English Tenses—Present, Past and Future: Uses and Examples

ENGLISH TENSES

Learn how to express actions in the present, past and future through simple rules, clear uses and easy examples.

What Is Tense?

Tense is the form of a verb that shows the time of an action, event or situation. It tells us whether something happens now, happened earlier or will happen later.

English has three main tenses: Present Tense, Past Tense and Future Tense. Each tense has four forms: Simple, Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous.

PASTBefore now

PRESENTNow or regularly

FUTUREAfter now

.1. Present Tense

Actions happening now, repeated actions and general truths

• Simple Present
• Present Continuous
• Present Perfect
• Present Perfect Continuous

Example: She reads a book every day.

Learn Present Tense →

.2. Past Tense

Actions, events and situations that happened before now

• Simple Past
• Past Continuous
• Past Perfect
• Past Perfect Continuous

Example: She read a book yesterday.

Learn Past Tense →

.3. Future Tense

Actions, events and situations expected to happen later

• Simple Future
• Future Continuous
• Future Perfect
• Future Perfect Continuous

Example: She will read a book tomorrow.

Learn Future Tense →

Quick Comparison

Tense	Time	Example
Present	Now or regularly	She writes a letter.
Past	Before now	She wrote a letter.
Future	After now	She will write a letter.

Easy Learning Tip

First identify the time of the action. Then decide whether the action is simple, continuing, completed or continuing over a period of time. This will help you choose the correct tense.

Present Tense Past Tense Future Tense

Prepared by Sindhu P., HSST English, GGHSS Kallai