Verb Tenses: Top 15 Key Points

Understanding verb tenses is vital for expressing time and action in English. This guide covers the top 15 key points about verb tenses, each illustrated with examples.

No.	Key Point	Explanation	Examples
1	Simple Present	Expresses habitual actions or general truths.	"I walk to school." "The sun rises in the east." "She speaks English."
2	Present Continuous	Describes actions happening now or currently ongoing.	"I am walking to school." "He is reading a book." "They are playing football."
3	Simple Past	Talks about actions completed in the past.	"I walked to school yesterday." "She finished her work." "It rained last night."
4	Past Continuous	Indicates an ongoing action in the past.	"I was walking when she called." "He was sleeping at 8 pm." "They were watching a movie."
5	Simple Future	Discusses actions that will happen in the future.	"I will walk to school tomorrow." "She will cook dinner." "It will rain tomorrow."
6	Future Continuous	Describes actions that will be ongoing in the future.	"I will be walking to school." "He will be working at 10 am." "They will be sleeping when we arrive."
7	Present Perfect	Expresses actions that happened at an unspecified time before now.	"I have finished my homework." "She has visited Paris." "They have left the building."
8	Present Perfect Continuous	Shows actions that started in the past and continued to the present.	"I have been walking for an hour." "He has been studying all day." "They have been waiting for you."
9	Past Perfect	Discusses actions that were completed before another action in the past.	"I had finished eating when he arrived." "She had left before you called." "They had seen the movie before."
10	Past Perfect Continuous	Indicates a continuous action that was completed at some point in the past.	"I had been walking for an hour when it started to rain." "He had been working for the company for five years when he got promoted."
11	Future Perfect	Talks about actions that will be completed before a certain point in the future.	"I will have finished my homework by 8 pm." "She will have left by the time you get there."
12	Future Perfect Continuous	Describes actions that will continue up until a point in the future.	"I will have been walking for an hour by the time I get home." "She will have been working at the company for three years next month."
13	Modal Verbs for Present and Past	Uses modal verbs to express ability, permission, or possibility.	"She can speak Spanish." (present) "He could see the bird." (past)
14	Active and Passive Voice	Active voice has the subject performing the verb's action, passive voice has the subject receiving the action.	Active: "The chef cooked the meal." Passive: "The meal was cooked by the chef."
15	Conditional Tenses	Used for actions that are conditional upon something else.	"If I study hard, I will pass the exam." (first conditional) "If I had studied hard, I would have passed the exam." (third conditional)