Verb tenses

The tense of a verb tells you when a person did something or when something existed or
happened. In English, there are three main tenses: the present, the past, and the future.

The present
The present tense (e.g. I am, she works, we swim, they believe) is also called the present
simpleor simple present. It's mainly used in the following ways:
to describe things that are currently happening or that are currently or always the case
(I love chocolate ice cream; my parents are in New York this week; he has fair hair and blue
eyes; some birds eat worms and insects).

to talk about something that exists or happens regularly (she goes out every Saturday night; it
always rains here in winter; I start work at 7.30 a.m.).

to refer to a future situation in certain cases and in some subordinate clauses (the bus arrives in
London at 6 p.m.; I'll make us some coffee when we get home).

Find out how to form the present simple tense.

The past
The past tense (e.g. I was, he talked, we had, they worked) is also called the past
simple or simple past. As its description implies, it’s used to talk about things or situations
which happened in the past, that is, before the present time of speaking. Its main uses are as
follows:
to refer to an event or situation which happened once and is now finished (I met Lisa yesterday;
we ate a huge breakfast this morning; they walked ten miles that day; you told me that before).

to describe a situation that lasted for a longer time in the past but is now finished (he went to
college for four years; my family lived in Oxford in the 1980s; I loved her for ages but
never told her).

to talk about an event that happened regularly or repeatedly but is now over (she calledfor help
over and over again; we ate out every night last week; I phoned him three times today).
Find out how to form the past simple tense.

The future
The future tense (e.g. I shall [or will] go; he will talk; we shall [or will] have; they will work) is
used to refer to things that haven’t yet happened at the present time of speaking, but which are
due, expected, or likely to occur in the future. Here are the main situations in which the future is
used:
to give or ask for information about the future (you will be in California tomorrow; how
long will the journey take?; OK, I’ll write that report on Thursday).

to talk about things that we think are likely or possible to happen in the future, but which aren’t
completely certain (I think she’ll retire soon; he won’t [will not] stay married to her for
long; you’ll never lose weight, you like food too much).

to refer to conditional situations, namely things that will or may happen if something else occurs
(if it’s hot I’ll go swimming later; you’ll get stressed out if you work all the time).

to make promises or threats, or to state decisions at the time of speaking (Fine, I’ll call you
soon; Are you going into town? We’ll give you a lift; I’ll never speak to you again).

The future tense is formed with will (or shall) and the infinitive of the verb without ‘to’. Learn
more about when to use will or shall.

Continuous and perfect tenses

There are two further types of tense: the continuous and the perfect. These tenses are sometimes
referred to as aspects rather than tenses. The term aspect is used in grammar to talk about the
form of a verb that shows, for example, whether the action happens once or repeatedly, is
completed or still continuing.

Continuous
These tenses (also called progressive tenses) are used to talk about actions that continue for a
period of time. They are formed with the relevant tense of the auxiliary verb to be and
the present participle of the main verb. There are three main continuous tenses:
the present continuous (I am working)
the past continuous (I was working)

the future continuous (I will be working)

Perfect
Perfect tenses are typically used to talk about actions that are completed by the present or a
particular point in the past or future. They are formed with the relevant tense of the auxiliary
verb to have and the past participle of the main verb. There are three main perfect tenses:
the present perfect (I have worked)

the past perfect (I had worked)

the future perfect (I will have worked)

Perfect continuous
There is a final set of tenses which combine features of the perfect and continuous tenses. They
are formed and used as follows:

the present perfect continuous (I have been working): used to talk about how long something
has continued up till now (I have been working there for a week)

the past perfect continuous (I had been working): used to talk about something which continued
up to a particular moment in the past but is now completed (I had been working there for a week
before I resigned)

the future perfect continuous (I will have been working): used to talk about something which is
expected to end by a particular time in the future (By December, I will have been working there
for 6 months)
Regular and irregular verbs
In the context of verbs, we use the term inflection to talk about the process of changing
a verb form to show tense, mood, number (i.e. singular or plural), and person (i.e. first
person, second person, or third person). This section deals with inflecting verbs to show
tenses and participles, and is divided into two main sections:
Regular verbs
Irregular verbs

Regular verbs
Many English verbs are regular, which means that they form their different tenses
according to an established pattern. Such verbs work like this:
3rd person 3rd person
past present
Verb singular singular
participle participle
present tense past tense
laugh he/she laughs he/she laughed laughed laughing
love he/she loves he/she loved loved loving
boo he/she boos he/she booed booed booing

Present tense formation

In the present simple tense, the basic form of a regular verb only changes in the
3rd person singular, as follows:
Most verbs just add -s to the basic form (e.g. take/takes, seem/seems, look/looks).

Verbs that end with a vowel other than e add -es (e.g. go/goes, veto/vetoes, do/does).

Verbs that end with -s, -z, -ch, -sh, and -x add -es
(e.g. kiss/kisses, fizz/fizzes, punch/punches, wash/washes, mix/mixes).

If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before adding -
es (e.g. hurry/hurries, clarify/clarifies). But if the verb ends in a vowel plus -y, just add -
s (e.g. play/plays, enjoy/enjoys).

Past tense formation

Forming the past simple tense of regular verbs is mostly straightforward, and you use
the same form for the first, second, and third persons, singular and plural:
If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, add the letters
-ed to the end (e.g. seem/seemed, laugh/laughed, look/looked).

For verbs that end in -e, add -d (e.g. love/loved, recede/receded, hope/hoped).

If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before adding -
ed (e.g. hurry/hurried, clarify/clarified). But if the verb ends in a vowel plus -y, just add -
ed (e.g. play/played, enjoy/enjoyed).

For more detail, see Verb tenses: adding-ed-and-ing.

Forming participles
To form the past participle of regular verbs, follow the same rules as for the past simple
tense above.

To make the present participle of regular verbs:

If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, add the ending
-ing (e.g. laugh/laughing, boo/booing).

If the verb ends in e, drop the e before adding -ing (e.g. love/loving, hope/hoping).
If the basic form ends in y just add -ing (e.g. hurry/hurrying, clarify/clarifying).

Irregular verbs
There are many irregular verbs that don’t follow the normal rules. Here are the forms of
some of the most common irregular verbs:

3rd person 3rd person

past present
Verb singular singular
participle participle
present tense past tense
think thinks thought thought thinking
sing sings sang sung singing
leave leaves left left leaving
 Verb tenses: adding -ed and -ing

The basic form of a verb is called the infinitive. It normally occurs with the word to as in
‘I want to ask you a question.’ Verbs may change their spelling according to which tense
is being used.
The past tense refers to things that happened in the past. To make the past tense of
regular verbs, the ending -ed is added to the infinitive ('I asked her a question').
The present participle refers to things that are still happening. To make the present
participle, the ending -ing is added to the infinitive ('I am asking her a question').
Often there's no need to make any other spelling changes when you add -ed and -ing to
the infinitive but there are some cases when it's necessary to do so. Here are some
rules to help you get it right:

Verbs ending with a silent e

If the verb ends with an e that isn’t pronounced (as in bake or smile), then you need to
drop this final -e before adding -ed and -ing:
verb past tense present participle
bake baked baking
smile smiled smiling

Verbs ending in -ee, -ye, and -oe (such as free, dye, and tiptoe) do not drop the final -
e when adding -ing:
verb past tense present participle
free freed freeing
dye dyed dyeing
tiptoe tiptoed tiptoeing

A very few verbs keep the final -e when adding -ing to distinguish them from similar
words. For example, singe becomes singeing rather than singing (which is the present
participle of sing).

Verbs ending with a vowel plus -l

If the verb ends with a vowel plus -l (as in travel or equal), then you need to double
the l before adding -ed and -ing in British English:
verb past tense present participle
travel travelled travelling
distil distilled distilling
equal equalled equalling

This rule doesn’t apply in American English: see more information about the differences
between British and American spelling

Verbs ending with a single vowel plus a consonant

If the verb ends with a single vowel plus a consonant, and the stress is at the end of the
word (e.g. refer), then you need to double the final consonant before adding -ed and –
ing:
verb past tense present participle
admit admitted admitting
commit committed committing
refer referred referring

Participles

A participle is a word formed from a verb, usually by adding -d, -ed, or -ing. There are two kinds
of participle in English, as follows:

The present participle

The present participle ends with -ing, e.g.:

We are going to Italy.
The company is building new headquarters in the UK.

The past participle

The past participle ends with -d or -ed for regular verbs, e.g.:
She had decided to go to Italy.
Fans had camped outside the studio.
and with -t or -en or some other form for irregular ones, e.g.:
New houses are still being built.
The glass is broken.

Using participles
Participles are used:

with auxiliary verbs to make verb tenses such as the present continuous and the past perfect:
We are going to Italy. [present continuous]
She had decided to go to Italy. [past perfect]

to form the passive voice of verbs (the past participle only is used, along with the auxiliary
verb to be:
We were ordered to sit down.

as adjectives, e.g.:

The pavement was covered with broken glass.

He stared at me with bulging eyes.

as nouns, e.g.:

She was a woman of good breeding.

Len was ordered to cut down on his drinking.

When a present participle is used as a noun, as in the last two examples above, it’s known as
a verbal noun or a gerund. Here are two more examples of verbal nouns:
Smoking is strictly forbidden.
Camping attracts people of all ages.