8th Class English Tenses

Tenses

Category : 8th Class

TENSES

The concept of time can be split into:

The Present - What you are currently doing.

I eat, I am eating

The Past - What you did some time back.

I ate, I was eating

The Future - What you will do later.

I will eat, I will be eating

In the English language, tenses play an important role in sentence formation.

The tense of a verb shows the time of an event or action.

There are four types of tenses. Simple, Perfect, Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous and each of these has a present, past and future form.

PRESENT TENSES

SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE

In Simple Present, the action is simply mentioned and there is nothing being said about its completeness.

I eat.
I sleep.
I play

PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE

In Present Continuous, the action is on-going/ still going on and hence continuous.

I am eating.
I am sleeping.
I am playing.

PRESENT PERFECT TENSE

In Present Perfect, the action is complete or has ended and hence termed Perfect.

I have eaten.
I have slept.
I have played.

PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE

In Present Perfect Continuous, the action has been taking place for some time and is still ongoing.

I have been eating.
I have been sleeping.
I have been playing.

PAST TENSES

SIMPLE PAST TENSE

In Simple Past, the action is simply mentioned and understood to have taken place in the past.

I ate.
I slept.
I played.

PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE

In Past Continuous, the action was ongoing till a certain time in the past.

I was eating.
I was sleeping.
I was playing.

PAST PERFECT TENSE

Past Perfect is used to express something that happened before another action in the past.

I had eaten.
I had slept.
I had played.

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE

Past Perfect Continuous is used to express something that started in the past and continued until another time in the past.

I had been eating.
I had been sleeping.
I had been playing.

FUTURE TENSES

SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE

Simple Future is used when we plan or make a decision to do something. Nothing is said about the time in the future.

I will eat.
I will sleep.
I will play.

FUTURE CONTINUOUS TENSE

The future continuous tense is used to express action at a particular moment in the future. However, the action will not have finished at the moment.

I will be eating at 9 a.m.
I will be sleeping when you arrive.
I will be playing at 5 p.m.

FUTURE PERFECT TENSE

Future Perfect expresses action that will occur in the future before another action in the future.

I will have eaten before 10 a.m.
I will have slept before you arrive.
I will have played before 6 p.m.

FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE

Future Perfect Continuous is used to talk about an ongoing action before some point in the future.

I will have been sleeping for two hours when you arrive.
I will have been playing for an hour when it is 5 p.m.

REGULAR AND IRREGULAR VERBS

In the context of verbs, we use the term inflection to talk about the process of changing a verb form to show tense, mood, number (i.e., singular or plural), and person (i.e. first person, second person, or third person). This section deals with inflecting verbs to show tenses and participles, and is divided into two main sections:

Regular verbs
Irregular verbs

REGULAR VERBS

Many English verbs are regular, which means that they form their different tenses according to an established pattern. Such verbs work like this:

Verb	3^rd person singular	3^rd person singular	past participle	present participle
Verb	present tense	past tense	past participle	present participle
laugh	he/she laughs	he/she laughed	laughed	laughing
love	he/she loves	he/she loved	loved	loving
boo	he/she boos	he/she booed	booed	booing

PRESENT TENSE FORMATION

In the present simple tense, the basic form of a regular verb only changes in the 3rd person singular, as follows:

Most verbs just add -s to the basic form (e.g., take/takes, seem/seems, look/looks).

Verbs that end with a vowel other than e add -es (e.g., go/goes, veto/vetoes, do/does).

Verbs that end with -s, -z, -ch, -sh, and -x add -es

(e.g., kiss/kisses, fizz/fizzes, punch/punches, wash /washes, mix/mixes).

If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before adding -es (e.g. hurry/hurries, clarify/ clarifies).

But if the verb ends in a vowel plus -y, just add -s (e.g. play/plays, enjoy/enjoys).

PAST TENSE FORMATION

Forming the past simple tense of regular verbs is mostly straightforward, and you use the same form for the first, second, and third persons, singular and plural:

If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, add the letters -ed to the end (e.g. seem/seemed, laugh/laughed, look/looked).

For verbs that end in -e, add -(/(e.g. love/loved, recede/receded, hope/hoped).

If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change they to an; before adding -ed (e.g. hurry/hurried, clarify/clarified).

But if the verb ends in a vowel plus -y, just add -ed (e.g. play/played, enjoy I enjoyed).

Verb tenses: adding -ed and -ing

The basic form of a verb is called the infinitive. It normally occurs with the word to as in 'I want to ask you a question.' Verbs may change their spelling according to which tense is being used.

The past tense refers to things that happened in the past. To make the past tense of regular verbs, the ending -ed is added to the infinitive ('I asked her a question'). The present participle refers to things that are still happening. To make the present participle, the ending -ing is added to the infinitive ('I am asking her a question').

Often there's no need to make any other spelling changes when you add -ed and -ing to the infinitive but there are some cases when it's necessary to do so. Here are some rules to help you get it right:

Verbs ending with a silent e

If the verb ends with an e that isn't pronounced (as in bake or smile), then you need to drop this final -e before adding -ed and -ing:

verb	past tense	Present participle
bake	baked	baking
smile	smiled	smiling

Verbs ending in -ee, -ye, and -oe (such as free, dye, and tiptoe) do not drop the final -e when adding -ing:

verb	past tense	present participle
Free	freed	freeing
dye	dyed	dyeing
tiptoe	tiptoed	tiptoeing

Very few verbs keep the final -e when adding -ing to distinguish them from similar words. For example, singe becomes singeing rather than singing (which is the present participle of sing).

Verbs ending with a vowel plus -1

If the verb ends with a vowel plus-l (as in travel or equal), then you need to double the l before adding-ed and -ing in British English:

verb	past tense	present participle
travel	travelled	travelling
distil	distilled	distilling
equal	Equalled	equalling

Verbs ending with a single vowel plus a consonant

If the verb ends with a single vowel plus a consonant, and the stress is at the end of the word (e.g. refer), then you need to double the final consonant before adding -ed and -ing:

verb	past tense	present participle
admit	admitted	admitting
commit	committed	committing
refer	referred	referring

If the verb ends with a vowel plus a consonant and the stress is not at the end of the word, you don't need to double the final consonant when adding -ed and -ing:

verb	past tense	present participle
inherit	inherited	inheriting
target	targeted	targeting
visit	visited	visiting

If the verb has only one syllable and ends with a single vowel plus a consonant (e.g. stop), then you need to double the final consonant before adding -ed and -ing:

verb	past tense	present participle
stop	stopped	stopping
tap	tapped	tapping
sob	sobbed	sobbing

Verbs ending with two vowels plus a consonant

If the verb ends with two vowels plus a consonant, you should generally not double the final consonant:

verb	past tense	present participle
treat	treated	treating
wheel	wheeled	wheeling
pour	poured	pouring

Verbs ending in -c

If the verb ends in -c (e.g. panic), you need to add a -k before adding -ed and -ing, and also -er.

verb	past tense	present participle	related noun
picnic	picnicked	picnicking	picnicker
mimic	mimicked	mimicking	mimicker
traffic	trafficked	trafficking	trafficker

FORMING PARTICIPLES

To form the past participle of regular verbs, follow the same rules as for the past simple tense above.

To make the present participle of regular verbs:

If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, add the ending -ing (e.g. laugh/laughing, boot booing).

If the verb ends in e, drop the e before adding -ing (e.g. love/loving, hope/hoping).

If the basic form ends in y just add -ing (e.g. hurry/hurrying, clarify/clarifying).

IRREGULAR VERBS

There are many irregular verbs that don't follow the normal rules. Here are the forms of some of the most common irregular verbs:

verb	3^rd person singular present tense	3^rd person singular past tense	past participle	present participle
be	is	was	been	being
begin	begins	began	begun	beginning
bite	bites	bit	bitten	biting
break	breaks	broke	broken	breaking
buy	buys	bought	bought	buying
choose	chooses	chose	chosen	choosing
come	comes	came	come	coming
dig	digs	dug	dug	digging
do	does	did	done	doing
drink	drinks	drank	drunk	drinking
eat	eats	ate	eaten	eating
fall	falls	fell	fallen	falling
feel	feels	felt	felt	feeling
find	finds	found	found	finding
get	gets	got	got	getting
go	goes	went	gone	going
grow	grows	grew	grown	growing
have	has	had	had	having
hide	hides	hid	hidden	hiding
keep	keeps	kept	kept	keeping
know	knows	knew	known	knowing
lay	lays	laid	laid	laying
lead	leads	led	led	leading
leave	leaves	left	left	leaving
lie	lies	lay	lain	lying
lose	loses	lost	lost	losing
make	makes	made	made	making
meet	meets	met	met	meeting
put	puts	put	put	putting
read	reads	read	read	reading
ride	rides	rode	ridden	riding
ring	rings	rang	rung	ringing
rise	rises	rose	risen	rising
run	runs	ran	run	running
say	says	said	said	saying
see	sees	saw	seen	seeing
sell	sells	sold	sold	selling
set	sets	set	set	setting
sing	sings	sang	sung	singing
sit	sits	sat	sat	sitting
stand	stands	stood	stood	standing
stick	sticks	stuck	stuck	sticking
take	takes	took	taken	taking
teach	teaches	taught	taught	teaching
think	thinks	thought	thought	thinking
wake	wakes	woke	woken	waking

Note that sometimes the spelling doesn't change but the pronunciation does (e.g. read). There are many more irregular verbs in English than those listed here.

8th Class English Tenses

Other Topics

Notes - Tenses