- •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 am learning English at High School. I have been learning English for 6 years. (period of duration)
The P.P.C. sometimes denotes an exaggerated (преувеличенный) duration of a recent action for an emotionally coloured effect.
She has been telling lies all her life.
When the P.P.C. is exclusive the fact of the result of a recent long activity itself is more essential (основной, необходимый) than the period of its duration, which may not even be mentioned (упомянутый).
Look! It has been snowing.
Sorry, I’m late. Have you been waiting for me?
The P.P.C. focuses on the action itself, presenting it as a continuous, extended (продолженное) activity. The Pr. P. Simple, on the other hand, emphasizes the idea of the completion of an action and importance of its result for the present.
The P.P.C. is used for more temporary actions while the Pr. P. Simple is used for more permanent situations.
The Past Perfect Tense.
The Past Perfect Tense is formed with the help of the auxiliary had and the Past Participle (причастие, деепричастие) of the main verb.
Main Uses
The Past Perfect Tense is used to denote a past action completed before another past action or before a moment in the past.
This tense-form is not used simply to describe an action in the distant past. There must be another action, less far away in the past, with which it contrasts as a prior action. The priority of an action is normally indicated (указывать, обозначать):
By an adverbial phrase with the preposition by.
By the end of the year they had finally got their long-awaited pay rise.
By an adverbial clause of time (with the conjunctions before, after, by the time …, when, no sooner … than, hardly … when, scarcely … when, or barely … when).
After he had finished breakfast he sat down to write some letters.
The children had cleaned everything up by the time their parents returned.
The game had hardly begun when it started to rain.
The Past Perfect Tense is also used to denote an action that began earlier than another past action and was still going on (i.e. was incomplete) at the given later moment in the past. This is typical of verbs not used in the continuous form, i.e. stative verbs.
I knew the Horns had been married for nearly fifty years.
I was sure they had known each other since childhood.
George made no answer and we found that he had been asleep for some time.
The Past Perfect Continuous (Progressive) Tense.
The Past Perfect Continuous Tense is formed with the help of the auxiliary had been and the Past Participle (причастие, деепричастие) of the main verb.
Main Uses
The Past Perfect Cont. (Progressive) Tense is similar to the Past Perfect in these both tense-forms denote a past action which happened earlier than another action in the past.
The difference between these tenses is that the P. P. C. refers to earlier past activities of certain duration that were either still in progress at a given later time in the past or completed by that time.
How long had you been living in London before you moved to Leeds?
Tom had been watching the football match for nearly an hour when the TV screen suddenly went blank.
Mary could see that the child had been crying.
The P. P. C. is not used when a longer action or situation preceding (предшествовать) another past action is expressed by a stative verb.