Verb tenses

Verbs show how things happen in time.

Verbs provide two types of information:

  1. Time – when things happen, whether now, in the past, or in the future.
  2. Aspect – how we view time (For example, an event that occurs only once, right now, or for a certain period?)

Think about both time and aspect while studying the twelve verb tenses of English.

All verb tenses have four main grammatical parts:

  1. Present
  2. Present participle
  3. Past
  4. Past participle

Look at the twelve forms of the irregular verb fly. It may be easier to group tenses according to their main parts, rather than chronologically.

  1. present: I fly
  2. future: I will fly
  1. present progressive: I am flying
  2. past progressive: I was flying
  3. future progressive: I will be flying
  4. present perfect progressive: I have been flying
  5. past perfect progressive: I had been flying
  6. future perfect progressive: I will have been flying
  1. past: I flew
  1. present perfect: I have flown
  2. past perfect: I had flown
  3. future perfect: I will have flown
Lesson 4: forming questions