PRESENT TENSE
SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE
1 Simple present is used to denote an action that is done at the time of speaking.
eg: The students conduct a musical programme.
2 To denote a habitual action.
eg: Mary writes blogs
3 To denote an action expressing a general truth or a fact.
eg: People often spend their leisure time on social media.
4 To denote a Universal truth.
eg: The stars shine at night
5 To declare officially a planned action scheduled to be done in the near future.
eg: The Indian President visits United States next month
6 To make the past events or historical events lively
eg: Hearing a sound, I ran into the room. Then I saw my child playing with his bat and ball. He throws the ball up and blows it with his bat . ( here, mentioned a past event )
7 To denote a conditional action to be done in future
eg: If he comes, I will give him all these sweets.
PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE
1 Present continuous tense is used to denote an action that is going on at the time of speaking.
eg: They are playing Hockey.
2 Present continuous tense is often used to denote a future action especially in colloquial usage.
eg: The Indian Cricket Team is playing against Australia in the coming summer.
PRESENT PERFECT TENSE
1 To denote an action completed in the present tense itself
eg: We have just studied present perfect tense.
2 To denote a past action having its relevance at the time of speaking
eg: Many of us have once felt the taste of failure, that is why we move on with care.
PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
Present perfect continuous tense is used to denote an action started in the past but it is continuing at the time of speaking.
eg: John ‘has been’ ‘ watching’ a movie for an hour.
PAST TENSE
SIMPLE PAST TENSE
Simple past tense is used to denote an ‘action’ that happened ‘at a point of time’ in the past.
Eg: Peter delivered a beautiful speech in a function yesterday.
PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE
Past continuous tense is used to denote an action that was continuing in the past.
Eg: John was reading an article.
PAST PERFECT TENSE
1 Past perfect is used to denote an action happened in the distant past.
Eg: Thomas had given me all the instructions for operating the machine so that I could handle it easily.
2 When we have to mention two incidents in the past, the ‘first incident’ should be mentioned in ‘past perfect’ and ‘the second’ should be in ‘simple past’.
Eg: When I reached the Exam hall, the Exam had started already.
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
Past perfect continuous tense is used to show an action that started in the past, then continued for some time and finally completed in the past tense itself.
Eg: Jacob had been watching the movie from 7 P.M to 10 P.M.
FUTURE TENSE
SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE
Simple future tense is used to denote an action that is to be done at some time in future.
Eg: I shall go to school tomorrow.
FUTURE CONTINUOUS TENSE
Future continuous tense is used to denote an action continuing at some time in future.
Eg: Martin and Peter will be travelling to Sweden.
FUTURE PERFECT TENSE
Future perfect tense is used to denote an action to be completed within a fixed time of future.
Eg; They will have finished their work within 5.P.M.
FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
Future perfect continuous tense is used to denote an action that is continuing ‘at ‘present’ and will be continuing ‘until a point of time in future’.
Eg: They shall have been playing Tennis by this evening.