Tenses

How to Learn English verbs as a Second Language learner: Tricks that I used to Learn Tenses of English verbs

 You know the tricks on how to learn English vocabulary. What comes next is understand the structure of English tenses because this will help you learn the language.

Whether it’s a verbal or written communication, we often use tenses. While doing this, we constantly switch from one verb to another and from one tense to the other.

Alternatively we switch from singular to plural or from plural to singular.

All this happens naturally without the person being aware that tenses are being used.

Does knowing verb tenses helps to master English language?

In this article you’ll know:

• What’s actually an English verb;
• How knowing Features of the verb helps learn English Language
• How English Tenses are structured? And how understanding them can help you Learn the Language? 
• Tenses in English verbs with current meaning : What are they? And how do we use them?
• Tenses with Past Meanings: What are they and Why you should know
• English Tense with the Meaning of Future: Are “Will” or “Shall” the only Forms for Future in English Language ?

What‘s actually an English Verb?

You’ve gone through tricks on how to learn English vocabulary. You also went through how to become fluent in English.

Now it’s time to see what English verbs actually are and how understanding these can help you learn the language.

So, to start with what’s a verb?

In simple words, a verb is understood as a word that describes an action or state of the person. The basic form of the verb is infinitive.

The infinite is the root of the verb and it’s form is “to +verb,” as shown in the examples below:

1. They want “to buy” a new flat.
2. You need a lot of practice “to learn” English language.

“To buy”, and “to learn”  all are infinitives forms.

What is the actual role of an infinitive phrase?

An infinitive phrase is a form of a verb is to discuss the action of the main verb. It doesn’t do the action.

To proof this, let’s split the sentence –“They want to buy a new flat” by asking 3 basic questions based on the same sentence:

. Who wants to buy the new flat?  Answer: They – They is the subject;

. What happens to ‘they’?  Answer: they want to buy a new flat – “want” is the main verb;

.What do they want? Answer: to buy a new flat – to buy new flat acts as a direct object.

From this exercise, you understand that the actual verb of the sentence is want. he infinitive “to buy” appears as the object of the statement.

This is what makes difference between infinitive and a main verb.

How knowing Features of English verbs help Learn the language easily?

English verbs can be classified as transitive or intransitive; regular or irregular.

Transitive vs. Intransitive Verbs: How to differentiate them?

You know that a transitive verb requires a complement or an object, to convey its meaning. That is completely true, but there are some exceptions as you can see in the examples below:

“The monkey jumped”.

 “The cat chased the rat”.

To the sentences above, you don’t need to be an expert to notice that ‘jump’ is an intransitive verb and ‘chase’ is transitive;

This is because “jumped” carries by itself a full meaning. It doesn’t need anything to add its meaning. “Chased” requires a complement to convey the meaning.

What would happen if the speaker omitted the object – the rat, in the sentence “The cat chased…?” – The clause would raise questions like, “The cat chased “what”?

The same wouldn’t happen with the sentence, “The monkey jumped.” because the verb “jump” carries a full meaning by itself.

This is the difference.

However as I said earlier, there is an exception to some verbs. These can be both transitive and intransitive, depending on the context they are being used.

See these examples:

. He finished the task and left.

. He left the book at home.

In the former example, the form “left” (past tense of verb to leave) is intransitive. It doesn’t imply an object to support itself.

But, in the second example, “left” appears as transitive because it requires a complement. –the book at home, works as the direct object to the verb left.

This is what makes difference between transitive and intransitive verbs.

How Understanding English verb tenses can help you Learn the Language easily? 

Whether a verb is regular or irregular all depends on how it makes its past simple or past participle. And by past simple, we mean:

A form of a verb used to describe an action that happened before the current time of speaking. That is no longer happening.

For example: They went to Africa last year.

What regular and irregular verbs are?

How to differentiate one from another?

Let’s start with the regular verbs.

One of the most common features of the regular verbs is that the past simple and the past participle are formed by adding the suffix “-ed” or “-d” to the infinitive of the verb without “to”, as shown in the table below:

Features of regular verbs showing how they make their past simple and past participle.

Verbs (Infinitive)		Tense
		Past Simple (-ed/d)	Past Participle (-ed/d)
Regular Verbs ending in a consonant.	To want	wanted	Wanted
	To cook	cooked	Cooked
Regular Verbs ending in ‘e’	To love	loved	Loved
	To live	lived	Lived

One thing to note about the rules guiding the regular verbs, with regard to past simple, is that:

A verb ends in a consonant, like “t” or “k” in the words like “want” or “cook”? – Add the suffix “-ed” either to the past simple or to the past participle.

Does the infinitive end in a vowel “e”, like in the verb “love” or “live”? Add to the verb the suffix“-d” to make the past simple or the past participle form.

See the table above.

To sum up: a verb is regular if its past simple or past participle ending suffixes “–d “or “–ed”.

Tenses in English: What are irregular verbs?

Oops!

I wished there had been a rule to guide me back then, while straggling to understand them.

It’s a daunting matter to learn irregular verbs in English.

What to do to learn them?

Here is how I managed to cope with the problem:

Tenses in English verbs: Step 1

•   Get a list of irregular verbs.

To do so, just Google “List of English irregular verbs”.

This will lead you to a plenty of websites over the keyword.

Open these websites and have a look on the lists they have.

Here is a warning:

A good irregular verb list should have 3 tenses: Infinitive, past simple and past participle.

• Tenses in English verbs: Step 2 

Split the list you’ve chosen into small other lists. Take as the basis the features that the verbs share in the infinitive, in the past simple and past participle.  

For instance, the forms of the irregular verbs: “to put” and “to shut” have something in common:

The infinitive, the past tense and the past participle don’t change during the conjugation.

Check the table below:

Verbs that share the same form in infinitive, past simple and past participle:

Example 1:

Infinitive	Past Simple	Past Participle
Put	Put	Put
Shut	Shut	Shut
Cost	Cost	cost
Read	Read	read

Here are other small lists that I structured according to changes the verbs make along the tenses during the conjugation

List 2: Verbs with different forms along the 3 tenses:

Example 2:

Infinitive	Past Simple	Past Participle
Drive	drove	driven
Do	Did	done
Break	broke	broken
See	Saw	seen

List 3: Verbs that share the same form in past simple and past participle but different from of infinitive.

Example 3:

Infinitive	Past Simple	Past Participle
Send	Sent	sent
Teach	taught	taught
Think	thought	thought
Buy	bought	bought

List 4: Verbs that share the infinitive form with past participle.

Example 4:

Infinitive	Past Simple	Past Participle
Run	ran	run
Come	came	come
Become	became	became

Tenses in English verbs: Step 3 – what to do next?

Once the lists are ready, start practicing focusing on the meaning, spelling and pronunciation.

Why should you west your precious time rearranging a list of irregular verbs that has already been structured?

Is this your question?

Irregular verbs are difficult to learn.

By listing them down, according to the features they share, you help your memory store and remember the spelling.

Remember: the more things are structured, the better our brain manages to record.

What actually Means to Conjugate a Verb?

In very simple words verb conjugation refers to the process that consist of switching verb forms. This can be from one person to another or from one tense to the other.

It can even be from number to mood.

The tense provides to the audience the verb’s time action or state. The number tells the audience whether the subject of the occurrence is singular or plural.

These 2 factors are crucial to put in place a conjugation. In an ordinary conversation they occur naturally.

They prove a clear picture to the reader or listener of what is being discussed.

See the tables below:

“He is learning English”.
Tense: Present Progressive (is learning)	Number: Third Person Singular (he is…)

“They were learning English when you arrived”.
Tense: Past Continuous (were learning)	Number Third person Plural (They were…)

In the first example, the form “is learning” shows that the action is currently happening by moment of speaking.

It also shows that the subject is in singular.

What does the use of past continuous, in the second example, suggest? It clearly shows that the action (learning) was taking place when the other action (arrive) happened.

At the same time it shows that in terms of the number the action in question is in plural.

This shows that to understand effectively some one’s utterance, you need to have some notions of English conjugation.

Now I ask:

Does Leaning English Verb Tenses Really Matters for Language Mastery?

If you say YES, then stop reading.

 The following isn’t for you.

The table below shows the structure of English tenses. In the table verb “to learn” has been used as a model. It shows how we conjugate the English verbs along the tenses.

Period	Tenses	Structure	Example
Present
	Present Simple	Subject+ Infinitive	I/you/we/they	Learn English.
			He/she/it	learns English
	Present Continuous	Subject + am/is/are + Verb +ING	I	Am		Learning English
			you/we/they	are
			He/she/it	Is
	Present Perfect	Subject + Have + Past participle	I/you/we/they .	have			learned English
			He/she/it	has
	Present Perfect Continuous	Subject + Have been + verb-ING	I/you/we/they		have been		learning English
			He/she/it		has been
Past	Past Simple	Subject + verb	I/you/he/she/it/we/they		learned English
	Past Continuous	Subject+ was/were +verb-ING	You/we/they		were		Learning English.
			I/he/she/it		was
	Past Perfect	Subject + Had  + Past Participle	I/you/we/they		had		Learned English.
			He/she/it				Learned English
	Past Perfect Continuous	Subject + Had been + learn-ING	I/you/we/they /he/she/it		had been		Learning English.
Future	Future Simple	Subject + will/shall +Infinitive	I/ we		shall/will		Learn English
			You/he/she/it/they		will
	Future Continuous	Subject + will/shall be +learning	I/ we		shall/will		Be learning English
			You/he/she/it/they		will
	Future Perfect	Subject + will/shall + Have+ Past Participle	I/we		Shall/will have		Learned English.
			You/he/she/it/they		will have
	Future Perfect Continuous	Subject + will/shall + have been + learn-ING	I/we		Shall/will			Have been learning English.
			You/he/she/it/they		will

What can we notice by looking at the table above?

We clearly see that the form“learn”, takes different forms during the conjugation. This occurs to suit the subjects (I/You/He/She/It/We/They).

Learn how to Use English Verb Tenses with Present Meanings.

Present Simple (do/does)

In the present simple  all verbs change their forms at third person singular, as seen in the example below:

I learn – First Person Singular;

You learn – Second Person Singular;

He, She, It learns – Third Person Singular;

We learn – First Person Plural;

You learn – Second person Plural;

They learn – Third Person Plural.

What can we see in the example above?

Here is what we see: the root “learn” remains the same along the personal pronouns.

However it changes at third person singular: he/she and it) where an “s” is added.

The question now is:

Do all English verbs change the forms the same way? By just adding an “s” to the third person singular forms?

Good question!

If you say No, you are right.

In fact, the changes in present simple, third person singular aren’t the same.

They vary according to how the infinitive form of such verbs ends.

And believe me.

This makes learning English verbs very difficult. Not to scare you. This is the truth.

But no need to worry

I’ll help you go through this, step-by-step the easiest way.

Let’s dive in:

What should the learner do to better use the English verb in present simple?

Here is how:

Ask yourself these 3 questions:

• Does the infinitive of the verb end in a consonant (e.g. Learn, Speak, or Put …)?
• Does the infinitive of the verb end in a consonant + y (e.g. Study, Fly, or Try…)?
• Does the infinitive of the verb end in o, sh, ch, x, or s? Like Go, Finish, Reach, Fix, or Pass)?

Asking these questions is crucial. They’ll help you decide whether the verb you are targeting will take the suffixes s/es/ies at the third personal singular.

Let’s go through the 3 situations one by one.

Tenses in English verbs – Situation 1:

The verb you are targeting ends in a consonant like “speak” and “want”

What should you do?

• Add an “s” to the form.

e.g

 “He/she/it speaks English fluently”.

“He/She/it wants to buy a car”.

Tenses in English verbs – Situation 2:

The verb you are targeting ends in a consonant + “Y” like” study” and “fly”:

• Drop the “Y”, and add IES.

e.g

 “He/she/it studies hard to get good qualifications”.

“David flies to London every weekend”.

Tenses in English verbs – Situation 3:

The verb you are targeting ends in “o”, “sh”, ‘ch”, “x” or “s” like go/watch/wish/fix/pass.

• Add ES to the infinitive form.

e. g.

He/she/it goes to the beach every Saturday.

He/She/it watches TV in the evening”

Linda wishes you the best”

He/she/it fixes damaged cars.

Tenses in English verbs –Present Simple: How to Make the Negative Form?

The negative form for present simple is made by using “do +not” or “does + not”.

Let’s take as examples the statements “He speaks English fluently” and “They need time to do the work”.

To change these sentences into negative you would need to use does not and do not like this:

• He does not speak English fluently.
• They do not need time to do the work.

Alternatively, the forms “does not” and “do not” can be shortened to don’t and doesn’t respectively:

The examples below highlight this fact.

“He doesn’t speak English fluently”.

“They don’t need time to do the work”.

Note that “does not” or “doesn’t”, are used for third person singular (he, she, it). “Do not” or “don’t”, are applied for I, You, We, They.

An exception to the rule has to do with verb to be. With regard for this, the forms am/is/are, become am not/ is not/ are not or simply I’m not/ isn’t/ aren’t.

Example:

He is not in London. = He isn’t in London.

They are not good friends. = They aren’t good friends.

You have gone through how to make negative form under present simple. it’s time now to see how the question form of this tense looks like.

So here we are.

Tenses in English verbs – Present Simple: How to Make the Question Form?

Just like negative form, to change a sentence into question you need the auxiliary forms: “do/does”.

For instance, the sentences:

“He speaks English fluently” and “They need time to do the work”, would be:

• Does he speak English fluently?
• Do they need time to do the work?

Note that the “s” underlined, which marks the third person singular in the sentence “He speaks English fluently”, is no longer appearing in the question sentence: “Does he speak English fluently”

This is because the form “Does” (in the question form), has already taken the third person singular mark “ES”.

So the “s” in “speak” has been omitted.

Again, there is an exception to this rule with regard to verb to be.

For instance, the statements: “He is in London” and “They are good friends”,

Will simply look like this:

• Is he in London?
• Are they good friends?

English Verb Tenses: How to Learn Present Continuous (am/is/are doing)

To understand better the use of present continuous, I invite you to study the following example situation:

Example situation:

“Sarah is in her car. She is on her way to work”.

She is driving to work”.

This means: she is driving now at the time of speaking.

The action is not finished.

Source: English Grammar in Use.

So, present continuous is used to show that an action is happening at the time of speaking.

Tenses in English verbs – Present Continuous Positive form: how to form it?

The structure of present continuous is “subject + am/are/is + verb-ING.

Example:

Subject	Auxiliary verb	Main verb
I	Am	Learning present  Continuous tense.
He/she/it	Is
You/we/they	are

In these examples, the pronouns “I”, “We”, “He”, are the subjects of the statements. They agree in number with the auxiliary forms “am”, “are”, “is” respectively.

This is to say that, “are” wouldn’t match with “I” or “am” with “we”. The same also goes with “is”. “Is” couldn’t agree with “you”, nor “are” with “he” and “she”.

This is the secret of verb to be with personal pronouns.

Tenses in English verbs – Present Continuous: How to Approach the Negative Form?

What do you need to do to turn the present continuous sentence into negative sentence?

Here is what you need to do:

• Place “not” before the main verb.

See these statements:

 I’m learning English language. I’m not learning French.

 Sarah is driving to work. She isn’t driving to school.

The words “learn” and “drive” both are main verbs in these sentences:

• “She isn’t learning French” 
• “She isn’t driving to school”.

As you see, the word “not” comes immediately before the main verbs.

This is how we make the negative with present continuous sentences.

Tenses in English verbs – Present Continuous: How to Make Question Form?

The features of present continuous (question form), are: subject, auxiliary form and the main verbs.

These 3 elements are crucial when making question sentences based on present continuous.

Let’s have a look at the statement:

“You are learning a present continuous tense now”.

In this statement, “you” is the subject, “are” is the auxiliary form and “learning” is the main verb.

How do we write the question form of this sentence?

Just swap the subject with the auxiliary like this:

Is Sarah driving to work?

Are you learning a present continuous tense?

And you are done.

English Verbs: Present Perfect Simple (have done) – How to learn the Tense?

How does this tense differ from other tenses.

Verbs that we use while speaking, can underline an action, or highlight the result of such action.

Let’s take the forms Bought and has bought derived from verb to buy, as an example.

Bought and has bought both are forms of verb “To buy”.

However,because one is past simple and another is in present perfect, they carry different meaning.

These sentences have different meanings:

“David bought a new house” = “That is why he is running out of money”.

“David has bought a new house” = “That is why he is no longer renting a flat”. Check is this is my thought)

In the former statement, the speaker’s intention is to focus on the act of buying.

The reason why David is running out of money is because he bought a new house.

In the later, the speaker’s concern is to highlight the results of the action.

David is no longer renting a house as the result of the action of buying a house.

Here is where we were heading to -The results of the action.

The result off the action is where the present perfect simple comes in hand.

We use the present perfect simple when our intention with the verb is to underline the results of the action. rather than the activity.

What is the form of the present perfect simple?

Have/has + Past participle of the main verb.

A sentence in present perfect will always take the auxiliary have/has, and the main verb in past participle.

Check these two sentences:

1. He has bought a new house.
2. We have bought a new house.

Note that “bought” is the main verb of the sentences and it appears in past participle.

“Have” and “has” are auxiliary forms. They took the form “have” and “has to agree with the subject “we”” and “he “respectively.

Infinitive	Past Simple	Past participle
Buy	Bought	Bought
Be	Was/were	Been

Source: author

So, what are the characteristics of simple present perfect?

It’s the use of the auxiliary “have” and “has”, and a past participle form. So in the example above it’s “bought”,

Tenses in English verbs: Present Perfect Simple: How to Make the Negative Form?

You know what present perfect is, it’s time to see how to make the negative form of the tense.

How to make the negative form of present perfect simple?

Very simple:

Place “not “after the auxiliary “have/has” followed by the past participle of the main verb.

Example:

“David has not bought a new house”.  = “David hasn’t bought a new house”.

 “We have not been in England for 3 years”. = “We haven’t been in England for 3 years”.

Tenses in English verbs – Present Perfect Simple: How to Make the Question Form?

The question form is made by swapping the subject with the auxiliaries “have/has”.

Consider the statements:

• They have learned English language.
• She has learned English Language.

How to turn these into questions?

Very simple:

• Have they learned English language?
• Has she learned English Language?

English Verbs: Present Perfect Continuous (have been doing) – How to learn this Tense?

This is the way we make questions basing on the present perfect Simple.

What is present perfect continuous?

It is a verb tense used to talk about something that started in the past and is continuing at the present time

Earlier we said that the present perfect simple relies on the result of the activity. It doesn’t have focus on the action itself.

That’s it.

With present perfect continuous, what happens is the opposite.

This tense focuses on the activity not caring about the outcomes of such activity.

Let’s look at the sentence below:

“I am ready for the exam because I have been reading

What does the the phrase “I have been reading”, tell to the audience? It shows the how committed the speaker has been to the activity.

This is intention of the speaker.

Tenses in English verbs: What the Structure of the Present Perfect Continuous tense, then?

You noticed that the structure of present perfect simple is: Subject + has/have + done. 

With present perfect continuous, you just replace “done” by “been” and then add verb-ING, like this:   

Subject + has/have been + verb-ING

E.g.

He has been learning English for 2 years.

I have been working in this company since 2021 now.

And you are done.

Tenses in English verbs – Present Perfect Continuous: How to Make the Negative Form?

To make the negative form under this tense place “not” immediately after “has” or “have”, followed by been + verb-ING

Here is the example:

He has not been driving for 5 hours.  = He hasn’t been driving for 5 hours.

I have not been working in this company. = I haven’t been working in this company.

Depending on the situation you are looking at, you can use “never”, instead of “not” like this:

He has not been driving…/ I have never been working…

Tenses in English Verbs Present Perfect Continuous: How to Make the Question Form?

The same way we made questions, in present perfect simple, by just swapping the subject with the verb

That’s it.

We start the sentence with have/has followed by the subject and then the complement of the same sentence.

Like this:

Have I been working in this company for many years? 

Has he been driving for 5 hours?

English Verbs Tenses with Past Meanings: How Knowing these can Enhance your Learning Strategy?

Past Simple (Did)

According to Google.com “Past simple is a tense used to talk about things that happened or existed before now”.

The statements below are good examples of this:

• He spoke English fluently before leaving the UK?
• They needed time to do the work.

“He spoke English …” and “they needed time…”, both are ended actions.

In other words, they are in past simple.

But how do we actually conjugate verbs in past simple?

The topic “past simple”, has been broadly discussed in lessons 2.

Our concern in this lesson is to look at how to make negative and question forms under this tense.

Past Simple: How to Make the Negative Form?

To make the negative in past simple, we use “Did not” or just “didn’t”.  

The sentences below highlight this:

• He did not speak English fluently. = He didn’t speak English fluently
• They did not need time to do the work. = They didn’t  need time to do the work

What to note over the past tense conjugation?

Here is what happens:

• The main verb doesn’t change its form throughout the conjugation.

 “Didn’t speak” and “didn’t need”, can be applied for I, You, He, She, It, We, You, They.

Two exceptions to the rule:

The past tense of verb to be (was/were) use not, instead of didn’t.

Example 1:                             

• He wasn’t in London last year.
• They weren’t good friends.

The past tense of verb to have (had), in the negative, can use either hadn’t or don’t.

E. g.

They hadn’t time, so they missed to come. (Main verb – have)

They didn’t have time, so they missed to come. (Main verb – have)

Past Simple: How to Make a Question Form?

To make a question form in past simple we just place did at the beginning of the sentence.

Example:

• Did he speak English fluently?
• Did they   need time to do the work?

Like the negative form, the auxiliary form “did” is used for all personal pronouns. No matter if they are in singular or plural.

One more thing to note: once you use the form “did” the main verb remains unchanged for all personal pronouns. 

Tenses in English verbs: Past Continuous (Was/were Doing)

 Consider this example situation according to English Grammar in Use:

Yesterday Karen and Jim played tennis. They began at 10 o’clock and finished at 11.30.

So, at 10.30 they were playing tennis.

They were playing = they were in the middle playing.  They had not finished playing.

Was/were –ing is the past continuous:

I/he/she/it          was	playing doing working
We/you/they     were

Source: English Grammar in Use

 Past continuous can also be used with the idea that an action was taking place when the other action occurred.

To help you understand this, imagine the the situation that follow:

“You were in the class learning English language. While you were busy working, someone knocked the door.

Over this situation, you can say:

“I was learning English language, when someone knocked the door”.

Alternatively, you could also say, “When someone knocked the door, we were learning English language”.

Another situation yet is that:

“Lina enjoys reading. Every weekend, from 8 pm to 10 pm she reads English content. Yesterday I called her, but she didn’t pick my call.

Over this situation we can presume that:

“She was reading English content when you called”.

The phrases “were learning” and “was reading” are forms of past continuous.

They appear in the sentence to show that an action was happening when the other occurred.

How to learn English verbs easily?

Tenses in English verbs – Past Continuous: How to Make the Negative Form?

Just place “not” before the main verb like this:

Example:

• We were not learning English language when Luis arrived in the class.
• She was not having dinner, when the bell rang.

Past Continuous: How to Make the Question Form?

What to do to make a question based on past continuous?

you just swap the subject by the auxiliary forms “was/were” . After this add the rest of the information that make up the statement.

Look at these sentences:

• We were learning English language when Luis arrived in the class.
• She was having dinner, when the bell rang.

How to change them into questions?

Here is how:

Start them with were or was. After that add the subjects (We or She) + the information that come next to the statements.

Like this:

Were we learning English language when Luis arrived in the class?

Was she having dinner when, the bell rang?

And that’s all.

Tenses in English verbs: Past Perfect (had done)

By using past perfect, you intend to say that an action or event happened when the other had already happened.

See this example situation:

“You went to school yesterday. By the time you arrived there; your classmates and the lecturer had left. The class was over”.

Some of the actions that happened in this situation include:

• You arrived at school;
• Your classmates and the lecturer had left.

Both the actions happened in past. It’s easy to note that the second action “had left”, happened before the first action – arrived.

This is the key point over the past continuous.You use this tense to show that something was happening before the other thing happened.

 See 1 more examples:

• When we arrived at the airport, the flight had taken off. Or
• The flight had taken off when we arrived at the airport.

This is how we form and use Past perfect.

Past Perfect Continuous (had been doing)– How Understanding them can help learn the Language?

Consider the example situation that follow:

Imagine the situation in which “someone went to bed. When he woke up in the morning looking out of the window, saw that the floor was wet”.

How would you explain this today?  – It had been raining, or something else – it’s obvious. Everyone knows this, including you.

What you may not know however, is that “had been raining” is a past perfect continuous sentence.

What does the speaker want to underline by saying ‘had been raining’?

They to highlight that the action of raining started, continued and ended in the past.

By the time he says this, it was no longer raining.

What lesson do we learn from the tense in terms of meaning?

-An action or event started, continued and ended in the past.

Note that: “had been doing”, isn’t the same to say “has been doing”. “Had been doing”, carries a past meaning whereas “has been doing” brings consequences to the present.

The samples below can clarify this:

1. It had been raining. =That’s why the floor was wet.
2. It has been raining. = That’s why the floor is wet”.

“Was” is past, while “is” present.

Tenses in English verbs: How to Make Question Form in Past Perfect Continuous

It’s simple.

Just swap the subject of the statement you are targeting by the auxiliary “had” which marks the tense.

Suppose that the sentence you want to change into question is:

 “They had been learning English language before they moved to London”.

To do this you should start the statement with “had they”. After that add the phrase “…been learning English language before they moved to London” followed by a question mark.

E.g.

Had they been learning English language before moving to London?

In this way we’ve changed the statement into question.

Tenses in English Tenses – Past Perfect Continuous: How to Make the Negative Form?

By adding, “not” after the auxiliary “had”.

How will the statement “They had been learning English language before moving to London” look like in negative form?

Here it is:

“They had not been learning English language before moving to London”.

And that’s all.

This is the way we change a past perfect continuous sentence into negative.

Tense with Future Meanings: Are “Will” and “Shall” the only Forms for Future?

Second language learners, find difficult to use Going to and Doing as forms of future.  In fact, these two forms, including future simple (will/shall), can be used to express future.

To understand this, let’s consider the situation that follow:

Example situation:

3 People (Antonio, Maria and Suzana), ask Pedro a question in different occasions.

Here is the dialogue:

Antonio: Do you know that you have been invited for an interview tomorrow?

Pedro: wow, thanks for letting me know it!  I will do it.

(Few minutes later, after Pedro decided to do the interview, Maria poses the same question to Pedro).

Maria: hi Pedro. How do you know that you have been invited for an interview tomorrow?

Pedro: Yes I do, I am going to do it tomorrow.

(Later on, after Pedro decided and arranged for the interview, Suzana asks the very same question to Pedro).

Suzana: Do you know you have been invited for an interview tomorrow?

Pedro: Yes of course. I am doing it tomorrow.

Three lessons we learn from this dialogue:

• First, we use will/shall when we decide to do something by time of speaking.
• Second, we use be + going to when we have already decided to do something, but not yet arranged.
• Finally, we use be + doing progressive)when we have decided and arranged for something.

This is how we use the three forms of future.

Tenses in English Verbs: How understanding them help learn the language?

Learning English tenses is a daunting matter. It implies a lot of reading reading to understand sentence structure and grammar rules.

But with determination and practice, you will definitely learn the language.

Not sure why learn English? or need to go over again the articles?

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Sabino Manuel