Tense Edit

The tense is the change of form in a verb to express the time of an action. Understanding how tenses work is fundamental to mastering English grammar and sentence structure.

The Three Principal Tenses

(a) The Present Tensedescribes an action in the present time:
  • I go.
  • He writes.
  • They are playing.
(b) The Past Tensedescribes an action in the past time:
  • I went.
  • He wrote.
  • They were playing.
(c) The Future Tensedescribes an action in the future time:
  • I shall go.
  • He will write.
  • They will be playing.
Illustration of Present Tense rules
Each of these principal tenses has four forms: Indefinite, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect Continuous.

What is the Present Indefinite Tense?

The Present Indefinite Tense is used to refer to:

  • (a) A universal or general truth:
    • The earth is round.
    • Honey is sweet.
    • Honesty is the best policy.
  • (b) An habitual or permanent action:
    • He works hard.
    • This watch keeps good time.
  • (c) A future action, when the futurity is indicated by the context:
    • He will go home when you come.
    • The school closes on the 15th.
    NOTE: This usage is common with verbs of motion: Come, go, start, return, etc.
  • (d) Past events in order to make the narrative more vivid. This is called the Historic or Graphic Present: Alexander now rushes upon the enemy.
  • (e) A present action: It rains. How he walks.
    NOTE: But more often, the present continuous tense is used in such cases: It is raining. He is walking.
  • (f) Quotations from authors: Goldsmith says, “Handsome is that handsome does.”
  • (g) The present perfect tense: I hear (=have heard) he is ill. I am told (=have been told) that he will come.

What is the Present Continuous Tense?

Chart showing Present Continuous usage

The Present Continuous Tense expresses:

  • (a.i) An action going on at present: I am writing. He is sleeping.
  • (a.ii) A future action: I am going there tomorrow.
  • (b) This tense is not generally used with Verbs of Perception or with verbs denoting a feeling or emotion, or verbs of knowing, thinking, etc., such as, believe, feel, taste, smell, desire, hate, recognize, hear, hope, know, like, love, see, understand, want, wish, wonder. Other verbs not used in this tense-form are belong, consist, contain, matter, possess, resemble, etc.

Thus,

  • I feel (not, am feeling) unwell.
  • I see (not am seeing) him.
  • I hope for the best.
  • I wish you success.
  • I want a pen.
  • It matters little.
  • I wonder where he is.
  • This picture resembles that.
But am feeling, is looking are now used even by good writers.

How to Use the Present Perfect Tense

The Present Perfect Tense is used —

  • (a) To express an action just finished:
    • I have done my duty.
    • The sun has set.
  • (b) To express a past action the result of which still continue:
    • I have done a great wrong (i.e., I am still suffering from the consequences of my doing the wrong).
    • He has been laborious (i.e. he is now reaping the fruits of his laborious habits).
  • (c) To express an action done in a space of time not yet gone out fully:
    • I have been laborious from my boyhood (i.e. am laborious still).
  • (d) To express a future perfect when preceded by when, before, after, as soon as, etc. I shall go there after (or when) I have finished the work.
NOTE:
  • (a) The Present Perfect Tense form of some intransitive verbs signifying motion or change, as, go, come, set, rise, etc., is sometimes formed with the verb be: He is gone. The sun is set. The moon is risen.
  • (b) As the Present Perfect denotes the present time, it cannot be qualified by an adverb or phrase denoting past time: He died (not, has died) last night. I came (not, have come) here yesterday.

What is the Present Perfect Continuous Tense?

The Present Perfect Continuous Tense expresses that action has been going on for some time and is not finished yet:

  • I have been doing this for six months.
Graphic representation of Present Perfect Continuous

What is the Past Indefinite Tense?

The Past Indefinite Tense is used to denote:

  • (a) A single act in the past: I did it.
  • (b) An action actually going on in the past: “While they danced (=were dancing) we sang (=were singing).”
  • (c) An habitual action in the past:
    • He studied (=used to study) hard.
    • He held his class here.
NOTE: We also sometimes use the Past Indefinite —
  • (a) To denote an action begun a short time before and perhaps continued up to the time of speaking: I came (=have come) to ask you to vote for Mr Dutt.
  • (b) As a polite or deprecatory form of address: Could (can) you please tell me the time? Was (is) this the sort of thing you wanted?

What is the Past Continuous Tense?

The Past Continuous Tense denotes that an action was going on in the past:

  • He was reading when I saw him.

What is the Past Perfect Tense?

The Past Perfect Tense expresses an action complete before another past action:

  • He had left before I came.
NOTE: If the sentence contains “before” or “after,” the Past Perfect Tense stands before “before” but after “after”. As an aid to memory, boys may remember, “Before before, after after.” He had come before I did. He left after I had gone away.
[But the modern tendency is to use the Past Indefinite tense even for Past Perfect. POD has ‘This was after he became famous’ under after. See also under before there.]

What is the Past Perfect Continuous Tense?

The Past Perfect Continuous Tense denotes that an action had been going on at or before some point of time in the past:

  • I had been working when he came.

Future Tenses

What is the Future Indefinite Tense?

The Future Indefinite Tense denotes an action that will happen in the future:

  • I shall do it.
  • He will go home.

What is the Future Continuous Tense?

The Future Continuous Tense represents an action as going on at some future time: I shall be sleeping at that time.

What is the Future Perfect Tense?

The Future Perfect Tense denotes that an action will be completed at some point of time in the future:

  • He will have done this before you come (=will come).
N.B. The Future Perfect Continuous Tense is no longer in practical use and hence not treated here.

CONJUGATION

To conjugate a verb is to show its chief parts. In a wider sense it means all the forms to denote Mood, Tense, Voice, Number and Person. But the chief parts of a verb are the Present, the Past, and the Past Participle; all other parts can be easily formed from them.

Verbs are divided into two classes according to the way in which they form their Past Tense and Past Participle:

(a) Strong Verbsform their Past Tense by changing an inside vowel of the Present, but never by the addition of a suffix. The Past Participle may, however, sometimes end in en or n: Sing, sang, sung; Drive, drove, driven.
(b) Weak Verbsform their Past Tense by adding -d or -t, with or without a change of the inside vowel: Leap, leaped, leaped; Dream, dreamt, dreamt.
NOTE:
  • (a) Formerly Strong verbs were called Irregular, and Weak verbs were called Regular. But these names are misleading and have been given up now.
  • (b) “Some weak verbs seem to belong to the strong conjugation, because they change the vowel; as, teach, taught; seek, sought; say, said; but they are weak because they add -d or -t for the past tense.”

Some weak verbs ending in -d or -t in the Present Tense:

GroupPresentPastPast Participle
(i) Have the same form in three tensescutcutcut
(i) Have the same form in three tensescostcostcost
(i) Have the same form in three tenseshithithit
(i) Have the same form in three tensesputputput
(ii) Change the -d of the Present into -t in the Past and the Past Participlebendbentbent
(ii) Change the -d of the Present into -t in the Past and the Past Participlebuildbuiltbuilt
(ii) Change the -d of the Present into -t in the Past and the Past Participlelendlentlent
(ii) Change the -d of the Present into -t in the Past and the Past Participlesendsentsent
(ii) Change the -d of the Present into -t in the Past and the Past Participlespendspentspent
(iii) Only shorten the vowel in the Past Tense and the Past Participlebleedbledbled
(iii) Only shorten the vowel in the Past Tense and the Past Participlefeedfedfed
(iii) Only shorten the vowel in the Past Tense and the Past Participlemeetmetmet
The decisive mark of the strong conjugation is, therefore, not the vowel change, but the absence of the suffix “d” or “t” in the Past Tense.
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Key Takeaways

  • Tenses are categorized into three principal forms: Present, Past, and Future.
  • Each principal tense branches into Indefinite, Continuous, Perfect, and Perfect Continuous forms.
  • Verbs are split into Strong verbs (which change an inside vowel in the past tense without adding a suffix) and Weak verbs (which add -d or -t).

Quick Practice

Write your answers in the comments below:

  1. What tense is used to express a universal or general truth like “The earth is round”?
  2. Identify whether “sing, sang, sung” belongs to strong verbs or weak verbs.
✅ Show answers
  1. The Present Indefinite Tense.
  2. Strong verbs — the past tense changes the inside vowel without adding -d or -t.

FAQ

What is a tense in English grammar?
The tense is the change of form in a verb to express the time of an action.
How many principal tenses are there?
There are three principal tenses: Present Tense, Past Tense, and Future Tense.
What is the difference between strong and weak verbs?
Strong verbs form their past tense by changing an inside vowel without suffixes, while weak verbs form their past tense by adding -d or -t.

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