Tenses

Tenses are the three things that tell about an action. There are 12 different types of tenses.

The three things that tell about an action are time, continuance and completion. Time includes past, present and past. Past is something that has already happened. Present is something that is happening at the time of speaking and past is something that has not happened.

Continuance includes: simple and continuous. Simple is one specific thing and continuous is still going on.

Completion includes perfect. Perfect is a completed action. It is not the same as past. However, something can be in the past but it may not be completed.

The types of tenses are: past simple, present simple, future simple, past continuous, present continuous, future continuous, past perfect, present perfect, future perfect, past perfect continuous, present perfect continuous and future perfect continuous.

The 12 different tenses help us with understanding what type of tenses to use in communication.

LI: To learn about verb tense.