English Tenses and Verb Forms, Made Clear
Use the present, past, perfect and future forms, learn the irregular verbs, and choose the verb form after modals, other verbs and if.
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Lessons in this module
- Present simple: habits, facts and routinesUse the present simple for habits, facts and things that are generally true.
- Present continuous: happening now and around nowUse am, is or are with -ing to talk about things that are happening now or for a short time.
- Present simple or present continuous?Choose between the present simple and the present continuous by asking: is it usual, or is it happening now?
- Past simple: finished actionsTalk about finished actions and situations in the past.
- Past simple and past continuous: tell a storyTell a story in the past: use the past simple for the events and the past continuous for the background.
- Used to and would: past habits and statesTalk about habits and situations that were true in the past but are not true now.
- Present perfect: experience, change and newsUse have or has with a past participle to connect the past to now.
- Irregular verbs: base form, past and past participleUse the right form of the most common irregular verbs in the past simple and after have.
- Past simple or present perfect?Choose between the two forms by asking one question: is the time finished, or does it connect to now?
- Present perfect simple or continuous?Choose have done for a finished result and have been doing for an activity up to now.
- Past perfect: looking further backUse had + past participle to show that one past action happened before another.
- The future: will, going to and present continuousChoose will, be going to or the present continuous to talk about the future.
- Future time clauses, future continuous and future perfectUse a present form after when and as soon as, and use will be doing and will have done for future times.
- Modal verbs: how the forms workBuild correct sentences with can, could, must, should, may, might, will and would.
- After another verb: to do, doing or do?Choose to + verb, the -ing form or the base form after another verb or a preposition.
- Verb forms in if-sentencesChoose the right verb forms in the two parts of an if-sentence.
- Put it together: a verb-choice workshopCheck the time, the view, the verb chain and the time clauses to choose the right verb form in your own writing.