AN INTRODUCTION OF VERBE TENSES 

For VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar.

Today we are going to give you a basic overview of the verb tense system in English.

Verb tenses tell us how an action relates to the flow of time.

There are three main verb tenses in English: present, past and future. The present, past and future tenses are divided into four aspects: the simple, progressive, perfect and perfect progressive.

There are 12 major verb tenses that English learners should know.

English has only two ways of forming a tense from the verb alone: the past and the present. For example, we drove and we drive.

To form other verb tenses, you have to add a form of have, be or will in front of the verb. These are called helping, or auxiliary verbs.

Time, culture, and grammar

Verb tenses can be difficult to learn in a foreign language. Different cultures think different ways about time. Chinese, for example, has no grammatical verb tenses. Other languages, like Indonesian, express time only through adverbs — there are no changes to the verb form.

English verb tenses give many details about time and action such as:

Is the action finished? How long did the action happen? Was the action repeated? Did the action happen at a known or unknown time? Is the action a habit? Is the action planned or spontaneous?

It is difficult to think about time distinctions that do not exist in your own language. So, it can take many years for English learners to master verb tenses.

Let’s get started. We are going to give examples of all 12 verb tenses using the verb drive.

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