Uses of Tenses in English: Complete Guide with Examples

Tenses are defined as verbs used to indicate or denote the time of occurrence of an action or event. These verbs that take up different forms to indicate the time of an action, event, or condition by changing its form are called tenses.

Tenses Are Primarily Classified Into Three Categories

1. Past Tense: The verbs that are used to indicate an action, event, or condition that has happened in the past are known as past tense. 

2. Present Tense: The verbs that are used to indicate an ongoing event or an event that is currently occurring in the present moment are known as present tense.

3. Future Tense: The verbs that are used to indicate an event that is going to occur in the future are known as future tense. 

There are two ways of forming a tense in English which is from the main verb i.e the past and the present form and to form other tenses, we need the help of auxiliary verbs such as have, be, or will.

Each of These Three Tenses have Four Different Aspects: 

1. Simple

2. Perfect 

3. Continuous 

4. Perfect Continuous 

Tense and Aspect are defined as grammatical categories that are mostly used together. The Tense defines the location of an action or an event in time whereas, Aspect defines how an action is viewed in terms of time rather than actual location in time. 

The Functions of Tenses

Simple Tenses 

The simplest form of each type of tense which is used to indicate single actions in the past, present, or future is known as Simple tenses.

Examples : 

• Simple Past Tense: He wore the T-shirt yesterday.

• Simple Present Tense: He wears the same T-shirt every day.

• Simple Future Tense: He will wear the T-shirt tomorrow.

Progressive or Continuous Tenses 

This tense describes or expresses a continued or ongoing action which is, was or will be in progress in the present time, past time, or in the future. This tense talks about unfinished or ongoing events or actions

Examples :

• Past Progressive or Continuous Tense: I was listening to my music, so I didn’t hear the phone ring.

• Present Progressive or Continuous Tense: I am writing articles on different topics.

• Future Progressive or Continuous Tense: Alex will be running a marathon this Saturday.

Perfect Tenses  

A Perfect Tense is a form of verb tense which is used to indicate one event that has occurred before another. Adverbs such as never, yet and, already are used to indicate the perfect nature of the used tenses.

Examples:

• Past Perfect Tense: She had met him before the party.

• Present Perfect Tense: She has lived here all her life.

• Future Perfect Tense: It will have stopped raining.

Perfect Progressive or Continuous Tenses

The perfect progressive tenses usually denote the “ from when ”  or  “ how long ” of an event or occurrence. Also, they always have the adverbs since or for in the sentences to indicate the continuous or progressive nature of the tenses.

• Present perfect progressive is used to indicate an activity or event that started in the past and is continuing at present.

• Past perfect progressive is used to indicate an activity or event that started in the past and has continued to occur for some time in the past.

• Future perfect progressive describes the actions that will continue up until a point in the future.

Examples:

• Past Perfect Progressive Tense: She has been watching the movie for two hours.

• Present Perfect Progressive Tense: He has been teaching in this school for ten years.

• Future Perfect Progressive Tense: He will be working as an engineer in this factory from January.

Use of Different Tenses and Aspects: 

Simple Past Tense

The Simple Past Tense is always used for completed actions and events. The best example would be when writing steps in the research process or any historical background information. This could be your own research or a research done by someone else the tense we use to write would be in Simple Past Tense.

Examples: 

• We found the new variations, but it was not as strong as we thought.

• James Joyce pioneered the modernist use of stream of consciousness.

Simple Present Tense

The Simple Present Tense is used commonly while academic writing. The two main uses of Simple Present Tense is while describing facts and describing the content of a particular text. These facts or content description does not have to be located in a specific time and hence they are called Simple Present. 

Example: 

• The Taj Mahal is in Agra. 

• Harry learns he is a wizard and travels to Hogwarts for the first time, escaping from the family that raised him. 

Simple Future Tense

The Simple Future Tense is used commonly while making predictions or stating intentions. It is also sometimes used for stating the hypotheses. The main rule to this though is to avoid making any statements about the future that shows any certainty. 

Example: 

• They expect results by the end of the day. 

• The results could influence future approaches to this topic. 

Present, Past and Future Continuous 

The Continuous Aspect is similar among the tenses; it is not mostly used for academic writing as it has an informal tone. 

Example: 

• Few scholars suggest that certain parameters are no longer adequate.  

• Few scholars have suggested that certain parameters are no longer adequate. 

Even though the Continuous Aspect is not mostly used in academic writing it can be used in certain types of historical writing to describe the narrative of past events. It is useful for synchronizing the events in relation to one another.

Example: 

• While Harsh is traveling to Mumbai he meets a lot of different characters from the narrative. 

• The country was still recovering from the recession. 

Present, Past and Future Perfect

The Perfect Aspect is similar among the tenses: it refers to an action or a state that occurred in the past at an indefinite time. It could also be something that must have begun in the past but is continued in the present time. 

Example: 

• He has lived in Mumbai all his life. 

• Sejal had met him before Diwali. 

• They will have left the train station. 

Present Perfect Continuous

The Present Perfect Continuous is used to describe an event that starts in the past and is continued to the present or has any relevance to the present. 

Example: 

• He has been driving all night and now he is tired.

Past Perfect Continuous 

The Past Perfect Continuous is used to describe an event that started, continued and ended in the past and has relevance to the past. 

Example: 

• He had been driving all night and now he is tired. 

Future Perfect Continuous

The Future Perfect Continuous is used to describe an event that will continue in the future and has relevance to the future at an expected time. 

Example: 

• He will have been driving all night for 2 days. 

Solved Example for You

Question: The People Next Door ______ a Lot of Noise Until Past Midnight.

1. Were making                      

2. Was making 

3. Are making                         

Sol. (a) We're making.

Question: When you called, I _________ shower. 

1. was having 

2. am having 

3. had

Sol. (a) was having

Question: My family ________ in Bangalore for a year when I was 10. 

1. was living 

2. lives

3. lived 

Sol. (c) lived