Tenses and time

Tenses refer to different forms of a verb or verb phrase. We use different tenses to talk or write about different times. For example, we usually use present tense verb forms to talk about states, events or actions that happen or are happening in the present time. We usually use past tense verb forms to talk about past time, to describe events, states or actions that have finished. We can also use past tense forms to refer to present time, for example, for reasons of politeness or indirectness (I was wondering if you wanted a drink) and present tense forms to refer to past time, for example, for dramatic effect.

There is no future tense form of verbs in English. We refer to future time in several different ways for different functions, for example, using the present tense orbe going toorwill.

Click on a topic to learn more about these tenses.