English Tenses: A Complete Guide

What are Tenses?

Tenses show the time of an action. English has three main tenses (present, past, future), and each has four forms.

Present Tense

• Simple: She writes a letter.
• Continuous: She is writing a letter.
• Perfect: She has written a letter.
• Perfect continuous: She has been writing a letter.

Past Tense

• Simple: She wrote a letter.
• Continuous: She was writing a letter.
• Perfect: She had written a letter.

Future Tense

• Simple: She will write a letter.
• Continuous: She will be writing a letter.
• Perfect: She will have written a letter.

Key Points

Learn the helping verbs (is, was, has, had, will) because they signal the tense and form.