VERB TENSES

VERB TENSES

The tense of a verb tells us when the action is, was or will be carried out. There are 9 main tenses in the INDICATIVE MOOD ( in which the verb indicates or shows us something ) He ate all his lunch

PAST PERFECT an action completed in the past	PAST CONTINUOUS an action in the past which was still going on	SIMPLE PAST an action that happened in the past	PRESENT PERFECT an action that is completed now	SIMPLE PRESENT an action that is happening now	PRESENT CONTINUOUS an action which is happening now but is incomplete	SIMPLE FUTURE an action that will happen	FUTURE CONTINUOUS an action which will go on and does not indicate completion	FUTURE PERFECT an action that will be completed at some stage in the future
I had walked to school	I was walking to school	I walked to school	I have walked to school	I walk to school	I am walking to school	I will walk to school	I will be walking to school	I will have walked to school
		He ate the cake
				She sings at home

			They have played games
						She will dance tomorrow

PRESENT CONDITIONAL TENSE

This helps us to use " would" in the present tense

I would like to stay

PAST CONDITIONAL TENSE

I would have liked to stay

Past conditional and present conditional are especially used in if clauses

HYPOTHETICAL SENTENCES WITH " WOULD AND WOULD HAVE"

This type of sentecne consists of 2 parts, or clauses: a clasue introduced by IF and another introduced by pronoun ( HE/ IT / THEY/SHE/ETC) PLUS would /would have OR future or present tense

eg.

If they eat icecream, they will get fat
If they ate icecream , they would get fat
If they had eaten icecream, they would have gotten fat
if we run , we will catch up with you
If he said that, he didn’t know what he was saying

IN all these sentences, you will notice that the tense of the verb in each clause is different

Eg.

IN the first sentence the first verb (EAT) is in SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE and the second verb ( WILL GET) is in the SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE

IN the second sentence the first verb (ATE) is in the SIMPLE PAST TENSE and the second verb ( WOULD GET) is in the PRESENT CONDITIONAL TENSE

And so on!

Therefore it is correct to say

If I had eaten ithat icecream (PAST PERFECT) I would have gotten fat ( PAST CONDITIONAL)

BUT INCORRECT TO SAY

If I ate that icecream ( SIMPLE PAST ) I would have gotten fat ( PAST CONDITIONAL)

IT SHOULD BE

If I ate icecream I would get fat

WHY ?

Simply put, when the verb in the IF CLAUSE has a HAD before it, then the verb in the OTHER CLAUSE must have a " HAVE " after the "would" and before the verb as in the above example. This is why it is wrong to say

If I ate that icecream ( SIMPLE PAST ) I would have gotten fat ( PAST CONDITIONAL)

\ /

DOES NOT CONTAIN ‘HAD DOES CONTAIN ‘HAVE’

SPECIAL TENSES WHICH HELP TO SPEAK OF DIFFERENT TIME PERIODS IN A SENTENCE

PLUPERFECT( combines present perfect and past perfect)

Where one past action occurred before a second past action you use the pluperfect

I did not know you had already finished

FUTURE PERFECT ( combines future perfect and simple future, which ends up looking like the simple present)

Future perfect used in a similar way - an action will have occurred before another future action

They will have finished when we (will) get home

LET’S SEE WHAT IS SIMILAR WITH THE ABOVE TENSES

I didn’t know you had finished already

\ /

action in closest past to time of speaking action in further past time of speaking

By the time we get home they will have finished

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action in later future time from time of speech action in closest future time

that is

_______he had eaten ____________I knew___________________TIME OF SPEECH _____________we will get there_________they will have gone_____