Tenses | Writing

Tenses are three things that tell about an action. There are 12 different types of tenses.

The three things that tell about an action are completion, continuance and time. Time includes past, present and future. Past is something that has already happened. Present is something that is happening at the time of speaking and future is something that has not happened.

Continuance includes: simple and continuous. Simple is one specific thing and continuous is still happening.

Completion includes perfect. Perfect is a finished action. It is not the same as past, but something can be in the past but it may not be completed.

The types of tenses are: past simple, present simple, future simple, past continuous, present continuous, future continuous, past perfect, present perfect, future perfect, past perfect continuous, present perfect continuous and future perfect continuous.

The 12 different tenses help us with understanding what type of tenses to use in conversations

LI: To learn about verb tense.