How can you tell when something happened in English? You look at the verb tense of the sentence. English verbs change form based on the present, past, and future verb tenses, and who is performing the action.
Find out how many verb tenses are in the English language and how English verb tenses affect a sentence. Also, learn how to say that something is still happening — or if it will still be happening in the future.
Table of Contents
What is a verb tense in English?
A verb tense is the way a verb is spelled or pronounced to show when an action happened. English verb tenses show three different periods of time:
- present tense: The action is happening right now or happens regularly.
- past tense: The action happened before now.
- future tense: The action will happen after right now.
You usually show English verb tenses by changing the ending letters of the verb. Some verbs add a few letters (like changing love to loved in the past tense), while others change the verb completely (like changing eat to ate in the past tense).
English verb tenses charts
The way you change a verb’s ending in a sentence depends on the type of verb it is. Regular verbs all follow the same rules:
- present tense: Keep the base verb form with some subjects (I, you, we, they) or add -s or -es for others (he, she, it).
- past tense: Add -ed or -d to the end of the verb.
- future tense: Keep the base verb form and add will in front of it.
See how the regular verb walk looks in each different tense:
| Subject Pronoun | Present Tense | Past Tense | Future Tense |
| I | walk | walked | will walk |
| You/We/They | walk | walked | will walk |
| He/She/It | walks | walked | will walk |
Most irregular verbs follow these rules for present and future tense, but you’ll have to memorize the way each one changes in the past tense:
eat
| Subject Pronoun | Present Tense | Past Tense | Future Tense |
| I | eat | ate | will eat |
| You/We/They | eat | ate | will eat |
| He/She/It | eats | ate | will eat |
Notice how the irregular verb eat becomes eats in the present tense and will eat in the future tense, but it changes to ate in the past tense. The good news is that most English verbs are regular, so you won’t need to memorize too many irregular rules!
Present tense English verbs
In the present tense, something is happening now or it happens regularly or repeats often. For example:
- I walk to school.
- Thomas helps his mom.
- The teacher writes on the board.
I walk to school can mean that you walk to school every day or that you’re walking to school now. You’ll find both meanings in your reading, so look at the sentences around it to determine which meaning a verb has.
Past tense English verbs
If something happened before right now, it’s in the past tense. The action could be one minute ago, one day ago, or ten years ago — it depends on the rest of the sentence.
- I walked to school.
- Thomas helped his mom.
- The teacher wrote on the board.
Put regular verbs (like walk and help) in the past tense by adding -ed. For irregular verbs (like write), you’ll have to memorize that write becomes wrote in the past tense.
Future tense English verbs
English learners often find the future tense to be the easiest of them all. You only need to add will before the base form of the verb to show that something will happen after this moment — it could happen in five minutes or next year.
- Thomas will help his mom.
- The teacher will write on the board.
- I’ll walk to school.
Did you notice the word I’ll in the lasat sentence? That’s a contraction — a combination of the words I and will. The use of an apostrophe ( ‘ ) is the signal that some letters have been removed and the phrase has been shortened. I’ll is a common way to show that your action will take place in the future. Other nouns and pronouns can be made into contractions the same way, too!
Other English verb tenses
You’ve already learned about the simple aspect — verbs in the simple past, present, and future tenses. But there are more verb tenses in English called aspects. Aspects show how long an action lasted or if it’s still going.
Each of the three verb tenses has four aspects, so there are 12 English verb tenses in total.
- simple aspect: The action happened once or it repeats.
- continuous aspect: The action kept going (or is still going).
- perfect aspect: The action stopped or isn’t happening anymore.
- perfect continuous: The action was continuing, but then it stopped.
Verbs change form in different aspects. You add endings (like -ing and -ed), and the verb comes after linking verbs (like be and have).
Continuous aspects
Continuous verb aspects show that a verb is continuing now or that it was continuing at a certain time. Add an -ing to the end of the verb and the correct form of the verb be that matches the pronoun (either am, are, or is).
walk
| Subject Pronoun | Present Continuous | Past Continuous | Future Continuous |
| I | am walking | was walking | will be walking |
| You/We/They | are walking | were walking | will be walking |
| He/She/It | is walking | was walking | will be walking |
The continuous aspect is one of the easiest aspects because all verbs (regular and irregular) follow the same rules. Both regular verbs (like walk) and irregular verbs (like eat) just add -ing and the right form of be. When a verb like live ends in an -e, you remove the -e and add -ing.
- I walk to school → I am walking to school.
- We live in New York → We are living in New York.
- Ryan eats lunch at home. → Ryan was eating lunch at home.
- I help my mom. → I will be helping my mom.
Perfect aspects
The English word perfect usually means “very good,” but it can also mean “completed.” In the perfect verb aspect, an action is already finished, no matter what tense it’s in. Add have or had before the verb, and then use the past participle form of the verb.
walk
| Subject Pronoun | Present Perfect | Past Perfect | Future Perfect |
| I | have walked | had walked | will have walked |
| You/We/They | have walked | had walked | will have walked |
| He/She/It | has walked | had walked | will have walked |
Regular verbs (like play) form the past participle by adding -d or -ed to the end of the base verb. Verbs that end in -y (like cry) change the -y to an –ied. Irregular verbs (like see) can end in -n, -en, or -t.
- I walk to school → I have walked to school.
- Mike plays baseball. → Mike has played baseball.
- They cry about the news. → They have cried about the news.
- You see that movie. → You will have seen that movie.
Perfect continuous aspects
In the perfect continuous aspect, an action was ongoing at one time, but then it ended. You form it by adding two linking verbs (have or had and been) and then adding -ing to the end of the verb.
walk
| Subject Pronoun | Present Perfect Continuous | Past Perfect Continuous | Future Perfect Continuous |
| I | have been walking | had been walking | will have been walking |
| You/We/They | have been walking | had been walking | will have been walking |
| He/She/It | has been walking | had been walking | will have been walking |
Sentences in the perfect continuous often have details about how long something has been happening. For example:
- I walk to school. → I had been walking to school all last year.
- I study English. → I have been studying English for one year.
- She swims. → She had been swimming for 20 minutes.
- The dog waits. → The dog will have been waiting all day.
Learn English in a matter of time
Understanding English verb tenses is one of the most important parts of learning how to speak English. It shows when an action takes place, which lets you speak (and write) in English more accurately. Most new English speakers use only three or six verb tenses most of the time. You can slowly add more when you feel more confident. But at least you’ll know what it means when you hear or read another of these 12 verb tenses.
Once you’ve mastered verb tenses in English, review the most common English words that you can practice in a conversation. For more tips, strategies, and tools to use when learning English, find out how Rosetta Stone works for English learners today!
0 Commentaires