Verbs and Tenses – The Tense Page

at Cornell University Library

Are you familiar with all the tenses?

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Verbs and Tenses – an Overview

Time and space are basic concepts. Events take place in space over a period of time. Time is expressed in periods or points. All sentences have a verb and all verbs are marked for time. Verbs show “time” through “tense”.

Tenses are formed using auxiliary verbs:

Common Auxiliaries

am is are was were be being been

do does did doing done

have has had

will would

be verb and adjective

Are you French?
No, I am not. I am not French. I am Belgian.

be verb and noun

Is it pork?
Yes, it is. It is pork.

present simple

Do you eat seafood?
No, I don’t. I don’t eat seafood.

present continuous

Is he urinating out the window?
No, he is not. He is just looking.

He is just looking out the window. He is not urinating out the window.

past simple

Did you see that?
Yes. I did. I saw it. I saw that. I saw what you saw.

past continuous

Were you sitting at the front of the school yesterday afternoon?
No, I wasn’t. I wasn’t there. I wasn’t sitting there. I went straight home.

present perfect (simple)

Have you ever eaten monkey?
No, I haven’t. I have never tried it.

present perfect continuous

How long have you been living in Australia?
I have been living here for about three years.

past perfect simple

I had already seen him.

past perfect continuous

I had been working there for about a year when it happened.

Future “will” simple

Will you get off my foot, please?
Sorry! I am terribly sorry!

future “will” continuous

Will you be leaving today?
Not today. I will be staying another night.

Future “going to” simple

I am going to see him tonight.

Future Continuous “going to” continuous

I am going to be seeing him tonight.