- •Present Simple Tense.
- •Habitual or repeated actions.
- •It doesn’t often snow in winter here.
- •In May 1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman Prime Minister in the history of Great Britain.
- •I’ll phone you as soon as I come back home.
- •I don’t know where we are going.
- •It’s raining all day.
- •Actions or states having a dynamic character (changing and developing situations).
- •I’m leaving at the end of the week.
- •I’m going to explore the neighbourhood.
- •I’m feeling fine.
- •Past Simple (Indefinite) Tense.
- •I felt very happy in those days.
- •Repeated, habitual past actions or states.
- •Past Continues (Progressive) Tense.
- •I looked out of the window. The sun was shining and the birds were singing.
- •In those days he was always borrowing money and forgetting to pay it back.
- •I was wondering if you’d like to come out with me one evening.
- •I picked up a cake and bit a piece off to see how it tasted.
- •The Present Perfect Tense.
- •Actions completed in the past but connected in their result with the present:
- •I have only recently sent her an invitation.
- •I’ve done a lot of work today.
- •It’s one of the most boring books I’ve ever read.
- •I haven’t heard anything from him since he moved to Leeds.
- •I’ve never tasted papaya.
- •The Present Perfect Continuous (Progressive) Tense.
- •I am learning English at High School. I have been learning English for 6 years. (period of duration)
- •The Past Perfect Tense.
- •The Past Perfect Tense is used to denote a past action completed before another past action or before a moment in the past.
- •I knew the Horns had been married for nearly fifty years.
- •I was sure they had known each other since childhood.
- •The Past Perfect Continuous (Progressive) Tense.
- •It was clear they had long known each other.
- •The Future Simple (Indefinite) Tense.
- •The Future Continuous (Progressive) Tense.
- •To denote a future action which is part of a regular routine (a matter-of-course event), which does not need any special arrangement.
- •I’ll be passing the post-office on my way home from work, so I’ll buy you a newspaper.
- •The Future Perfect Tense.
- •Compare the Present Simple and The Present Cont. Tense.
- •Compare the Present Perfect and The Present Perfect Cont. Tense.
- •I have planted a lot of new rose bushes.
I don’t know where we are going.
There can be two simultaneous (parallel) actions in progress, as, e.g. in complex sentences with the conjunctions while/when/as.
The durative (продолжительный) character of an action is expressed by the adverbial modifiers all day (night, morning), the whole night, still.
She is cooking the whole morning.
It’s raining all day.
Happening around the present moment, when the action doesn’t coincide (совпадать) directly with the moment of speaking. In this case ‘now’ obviously has a broader meaning.
David is collecting material for his new book now.
She is looking for a job as a nanny in Liverpool now.
Actions or states having a dynamic character (changing and developing situations).
The climate is getting warmer.
His handwriting is improving.
Actions of unusual frequency (частота). It’s used when the speaker wants to give an emotional colouring to his sentence: criticism, annoyance, impatience or irritation.
Mr. Stone is always grumbling.
You are constantly looking for faults.
He is forever making comments about my weight.
Pre-arranged (запланированный), planned or intended (намеченный) future actions.
I’m leaving at the end of the week.
Are you doing anything tomorrow afternoon? – Yes, I’m playing tennis with Ann.
Note that the construction ‘to be going to do smth’ is often used for the same purpose.
I’m going to explore the neighbourhood.
Background actions in informal story-telling.
There’s this Scotsman, you see, and he’s walking through the jungle when he meets a gorilla’s eating a snake sandwich. So the Scotsman goes up to the gorilla and says…
Some of the stative verbs can take the continuous form in conversational English today.
I’m feeling fine.
You are looking gorgeous in this dress!
Past Simple (Indefinite) Tense.
The Past Simple is formed by adding –ed to the stem (основа) for regular verbs or by changing the root (корень) vowel or in some other ways for irregular verbs. The form of the Past Simple is the same for all persons.
Main Uses
The Past Simple (Indefinite) Tense is used to denote:
A single event, fact of state of the past (with adverbials of past time: ago, last year, yesterday, the other day, in 1995, etc.).
Last night my neighbours celebrated their wedding anniversary.
I felt very happy in those days.
The Past Tense can also be used with adverbials denoting a period of time (how long, for five years, etc.). In such cases emphasis (выразительность) is laid on (подчеркивать) the fact of an action in the past, not its duration.
His English is so good. – No wonder. He lived in London for 3 or 4 years when his father worked in the embassy (посольство).
A succession (последовательность) of single past events, facts or states.
He got out of bed, opened the window and lay down again.
The dog picked up the bone and carried it away.
Repeated, habitual past actions or states.
Every week he took his girl out.
When I was a child I usually went to bed at 9.
Reported present-time actions (according to the rules of Sequence of Tenses).
Direct Speech - Kate said to me: ‘I’m a first-year student’.
Indirect (Reported) Speech – Kate told me she was a first-year student.