Tenses - Class 7, Class 9 Grammar

Tense - The tense is the change of form in a verb to express the time of an action. There are three principal tenses.

The Present Tense describes an action in the present time.

The Past Tense describes an action in the past time

The Future Tense describes an action in the future time

Each of these principal tenses has four forms : Indefinite, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect Continuous.

Tenses		Present	Past	Future
Indefinite	Rule	Subject + V1 form	Subject + V2 form	Subject + will/shall + V1 form
	Use	Universal truth, habitual action	Action in the past	Action that will happen in the future
Continuous	Rule	Subject + is/am/are + V (ing) form	Subject + was/were + V (ing) form	Subject + will be/shall be + V (ing) form
	Use	Action going on at present	Action that was goint on at past	Action as going on at some future time
Perfect	Rule	Subject + has/have V3 form	Subject + had + V3 form	Subject + will have/shall have + V3 form
	Use	Action just finished	Action complete before another past action	Action that will be completed in future
Perfect Continuous	Rule	Subject + has been + V (ing) form + since/for	Subject + had been + V (ing) form + since/for	Subject + will have been/shall have been + V (ing) form + since/for
	Use	Action going on and is not finished	Action had been going on in the past	No longer in practical use