ENGLISH VERB TENSES
PRESENT
SIMPLE→ facts, habits, schedules…
subject + verb
● She likes to play football
● The train leaves at 6 o’clock
CONTINUOUS→ an action happening at the
moment
subject + to be + verb-ing
● You are reading a book
● She is cooking a cake
PERFECT→ how an action from the past describes the subject now (experience)
subject + have/has + past participle
● I have never been to London
● She has studied French for 3 years
PERFECT CONTINUOUS→ to talk about an action that started in the past and continues in the
present
subject + have/has + been + verb-ing
● I have been reading this book for a long time
● He has been studying for 5 hours
PAST
SIMPLE→ action that started and finished in the past
subject + past simple
● She went to France last month
● I played tennis when I was five
CONTINUOUS→ shows us that the action was already in progress at a certain time in the pas
subject + was/were + verb-ing
● The phone rang while he was making dinner
● She was doing her homework when I called her
PERFECT→ to describe a past action that occurred before another past action
subject + had + past participle
● Tom had already left when I arrived
● I had never tried chinese food before we went to that restaurant
PERFECT CONTINUOUS→ to describe a past action that occurred before another past action
subject + had been + verb-ing
● I had been speaking with Jake when my mom came into my room
● She had been playing tennis for 5 years when she decided to stop.
