How to learn English verbs Effectively?

Why learn English verb? Whether we speak or write (be that in English or in our mother tongue), we constantly use verb tenses.

Understanding how these work is crucial for the sake of language mastery.

However, learning Tenses of English verbs requires a lot of work.

This is because they carry a lot of information about when and how something is happening which makes so difficult to learn.

Fortunately, there is a solution:

Understanding the concept of an English verb and learning its forms can potentially increase the chances of fast mastering the language.

Here’s what you’ll know after going through the article:

• What an English verb is;
• Does knowing English tenses help learn the language?
• Tenses with Present Meanings: Which Situations do They Come in?
• Learning English Verbs: Tenses with Past Meanings
• Tense with future meanings: Are “Will” and “Shall” the unique forms English speakers use for future

What’s an English verb?

Now that you’ve gone through tricks on how to learn English vocabulary and how to become fluent in English it’s time to see what English verbs are and how understanding them can help learn the language.

So, to begin with what’s a verb?

In simple words, a verb is understood as a word that describes an action or state of the subject.

The basic form of the verb is infinitive which is considered as the root of the verb.

Here’s the structure: “to +verb,”

For instance:

To buy/to learn/to succeed

The following 3 sentences are good examples of this.

• They want “to buy” a new flat.
• You need a lot of practice “to learn” English language.
• I had to work hard to succeed in this business

“To buy”, “to learn” and “to succeed”, are all infinitives forms of these verbs.

#1: What is the actual function of an infinitive phrase?

An infinitive phrase is a form of a verb that appears in a sentence to discuss the action of the main verb rather than doing 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; the infinitive “to buy” appears as the object of the statement.

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

#2: How knowing English Verb Tenses can help Learn the language?

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

Transitive vs. Intransitive Verbs: How to differentiate them?

You might have head that a transitive verb requires a complement or an object, in order to convey its meaning.

 That is completely true, however 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 while “jumped” carries by itself a full meaning (it doesn’t need anything to complete its meaning), “chased” requires additional information to convey the meaning.

For instance, if for any reason, the speaker omitted the object – the rat, in the sentence “The cat chased…”, the clause could 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 which 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 sentence the form “left” (past tense of verb to leave) is intransitive because it doesn’t require an object to support it.

In the second statement, “left” requires a complement (the book at home),  as a direct object.

This is what makes difference between transitive and intransitive verbs.

One thing to note:

Either transitive or intransitive can be regular or irregular verbs. And this take us to the next topic.

#3: How do I Know Whether an Action Verb is Regular or Irregular?

First thing first

a. Regular verbs

Need to know what differentiates a regular verb from an irregular one?

It’s the suffix. A morpheme added at the end of the verb that will tell you whether the such verb is regular or irregular.

Let me say this differently:

If “-ed” or “-d” is added to an action verb in its past or past participle forms, that means the verb is regular.

The table below is a good example of this:

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

Past Simple and Past Participle

1 thing to note:

If a verb is regular, and its infinitive ends in a consonant ( if it ends in one of any letter of alphabet, except a, e, i, o, u), a morpheme ed is added to such infinitive to form past simple or past participle.

Example: verb “want” and “cook” both end in consonants “t” and “k” so, their past tense and past participle will be “wanted” and “cooked“. A suffix or morpheme “-ed” was added.

If such infinitive ends in a vowel “e”, like in the verb “love” and “live”, the suffix or morpheme –d” is added to the verb to make the past simple or the past participle form.

Said differently:

We say a verb is regular if its past simple or past participle ends with the suffixes “–d “or “–ed”.

b. What Tricks Help Learn English Irregular Verbs?

According to the British Council,

Irregular verbs are verbs that do not follow the regular pattern of adding “ed” or “d” to the base form to form the past tense and the past participle”.

This lack of “rule-to-follow”, is what makes irregular verbs so hard to handle.

So, how to overcome this problem?

Here is how I managed to cope with the problem:

Tenses in English verbs: Step 1 – Get a list of the irregular verbs.

Don’t have the list?

Just Google “List of English irregular verbs pdf” to download it.

Here is a warning:

A good list to learn English irregular verbs should have 3 tenses: Infinitive, past simple and past participle.

Learn English verbs: Step 2 – split the list you’ve chosen into small other lists

How do I do this?

• Build small actionable lists based on the list you have
• Have a closer look on the general list of the verbs: identify verbs with common features by asking the question – Is the form of the verb the same in Present, Past and Past Participle?

For instance, the irregular verbs: “to put” and “to shut”,  don’t change along the infinitive, the past tense and the past participle during the conjugation.

Check this:

Example 1

These verbs have the same form for Infinitive, Past simple and Past Participle

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

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

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

Example 2:

The forms of these verbs are different along the 3 tenses

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

Verbs with different forms along the 3 tenses

Example 3:

This group of irregular verbs, the Past simple and the Past Participle both share the same form, however the Infinitive is different.

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

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

Example 4:

Here happens the opposite: the infinitive and the Past Participle have the same form, but the past Simple differs from this.

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

Verbs that share the infinitive form with past participle.

You night find this exercise useless, but it isn’t

Here is why:

• These small actionable lists, will help you practice and learn English forms of verbs because it’s been proven that our brain store things better and easier if they relate to each other.

So go ahead. Build your list and start practicing focusing on the meaning, the spelling and the pronunciation.

#4: What actually Means to Conjugate a Verb?

Verb conjugation refers to how a verb changes its form to show a different person, tense, number or mood.

Source: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/verb-conjugation/

While we speak, tenses provide to the audience the verb’s time action or state including the number. 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, and in an ordinary conversation they occur naturally providing a clear picture to the reader or listener the object of the conversation.

Have a look on these examples:

“He is learning English”.
Tense: Present Progressive (is learning)	Number: 3rd Person Singular (He is…)

Present Progressive

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

Past Continuous

In the first example, the form “is learning” shows that the action is currently happening, involving a singular subject.

On the other hand, the use of past continuous, in the second example, suggests that the action (learning) was taking place when the other action (arrive) happened.

And that is not all. It also shows that in terms of the number the action in question is in plural.

So, to understand effectively someone’s speech you need to know how equally to learn verb English conjugation.

Does knowing English tenses help learn the language?

If you say NO, then stop reading.

 The following isn’t for you.

Here we’ll show how to conjugate English verbs along verb tenses taking as basis verb “to learn”  to allow the reader understand the structure of the tenses and be able to use accurate and confidently the forms.

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			learnt 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		learnt 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		Learnt English.
			He/she/it
	Past Perfect Continuous	Subject + Had been + learn-ING	I/you/we/the /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		Learnt 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

English tenses

What Message does the Table Display to us?

9 Things:

• All English verbs change their forms at 3rd person singular in present simple;
• The past simple has a unique form form all persons;
• To conjugate a verb in present continuous, we use auxiliary forms: am, is, are + ING added to the main verb;
• The present perfect is made using has/have as auxiliary forms + past participle of the main verb;
• The present perfect continuous is a tense formed with the forms has/have + been +verb-ING
• To conjugate a verb in Past Continuous you only need to use the forms was/were + verb-ING;
• The structure of Future Simple is shall/will. The former, is only used with I/we; whereas. The later, can be used for all persons (You, He, She, It, You and They including these I and We).
• Future perfect, takes the form shall/will + be and verb-ING
• In the Future Perfect Continuous, shall/will + have + been and verb-ING, can be used either for I or we. On the other hand, You/he/she/it/they use will + have + been and verb-ING.

That’s it.

What do you say:

Too much generic? Isn’t it?

Not necessarily.

In the following sections you will learn in details and example situations, how to use each of these English verb tenses in your everyday life the most effective way to achieve fluency.

Ready to go?

https://www.bbc.com/learningenglish/korean/features/tenses_with_georgie/ep-240119

Tenses with Present Meanings: Which Situations do They Come in?

#1: Present Simple (do/does)

Quick hints, first:

If a verb is in present simple, the form of the verb will change at third person singular during the actual conjugation to suit this person.

Look at this:

• 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).

Take a closer look at the forms of the verb.

See any trends?

– Yes, the root of the verb “learn”, remains the same along the conjugation. However, when it comes to 3rd person singular (He, she, it) it takes an “s”.

This is the thing:

The forms of all English verbs change at the pronouns: he/she  it – 3rd person singular, in present simple.

The question now is:

Learn English Verbs: Do all verbs change the forms the same way, by just adding an “s” to the 3rd person singular forms?

Good question!

If you say No, you are right.

In fact, the changes in present simple, 3rd person singular, 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.

Here is how you can cope with this:

Ask yourself these 3 questions before using any English verb that you aren’t sure of the form in the present simple:

• (Situation 1): Does the infinitive of the verb end in a consonant like Learn, Speak, or Put …?.
• (Situation 2): Does the infinitive of the verb end in a consonant + y like Study, Fly, or Try…?
• (Situation 3): Does the infinitive of the verb end in o, sh, ch, x, or s, like Go, Finish, Reach, Fix, or Pass?

Asking this questions before using the verb is crucial because they help you decide whether the verb you are targeting takes the morpheme s, es or ies, at 3rd  person singular.

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

Learn English verbs – Situation1:

The verb you are targeting ends in a consonant “speak “or “want“.

Action:

• Add an “s” to the form of the verb.

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” or “fly”

Action:

• Drop the “Y”, and then add “IES”.

e.g.

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

“David flies to London every weekend”.

Learn in English verbs – Situation 3

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

Action:

• 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 this kind of things.

Learn 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:

Check the examples below:

“He doesn’t speak English fluently”.

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

Note: “does not” or “doesn’t”, are used for third person singular (he, she, it), whereas “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 this we say: 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.

That’s it..

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

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

Place “do” or “does” before the sentence you want to make a question.

Take as example the statements: “He speaks English fluently” and “They need time to do the work”.

Here is how we turn them into questions:

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

Note that the morpheme “s” that underline, 3rd person singular, is no longer appearing in the question form?

Sure. This is because the auxiliary form “does”, has already a morpheme “es”. Reason why “speak” and ” need” (in the question form), don’t take an “S”.

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?

#2: English verbs learning: Present Continuous (am/is/are doing)

According to Google, “The present continuous tense is used when the action we are talking about is happening around the time of speaking”.

To understand better the use of present continuous, the following example situation:

• “Lina is in her car. She is on her way to work”.
• “She is driving to work”.

By saying “she is driving”, the speaker intend to say that the action of driving is taking place at the time he says this. It’s not finished.

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

Present Continuous

In this table, the subjects (I, He, She, It, You, We, and They), agrees in number with the auxiliary forms “am”, “are”, “is”.

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

This is the behind of the scene when it comes to how to conjugate verb to be.

Present Continuous: How to Approach or Learn the Negative Form in English verbs?

All you need to do to turn a present continuous sentence into negative, is to place “not” before the main verb, just that.

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 the sentences “She isn’t learning French” and “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.

English verb learning – Present Continuous: How to Make Question Form?

To write a sentence in question form successfully, under this tense, take into account these 3 elements:

Subject, Auxiliary form, Main verbs.

To see how these features are crucial when making question form, let’s have a look at the statements:

• Lina is driving to work.
• You are learning Present Continuous.

In this sentences, “Lina” and “You” are the subjects, “is” and” are” stand for the auxiliary forms and finally “driving learning” are the main verbs.

With this in mind, just swap the subject with the auxiliary verb form; like this:

Is Lina driving to work?

Are you learning present continuous tense?

You are done.

#3: Learn Tenses in English verbs: Present Perfect Simple (have done)

Before going through on how we form the present perfect simple, and how we use it, let’s look at first how this tense differs from other tenses.

Verbs that we use while speaking, can underline an action, or highlight the result of such action depending on the tense the verb is being used.

Let’s take as example the forms bought and has bought (both are forms of verb to buy).

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

The fact that the former (bought) is past simple, and the later (has bought) is in present perfect, they carry different meanings.

Have a look on the examples below to see how this work:

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

“David has bought a new house” = “That is why he’s no longer renting a flat”.

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 result of the action. – David is no longer renting a flat.

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

The result of an action is where  present perfect simple comes in handy.

In short:

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 an auxiliary form (have/has), and a 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
am/is/are	Was/were	Been

Infinitive/Past Simple/Past Participle

The auxiliary “have” and “has”, and the past participle form “bought”, are the features of the present perfect simple tense.

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

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

All you need to do to make the negative form of present perfect simple is to place “not “after the auxiliary “have/has” followed by the past participle of the main verb.

Example:

 “David has bought a new house”.  = “David has not bought a new house”.

 “We have been in London for 3 years”. = “We haven’t been in London 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 learnt English language.
• She has learnt English Language.

How to turn these into questions?

Very simple:

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

#4: Learn Tenses in English verbs: Present Perfect Continuous (have been doing) perfect Simple.

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

Do you remember when earlier we said the present perfect simple relies on the result of the activity, rather than 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 for that.

In this statement, the phrase “I have been reading”, tells the audience how committed the speaker has been to the activity.

To let people know how committed the speaker has been is the intention of the utterance

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

If you have been with us since the beginning of this lesson, you noticed that the structure of present perfect simple is: Subject + has/have + done. 

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

Subject + has/have been + verb-ING

Example:

He has been learning English for 2 years.

I’ve been working in this company since 2021 now.

And you are done.

Learn 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 never 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.

Just 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?

Learning English Verbs: Tenses with Past Meanings

#1: 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 much 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.

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

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. or He didn’t speak English fluently.
• They did not go to work. or They didn’t go to work.

One thing to note over the past tense conjugation is that, the main verb doesn’t change its form throughout the conjugation.

 “Didn’t speak” and “didn’t need” in the sentences above, can be applied for all the personal pronouns (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 form takes the auxiliary “didn’t” . 

Example:

They didn’t have time, so they failed to come. (“have” in this sentence was used as the main verb).

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.

Here are 2 examples 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 the number (singular or plural).

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

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

To understand how this works, check the example situation below, 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

Past Continuous

Source: English Grammar in Use

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

To help you understand this, imagine the following situation:

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

Over this situation, you can say:

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

Alternatively, you could also say:

• When someone nocked the door, we were learning English language.

Here is another situation yet:

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

Based on this scenario, we 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.

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

Very easy:

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?

Like other tenses, to make a question based on past continuous, you need to swap the subject by the auxiliary forms “was/were” then 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.

To change these sentences into question you just need to begin with were or was then 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.

#3: 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:

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

Although both the actions are in past, it’s easy to note that the second action “had left” (in sentence 2), happened before the first action – arrived.

The key point about past perfect?

Use it to show that something took place before the other thing happened.

 See these 2 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.

#4: Learn Tenses in English verbs: Past Perfect Continuous (had been doing)

According to the literature:

The past perfect continuous is a tense that shows that an action that started in the past continued up until another time still in the past.

Source: grammarly.com/t

In which situation is past continuous used?

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

How you would 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.

By saying ‘had been raining’, the speaker aims to underline that the action of raining started, continued and ended in the past. It’s 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 examples 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 begin the statement with “had they”, and then add the phrase “…been learning English language before they moved to London” followed by a question mark.

Example:

Had they been learning English language before moving to London?

This way you’ve changed the statement into question.

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

I guess you know this:

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

So, the statement:

• “They had been learning English language before moving to London” 

Becomes “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.

In short. there 4 tenses with Past Meanings. Each of these focuses the issue in a specific way with a specific intention.

Tense with Future Meanings: Are “Will” and “Shall” the unique Forms English Speakers Use for Future?

Definitely, No.

In fact, there are 2 more important future forms that English speakers use to convey meanings with intention:

 Going to and “Doing“.

To help you learn the differences among them (in terms of the use), and know the specific reason why you opt for one form, instead of the other, I created a dialogue below that will allow you understand and use the future tense in the most possible accurate way.

Quick note: the conversation involves 4 friends: Antonio, Pedro, Maria and Suzana.

Antonio applied for a job. Lucky he was invited for an interview.

However, he didn’t get this invitation in first hand. His friends did.

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 arrives and poses the same question to Pedro).

Maria: hi Pedro, 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 appears and asks the very same question to Pedro):

Suzana: Do you know that 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 am/is/are + going to when we have already decided to do something, but not yet arranged.
• Finally, we use am/is/are + doing (progressive) when we have decided and arranged for something.

This is how we use the three forms of future.

Last note:

How to learn English verbs Effectively?

It’s a tricky task.

It involves a lot of work, and skills to understand the concept behind verb conjugation.

Nevertheless, with the tips and situation examples provided throughout the article, all you need to do is apply the rules you’ve learned and practice to achieve success.

Learning English verbs is a matter of practicing. Without this exercise all your effort is useless.

Believe me. I say this because I had the same experience.

It worked. And if it worked for me, It will also work for you.

Not sure why learn English?

Contact and the Blog.