Verb tenses can describe the time of the sentence. Tenses are an important part of a sentence.There are mainly three types of tenses: Present, Past, and Future.These three types can be further categorized as Simple, Continuous, Perfect, and Perfect Continuous. Let's look at each individually.<blockquote>QUICK NOTES:<ol><li>All Future tense have a "will" before the verb.</li><li>All Perfect tense have a "have/has/had" before the verb.</li><li>All only Perfect tense verbs are in the "past participle" form.</li><li>All Continuous tense have a "ing" tailed to the verb.</li><li>All Perfect Continuous tense have a "been" before the verb.</li></ol></blockquote><h2>Simple Present:</h2>Actions that are happening right now or things that occur on a regular basis are in the "Simple Present" tense.Example:<ol><li>I go for a morning walk every day.</li><li>He practices the guitar every Sunday.</li><li>Mr. Rahman loves eating biriyani so much.</li></ol><blockquote>Simple Present Verbs stay in their most basic form.</blockquote><h2>Simple Past:</h2>Actions that have happened before are in the "Simple Past" tense.Example:<ol><li>I went for a morning walk yesterday.</li><li>He practiced the guitar last week.</li><li>Mr. Rahman loved eating biriyani before.</li></ol><h2>Simple Future:</h2>Actions that will happen in the future are in the "Simple Future" tense. Any verb in the Simple Future tense will always have a "will"Example:<ol><li>I will go for a walk tomorrow.</li><li>He will practice the guitar next week.</li><li>Mr. Rahman will love eating biriyani again someday.</li></ol><blockquote>Simple Future Tense formula:will/shall + verb</blockquote>This is another reason why we <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://baalish.com/mr_rahman/grammar-how-to-find-the-verb-of-a-sentence">use the future tense to identify the main verb</a> of a sentence.<h2>Present Continuous:</h2>Actions that are happening right now and will continue to be in the "Present Continous" tense.These verbs will always end with an "ing".<blockquote>Present Continous Formula:to be verb (am/is/are) + main verb + ing</blockquote>Example:<ol><li>They are eating at my favorite place.</li><li>The cashier is standing behind the counter right now.</li></ol><h2>Past Continuous:</h2>Actions that were happening in the past and continued for a while are in the "Present Continous" tense.<blockquote>Present Continous Formula:to be verb (was/were) + main verb + ing</blockquote><ol><li>The children were laughing at the rabbits.</li><li>He was singing a very beautiful song.</li></ol><h2>Future Continuous:</h2>Actions that will happen in the future and continue for a while are in the "Future Continuous" tense. The verbs here generally start with "will be".<blockquote>Future Continuous Formula:will be + verb + ing</blockquote>Example:<ol><li>Eric will be competing with Micheal for the race.</li><li>I will be playing games in the afternoon.</li></ol><h2>Present Perfect:</h2>Actions that have happened in the past but are related to the present or continued to the present are in the "Present Perfect" tense. The main verb takes the past participle form.Any Perfect tense will always have a preceding "have", "has" or "had".<blockquote>Present Perfect Formula:have / has + verb (past participle)</blockquote>Example:<ol><li>I have gone to the theatre before.</li><li>He has broken up with her.</li></ol>Notice that we can tell it is Present Perfect tense by checking if "have/has" is used or "had" is used.<h2>Past Perfect:</h2>Actions that happened before some other action is in the "Past Perfect" tense. The main verb takes the past participle form.<blockquote>Past Perfect Formula:had + verb (past participle)</blockquote>Example: 1. We were shocked to find that someone had broken into our house.<ol start="2"><li>I went back home only to find that Alina had messed the whole place up.</li></ol>Past Perfect tense is best used to convey a sequence of events. This means it should only be used when referring to something that happened before another thing in the past.<h2>Future Perfect:</h2>Actions that will be completed before a certain point in the future are in the "Future Perfect" tense. The main verb takes the past participle form.Future Perfect tense is used to refer to an action between now and a point in the Future. The verbs all start with "will have".<blockquote>Future Perfect Formula:will have + verb (past participle)</blockquote>Example:<ol><li>I will have finished my mean by the time she comes back.</li><li>He will have understood the equation before his exams begin.</li></ol>Notice that when using the Future Perfect tense and referring to another time in the future using "by the time she comes back", this later part of the sentence is in the present tense.<h2>Present Perfect Continuous:</h2>Actions that started in the past and continued to the present are in the "Present Perfect Continuous" tense. There is a "have/has been" before the verb.<blockquote>Present Perfect Continuous:have/have been + verb + ing</blockquote>Example:<ol><li>I have been thinking what I need to do next.</li><li>She has been craving some ice cream since yesterday.</li></ol>Here, the actions imply that they started before but continued into the present.<h2>Past Perfect Continuous:</h2>Actions that happened in the past and continued to a certain point in the past are in the "Past Perfect Continuous" tense. There is a "had been" before the verb.<blockquote>Past Perfect Continuous:had been + verb + ing</blockquote>Example:<ol><li>He had been drinking a lot of orange juice.</li><li>They had been thinking about the math problem for a while.</li></ol><h2>Future Perfect Continuous:</h2>Actions that will happen in the future and continue up to a certain point in the future are in the "Future Perfect Continuous" tense.<blockquote>Future Perfect Continuous:will have been + verb + ing</blockquote>Example:<ol><li>He will have been studying for his upcoming exams.</li><li>I will have been staying at his place tomorrow.</li></ol>These are the 9 types of tenses you will encounter in the English language. But now you know when to use which tense.

Verb tenses can describe the time of the sentence. Tenses are an important part of a sentence.

There are mainly three types of te...

Aneek Rahman

Grammar: What are Verb Tenses?