Tenses

Tenses

The concept of time can be split into:
  1. The Present - What you are currently doing.
            I eat, I am eating
  1. The Past - What you did some time back.
            I ate, I was eating
  1. The Future - What you will do later.
            I will eat, I will be eating
In the English language, tenses play an important role in sentence formation.
The tense of a verb shows the time of an event or action.
There are four types of tenses. Simple, Perfect, Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous and each of these has a present, past and future form.

PRESENT TENSES

In Simple Present, the action is simply mentioned and there is nothing being said about its completeness.
       I eat.
       I sleep.
       I play.
In Present Continuous, the action is on-going/ still going on and hence continuous.
       I am eating.
       I am sleeping.
       I am playing.
In Present Perfect, the action is complete or has ended and hence termed Perfect.
       I have eaten.
       I have slept.
       I have played.
In Present Perfect Continuous, the action has been taking place for some time and is still ongoing.
       I have been eating.
       I have been sleeping.
       I have been playing.

PAST TENSES

In Simple Past, the action is simply mentioned and understood to have taken place in the past.
       I ate.
       I slept.
       I played.
In Past Continuous, the action was ongoing till a certain time in the past.
       I was eating.
       I was sleeping.
       I was playing.
Past Perfect is used to express something that happened before another action in the past.
       I had eaten.
       I had slept.
       I had played.
Past Perfect Continuous is used to express something that started in the past and continued until another time in the past.
       I had been eating.
       I had been sleeping.
       I had been playing.

FUTURE TENSES

Simple Future is used when we plan or make a decision to do something. Nothing is said about the time in the future.
       I will eat.
       I will sleep.
       I will play.
The future continuous tense is used to express action at a particular moment in the future. However, the action will not have finished at the moment.
       I will be eating at 9 a.m.
       I will be sleeping when you arrive.
       I will be playing at 5 p.m.
Future Perfect expresses action that will occur in the future before another action in the future.
       I will have eaten before 10 a.m.
       I will have slept before you arrive.
       I will have played before 6 p.m.
Future Perfect Continuous is used to talk about an on-going action before some point in the future.
       I will have been sleeping for two hours when you arrive.
       I will have been playing for an hour when it is 5 p.m.

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