ALL 12 TENSES IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR (ACTIVE AND PASSIIVE

VOICE).
We need tenses to form a sentence and refer to a situation. Tenses help us refer to a
certain time and situation. Today, we will learn all 12 tenses in English grammar
we have.
What is tense in English?

The word ‘tense’ means ‘time’ in English. Every tense in English refers to
a specific time that the sentence refers to. We have 12 different tenses in English:

1. Simple Present tense

2. Present Progressive tense
3. Present Perfect tense
4. Present Perfect Continuous tense
5. Simple Past tense
6. Past Progressive tense
7. Past Perfect tense
8. Past Perfect Continuous tense
9. Simple Future tense
10. Future Progressive tense
11. Future Perfect tense
12. Future Perfect Continuous tense,

There are 3 main tenses (time): Present tense, Past tense, Future tense. Let’s learn all
12 tenses one by one. We will start with the present tense.

Simple Present Tense

The Simple Present tense, also known as the Present Indefinite tense, is used to talk
about actions we do repeatedly. We use this tense to talk about repeated actions,
universal facts, likes, dislikes, goals, ambitions, and a few more.

Examples:
 1. I teach English.
2. My father goes for a walk in the morning.
3. Jon wakes up at 6 am.
4. Ashish listens to an English podcast before hitting the bed.
5. I like talking to strangers.
6. You are a great human being.
7. Joanna wants to be a doctor.
8. My brother doesn’t like going out.
9. Do you like me?
10.Don’t you teach yoga here?

Notice that sentences refer to actions that are repeated in the present time. The
purpose of the tense is to point out the followings:

Simple Present Tense (Passive Voice)

In the passive voice of the Present Indefinite tense, sentences are formed using the
subject (the receiver of the action) followed by is/am/are + past participle (V3).
Here’s the structure:
Subject (the object) + is/am/are +v3 + (by + the doer)
Notice that the object in the active voice becomes the subject in the passive voice
as it is what the writer focuses on in the passive voice:

PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE.

The Present Continuous tense, also known as the Present Progressive tense, is a
verb tense that is used to refer to actions that are going on in the present. If I asked
you to tell me what’s happening there right now, you would tell me everything
using the Present Continuous tense. For example:
1. My brother is talking to someone over the phone.
2. Some kids are playing outside.
3. Jane, my cousin, is watching T.V.
4. My parents are having coffee.
5. A guy is standing next to a car.
6. Some ladies are buying something from a street vendor.
7. Jimmy, my dog, is drinking water.

WH Interrogative sentences

Structure: WH words + is/am/are + subject + present participle (v1+ing) +

object/modifier?
Present Continuous tense (Passive Voice)
In the active voice of the Present Continuous tense, we focus on the person who is
doing an action currently in the present. In the passive voice of the Present
continuous tense, we focus on the object (the receiver of the action) that is
receiving the action in the present. The verb tense is formed using is/am/are +
being + v3.
Active Voice: Subject (doer) + is/am/are + v1+ing + object.
Passive voice: The object (receiver of the action) + is/am/are + being + v3 + (by
the doer)
Example:
PRESENT PERFECT TENSE

The Present Perfect tense is a verb tense that is used to refer to actions that
occurred in the past but are important and relevant to the present. It is mainly used
to talk about the status of an action or share life experiences.
Examples:
1. I have completed the project.
2. Maxwell has left England for the match.
3. My father has helped a lot of people.
4. We have never had meat.
5. The boss has canceled the meeting.
6. Jon has just left for office.
WH Interrogative sentences
Present Perfect tense (passive voice)
Active voice Subject + has/have + past participle (v3) + object
Passive voice Object + has/have + past participle (v3) + (by + subject)

Active: She has cooked the food.

Passive: The food has been cooked by her.
Both the above sentences are in the Present perfect tense and render the same
meaning. But they are focusing on different things.
The first sentence, which is in the active voice, focuses on the doer of the action
(subject): She. But the second sentence, which is in the passive voice, focuses on
the receiver of the action(object): the food.
   
In the passive voice of the present perfect tense, we talk about what has been
completed or finished; who has finished it is not important in the passive voice of
the present perfect tense.
Examples:

1. Active voice: I have written an amazing song.

2. Passive voice: An amazing song has been written (by me).

3. Active voice: Jon has helped a lot.

4. Passive voice: I have been helped a lot (by Jon).

5. Active voice: Most people have tried alcohol.

6. Passive voice: Alcohol has been tried (by most people).

7. Active voice: Have you finished the project?

8. Passive voice: Has the project been finished?

9. Active voice: Has jyoti invited you to the party?

10.Passive voice: Have you been invited to the party by Jyoti?.

PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE

The Present Perfect Continuous tense is used to talk about actions that started in
the past and are still continuing in the present. The whole purpose of using the
Present Perfect Continuous tense is to focus on either of the following two
things:
The time duration for which the action has been continuing.
The starting point of the action since when the action has been going on.

We use FOR to talk about the time duration, and SINCE is used to talk about the starting point of
the ongoing action.

Let’s note that we, here in the Present Perfect Continuous tense, don’t just focus on the
continuity of the action, we focus either on the time duration or the starting point of the
ongoing action. If we just wanted to focus on the continuity of the action in the present, we
would simply use the Present Continuous tense, not the Present Perfect continuous tense.

SIMPLE PASTE TENSE

The Past Indefinite tense, also known as the Simple Past tense, is used to talk
about actions that occurred in the past at a specific time.

Always remember, the time of the action, if not already understood, needs to be
mentioned as this is an important facet of the Past Indefinite tense.
Past time markers:  yesterday, last night, last week, last month, last year,
last summer, last season, last decade, last quarter, last night, that day, that night,
etc.

Examples:

1. I woke up at 5 am.
2. Jim died in a car accident last year.
3. We went to see him yesterday.
4. He said a lot of mean things to me in that meeting.

Simple Past tense (Passive Voice)

We use the passive voice in the Simple Past tense when we want to focus on
whom Or what The action was acted upon in the past, not who performed the
action. With changing the voice from active to passive, the sentence structure also
changes.
They never invited me to their houses. (Active voice)
I was never invited to their houses by them. (Passive voice)

Note that in the active voice, the focus of the sentence is on the doer of the
action: who performed the action (They). But in the passive voice, the focus has
shifted to the receiver of the action: the object(me). Notice that we have added the
doer (the original subject) of the action in the passive voice by using the
preposition ‘by’ and changed it to an objective pronoun (Them) from a subjective
pronoun (Them). It is not mandatory to do that at all; we generally don’t talk about
the doer of the action in the passive voice.

Active voice Subject (doer) + v2 (past form) + object

Passive voice Subject + was/were/ + past participle (v3) + by + the doer
(optional)

Examples:
Active: She slapped me in front of everyone.
Passive: I was slapped in front of everyone (by her).

Active: The police arrested the thieves last week.

Passive: The thieves were arrested last week (by the police).

Active: Most people didn’t like his movies.

Passive: His movies were not liked by most people.

Active: Did they take him to the hospital?

Passive: Was he taken to the hospital (by them)?

PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE

We use the Past Continuous tense when we want to talk about what was happening
at a particular time in the past.

Examples:

She was calling me an hour ago.

My friends were talking about you last night.
Were you sleeping in the exam room?
I was having dinner when you called.

Past Continuous Tense (Passive voice)

The passive voice of Past continuous tense is used when you want to focus on the
person or the thing that was receiving the action in the past; that was being acted
upon. When the receiver of the action (object of the verb) is more important than
the doer itself, write the sentence in the passive voice of Past continuous tense.

Active Voice Subject (doer) + was/were/present participle (v1+ing) + object

Passive voice Object + was/were + being + past participle (v3) + by +
subject (optional)
Active: I was training Megha yesterday. (Focusing on the doer of the action ‘I’)
Passive: Megha was being trained (by me) yesterday. (Focusing on the object
that receiving the action “Megha”)
Example:

Active: I was taking the class at that time.

Passive: The class was being taken at that time (by me).

Active: He was eating dinner at 9 pm.

Passive: Dinner was being eaten at 9 pm by him.

Active: We were not recording the video.

Passive: The video was not being recorded by us.

Active: Was he not helping you?

Passive: Were you not being helped by him

PAST PERFECT TENSE

The Past Perfect tense is formed using the past tense of the auxiliary verb “to have”
(HAD) and the past participle of the main verb.

Examples:

I had left the party before she arrived.

The teacher had ended the class before we took the notes.
The police had arrested the man.

Past perfect tense (passive voice)

Sentences are written in Past perfect passive voice when we want to focus on
the receiver of the action: when we want to talk about what or whom the doer of
the action had acted upon.
 Active Voice Subject had V3 object
Passive Voice: Object had + been V3 (by + subject)

Active voice: They had copied all my answers.

Passive voice: All my answers had been copied (by them).

Active Voice: Someone had stolen my car before I reached home.

Passive voice: My car had been stolen (by someone) before I reached home.

Active voice: We had not recorded the video.

Passive voice: The video had not been recorded (by us).

Active voice: Had they contacted you for the class?

Passive voice: Had you been contacted for the class by them?

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE

We use the Past Perfect Continuous tense to talk about an action that started in the
past, continued for some time, and stopped before a particular time in the past.

Structure: Subject + had been + V1+ing + time reference.

Time reference:

Use FOR to talk about the time duration of the action.

And use SINCE to talk about the starting point of the action.

Examples:

We had been waiting there for 2 hours before the bus arrived.

(We started waiting in the past at some point in time and kept waiting for 2 hours.
This action stopped before a particular time: the arrival of the bus)

She had been studying English since the morning when I called.   

 English since the morning when I called.

 (This action of studying started in the past at a particular time (the morning) and
kept going on until a particular time me calling)

SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE

We use the Simple Future tense, also known as the future indefinite tense, to talk
about something (an action) that occurs at a certain time in the future. The word
that refers to the future time is called the future time marker. The time sometimes
is not mentioned as the speaker themselves don’t know the time.

Some future time markers: tomorrow, next day, next week, next month, next
quarter, next year, next decade…

Examples:

The players will not show up today.

She will cook in the evening.
I will be there in 50 minutes.
You will pass the test.
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Contractions
 I will = I’ll
You will = you’ll
We will = we’ll
He will = he’ll
She will = she’ll
It will = it’ll
They will = they’ll
Will not = won’t
A sentence is formed in the Future Indefinite passive voice when the emphasis is
given on the receiver of an action, rather than who does it.
Subject object
Object
(by +subject)

I will complete the task. The task will be completed (by me).
We will arrange the party in an hour. The party will be arranged in an hour.
The company will not hire you. You won’t be hired.

THE FUTURE CONTINUOUS

Also known as the Future Progressive tense, is a verb tense that is used to refer to actions
happening at a certain time in the future. Note that we, here in this tense, just focus on the
continuity of the action, not on when it will start or end

We when we come back.

I anything after the class. I have nothing
to do.

 THE FUTURE PERFECT TENSE

Is used to refer to an action that will be completed before a certain time in the
future. The whole point of using this tense is to focus on the fact that the action
will have ended before some point in time in the future.

   
Let’s say Rodney comes home at 10 pm. The action (leaving) will have taken place
before this time, and this is what the sentence focuses on. The focus is on the fact
that the action of leaving will have taken place before a certain time in the future.

The action of sleeping will be completed before a certain time, which is starting of

the match.
 Subject object
object (by +subject)

Active: The company will have fired Jon before the end of the year.
Passive: Jon will have been fired before the end of the year (by the company).