An Overview of

Tenses in English

by Ivana A. Grbavac, PhD

Department of English Language
Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences
University of Mostar

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 Introduction
 Revision of TENSES , general
 FLT, learners: Advanced level
 Practical Language Teaching

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 Dichotomy

TENSE vs. TIME

 TENSE – a grammatical category
 TIME – a general notion

Time: past, present and future (3)

Tense: Simple Past Tense, Past
Continuous Tense, Future
Simple, etc. (12)
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 The present tenses
 1.The Present Continuous Tense:
a) I am listening to a lecture in English.
b) I am studying Anatomy.
c) Tomorrow afternoon I am playing
tennis with Ann. ( definite
arrangement in the near future )
d) He is always loosing his keys.
e) At six I am bathing the baby.
- for deliberate actions, BUT: verbs of the
senses, feelings, mental activity,
possession

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 2. The Simple Present Tense
a) He smokes.
b) I go to church on Sundays. ( always,
never, occasionally, often, sometimes, usually, every
day, twice a month, etc., when, whenever )
c) PEACE TALKS FAIL ( in newspaper
headlines )
d) Suddenly the window opens and
he appears. ( dramatic narrative )
e) We leave Mostar at 8.00 next
Sunday and arrive in Paris at
16.15.

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 The past and perfect
tenses
 3. The Simple Past Tense
I studied Cognitive linguistics
yesterday.

4. The Past Continuous Tense

When I arrived Tom was talking on
the phone.

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 5. The Present Perfect Tense
He has just gone out.
I have never been to Greece.
Have you had breakfast? No, not yet.
Tom has had a bad car crash. ( He is ...)
Shakespeare wrote 12 tragedies. John Smith has
written 2 plays.
Has the postman come this morning?
I have smoked since I left school.
6. The Present Perfect Continuous Tense
I have been waiting for an hour and he ...
He has been drinking. Look! ...

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 7. The Past Perfect Tense
When I arrived Ann had just left.
After, before ...

8. The Past Perfect Continuous

Tense
The boy was delighted with the
new knife. The boy had been
wanting a new knife for a ling time.

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 The Future
9. The Future Simple
10. The Future Continuous Tense
11. The Future Perfect Tense
By 2024 I will have finished my faculty.
12. The Future Perfect Continuous Tense
By the end of this year he will have
been acting for thirty years.

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