Tenses in Detail
ICSE Class 7 · English · Chapter 3
What this chapter covers
- Time and tense
- Verbs expressing the present
- Verbs expressing the past
- Verbs expressing the future
- Perfect continuous tenses
- Sequence of tenses
- Consistent tense in writing
Key points
- Tense is the form of a verb that shows the time of an action: present, past or future.
- Each time has four forms: simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous, giving twelve tenses.
- The simple present is used for habits, general truths and timetables.
- The present continuous shows an action in progress now; state verbs such as know and want do not normally take it.
- The present perfect links a past action to the present and is never used with a finished time such as yesterday.
- The simple past is for completed actions at a definite time; the past continuous sets the background; the past perfect marks the earlier of two past actions.
- The future can be shown with will, shall, going to, the present continuous or the simple present.
- The perfect continuous tenses show how long an action has, had or will have been going on.
- After a past main verb, the subordinate clause usually takes a past tense, but universal truths stay in the present.
- After when, if, until and as soon as, use a present tense for a future time.
- Choose a base tense before writing and change tense only when the time of the action really changes.
Questions answered
Name the tense of each verb: (a) The baby is sleeping. (b) They had left. (c) We will have finished.
(a) present continuous; (b) past perfect; (c) future perfect.
Correct the error: "I have seen the new bridge last Sunday".
"I saw the new bridge last Sunday". A finished time such as "last Sunday" needs the simple past, not the present perfect.
Why is "I am knowing your brother" wrong?
Know describes a state, not an action, so it is not normally used in the continuous form. The correct sentence is "I know your brother".
Fill in the blank: While Amit ________ (cross) the road, his slipper came off.
was crossing. The past continuous shows the background action, and the simple past shows the short event that interrupted it.
Explain the difference between "I have read the book" and "I have been reading the book".
The first means the reading is complete. The second stresses the activity over a period of time, and the book may not yet be finished.
Choose will or going to: "Look at that boy on the wall! He ________ fall".
is going to. The prediction is based on what you can see now.
Put the verb in the correct form: "By next March, my brother ________ (live) in the same flat for ten years".
will have been living. The future perfect continuous measures an activity up to a future point.
Correct the sentence: "The teacher told us that the moon went round the Earth".
"The teacher told us that the moon goes round the Earth". A universal truth stays in the simple present.