Tenses

Present Tense
Past Tense
Future Tense
Present Perfect Tense
Past Perfect Tense
Future Perfect Tense
Present Tense

Three forms of the present tense:

Ordinary Form
Progressive Form
Emphatic Form
a. Ordinary Form

a.1 To indicate habitual action or actions performed everyday

examples: He does his work every day.
I go to school every day.
a.2 To express a general truth
example: The earth rotates on its axis.
a.3 To tell of an action that happens at the time of speaking
example: I need a pen.
a.4 To talk about authors who died a long time ago
example: Shakespeare writes about common experiences.
a.5 To express a future action
example: I leave Laguna tomorrow.
b. Progressive Form

b.1 To express an action which is taking place as the

speaker speaks
examples: I am eating.
They are going to the office now.

b.2 To ask questions indicating an action happening now

example: Are you learning now?
c. Emphatic Form

c.1 To emphasize an action

example: I do listen to what you’re saying.

c.2 To strengthen a statement

example: I do wish I could.

c.3 To ask a question

example: Do you study your lesson?

c.4 To express a negative statement

example: I do not believe in mercy killing.
Past Tense
- is used to indicate action that took place at some past time –
yesterday, last week, last year, etc.

Forms of the Past Tense:

what happened
yesterday was
Ordinary Form GREAT!
Past Progressive Form
Past Perfect
a. Ordinary Form
It is generally used to express something that happened at a
specific past time. A time expression like yesterday, last night,
etc., indicates the use of the ordinary form of the past tense.
examples: I saw you yesterday.
We went to Makati last night.

b. Past Progressive Form

It is used to express an action that was going on in the past
when another past action occurred.

examples: I was reading when the telephone rang.

I was washing the dishes when the robber came.
c. Past Perfect
This tense expresses action (or state of being) that took place
before some other event in the past.

example: Jan had lived there two years before she moved to
Florida.
Present Perfect Tense

- refers to two related actions – a past action and a present

action.
It refers to an action that has its beginning in the past but
continues to the present moment. It actually indicates more of
a present action or situation than a past one.

examples: I have been reading for two hours.

I have been waiting since five o’clock.

For and Since signal the present perfect tense. It would be

wrong to use the past tense in these instances.
a. Ordinary Form
example: I have studied for three hours.

b. Progressive Form
example: I have been studying for three hours.

c. The present perfect tense is used to denote an action

c.1 that began at some past time and continues to the present.
example: I have been healthy all my life.
c.2 an action that has just been completed.
example: He has just eaten his lunch.
c.3 The progressive form emphasizes the duration of the action.
example: He has been speaking for an hour.

The present perfect tense is sometimes called the “has –have” tense.
Future Tense

• used to indicate the future action. The helping

verbs shall and will, signal the future tense.

• example: I shall speak; you will speak.

• The going to form is often used to indicate future

action.

• example: I am going to speak.

 The Future Tenses
- There are two tenses which express an action which will
take place in the future. These are the future tense and the
future perfect tense.

Future Tense – expresses an action which will begin at some

future time.
example: I shall leave at seven o’clock.

Future Perfect Tense – expresses an action which shall be

completed before some future time.
example: I shall have left by seven o’clock.