Technically, there are only two
tenses in English.
Present Simple and
Past Simple are considered “true” tenses because the verb changes its form to make them (are inflected), not by adding an auxiliary.
Present simple: the verb changes in the third person singular form by adding an ‘s’ to the base form e.g. I swim. He swims. They eat. She eats.
Key words: always, usually, often, sometimes, seldom, rarely, never, every day, on Sundays, etc.
also stative (non-progressive) verbs: know, understand, believe, feel, think... But when it has a future meaning (scheduled events): on Monday, next week, ...
Past simple: regular verbs change by the addition of -ed to the base form and irregular verbs change their form completely. (e.g. I walk to work. I walked to work. I eat sandwiches. I ate a sandwich.) There are a few verbs that don’t change (such as ‘put’), but these are rare cases.
Key words: yesterday, last week, last month, ago, in 1979, this morning (when meaning is past), etc
There are two aspects: the perfect aspect and the continuous aspect.
The continuous aspect shows that the speaker considers the action to be temporary and it is either of some duration or it is repeated. And this is why some verbs are rarely used in continuous form (think, believe, love, etc) - because the speaker can’t control whether they are temporary or not.
Key words: now, right now, at the moment, Look!, Listen!, etc. But when it has a future meaning (fixed plan): tomorrow, today,...
Key words: while, when
The perfect aspect conveys the concept of ‘looking back’.The exact time, especially of the earlier event, is often not known but the relationship between the times is important and gives a sequence of events.
Key words: already, yet, just, ever, never, ___ times, since + a particular time, for + a duration of time
Key words: already, before. by the time
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