Basic Verb Tenses: Simple Rules & Examples for Students

We study the three types of tenses, i.e., present, past, and future. Present tenses talk about the happenings in the present (right now, or things that are continuous), past talks about the things that happened already ((e.g., earlier in the day, yesterday, last week, three years ago) and the future tense tells about the event that may happen in the coming time (i.e., later, tomorrow, next week, next year, three years from now).

There are a total of 12 tenses that are categorized into the 3 simple tenses of verbs - Simple present, simple future, and simple past.

This page will help you understand the basic English grammar tenses along with illustrating examples to distinguish them.

12 Basic Tenses of Verb in English Grammar

The below table illustrates the basic verb tenses:

Tenses of Verbs Rules - Rules Chart

Now, let us go through the three simple tenses of verbs in the Present, Past, and Future forms.

Below, we have various examples of the basic verb tenses to understand the 3 simple tenses of verbs along with the other types:

3 Simple Tense of Verb - Present, Past, and Future

Now, let us illustrate these rules a bit more.

All the Rules For Three Types of Tenses

The below table illustrates the rules of all the types of tenses under the basic English grammar tenses:

Please note the following things:

• V1 =  first form of the verb 

• V2 = second form of the verb 

• V3 = third form of the verb 

Examples of the Types of Tenses of Verbs

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Present Tense Examples

Simple Present Tense

1. She goes to school daily.

2. I read nearly every day.

3. They are very happy.

4. He is very interested in this job.

Present Continuous Tense

1. I am reading this novel at the moment in a library.

2. She is sitting at my house.

3. He is travelling to Mumbai right now.

Present Perfect Tense

1. I have read this book, as it is very knowledgeable.

2. I have so many notebooks at my home.

3. I have read countless stories about you.

Present Perfect Continuous Tense

1. I have been reading this book for the last 3 years.

2. She has been going to this gym for the last 4 years.

3. They have been in training period for the last three months at the Fortis hospital.

Past Tense Examples

Simple Past Tense

1. Last night, I read my favourite book.

2. I wrote magazines on a variety of businessmen.

3. She played snooker in the club yesterday.

Past Continuous Tense

1. I was reading “The Alchemist” last night.

2. The sun was shining every day that summer in Mumbai.

3. The students were laughing at my cleverness.

Past Perfect Tense 

1. I had written a variety of articles on the same topic before he came.

2. He had read various philosophical novels before you came.

3. They had played cricket on the oval field before it started to rain.

4. She had gone to the cafeteria before she came home.

5. He had pursued M.Sc before he got married.

Past Perfect Continuous Tense

1. They had been drinking milk out of the can when Mom walked into their room.

2. I had been a manager of this company for five years when I got the promotion in another company.

3. Meera had been dancing three hours a day before she broke her leg.

4. The plan that was stopped had been working well since 1847.

5. Katrina had been a master of the piano instrument until she was finally asked to do a solo with the local orchestra.

6. She had been making negative comments on her fellow for five minutes before she finally came out on the balcony and said, “Hey, Heroine.”

Future Tense Examples

Simple Future Tense

1. I will meet her later.

2. You will come to my home today.

3. It will rain today evening.

4. She will be late this evening.

5. He will help me come out of this problem for sure.

6. We will get engaged in December.

7. They will cook dinner for me tomorrow evening.

Future Continuous Tense

1. The girl will be practicing in the evening.

2. I'll be travelling to Canada this time next year.

3. She won't be making a plan to switch to another country.

4. She will be travelling around 23 countries this time next week.

5. She will be watching this movie at night.

6. They will be drinking coffee tomorrow.

Future Perfect Tense

1. I will have finished my questionnaire by this weekend.

2. You will have studied quantitative aptitude.

3. She will have cooked my favourite meal.

4. He will have arrived at Ranchi airport by the next morning.

5. We will have met our boss by tomorrow morning.

6. He will have stopped arguing with my mom.

7. They will have left for the meeting by now.

Future Perfect Continuous Tense

1. He'll be very happy when he gets this prize. He'll have been switching to different places all day.

2. How long will Jia have been drawing her salary when she retires?

3. Next year I'll have been learning all the levels of a German language for a two-year duration. 

4. Will you have been studying until your mom arrives?

5. He won't have been studying long enough to crack the entrance.

6. Next week we are going to relocate from England to France. By the time, we get to France, my friend will have been relocating to various countries non-stop for over thirteen hours.

Did You Know?

There are around five forms of verbs, which are:

1. Root

2. Past participle

3. Third-person

4. Past, and

5. Present participle

Language is divided into the following five systems of rules:

1. Phonology, 

2. Morphology, 

3. Syntax, 

4. Semantics, and 

5. Pragmatics.

So, we understand from the above text that present, past, and future forms of tenses have the following four types:

• Simple/indefinite

• Continuous

• Perfect

• Perfect Continuous

Here, each type has its own rules and the particular sentence formation that we have already illustrated above. Therefore, understanding these rules will help you clarify the difference between each and crack the English section in all the general competitive exams.