ALL English Tenses in 20 Minutes - Basic English Grammar

 

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I'm going to give an introduction

to English tenses for this lesson I'm

going to give a short introduction to

when to use each of the English tenses

I'm also going to share an example of

what that tense looks like in a sentence

or in a question so this is just a quick

guide if you want more information about

any of these tenses you can try

searching the youtube channel or our

website for a video specifically about

one of these tenses so I hope this is

helpful for you okay

so let's get started the first group of

tenses i want to look at is the present

tense so for today's lesson i've

organized it into three categories

present past and future tenses so let's

begin with the present tense so in each

category I have four different tenses I

have simple continuous perfect and

perfect continuous you might know

continuous as progressive if they mean

the same thing continuous and

progressive mean the same thing for this

lesson so let's begin with the present

simple tense present simple tense it's a

tense we use for general facts for

regular actions and for schedules so

this is stuff that doesn't change like

he speaks English for example she

doesn't speak Spanish that's a simple

fact for regular action so things you do

every day or every week for example and

schedules so that means like a bus or an

airplane or maybe a car schedule

something that maintains a regular

schedule an example two examples of

using the present simple tense first I

work on Mondays so here work is my verb

I work on Monday simple present tense a

negative I don't eat lunch at 2:00

o'clock so these are simple present

tense statements in this case they're

just simple statements of fact

really okay so let's continue to the

next one the second tense is the present

continuous tense if the present

continuous tense so present continuous

tense we use for continuing actions and

that means actions that are happening

now so for example I am teaching I'm

standing I'm speaking those are actions

happening now so we use it for

continuing actions now like physical

actions we also use it for trends so

things happening in your society right

now for example so examples would be

like that TV show is becoming popular or

the world is getting warmer for example

so these are things happening now also

we can use it for one-time actions as

well and this relates a little bit to

future tense which I'm going to talk

about later too but something happening

just one time in the future we can use

the continuous form to describe that so

for example I'm working this Saturday so

sometimes students ask what's the

difference why is it I'm working this

Saturday and I work this Saturday

remember we talked about the present

simple tense we use that for regular

actions for general facts so if you

usually work on Saturdays you should use

the present simple tense I work on

Saturdays if however this Saturday is

special and you don't usually work on

Saturdays you should use the continuous

tense I'm working this Saturday so it

sounds like that's not a typical thing

for you I'm working this Saturday okay

let's go on to the third tense the third

tense is the present perfect tense the

present perfect tense so we use the

present perfect tense for a general life

experience or lack thereof so lack

thereof means no no life experience not

having a life experience so something

that you did in the past but not at a

specific point in time the specific

point in time is not so important here

or maybe we don't know so example

a negative example he has never been to

Spain he has never been to Spain in this

case no life experience of going to

Spain is what this means so this is an

example of present perfect tense here we

have he has remember we need to attach

has or have before our past participle

verb form here so for more information

about this tense you can check the

channel there's more information there

so let's continue on to the next tense

now the next tense is the present

perfect continuous tense present perfect

continuous we use this tense for actions

that started in the past and continue to

the present so something you started

doing in the past some point in the past

it's not always important when but that

action continues so you use this a lot

to talk about your study is for example

we use words like for and since and

maybe a go with this as well so an

example of this

I've been studying English for two years

so here we see I've been this I've is

the contracted the reduced form of I

have I have been studying so this is the

continuous or the progressive form in

this case I've used the word for I've

used for because I'm using two years

which is a length of time we can use

since for example I've been studying

English since 2016 so we use since

before a specific point in time we can

use a go as well usually we pair it with

since I've been studying English since

two years ago you'll notice when we use

a go however we change from using in my

first example 2016 to a length of time

since two years ago so there are a few

different changes you need to make there

you can check the other video on the

channel for more information about that

grammar point okay let's move on to the

second group for today which is the past

tense let's look at the four points in

the past

here first one is the past simple or

just simple past tense simple past tense

is used for actions that started and

finished in the past so for example I

taught simple present tense earlier so I

used the past tense

I taught simple present tense because

the action started and finished in the

past another example I worked all night

I worked all night so work is my verb I

use simple past tense worked because the

action started and finished in the past

another example a negative

they didn't come they didn't come to the

party they didn't come to the office the

action was in the past it refers to

something that did not happen in the

past so there was no action in the past

but it's over it's finished so we use

simple past tense to talk about these

simple actions that started and finished

in the past ok let's go on to the past

continuous tense then past continuous is

for actions that were continuing in the

past so this one is when we often use

with a specific point in time along with

it so let's look at an example first we

were listening to music we were

listening to music yesterday or we were

listening to music at 8 p.m. when were

you listening to music when was that

action continuing at 8 p.m. or yesterday

so it's common to include a point in

time with this grammar point another

example like I was doing something

something ing form there so this is one

that's some people have questions about

like why should I use that when should I

use that it's typically used in response

to someone's question like what were you

doing last night for example or what

were you doing this morning so you want

to know someone's activities at a

specific point in time you can use this

grammar point to respond to that

question ok let's move along to the past

perfect tense our next one past perfect

tense is for actions that were completed

or not completed at

non-specific point in the past and a

non-specific point in the past so this

one is kind of difficult and it's

perhaps not used quite so much in

everyday conversation this is used a bit

more in writing this is a grammar point

that's especially helpful when we want

to show kind of a time line in our

writing to show that an action happened

before another action in the past we can

use the past perfect tense so here's a

couple of examples first one they hadn't

departed yet so here hadn't is their

reduced form of had not they hadn't

departed yet and I had taken my lunch

break so we would use sentences like

these if we're telling a story so we're

telling a story about the past and we

want to show that one action happened

before another action when we want to

talk about the earlier action so the

thing that happened earlier likes more

in the past we use the past perfect

tense then we can use the simple past

tense to explain the action that

happened closer to the present so for

example I had taken my lunch break when

I saw the delivery man came or something

like that so you can see my second point

there that's kind of a strange example

but you see that my second point there

it uses the simple past tense

I saw the delivery man came so I had

taken my lunch break further in the past

when I saw the delivery man came so

that's simple past tense so this is

probably more common in writing but it

is used in speaking as well too so this

is what we use a past perfect tense to

do okay let's move on then to another

challenging point past perfect

continuous tense past perfect continuous

these these are sentences or questions

for actions that started in the past and

continued to like an unspecified point

in the past so the action has finished

as well that's a key difference with the

present perfect continuous with present

perfect continuous the action is

happening now still that behavior still

continues key point though with past

perfect continuous is that the action

started at some point in the past and

then continued and finished as well but

it's some unspecified point so maybe we

don't know exactly when the action

finished but it's done it's complete so

let's look at an example they had been

waiting since 3 p.m. so here they had

been waiting this shows us that there

was some waiting period so the the

waiting started at 3 p.m. and the

waiting continued and continued and

continued we don't know when the waiting

finished but this grammar point shows us

that the waiting has finished were

finished waiting that's done we wanted

to talk only about this period of time

the people were waiting in the past so

this is the grammar point that we use to

talk about things that were happening

over a period of time in the past and

then finished so this is something again

we use when telling stories were showing

a sequence of events actually ok let's

move along then to the last group for

today's lesson the future tense feature

tense let's start with the future simple

tense future simple tense this is for

actions that are planned or unplanned

for the future there are actually a lot

of different things we can do to make

the future simple tense some very common

ways of making future simple are through

using will and won't and going to and

not going to and earlier in this lesson

I mentioned using the continuous tense

the present continuous tense the ing

form of a verb to make statements about

the future also so there are many ways

to make a simple future statement let's

look at a couple of examples first I'll

have a glass of wine this uses will

aisle aisle is the reduced form of I

will have a glass of wine that's a

future statement also he's going to cook

dinner in this one I've used going to to

express them so these are just simple

things about planned or perhaps

unplanned like he's not going to cook

dinner would be an unplanned

in the future or something that's not

going to happen in the future there okay

so let's go on to the future continuous

tense now future continuous tense this

is for actions you think will or will

not be continuing in the future in the

future something you think will be

continuously happening in the future

let's look at an example I'm not going

to be working at company a I'm not going

to be working at company a so here you

can see we have going to I'm not going

to plus we have a verb in the continuous

tense I'm not going to be working at

company a meaning in other words I'm not

going to have a job at Company A or I'm

not going to continue my position at

Company A in the future that's my

thought now in the present about the

future so at that time in the future

like in one year for example I will not

be working at that company or I'm not

going to be working at company a so

that's the idea behind other future

continuous tense okay let's move along

to the future perfect tense then so so

future perfect tense refers to actions

that you think will have started some

point in the future so remember you're

thinking in the present right now but

this grammar point is used to talk about

something something you imagine in the

future that starts at some point and you

think might be continuing into the

future maybe something started and maybe

continues this is the idea here so let's

look at an example I will have lived in

China for two years I will have lived in

China so here I'm using will to show

it's a future tense statement I will

plus have lived this is the same thing

that we used for the present perfect

tense that we talked about earlier that

past participle plus have or has but

we're attaching it to a future tense

will I will have

lived in China for two years so when

would we use this so if for example

someone asks you a question about your

future you and they say like mmm so

where do you see yourself in like 2020

for example or where do you imagine

you're going to live in 2020 for example

you could say oh I will have lived in

China for two years so meaning at that

time in 2020 I will have lived in China

for two years so that means not now but

in the future at that point in time in

the future I will have started living in

China and that will have continued for

two years so that's what that means

that's a guess about the future a future

time period that something will have

continued in the future so again quite a

challenge in grammar point but something

definitely to look into so again not

used perhaps as much as the present

perfect tense but great for storytelling

and for imagining your future - okay so

let's move on to the last point for

today's lesson the future perfect

continuous tense future perfect

continuous this is a tense that you use

similar to the last one but for actions

you think will or won't have started and

will be continuing so something that's

going to have started again in the

future something started and the action

will have continued into the future

example I won't have been eating meat

for three months I won't have been

eating meat for three months so for this

one let's imagine that you decided last

month to stop eating meat so that's fine

actually for this for this sentence

that's okay you made a decision last

month to stop eating meat then someone

asks you about your progress like how's

it going like what are you going to do

next month and you can say to yourself

hmm well at that point next month by

next month in the future you can use the

sentence I won't so won't negative will

not

I won't have been eating meat for three

months for three months so that means

from the point in time I started it in

the past until this point in the future

so not present but into the future this

entire time my behavior not eating meat

that's going to have continued so you're

making a guess about the future so at

this future point in time that behavior

I started in the past will have

continued and continued and continued

and at this point it will be three

months three months total for that

behavior so we use this to talk about

something some future thing that will

have continued or will be continuing

into the future so we'll have continued

meaning something that started in the

past and continues into the future or

will be continuing meaning it's still

going into the future as well so there

are a couple of like very very subtle

grammar points to consider there too so

that those are a couple of may be tough

grammar points but there are really good

for storytelling and for talking about

your future as well

okay so I know that this was a lot of

information in this lesson if you have

some questions about where to find more

details about any of these grammar

points you can check the YouTube channel

our YouTube channel has some resources

for these grammar points there's also

some information on the website if you

don't see it on the website or on the

YouTube channel yet please have a little

bit of patience we are making new stuff

all the time and we'll hopefully have

this available for you soon so please

keep checking back in with us great so

that's everything for this lesson I hope

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