Verb tenses show when an action, event, or state happens. They also help express whether an action is complete, continuing, repeated, or connected to another point in time.
Start with Verb Tenses in English Grammar for an overview of the main tense forms, structures, and uses. You can then explore individual tenses, sentence examples, tense comparisons, and rules for keeping verb tense consistent.
The difference between had worked and had been working can be easy to miss because both forms look back from a point in the past. Compare She had worked there for five years with She had been working there for…
The present perfect continuous is useful when an activity began earlier and still matters now. Sometimes the activity is continuing. Sometimes it has just stopped, but its effects are still noticeable. Compare: I have been working on the budget since…
The present perfect contains a past participle, but it does not simply describe past time. A sentence such as I have lost my access card refers to something that happened earlier, yet the reason for saying it belongs to the…
When two things happened in the past, the earlier one does not automatically need the Past Perfect. Compare We left after the meeting ended with The meeting had already ended when we arrived. Both sentences contain an earlier and a…
Choosing between worked and was working is not always obvious. Both can refer to the same past period, but they do not present the situation in the same way. If you say I worked on the report at nine o’clock,…
The present continuous is often introduced as the tense for actions happening right now, but its use is much wider than that. It can describe something unfolding at this moment, a temporary situation lasting for several weeks, a gradual change,…
The Simple Past formula is easy to mix up once did appears. Forms such as didn’t went and Did she wrote? happen because the verb is marked for the past twice. There is another detail formula charts sometimes hide: not…
The simple past can seem straightforward when a sentence includes yesterday, last week, or a finished date. It becomes less obvious when there is no time expression at all, or when the situation lasted for several years rather than happening…
The Simple Present appears in much more than everyday routines. It can describe habits, facts, current states, schedules, preferences, instructions, and certain future situations. The 100 sentences below are grouped by meaning and sentence form, so you can see how…
The present simple is often introduced as the tense for habits and facts, but that only explains part of how it works. You can use it for a regular routine, a state that is true now, a scheduled event happening…
An English tense chart lets you compare verb forms without working through a full grammar lesson each time. You can quickly check whether a structure needs has, had, will have, been, an -ing form, or a past participle. The traditional…