Tenses Review

What this chapter covers

• Time and tense
• Verbs expressing the present
• Verbs expressing the past
• Verbs expressing the future
• Conditionals
• Sequence of tenses
• Choosing the right tense

Key points

• A tense is the verb form that shows the time of an action and whether it is complete, in progress or a habit.
• Each time, present, past and future, has a simple, a continuous, a perfect and a perfect continuous form.
• The simple present shows habits, general truths and timetables; the present continuous shows actions happening now or around now.
• Stative verbs such as "know", "like" and "own" are not normally used in continuous forms.
• The present perfect links the past with the present and never goes with a finished past time such as "yesterday".
• The past continuous shows a background action; the simple past shows a short action that interrupts it.
• The past perfect shows the earlier of two past actions.
• "Used to" describes past habits and states; "would" describes past repeated actions only.
• The future is shown by "will" or "shall", "going to", the present continuous for arrangements, and the simple present for timetables.
• After "when", "until", "as soon as" and "if", use a present tense for a future meaning.
• Zero conditional: if + present, present; first: if + present, will; second: if + past, would; third: if + past perfect, would have.
• Use "were" for every person in a second conditional "if" clause, and never put "would have" in the "if" clause.
• After a past main clause, the subordinate clause normally shifts to a past tense, except for universal truths, facts still true, and comparisons.
• Keep one tense through a passage unless the time actually changes.

Questions answered