In this lesson, I'm going to teach you all of the tenses in the English language.

For each tense, I'll show you the form, its different uses, and I'll share with

you example sentences to help you fully understand it.

So, if you're ready, let's begin.

Before we get into the lesson, here's a chart showing all the tenses.

There are three times – present, past, and future.

And four aspects – simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous.

The times and the aspects combine to make all of the twelve tenses in English.

The present time and the simple aspect make the present simple tense.

Then, we have the present continuous, present perfect, and the present perfect continuous

tenses.

In the same way, we can make tenses with the past and future times as well.

We're going to discuss all of these in this lesson.

So, let's begin with the first tense – the present simple.

We make the present simple tense with a subject (like I/You/We/They/He/She/It) and a verb

in the present (or the V1) form.

For example: “I drink coffee every morning.”

“Cathy works as a teacher.”

Notice that in sentence number two, we have “works” with an “s”.

In the present tense, if the subject is I, You, We or They, we use a verb without -s.

That's why “I drink”.

If the subject is He, She, or It, we add -s to the verb.

“Cathy” is a female name, it's like saying “she”, so we've said, “Cathy

works”.

Now, the first sentence here talks about a habit or a routine, something that I do regularly.

The second sentence is a fact – “Cathy works as a teacher” is a fact about her

life.

These are the two main uses of the present simple tense.

Here are a few more examples of habits and routines: “Shawn goes to the beach on Sundays.”

“Children often play video games after school.”

And here are some more facts: “You sing very well.”

(it's said as a fact about someone's ability) “Water boils at 100° C.” Notice that

this last sentence is a fact about the world, so facts can be about people, or they can

be about things in the world.

So, that is the present simple tense.

The next tense is the present continuous.

We make the present continuous tense with a subject + am/is/are + a verb in the continuous

or -ing form.

We say, “I am”, “He/She/It + is”, and “You/We/They + are”.

For example: “I'm drinking coffee right now.”

This sentence shows the first use of the present continuous: to talk about actions happening

now, at the time of speaking.

This is not a general statement; it's not about my coffee-drinking habit.

It's about what's happening at this moment: I'm drinking coffee now.

Here are two more examples: “We are having breakfast.”

“It is raining outside.”

These sentences also express what is happening now.

This is the first use of the present continuous; the second use is to talk about temporary

activities.

Like: “Arun is learning to play the guitar.”

It means Arun is taking guitar lessons, maybe twice a week.

So, he is in the process of learning to play the instrument.

A couple more examples: “I am watching a really interesting TV series at the moment.”

“My sister is staying with us for a couple of weeks.”

The third use of the present continuous is to describe changes that are taking place

or happening now.

“English lessons on YouTube are becoming very popular.”

It means that the popularity of English lessons on YouTube is increasing.

Here are some more examples: “The price of crude oil is falling rapidly.”

“Scientists say that the Earth is getting warmer.”

So, remember that the present continuous tense is used to talk about actions happening now,

temporary activities, and changes that are taking place.

Alright, so we've discussed the present simple and present continuous tenses.

Let's now talk about the past simple and past continuous.

Past simple first.

We make the past simple tense with a subject and a verb in the past (or the V2) form.

This tense is used to talk about completed actions in the past.

For example: “I played soccer with my friends last Saturday.”

“Karen gave us a present for our wedding anniversary.”

The verb in the first sentence is “play”.

We make the past form by adding -ed to it.

We do this for most verbs.

But some verbs have special past forms; you see that in sentence number two: “gave”

–this is the past tense of the verb “give”.

We say “give”, “gave”, “given”.

“Given” is the past participle or V3 form.

These types of verbs are called irregular verbs; there are no rules for making past

forms with them, so you have to memorize the correct forms.

You see some examples on the screen, but of course, there are many more in English.

Alright, here are some more past simple tense sentences: “We received the package this

morning.”

“My grandfather built this house in 1968.”

“Antonio lived in Malaysia for five years.”

OK, let's now move on and talk about the past continuous tense.

Here's a sentence first: “I was having dinner with my family when the doorbell rang.”

We're going to put this sentence on a timeline.

That side is the past, in the middle is now, and over on that side is the future.

Our sentence says, “I was having dinner with my family” – this shows an unfinished,

ongoing action in the past.

So, I was in the middle of having dinner, and something happened: the doorbell rang.

So, I had to put down my spoon and fork, get up from my table, and go and see who it was.

So, the past continuous tense talks about an unfinished, ongoing action in the past.

And, normally, we also mention another finished action that interrupted it.

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We say “was” for the subjects I/He/She/It, and “were” for You/We/They.

If we mention a finished action that interrupted the continuous action, it is in the past simple

form – subject + past tense verb (like “the doorbell rang”).

Here are a few more sentences: “It was raining when Priya left for work.”

(So, she had to take an umbrella with her) “The power went out while the children were

studying.”

(Here, we mention the continuous action second – the children were studying, and the single,

finished action first – the power went out) “While we were waiting at the bus stop,

we saw a car accident.”

(Thankfully, nobody got hurt.)

OK, that's it for the past continuous tense.

But, before we move on to the next tense, let's do a quick comparison of the four

tenses we've looked at so far.

“I drink coffee every morning.”

Is in the present simple tense.

As you can see on the timeline now, this sentence expresses a habit or a routine, something

that happens regularly.

“I am drinking coffee right now.”

Is in the present continuous tense.

It means that I am doing this action (drinking coffee) at this moment.

“I drank coffee yesterday.”

Expresses a finished action in the past – that coffee is gone.

So, this sentence is in the past simple tense.

And in the last sentence: “I was drinking coffee this morning when I got a phone call

from my boss.”

We see two actions.

One is an unfinished, continuous action – “I was drinking coffee” (that's a past continuous

form) and in the middle of that, something happened – “I got a phone call from my

boss.”

That is a past simple tense form.

So, my boss said, “We need you at the office.

It's important.

Get here right now.”

And I had to throw out my coffee and rush to work.

Anyway, let's move on.

We're now going to look at the present perfect tense.

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or V3 form.

We say “have” if the subject is I/You/We/They and “has” if the subject is He/She/It.

For example: “I have taught English to many students.”

“Ashley has visited France four times.”

“We have seen two movies this week.”

The present perfect tense has two main uses.

These sentences show the first use: to talk about experiences.

Sentence number one is about my experience in my teaching career.

Of course, I'm still a teacher, so my career is not finished; it's continuing.

We CAN say “I have taught English to many students in my career.”

But that's not necessary; it's understood.

Similarly, “Ashley has visited France four times in her life”, so the time period here

is Ashley's life (which is still ongoing).

In the third sentence, the time period is this week.

Maybe today is Wednesday, so this week is not finished; we might see another two movies

before the end of the week.

So, in these sentences, the time period is continuing or ongoing – my career, Ashley's

life, and this week.

But, if the time period is finished, we just use the past simple tense: “I taught many

students when I was a teacher.”

In this sentence, my career is over.

It means I'm not a teacher now; I was for some time.

During that time, I taught many students, but then I quit that line of work and became

a pop singer.

“Ashley visited France in 2015.”

(2015 is in the past) “We saw two movies last week.”

(again, last week is gone) So, this is the first use of the present perfect – to discuss

experiences in continuing, ongoing time periods.

The second use is to talk about recent actions or events.

For example: “I have finished my homework.”

You can imagine a kid saying this to her mom.

Well, when did she finish her homework?

Maybe 5 or 10 minutes ago.

But, that's not important – the important thing is the completion of the homework.

You see this on the timeline now – the girl finished her homework just a few minutes ago,

but she's not saying the specific time because it's not necessary (that's why there's

a question mark – no mention of the time).

Here's another sentence: “Arthur has lost his glasses.”

We don't say when because the important thing is that now, Arthur doesn't have his

glasses.

One more example: “The police have arrested a young man in connection with the robbery.”

So, there was a robbery in the neighborhood recently, and now the police have a young

suspect in custody.

The exact time of the arrest is not important.

In all of these sentences, if you want to mention the specific time, you should use

the past simple tense.

“I finished my homework at 6.30 p.m.” “Arthur lost his glasses at the party.”

(the party was maybe last weekend, so this is all old news) “The police arrested a

young man last night in connection with the robbery.”

So, remember that there are two main uses of the present perfect tense: to talk about

experiences and to talk about recent events.

Alright, now let's move on to the next tense: the present perfect continuous.

We make the present perfect continuous tense with a subject + have/has been + a verb in

continuous (or -ing) form.

If the subject is I/You/We/They, we use “have”.

If the subject is He/She/It, we use “has”.

For example: “I have been waiting to see the doctor for two hours.”

You can imagine this lady saying that.

So, it means that she came to the clinic maybe at 5 o'clock, and now it's seven o'clock.

She started waiting at five; two hours have now passed, and she is still waiting.

So, the present perfect continuous tense talks about an action that started in the past and

is still continuing.

In this sentence, we can also say, “I have been waiting since five p.m.”

The difference between “for” and “since” is that “for” talks about the amount of

time like two hours.

“Since” is used to mention the starting point of the action like five p.m.

Here is another sentence: “He has been playing tennis since he was a child.”

He started when he was little (maybe when he was five years old), and he still plays

tennis.

Let's say he's 25 now, so “He's been playing tennis for 20 years.”

A few more examples: “She has been learning English for eight months / since last October.”

“We've been living in this town for a very long time / since 1980.”

“It has been raining all morning / since 4 a.m.”

Now here, the duration is “all morning”.

In fixed phrases like “all morning, all day, all week” etc. we don't use “for”.

But you can say, “since 4 a.m.” if you want to mention the starting point.

I want to alert you to a common mistake here.

If you say, “I am waiting to see the doctor for two hours” or “He is playing tennis

since he was a child”, those are not correct.

You can say, “Right now, I am waiting to see the doctor” or “He is playing tennis”.