"Oh, those horrid tenses," I hear you cry. We feel your pain. But bear with them and persevere, because tense forms are central to the English language, and we just can’t do without them. Without confusing you any further than you probably already are, this post is designed to help you get a grasp of tense forms and improve your grammar.
Traditional English grammar often teaches six basic tense forms. The first three are the most commonly used and the easiest to define: past, present, and future. Here is how they are used:
- Past: Yesterday I shopped.
- Present: Today I shop. Today he shops.
- Future: Tomorrow I will shop.
The remaining three forms are present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. These are formed with helping verbs such as have, has, had, and will have. These three are a little harder to grasp, and we suggest getting to grips with past, present, and future first before graduating to the next three.
Present perfect: This form is used to express an event that has just finished, or to describe an event that began in the past but still has effects in the present. She has been a lawyer for 25 years.
Past perfect or pluperfect: This form is used to express an event that took place before another action, also in the past.
I had driven all the way to Alabama when I realized I had passed my destination three hours earlier.
Future perfect: This form is used to express an event that will have taken place by a certain time in the future.
As of March 19, I will have been in this house for eight years.
To get to grips with tense forms and etch each one firmly in your memory, practice one tense form a day for two weeks. You can have a day off on Sunday. Write 10 sentences in one tense form per day. Before you know it, you will be using tense forms fluently.
