Tense Chart : Tense in English, Rules, Examples and its Types

 

Tense Chart: Tense is the backbone of English. If we do not know Tense in English then we can never speak correct English, it is very important for us to understand Tense chart. From the time chart we come to know about all the tense at a glance. There are basically three types of tenses: present tense, past tense, future tense and all three have 4 sub-parts: indefinite, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous. Let us see what is called time.

Definition Of Tense

The form of the verb which tells about the time of action or happening is called tense. That variation of a verb is called tense, which indicates the time of its action and its complete or incomplete state of belief. In other words, tense means ‘time’.


Example


1. Tina is studying.
2. Monica had drawn a good picture.
3. Mukul will go to Amritsar with friends.

In the given sentences, colored words indicate the action happening at different times. In the first sentence the action is happening at the same time. In the second sentence, the action has happened in the past time. In the third sentence, the work is being reported to be done in the coming time.

Types of Tense

In English Grammar, tenses are of three types, that is,

1. Present Tense
2. Past Tense
3. Future Tense

Further, it consists of four forms: 

1. Indefinite (Simple)
2. Continuous
3. Perfect
4. Perfect Continuous
5. 
   

So, in total there are 12 tenses which are as follows:

Tense	Sub Parts
Present Tense	1. Present Indefinite 2. Present Continuous 3. Present Perfect 4. Present Perfect continuous
Past Tense	1. Past Indefinite. 2. Past Continuous.  3. Past Perfect. 4. Past Perfect continuous .
Future Tense	1. Future Indefinite 2. Future Continuous 3. Future Perfect 4. Future Perfect continuous

Below is the table of the examples of tenses

 

Tense	Forms	Examples
	1. Present Indefinite	He drinks a water
Present Tense	2. Present Continuous	He is drinking a water
	3. Present Perfect	He has drunk a water
	4. Present Perfect continuous	He has been drinking a water since morning

	1. Past Indefinite	He drank a water
Past Tense	2. Past Continuous.	He was drinking a water
	3. Past Perfect.	He had drunk a water
	4. Past Perfect continuous .	He had been drinking the water since 7 am

	1. Future Indefinite	He will drink a water
Future Tense	2. Future Continuous	He will be drinking a water
	3. Future perfect	He will have drunk a water
	4. Future perfect continuous	He will have been drinking the water at 6 am tomorrow

Significance of Tense Chart

The English Grammar, tenses are often considered an important concept. A verb when changing its form takes the help of tense to formulate the proper sentence or express the state of action, events, or occurrence in a proper way. It helps you to make your context clear and precise. You may also create complex sentence constructions using tenses. Therefore, you should be familiar with all twelve tenses and their usage, so for that, we have made a tense chart below to make you understand better

Present Tense	Farmula & Rules	Examples
Present Indefinite tense	Subject + Verb in the base form/third person plural form + the rest of the sentenc	We live in London. He reads comic books. She goes to yoga class. I come here every day. You work at the hospital.
Present continuous tense	Subject + Helping Verb(am/is/are) + Main verb + ing + the rest of the sentence	We are going to London. He is reading a book. She is going to a yoga class. I am working. You are playing.
Present perfect tense	Subject + Helping Verb (have/has) + Past participle of the main verb + the rest of the sentence along with the time frame	He has read comic books. She has done yoga. I have worked here. You have played well. They have watched these movies. Mona has sung a song.
Present perfect continuous	Subject + Have/Has + Been + Verb+ ing + the rest of the sentence	We have been visiting London. He has been reading comic books. She has been doing yoga. I have been working here. You have been playing all day.

Past tense	Rules	Examples
Past indefinite	Subject + Verb + ed / verb in the past tense + the rest of the sentence	We lived in London. He read comic books. She went to yoga class. I came here yesterday. You worked at the hospital
Past Continuous	Subject + Helping Verb(was/were) + Main verb + ing + the rest of the sentence	We were going to London. He was reading a book. She was going to yoga class. I was working. You were playing.
Past Perfect	Subject + Helping Verb (had) + Past participle of the main verb + the rest of the sentence along with the time frame.	We had gone to London. He had read comic books. She had done yoga. I had worked here. You had worked at the hospital.
Past Perfect continuous	Subject + Had + Been + Verb + ing + the rest of the sentence	We had been visiting London. He had been reading comic books. She had been doing yoga. I had been working here. You had been playing all day.

Future tense	Rules	Examples
Future indefinite	Subject + will/shall + V1 + Object	We shall live in London. He will read comic books. She will go to a yoga class. I shall come here every day. You will work at the hospital.
Future continuous	Subject + will be/shall be + V1 + ing + Object	We shall be going to London. He will be reading a book. She will be going to yoga class. I shall be working. You will be playing.
Future perfect	Subject + will have/shall have + V3 + Object	We shall have left London. He will have read comic books. She will have done yoga. I will have worked here. You will have done your work.
Future perfect continuous	Subject + will have been + V1 + ing + Object	We shall have been going to London. He will have been reading comic books. She will have been doing yoga. I shall have been working. You will have been playing.

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