Lecturer Peter Monnerjahn, BA
Tenses
Everything on this page was directly taken and adapted from Thomson/Martinet’s A Practical English Grammar, which can be bought here.
Present Continuous
- Used for an action happening now, but not necessarily at the moment of speaking.
What are you doing there? · I’m reading a play by Beckett. · How is it going?
- For a definite arrangement in the future.
Are you doing anything tomorrow afternoon? · I’m meeting Anne tonight.
- Frequently repeated action (often disapproving) or one that appears to be continuous.
He’s always complaining about the food in the Refectory. · He is always working.
Simple Present
- Used for habitual actions, often with adverbs or adverb phrases.
He smokes. · What do you do at university? · Thanks, I don’t. · They go out quite often.
- For planned future actions, particularly journeys.
We spend two hours in Paris and leave again at 15.00.
- Newspaper headlines.
Tesco axes sick pay to reduce ‘days off’ cheats · Gandhi prepares to take up India’s reins.
Simple Past
- Used for actions completed in the past at a definite time.
Bierce disappeared in 1913. · When did you hear about this? · The train was ten minutes late. · He had breakfast at eight.
- Used for an action whose time is not given but which occupied a period of time now terminated or occurred at a moment in such a period of time.
I spent a couple of months in Australia. · Did you ever hear Bernstein conduct the Berlin Philharmonic?
Past Continuous
- Used for actions in the past which continued for some time but whose exact limits are not known or important.
I wasn’t working then. ·
- Used with a point in time to express an action that started before and probably continued after it, or with a time expression to indicate gradual development.
At eight he was having breakfast. · It was getting darker.
- An action in the past continuous started before an action in the simple past and probably continued after it.
I was doing the dishes when Fiona rang. · He was working on a website when sleep overcame him.
- In descriptions.
A wood fire was burning on the hearth, and a cat was sleeping in front of it.
- For more casual, less deliberate actions.
I was talking to Richard the other day.
Present Perfect
- Used with “just” for a recently completed action.
It has just stopped raining. · He has just gone out.
- For recent actions when the time is not mentioned.
I’ve read the instructions, but I don’t understand them. · Have you had breakfast?
- For indicating connections to the present.
Tom has had a bad crash. · The lift has broken down. · I’ve seen wolves in this forest. · He hasn’t come yet.
- For actions occurring in an incomplete period.
George has rung up three times this morning already. · I haven’t seen him all afternoon. · There have been some changes recently. · Have you ever fallen off a horse?
- Used for an action which lasts throughout an incomplete period.
I have smoked since I left school. · He has been in the army for two years. · I haven’t seen you for ages! · She’s been here since six o’clock.
Present Perfect Continuous
- Used for an action that began in the past and is still continuing or has only just finished.
I’ve been waiting here for an hour and he still hasn’t turned up. · I’ve been wanting this knife for ages. · He has been taking photos. · How long have you been learning English?
Past Perfect
- The past perfect is the past equivalent of the present perfect.
Ann had lived in a cottage for the past sixty years and had no wish to move to a tower block. · I had just poured myself a glass of beer when the phone rang. · She saw an empty glass and realised that somebody had been there.
Past Perfect Continuous
- Used when an action began before the time of speaking in the past, and continued up to that time, or stopped just before it.
It was now three in the morning and he was tired because he had been working all night.
- For continuous actions in the past.
He had been trying to get her on the phone. · He had been repairing the engine.
The Future
With its variety of different forms and the need to distinguish them by what you possibly would want to be saying, the future is, in a sense, a microcosm of the English language, and at the same time it serves as a prime example of the saying that the golden rule is that there is no golden rule — to put it bluntly: language is about communication, not rules.
- Used with a time expression for a definite future arrangement, implying a decision by the speaker or a greater degree of formality.
I’m leaving tonight. · Our new branch opens next week.
- Expressing intention at the moment of decision with [will + infinitive]. If after his decision the speaker mentions the action again, he will use [be going to] or the present continuous if an arrangement is involved.
(ringing phone) I’ll answer it! · (to drunken friend calling a taxi) Don’t bother, I’ll drive you. · (looking at a pile of letters) I’ll answer them tonight.
- Expressing definite arrangements in the near future. For mere intention, though, [be going to] would be used. With verbs of movement from one place to another, verbs indicating position, and do and have, the present continuous can be used more widely.
I’m taking an exam in October. · Bob and Bill are meeting tonight. · What are you doing next Saturday? I’m staying at home.
- [be going to] expresses an intention to perform a certain future action. There is usually the idea that some preparation has already been made. These actions are therefore usually considered very likely to be performed, but cf. present continuous expressions.
He is going to be a dentist when he grows up. · I’m going to meet Tom at the station at six.
- [will] implies intention alone, and must be used for clearly unpremeditated actions. [be going to] usually refers to the fairly immediate future. Second and third person intentions are usually expressed with [be going to].[won’t] used for a negative intention normally means ‘refuse’.
I’ll get the door. · I’ve bought some bricks and I’m going to build a garage. · He is going to resign. · He won’t resign.
- Formerly, [will] was kept for intention, [shall] for determination. [shall] is still found in formal English, the interrogative, suggestions, and for promises.
We shall know the results next week. · Shall we take a taxi? · I shall be there.
- The future simple is used to express opinions, assumptions, speculations about the future. Use of [be going to] tends to make the action appear more probable and, if there’s no time expression, more immediate.
They will sell the house. · He’s going to build a house.
- The future continuous is used equally as an ordinary continuous tense as to express future without intention.
This time tomorrow they’ll be sitting in the cinema. · When you arrive, they’ll still be cooking the meal. · I’ll be seeing Tom tomorrow. · Tom won’t be cutting the grass.
- The future perfect and future perfect continuous are used for actions which at a given future time will be in the past or will just have finished.
By the end of next month, he will have been here for ten years. · By the end of the year, he will have been talking to horses for longer than anybody in living memory.
The Conditional
Basically, there are three types of conditional sentences:
- Type 1, often implying probability.
The cat will scratch you if you pull her tail. · If it stops snowing we can go out. · If you want to lose weight you had better eat less fat. · If you heat ice it turns to water. · If you’ve finished dinner I’ll ask the waiter for the bill.
- The past tense forms in Type 2 are a subjunctive, indicating unreality or improbability.
If I had a map I would lend it to you. · If someone tried to blackmail me I’d tell the police. · If you tried again you would succeed. · If I knew her number I could ring her up. · If there was a scarcity of anything prices of that thing went/would go up.
- Type 3: The time is past and the condition cannot be fulfilled because the action in the if-clause didn’t happen.
If I had known that you were coming I would have met you at the airport. · If I hadn’t been wearing a seat belt I’d have been seriously injured. · Had you obeyed orders, this disaster wouldn’t have happened.