English Grammar 101: Verb Tense

Modern English has six tenses, each of which has a corresponding continuous tense.

The first three tenses, present, past, and future, present few problems. Only third person singular in the present tense differs in form:

Present tense of regular (weak) verbs:

Today I walk. Today he walks.

Yesterday I walked.

Tomorrow I shall/will walk.

The dwindling class of irregular (strong) verbs must be learned individually.

Today I go. Today he goes.

Yesterday I went.

Tomorrow I shall/will go.

The other three tenses, perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect, are formed with the helping verbs have, has, and had.

perfect: used to express an event that has just finished, and to describe an event which, although in the past, has effects that continue into the present.

Queen Elizabeth has reigned for 56 years.

pluperfect (past perfect): used to express an event that took place before another action, also in the past.

I had driven all the way to Oklahoma when I realized my mistake.

future perfect: used to express an event that will have taken place at some time in the future.

As of February 26, I shall have been in this job six years.

For complete conjugation tables of weak and strong English verbs, see the Wikipedia article.

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15 Responses to “English Grammar 101: Verb Tense”

  1. daniel mena on July 2, 2008 6:51 pm

    Thank you very much. Your resume is as concise as right.

  2. Yadav yogesh on February 4, 2009 6:29 am

    Please give all the information about uses of tense.

  3. David on April 22, 2009 7:30 pm

    WHEN TO USE A OR AN? VOWELS
    A HORSE
    AN APPLE

    A SUV OR AN SUV?

  4. Sandra on May 24, 2009 4:29 pm

    The following sentence is incorect: “I had did it.” What do you call the grammatical error? I know that “had” requires “done” to follow it but can’t remember the rule. It just sounds right to me after all these years. I need a chart to help my grandson master this. His grammar is great except for this

  5. DDS on June 22, 2009 8:13 pm

    Can I request an article on the difference between verbs in the Imperfect and Perfect Tense? I’ve been trying to pick up some German lately and while trying to learn some basic rules of german grammar, I realised my english grammar isn’t too strong, especially on verb tenses.

  6. Rajesh Kumar on February 1, 2010 8:31 am

    Give detail information all kinds of Tense.

  7. Lauren on June 23, 2010 1:18 am

    This PDF is helpful: http://www.iupui.edu/~uwc/pdf/EAP%20Verb%20Tenses.pdf

    It’s thorough.

  8. chandrakant naik on August 17, 2010 12:59 am

    give me how to use verbs & tenses

  9. kanetsuethaw on August 27, 2010 11:04 am

    i need noun clauses and adjective clauses exercise, rules (how do we use

  10. Susan Mullet on October 27, 2010 7:24 am

    I did not receive the link for the Basic English Grammer Book. How do I get the link.

  11. Don David on February 3, 2011 4:12 pm

    Ii think the information really helped but it’s quite opposite to what I saw in another website.

  12. pankaj on August 7, 2011 11:44 pm

    how may i get the simple basis Grammer information for improving English language ???

  13. thabit Abdul on October 5, 2011 2:05 am

    What can I say to these good materials which you tried to delivery to us?.I have to thank you for your time and the much effort you took to prepare these materials to help me and others to improve every day English.May the God strengthen you in each steps forwards.
    In peace Thabit Abdul.

  14. Shareef on October 19, 2011 4:37 am

    Dear Sir/Madam,

    1)Waht is the difference between ” Ex: Do you have money? ” no,I haven’t/ not, I don’t have” Are these both answers right? Or in which contexts we use them?

    2) I have(verb) a coffee every hour. He has/have(verb) a coffee every hours. in the second sentence for he, should we use “has”? does this “has” mean “eat”?

    Please clear my doubts

    thanks!

    Shareef

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