Many people are confused by how many tenses there are in the English Language. Strictly speaking, there are only present and past tenses. But when the verbs are modified by auxiliaries, there are many other tenses to consider. The very common ones are:

We use this tense to for present action, general facts:

• My parents work very hard.
• Lynn likes to play with Sandy .
• Ahmad loves his current job.
• Lion belongs to the cat family.

We use this tense for ongoing action or action that is going to happen in the future:

• Janice is talking to Susan now.
• The house-movers are carrying the metal cupboard to the rubbish dump.
• Next month, my family is going to Iceland for holiday.

We use this tense for completed action or condition:

• We went to the stadium yesterday.
• The weather was hot last month.

We use this tense for past action happening over a period of time or interrupted by another action:

• The mountaineers were struggling to reach the mountain top.
• I was watching television when James called me on my handphone.

We use this tense for action that will or will not happen in the future:

• I will call you tomorrow.
• I will not go to Susan’s birthday party next week.
• I will finish my homework tonight.

We use this tense for action that begins in the past and continues into the present or the effect of which still continues, recent past:

• My family has lived here for many years.
• We have had a wonderful time at California last week.

We use this tense to express duration of an action that began in the past, has continued into the present, and may continue into the future:

• The directors have been meeting for two hours.
• James has been sleeping for ten hours now.
• My friends and I have been fishing for three hours at the park.

We use this tense to express past event or condition completed before another event or condition in the past, distant past:

• When I went to the cinema, my friends had already left.
• Our instructor had briefed us on the safety precautions before we went for our bungee-jump.
• You had promised me to repair the oven for free.

We use this tense to express action that will be completed by or before a specified time in the future:

• By this time next year, we will have finished this project.
• Jane will have seen this piece of art before.

At times, we may also use other helping verbs called modals. If you want to learn more about modals, click here.