Basic tenses in English

The question that I am very often asked by my students is, 'How many tenses are there in English?' They usually ask this question because they've heard that there are so many of them and it simply scares them that there is so much grammar to learn before they can be confident speakers.

In this post, I'm going to tackle the issue and hopefully make learning tenses less scary. But let's start with the basics. Have a look at the picture below: 

This is a visual representation of what we can do in every language in the world: express present, past and future. This is called a language property and it gives us a unique opportunity not only to talk about what's happening now, but also recall past events and even talk about things that haven't happened yet (animals can communicate too, but they are not able to 'talk' about anything other than now). 

In order to be able to express past, present and future, we need tenses. Tense is a grammatical time. By now, at Entry 3, you would have heard names like Present Simple, Past Continuous, Future Simple, etc. They all are tenses and they all describe different 'times' in grammar. 

So, how many tenses are there? Grammarians still argue about this because they can't reach a consensus of what a tense exactly is, but if you really need to know the number, it's (lucky :))13. 

It seems a lot, but don't worry, there is a logic in them and they tend to repeat themselves in different 'times', e.g. there is Present Continuous and Past Continuous; Present Simple and Past Simple; Present Perfect and Past Perfect. And if you know one in the pair of tenses, you'll learn the other one quickly because they are very similar. For example, 'I am writing' is Present Continuous; 'I was writing' is Past Continuous. The only difference is 'am' and 'was'- so the verb 'to be'. The -ing form stays the same in both tenses. So if you know that for Present Continuous you need 'to be' + verb + -ing', the formula is the same for Past Continuous too, but the verb 'to be' has to be in the past. 

What's more, some of the tenses are rather rare so you might not even come across them very often in every day speech. An example of such tense is Past Perfect, a tense that expresses very distant or more distant past. For example, you can say: 'I had spoken to my friend before I spoke with my mother'. In this sentence, the first part is in more distant past hence Past Perfect (had spoken). The second part  (spoke) in 'closer' past hence Past Simple. But speakers of English like to simplify things, so instead of using Past Perfect, they just say: 'First, I spoke to my friend, then I spoke with my mother', using Past Simple in both parts of the sentence instead.

OK, so if you don't need all the tenses to be a good user of English, how many do you actually need? Below is a mind map that shows the basic tenses in English. There are only 8 tenses. At your level, you should have seen them all by now: 

Mind Map created by mariolahejduk with GoConqr

So there they are- the most important tenses in English and the 'time' they express. Don't worry if you don't know them yet or if you don't quite know when to use them. But that's a topic for another post...

I didn't use to wear glasses!

Hello students!

In this post we're going to deal with 'used to'. As we mentioned in class, 'used to' expresses a habit or a state in the past that is no longer true now. How to better show this but to look at some pictures from the past and present!

In the picture on the left, you can see that I used to have long hair and I used to have a fringe. And I didn't use to wear glasses. But that was long time ago! Now, I have short hair and I wear glasses. 

You very often need to use this construction to refer to old habits from your childhood, e.g.:

• I used to play football with my friends every Sunday morning. 
• I used to be in bed by 9 o'clock.
• I used to ride my bicycle all day.
• I used to play hide and seek.  

All those sentences mean that you did those things in the past but you don't do them any more. 

Of course, 'used to' can refer to any past time in your life, not just your childhood, e.g.:

• I used to live in London when I was younger.
• I used to work in a supermarket. 
• I used to drive to work.
• I used to go out a lot. 
• I used to hate cheese.
• I didn't use to go to bed before 11 pm. 

All those sentences mean that you no longer do all those things, To get clearer understanding, we can add some sentences about your current circumstances:

• I used to live in London when I was younger. Now, I live in Newcastle. 
• I used to work in a supermarket. Now, I work in a bank. 
• I used to drive to work. Now, I walk because my work is a short distance from my house.
• I used to go out a lot.  Now, I don't go out any more. 
• I used to hate cheese. Now, I love cheese. 
• I didn't use to go to bed before 11 pm. Now, I am fast asleep at 10 pm every night. 

'Used to' can show how the habits of humanity have changed. Look at the following slides. 

                          People used to live in caves.                   Now they live in houses. 

Take a look at some more slides and try to create sentences like the ones above. The picture on the left of each slide will show a situation from the past, and the picture on the right will show a situation now. You have some words on top of each slide to help you create sentences/.

For more practice on 'used to' go to the following websites:

Choose the correct option

Video + exercises

Create sentences

ESOL Nexus presentation & exercises

Past Perfect

What a discussion we had about Past Perfect yesterday! I'm happy to see that you are so inquisitive and try to go deeper into understanding this grammar point. So the most important thing for you is to recognise it and understand why it is used.

So to recognise it you need to know that we form it by using had and past participle. 

E.g. When I arrived Ann had just left. 

You also need to know that we use Past Perfect to:

• to show that one action happened before another action in the past: I did not have any money because I had lost my wallet.
• to show that something started and continued for a period of time in the past up until another action in the past: I had already studied for two years at university by the time I was 20. 

On the other had, you need to keep it in perspective. Past Perfect is quite a low frequency tense and so be careful not to overuse it. In every day speech, when you recall events in a chronological order you just use Past Simple: 

I switched on the TV and I went to the kitchen to have something to eat. 

rather than

I had switched on the TV and  I went to the kitchen to have something to eat. (Although this sentence is correct, there is no need to use Past Perfect in the first part of it.)


For further practice with how to create it watch the video and do the following exercises.


6 exercises (practice with the use of Past Perfect)

Exercises to practise the form of Past Perfect