Language Arts: Verb Tenses - Tutorial
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Simple Tenses
This section will cover the twelve verb tenses and how they are used.
Perfect Tenses
- happens regularly
- is a fact or always true
- is happening at the moment
Traffic is always hectic this time of day.
I carry my umbrella on rainy days.
Steve believes his answer is correct.
The simple past tense is used for something that:
- happened in the past
To form the past tense of a regular verb, add a d or ed to the base of the verb.
To review the List for Irregular Verbs: click here.
The simple future tense is used for something that:
This tense uses the helping verb will + the base verb.
I will leave for Florida tomorrow.
Harry will begin his new job next week.
The past perfect tense is used for:
- action that is completed before a specific time in the past.
Before yesterday, Jim had thought that decorating a cake was easy.
The present perfect tense is used for:
Nina has worked at the school for the past fifteen years.
The future perfect tense is used for:
- action that will be completed by a certain time in the future.
By next week, George will have graduated from college.
She will have finished all of her chores by the end of the day.
The past progressive tense is used for something that:
- was in the process of continuously occurring in the past.
Nina was going to the store.
Progressive Tenses
The present progressive tense is used for something that:
- is happening continuously in the present.
Fred is watching television.
The future progressive tense is used for something that:
- will happen continuously in the future.
Mary will be making the arrangements for the upcoming event.
Perfect Progressive Tenses
Jess will have been working at the bookstore for over 20 years.
He painted the house yellow.
We drove to the lake last weekend.
The simple present tense is used for something that:
The simple present tense is also used to describe:
- how you feel
- what you believe
- happens in the future
This tense uses had + past participle.
- action that starts in the past and continues into the present or has just been completed.
This tense uses have or has + past participle.
This tense uses will + have + past participle
This tense is made using had been + the present participle.
She had been going to the meetings until recently.
The present perfect progressive tense is used for:
Norman has been writing to his friends in Arizona for years.
The future perfect progressive tense is used for:
The past perfect progressive tense is used for:
This tense is made using was or were + the present participle.
This tense is made using am, is, or are + the present participle.
This tense is made using will be + the present participle.
- the completion of an action that was in progress:
- the completion of an action that is in progress:
This tense is made using has been or have been + the present participle.
- the completion of an action that will be in progress.
This tense is made using will have been + the present participle.
