- •Present tenses
- •The present simple (indefinite)
- •The Formation:
- •Spelling of the third person singular forms
- •The Meaning
- •The present continuous (progressive)
- •I. The Formation
- •II. Spelling of the –ing forms
- •IV. Verbs not Used in the Continuous Form
- •VI. The Present Continuous vs. The Present Simple
- •The present perfect simple
- •I. The Formation
- •III. Patterns with the Present Perfect Simple
- •IV. Time Indication
- •V. The Present Perfect vs. The Past Simple.
- •The Past Simple and the Present Perfect Simple as Variants
- •The present perfect continuous
- •I. The Formation.
- •II. The Use of the Present Perfect Continuous. It is used:
- •III. The Present Perfect Continuous vs. The Present Perfect Simple.
- •The Present Perfect Continuous and the Present Perfect as variants.
- •Past tenses
- •The past simple (indefinite)
- •I. The Formation
- •The past continuous
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Continuous vs. The Past Simple.
- •The past perfect
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Perfect vs. The Past Simple
- •The past perfect continuous
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Perfect Inclusive vs. The Past Perfect Continuous Inclusive
- •Future tenses
- •The future simple (indefinite)
- •I. The Formation
- •III. ''Will'' as a modal verb
- •IV. ''Shall'' as a modal verb
- •The future continuous
- •I. The Formation
- •The future perfect
- •I. The Formation
- •The future perfect continuous
- •I. The Formation
- •Around the future
- •Other ways of talking about the future
III. The Past Perfect vs. The Past Simple
The Past Perfect |
The Past Simple |
in adverbial clauses introduced by before and after both tenses can be used owing to the lexical meaning of these conjunctions |
|
After he had left the house he recollected that he had not locked the door. |
After he left the house he recollected that he had not locked the door. |
The Past Perfect is used to stress the completion of actions. |
The Past Simple is often used with such terminative verbs as arrive, enter, look in, open, etc. when two actions closely follow each other. |
I noticed that somebody was sitting at the table only when I had entered the room (but not when I was in the doorway). He had closed the window and was sitting in his armchair, reading a newspaper. |
When I entered the room I noticed that somebody was sitting at the table He closed the window, sat down in the armchair and began reading his newspaper. |
The past perfect continuous
I. The Formation
The Past Perfect Continuous is formed analytically by means of the auxiliary verb ''to be'' in the Past Perfect and Participle I of the notional verb.
He had been speaking.
Had he been speaking?
He had not been speaking.
II. The Use. The past Perfect Continuous is used:
1) to talk about actions or situations which had continued up to the past moment that we are thinking about, or shortly before it:
At that time we had been living in the caravan for about six months.
When I found Mary, I could see that she had been crying.
I went to the doctor because I had been sleeping badly.
2) to say how long something had been happening up to a past moment:
We’d been walking since sunrise, and we were hungry.
When she arrived, she had been travelling for twenty hours.
III. The Past Perfect Inclusive vs. The Past Perfect Continuous Inclusive
The Past Perfect Simple |
The Past Perfect Continuous |
is used with stative verbs He suddenly understood that he had loved her all her life. |
is used with action verbs He suddenly understood that he had been going the wrong way. |
lays the stress on the mere action (if used with non-terminative verbs) She said that she had taught English for 20 years. |
lays the stress on the duration of the action
She said she had been teaching children for 20 years. |
is used in negative sentences The land was dry. It hadn't rained for weeks. |
is used in positive statements There were puddles everywhere. It had been raining for three days. |
Future tenses
All future tenses refer the action they denote to the future. In English there are several forms which express future events, and which one the users select depends on how they see the event, if the event is certain or near to the present.