Time expressions used with various tense

forms
Present Simple
When we make present simple statements we use time
expressions including:

Every day Every morning Every

afternoon

Every evening Every night At the

weekend

On Mondays On Saturdays In the

morning

In the afternoon In the evening At night

Always Often Sometimes

Rarely Hardly ever Never

For example:

I take a shower every morning

He visits his parents at the weekend.
She has classes in the afternoon.
We rarely go to the theatre.

Past Simple
When we make past simple statements we use time
expressions including:

Yesterday Yesterday morning Yesterday

afternoon
One month ago Two years ago Three weeks
ago

Last month Last week Last year

Last night

Last October Last Saturday Last Tuesday

evening

Using the past simple tense together with these expressions

tells us that the action is finished and when the action
happened.

For example:

She was late for work yesterday morning.

They went on holiday last August.
I started my new job three months ago.
We had a meeting last Monday afternoon.

Present Continuous
When we make present continuous statements we use time
expressions such as:

Now Right now At the moment

At present Today All day

For example:

John is eating his lunch now.

Linda is working at the moment.
We are leaving right now.

Past Continuous
When we make past continuous statements we use time
expressions such as:

At 7pm last night At 4am this morning At

lunchtime yesterday

We can also use the past continuous with a clause and a

verb in the past simple tense – for example:

Before I started school Before I went to Germany

When I watched a film

Here are examples:

I was sleeping at 4 am this morning.

It was raining before I started school.
Sue was driving to work when she heard the news.