infinitive without to
Did she arrive?
Interrogative negative Did not + subject + infinitive without to
Didn't you play?
➖Simple Past Tense
Notes on affirmative, negative, & interrogative forms
Affirmative
The affirmative of the simple past tense is simple.
I was in Japan last year
She had a headache yesterday.
We did our homework last night.
Negative and interrogative
For the negative and interrogative simple past form of "to do" as an ordinary verb, use the auxiliary "did",
e.g.
We didn't do our homework last night.
The negative of "have" in the simple past is usually formed using the auxiliary "did", but sometimes by simply adding not or the contraction "n't".
The interrogative form of "have" in the simple past normally uses the auxiliary "did".
Examples
They weren't in Rio last summer.
We didn't have any money.
We didn't have time to visit the Eiffel Tower.
We didn't do our exercises this morning.
Were they in Iceland last January?
Did you have a bicycle when you were young?
Did you do much climbing in Switzerland?
Note:
For the negative and interrogative form of all verbs in the simple past, always use the auxiliary 'did''.
▪️Simple past, irregular verbs
Some verbs are irregular in the simple past. Here are the most common ones.
✔to go
He went to a club last night.
Did he go to the cinema last night?
He didn't go to bed early last night.
✔to give
We gave her a doll for her birthday.
They didn't give John their new address.
Did Barry give you my passport?
✔to come
My parents came to visit me last July.
We didn't come because it was raining.
Did he come to your party last week?
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