Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Values of The Tenses
Values of The Tenses
An action happening now or ‘now’ in general, not necessarily at the moment of speaking
Momentary actions
Temporary actions
To express transition from one state to another (to get, to grow)
A frequently repeated action which annoys the speaker (always)
Future actions part of our personal plan
Actions that begin in the past and are still continuing, extending up to the present moment
Uninterrupted actions
A continuous action which seems to have ended right before the moment of speech as it has
visible results
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Past actions seen in development in a past moment
Simultaneous actions in progress in the past
A casual, less deliberate action (as an alternative to the Simple Past)
Future plans seen from a past perspective
A past action that started and ended before another past action
A past action that occurred just for a moment only to allow another past action to occur
(Hardly/Scarcely…when; No sooner…than)
In Time Clauses to express anteriority towards a past moment
Past actions that begin before and extend up to other past actions
Continuous, uninterrupted, but incomplete actions
Future actions in progress that started before a future moment and extend until that future
moment/event
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