English Tenses: Expressing the Past, Present, and Future

July 8, 2021

An Overview of English Tenses

Does this title make you feel a bit…tense? (Yeah, me too.)

Jokes aside, tenses are an important part of English grammar. They allow speakers to clarify the timing of an action so that there’s no confusion.

In this article, I’ll briefly explain each English tense and show you how it affects verb conjugation.

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

What are Tenses?
Present Tense
Past Tense
Future Tense
Irregular Verbs
Time to Practice!
Final Thoughts
Answers

1. What are Tenses?

A tense indicates the timing of an action. There are three basic tenses in English: present, past, and future.

Verb tense is formed based on a sentence’s main verb and the auxiliary words around that verb.

Now, there are four aspects of each tense:

Simple	Expresses a simple fact. Tony runs quickly. He runs, in general, declarative terms.
Progressive	Expresses something that takes place during a limited period of time. Tony is running quickly. He is running right now, in this moment.
Perfect	Expresses something that occurred in the past, but is linked to another point in the future. Tony has run quickly. Tony ran in the past and up until the present moment.
Perfect Progressive	Expresses something that began in the past, but continues into the future. Tony has been running quickly. Tony started running in the past, up until the present moment. This emphasizes the duration of the past action.

These aspects affect how the verb is conjugated, as well as which auxiliary words are used in the sentence (if any).

Don’t worry if this seems too complicated. Many native English speakers struggle with this, too. The good news is that some verb tenses are more common than others. We’ll start with those. As you continue learning English, you can delve into more complex English verb tense forms to express more specific ideas.

In this article, I’ll be covering only the simple aspect for each tense. If you want to get a more in-depth look at all of the English tenses and aspects, though, see my article on English Verb Conjugation. (And while you’re at it, you can learn The 50 Most Common Verbs in English!)

2. Present Tense

A Woman Taking a Whole Chicken Out of the Oven

I cook.

The present tense is used to refer to something that is happening now, in the present. It can also be used to describe something that occurs on a regular basis (or is generally true, like facts and information).

To form the simple present, you simply take the infinitive form of the verb and remove the word “to” to create the base infinitive. Most conjugated verb forms will look identical to the base infinitive form.

The only exception is in the third person (he / she / it). In this case, you must add an -s to the end.

See this table of English tenses to understand how the infinitive verb “to cook” is conjugated for each person in the simple present tense:

Person	Present Tense Verb (“To Cook”)
I	Cook
You [singular]	Cook
He / She / It	Cooks
We	Cook
You [plural]	Cook
They	Cook

Easy, right? The only thing you have to remember is that the third person requires the -s at the end. In this audio lesson from EnglishClass101.com, you can learn more about how the simple present tense works in a real-life situation.

Of course, you can make these sentences longer and more specific by adding time words/phrases. These are words that indicate exactly when the action is taking place.

Common Time Words & Phrases for Simple Present Tense

Today	She cooks today.
Every day	I cook every day.
Often	They cook often.
Sometimes	Sometimes, you cook.
At ___	We cook at night.

Do you need more words and phrases? Check out EnglishClass101’s free vocabulary list for Essential Adverbs of Frequency and Time!

3. Past Tense

He listened.

The past tense is used to refer to something that happened previously, in the past.

To form the simple past, you take the infinitive form of the verb (in this case, “to listen”), take away the word “to,” and add -ed to the end of the root verb:

Person	Past Tense Verb (“To Listen”)
I	Listened
You [singular]	Listened
He / She / It	Listened
We	Listened
You [plural]	Listened
They	Listened

This is even easier than present tense, right? 😉 As you will notice, all subjects take on the same verb form, even the third person singular. Their conjugation is identical.

If you want a more detailed explanation or some examples, check out this video lesson where Alisha teaches you how to form the simple past.

Common Time Words & Phrases for Simple Past Tense

Yesterday	We listened yesterday.
Earlier	I listened earlier.
A few hours ago	They listened a few hours ago.
Last week	You listened last week.
Last year	He listened last year.

4. Future Tense

A Businesswoman at Her Computer, Shrugging

You will work.

The future tense is used to refer to future actions or, in some cases, probable future actions.

To form the simple future, take the infinitive form of the verb (in this case, “to work”), remove the word “to,” and add the word “will” in front of the root verb. In this case, “will” indicates a future event.

As you will notice, “will” does not take on a special conjugation. The same form is used for all verbs.

Person	Future Tense Verb (“To Work”)
I	Will work
You [singular]	Will work
He / She / It	Will work
We	Will work
You [plural]	Will work
They	Will work

Watch this video lesson to hear a detailed explanation of how the simple future tense works.

Common Time Words & Phrases for Simple Future Tense

Tomorrow	I will work tomorrow.
Soon	They will work soon.
Next week	You will work next week.
In a few days	We will work in a few days.
Next year	She will work next year.

5. Irregular Verbs

Everything we’ve covered so far has been pretty easy, right? All you have to do is memorize the conjugations—and there’s not even that much to memorize!

But we haven’t talked about irregular verbs yet. These are verbs that don’t conjugate the same way as regular verbs (like the ones we saw above), which means you’ll have to remember separate conjugation rules for them.

In this section, I’ll show you the conjugations for the most common irregular verbs: “to be,” “to do,” and “to have.” The good news is that once you get past the present tense, the irregular conjugations for past and future are still pretty consistent and easy to remember.

Let’s go!

A- Present

He is tired.

Person	Present Tense Verb (“To Be”)	Example Sentence
I	Am	I am tired.
You [singular]	Are	You are tired.
He / She / It	Is	He is tired.
We	Are	We are tired.
You [plural]	Are	You are tired.
They	Are	They are tired.

Person	Present Tense Verb (“To Do”)	Example Sentence
I	Do	I do a lot of cooking.
You [singular]	Do	You do a lot of cooking.
He / She / It	Does	She does a lot of cooking.
We	Do	We do a lot of cooking.
You [plural]	Do	You do a lot of cooking.
They	Do	They do a lot of cooking.

Person	Present Tense Verb (“To Have”)	Example Sentence
I	Have	I have a cat.
You [singular]	Have	You have a cat.
He / She / It	Has	He has a cat.
We	Have	We have a cat.
You [plural]	Have	You have a cat.
They	Have	They have a cat.

B- Past

A Couple Sitting, Facing Opposite Directions

They were angry.

Person	Past Tense Verb (“To Be”)	Example Sentence
I	Was	I was angry.
You [singular]	Were	You were angry.
He / She / It	Was	She was angry.
We	Were	We were angry.
You [plural]	Were	You were angry.
They	Were	They were angry.

Person	Past Tense Verb (“To Do”)	Example Sentence
I	Did	I did karate.
You [singular]	Did	You did karate.
He / She / It	Did	He did karate.
We	Did	We did karate.
You [plural]	Did	You did karate.
They	Did	They did karate.

Person	Past Tense Verb (“To Have”)	Example Sentence
I	Had	I had some coffee.
You [singular]	Had	You had some coffee.
He / She / It	Had	She had some coffee.
We	Had	We had some coffee.
You [plural]	Had	You had some coffee.
They	Had	They had some coffee.

C- Future

I will be asleep.

Person	Future Tense Verb (“To Be”)	Example Sentence
I	Will be	I will be asleep.
You [singular]	Will be	You will be asleep.
He / She / It	Will be	The cat will be asleep.
We	Will be	We will be asleep.
You [plural]	Will be	You will be asleep.
They	Will be	They will be asleep.

Person	Future Tense Verb (“To Do”)	Example Sentence
I	Will do	I will do my job.
You [singular]	Will do	You will do your job.
He / She / It	Will do	She will do her job.
We	Will do	We will do our job.
You [plural]	Will do	You will do your job.
They	Will do	They will do their job.

Person	Future Tense Verb (“To Have”)	Example Sentence
I	Will have	I will have more money.
You [singular]	Will have	You will have more money.
He / She / It	Will have	He will have more money.
We	Will have	We will have more money.
You [plural]	Will have	You will have more money.
They	Will have	They will have more money.

6. Time to Practice!

Do you have it now? Then let’s practice.

I’ll give you three regular verbs to conjugate according to the tense. See if you can do it, and I’ll show you the answers at the end of this article.