Verbs - Tense

The word ‘tense’ is derived from the Latin word ‘tempus’. It indicates the time of the occurrence of an action or an event. In any sentence, an action or a state of being is denoted by the verb. Hence, tenses are directly related to verbs. The form of a verb used in a sentence depends on the tense. In English grammar, there are twelve tenses. The following table lists these tense forms.

Simple Present	Simple Past	Simple Future
Present Continuous	Past Continuous	Future Continuous
Present Perfect	Past Perfect	Future Perfect
Present Perfect Continuous	Past Perfect Continuous	Future Perfect Continuous

According to the tense, a verb can be used in its:

Root form or base form: This is the simplest form of a verb.

For example:

Sing, Dance, Play, Break, Kick, Sleep, Eat They sing on the roof every afternoon.

Past form: This is the form of a verb in the simple past tense. It represents an action completed in the past; here, the emphasis is on the time of completion of action.

For example:

Sang, Danced, Played, Broke, Kicked, Slept, Ate They sang on the roof yesterday.

Present participle form: In this form, the base form of a verb is joined with ‘−ing’. It represents an action in progress.

For example:

Singing, Dancing, Playing, Breaking, Kicking, Sleeping, Eating They are singing on the roof.

Past participle form: This form usually ends in ‘−ed’, ‘−d’, ‘−t’, ‘−en’ or ‘−n’. It is the form of a verb in the perfect tense. It represents a completed action; here, the emphasis is on the completion of the action.

For example:

Sung, Danced, Played, Broken, Kicked, Slept, Eaten They have sung on the roof.

The following table lists the different forms of a verb according to the twelve tenses. The verb ‘do’ has been used for this purpose.

	PRESENT	PAST	FUTURE
Simple	do / does (Base form)	did (Past form)	will do (Base form)
Continuous	am doing / is doing / are doing (Present participle)	was doing / were doing (Present participle)	will be doing (Present participle)
Perfect	have done / has done (Past participle)	had done (Past participle)	will have done (Past participle)
Perfect Continuous	have been doing (Present participle)	had been doing (Present participle)	will have been doing (Present participle)