What are all the tenses?

Answer 1

In the English language there are broad groups of tenses, commonly known as past, present and future tenses.

SECTION 1 -BASIC TENSES

Here is a list of some of the more well know tenses:

Some tense forms are described in other ways e.g. Past Continuous is also called the Past Progressive, etc.

PAST

• Past Simple (or Simple Past)
• Past Continuous (or Continuous Past)
• Past Perfect
• Past Perfect Continuous

PRESENT

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

FUTURE

• Future Continuous
• Future Perfect
• Future Perfect Continuous

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SECTION 2 -OTHER TENSES

In addition to the above 'basic' tenses there are other 'tense' forms, which include:-

PASSIVE TENSES

• Simple passive tenses
• Continuous Passive tenses
• Perfect Passive tenses
• Complex Passive tenses

See Section 3 Part 4 below for expanded list of Passive Tenses

EMPHATIC TENSES

• Past Emphatic
• Present Emphatic

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SECTION 3 - MORE TENSE FORMS

Part One -Tense Variations

Most tenses have

• Negative forms
• Question forms, and
• Conditional forms.

Conditional statements ('If') also take particularl tense forms, entirely dependant upon the status of the fulfillment of the condition.

Part Two -The Past

In addition to basic tenses for the past, aspects of some past events are appropriately communicated by using:

• 'used to'
• 'was going to'

Part Three -The Future

There are many ways to talk about the future. Different future forms of verbs are used in different circumstances: e.g.

• Schedules, scheduled personal plans, timetabled events. In these situations the Present Simple is used with a 'future time' marker.
• Intentions or plans already agreed. -Present Continuous is used with a 'future time' marker.
• Plans previously decided upon:- the Present Continuous of 'to go' is used. i.e. 'going to'
• Instant decision about the future:- uses the Present tense form of a modal verb e.g. will/shall.

Part Four -Passive tenses

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

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

• Future Perfect Passive

• Complex Passive Tenses: There are six main forms

1. Future with will/shall passive
2. Future with going to passive
3. Modal Passive, Present form
4. Modal Passive, Past form
5. Modal passive with 'used to' passive
6. Past with 'was going to' passive

Part Five -Modal tenses (i.e. auxiliary verbs and their effects on tenses)

For example, using will, would, shall, should, may, might, can, could, must, need, ought, etc ...

Modal auxiliary verbs are used to give some clue as to the speaker's view of the probability etc of the action associated with the main verb.

Of special note are the

• 'Modal Perfect' tense forms. Although often similar to the Present Perfect, the Modal Perfect introduces the 'logical' element of a tense, dependent upon the actual modal verb used. e.g. must not means prohibited, need not means unnecessary, and should not refers to a desirable though not mandatory action, etc.

The Modal Perfect is used with reference to (a) logic regarding the past, (b) logic about scheduled events which may affect the present, and (c) logical extrapolations about the future.

The Modal Perfect is also used with reference to obligation.

In the interests of brevity, full details of modal verb forms have not been included in this answer.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, and examples of usage, see 'Sources and Related Links' below.

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