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Grammar at A Glance

The document discusses English tenses and provides examples of how verbs are used to indicate the present, past, and future tenses. It explains how tenses not only refer to time but also the state of an action. Tables are included showing conjugations of verbs in the simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous forms across active and passive voices.

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Sumedha MM
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863 views

Grammar at A Glance

The document discusses English tenses and provides examples of how verbs are used to indicate the present, past, and future tenses. It explains how tenses not only refer to time but also the state of an action. Tables are included showing conjugations of verbs in the simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous forms across active and passive voices.

Uploaded by

Sumedha MM
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Name: ................................... Date: ...................................

Tenses at a glance (Rapid Revision Course)

Prepared by Sumedha Manabarana

Hello and welcome to English Tenses


The word ‘tense’ comes from the Latin word ‘tempus’ meaning ‘time’.

Latin, fixed in the second or the first century, was the language of ancient Rome. It was also the
official language of the Roman Empire. Some other languages developed from Latin are
Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French.

Now, read the following sentences.

i. We go to Canberra every year.


ii. We went to Canberra during the last December vacation.
iii. We shall go to Canberra next year, too.

 The verb go in the first sentence refers to present time.


 The verb went in second sentence refers to past time.
 The verb shall go in the third sentence refers to future time.
In this way, a verb may refer to

 present time,
 past time, or
 future time

Thus, the present, the past and the future are the three main tenses in English.
(Modern English does not consider future as a tense.)

Now read the following sentences:

I eat. (The verb shows that the action is simply mentioned.)

I am eating. (The verb shows that the action is still going on.)

I have eaten. (The verb shows that the action is finished at the time of speaking)

I have been eating. (The verb shows that the action is going on continuously, and not completed
at this present time.)

Thus we see that the Tense of a verb shows not only the time of an action or event, but
also the state of an action referred to.
The ENGLSIH Tense
ACTIVE VOICE
PRESENT TENSE PAST TENSE FUTURE

PRESENT SIMPLEPAST SIMPLEFUTURE SIMPLE


PRESENT CONTINUOUSPAST CONTINUOUSFUTURE CONTINUOUS
PRESENT PERFECTPAST PERFECTFUTURE PERFECT
PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUSPAST PERFECT CONTINUOUSFUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS

PASSIVE VOICE (The tenses in red colour means that they do not have passive.)

PRESENT TENSE PAST TENSE FUTURE

PRESENT SIMPLEPAST SIMPLEFUTURE SIMPLE


PRESENT CONTINUOUSPAST CONTINUOUSFUTURE CONTINUOUS
PRESENT PERFECTPAST PERFECTFUTURE PERFECT
PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUSPAST PERFECT CONTINUOUSFUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS

For I, We, You, They or any TENSE


plural

ASPECT PRESENTPASTFUTURE
I eat rice.I ate rice.I will eat rice.
I am eating rice.I was eating rice.I will be eating rice. I have eaten rice.I
SIMPLE
had eaten rice.I will have eaten rice. I have been eating rice. I had been
CONTINUOUS eating rice.I will have been eating rice.
PERFECT
PERFECT CONTINOUS

I am / was We, You, They and any plural are / were I, We shall. Will is also possible.

(NB: For the Present tenses  He, She, It or any singular: He eats/He is eating/He has
eaten / He has been eating.)
ACTIVITY

Now, fill the table correctly. (You may do this in your note book.)

I learn English.

PRESENT PAST FUTURE

……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………


……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………

We play cricket.

PRESENT PAST FUTURE

……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………


……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………

You repair it.

PRESENT PAST FUTURE

……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………


……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
They do homework.

PRESENT PAST FUTURE

……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………


……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………

I have a dream.

PRESENT PAST FUTURE

……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………


……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………

They have problems.

PRESENT PAST FUTURE

……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………


……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………
……………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………………

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