TENSES:

 TENSES:

In English Grammar , Verbs are often used in away that it indicates or denotes the time when an event occurred. These verbs that take up different forms to indicate the time of an action, event or condition by changing its form are called as tenses. Tense can be broadly classified into three broad categories:

TENSES:

Now let us have a brief introduction of Tenses.

There are 3 kinds of tenses in English language, like all languages.

The below are these 3 kinds.

1) Present Tense, 

2) Past Tense

3) Future Tense

But in English language, each tense is divided into 4 sub tenses.

1) Present Tense:

a) Simple present tense, 

b) Present continuous tense,

c) Present perfect tense, and 

d) Present Perfect continuous tense

2) Past Tense:

a) Simple past tense, 

b) Past continuous tense

c) Past perfect tense, and 

d) Past perfect continuous tense

3) Future Tense:

a) Simple future tense, 

b) Future continuous tense

c) Future perfect tense, and 

d) Future perfect continuous tense

In this way, there are totally 12 tenses in English.

Now you have to answer the below questions.

Before going into the TENSES, you should have some basic knowledge of SUBJECT, NOUN, PRONOUN and VERB. In every tense, we use them. Using some examples, let us see and understand them.

1.           Stephen is going to New York.
2.          Rahim reached the university.
3.          Raju will reach New Delhi.
4.         I eat very well.
5.          He sleeps quickly.

SUBJECT:

In the above sentences, “Stephen, Rahim, Raju, I, He” are SUBJECTS. A person or thing that does a work / activity / action in a sentence is called SUBJECT. Almost every sentence has a

SUBJECT. This SUBJECT can be Noun or Pronoun.

NOUN:

"Noun means “name”. There is a name for everything in the Universe."

Ex: David, America, Girl, country, ball, bat, school, Television, chair,computer, fruit, happiness etc.

PRONOUN:

"A word which is used instead of a noun is called pronoun."

1.  Akbar is a king. He went to forest. He killed a lion.

In the above sentence, instead of the word "Akbar", I used the word“he”, two times.

So “He” is a pronoun.

VERB:

The words those which express an action /activity/ work are verbs.See the examples. These kind of words are verbs.

Ex: go, run, drink, use, drive, sleep, sell, buy, speak, read, wash,enjoy, catch etc.

Simple Present Tense ----- Lesson 1

We use “simple present tense” in the following situations.

1) To tell Habits:

We have many habits. We can express our habits, using this tense.

 Examples:

1.          He drinks tea at breakfast.
2.      She eats fish only.
3.       They watch television regularly.

2) To tell "Regular activities":

We do some activities regularly. Regularly means daily or everySunday, or every month etc. We can express those regular activities using this tense.

Examples:

1.          We catch the bus every morning.
2.      It rains every afternoon in the hot season.
3.      They drive to Japan every summer.
4.      I play football every weekend.

3) To tell Natural / General truths:

There are some truths. Naturally / Generally we know those truths.

To express those natural /general truths, we can use this tense.

Examples:

•          Water freezes at zero degrees.
•       The Earth revolves around the Sun. 
•      Our body contains 206 bones.
•       Light travels at almost 300,000 kilo meters per second.
•        The cow gives milk.

Structure:

• Positive Sentences- S+V1+O.
• Negative- S+ Do /Does + Not +V+
• Interrogative-  Do /Does + S+V1+O+?
• Interrogative Negative- Do /Does + S+ Not +V+O+?
• With WH family.... When/ Where/   +Do /Does + S+V1+O+?

Examples:

•          I go to school.
•      We go to school.
•     You go to school.
•      They go to school.
•      Students go to school.

     Negative:

•          I do not go to school.
•      We do not go to school.
•     You do not go to school.
•      They do not go to school.
•      Students do not go to school.
•       Sita does not sing a song.
•      Mohan does not play cricket.

Interrogative:

•     Do I go to school?
•      Do we go to school?
•      Does Mohan play cricket?
•      Does Sita sing a song?

Interrogative Negative:

•     Do I not go to school?
•      Do we not go to school?
•      Does Mohan not play cricket?
•      Does Sita not sing a song?

Exercise :

MMake 50 sentences on simple present tense using positive, negative and interrogative sentences.

Present Continuous Tense

      Present Continuous Tense is used to describe a continued or an ongoing action of the present. These actions are occurring exactly at the time of speaking. It is called progressive tense because it refers to actions which are currently in progress at the time of speaking.

     For instance, a boy says,"I am drinking water". It means that the action (drinking water ) is being done exactly at this time of speaking.

                It is also called progressive tense.

      Structure of the Sentence:

       Main verb: Base form of verb + ing. e.g. eating, drinking, singing, looking.

       Auxiliary verb" Is, am, are.

       I - Am

       Am - He, She, It, Ram, Sita.

       Are - You, We, They, 

      

     Positive Sentences.

      S+Auxiliary verb+ main verb+o.   

       Examples:

1.       I am washing my shirt.
2.       She is sleeping.
3.       Kids are playing cricket.
4.       He is writing a letter.
5.       They are playing cricket.
6.       Mohan is reading.

Negative Sentence:

      S+Auxiliary verb+ not+ main verb+o.

          

1.       I am not washing my shirt.
2.       She is not  sleeping.
3.       Kids are not playing cricket.
4.       He is not writing a letter.
5.       They are not playing cricket.
6.       Mohan is not reading.

      Interogative Sentence:

              Auxiliary verb+s+ main verb+o+?

              Auxiliary verb+s+not+ main verb+o+? (Negative)

     

1.        Am I washing my shirt?
2.       Is she sleeping?
3.       Are kids playing cricket?
4.       Is he writing a letter?
5.       Are they playing cricket?
6.      Is Mohan reading?

         Exercise :

M     Make 50 sentences on  present continuous tense using positive, negative and interrogative sentences.

Pr

Present perfect tense.

Present Perfect Tense ----

 

A) Helping verb Plural subjects (I, We, You, They) is HAVE.

 

Examples:

·         “I have” gone to school.

·         “We have” gone to school.

·         “You have” gone to school.

·         “They have” gone to school.

·         “Students have” gone to school.

 

B) (If the SUBJECT is “He/ she/ it),or If the subject is a singular noun, then the word “has” follows.

 

Examples:

·         “He has” gone to school.

·         “She has” gone to school.

·         “It has” gone to school.

·         “Student has” gone to school.

 

C) The verb is always in its 3rd form. We use 3rd form of the verb.

What is 3rd form of a verb? Let us take a verb “GO”. Its three forms are “go, went, gone”.

So “gone” is the 3rd form of the verb “GO”. The 3rd form of a verb is also called “Past Participle”.

We use “present perfect tense” in the following situations.

 

1) To tell a new / recent activity:

 examples:

·         I have completed my dinner.

·         They have come just now.

·         He has reached New Delhi.

·         Robert has written his exam.

 

2) To tell a past activity whose time is not specific:

  Examples:

·         I have read the book "The Power of Positive Thinking".(telling time of reading is not important.)

·         We have gone to the USA.(It happened some time ago. I don’t remember the time)

·         We have constructed a big building.(It happened some time ago. Time is not important)

3) To tell a completed activity in a present time period:

 

Examples:

·         I have seen three movies this week.(This week has not finished yet.)

·         They have travelled 4 countries this year.(This year has not finished yet.)

·         She has studied two books this month.(This month has not finished yet.)

 

4) To tell an activity that started in the past and is still going on:

Dear students, an activity started in the past. That activity is still going on in the present. That activity is not finished, even now. To tell this kind of activities, we can use "Present Perfect Tense".

 

Examples:

·         I have lived in Victoria for 10 years.(10 years ago, I started living in Victoria. I am still living in Victoria.)

·         She has practised tennis for 2 years.

·         (Two years ago, she started practicing tennis. she is still practising tennis.)

·         They have travelled around the world since 2014.

·         (In 2014, they started travelling around the world. They are still travelling.)

But in this 4th use (to tell an activity that started in the past and is still going on), We can use Period of time using "for" and point of time using "since". The following are correct.

 

Examples:

·         I have studied for 2 hours.(I started my study 2 hours ago. And I am still studying.)

·         It has worked since 4 am.(It started its work at 4 am. It is still working)

 

Affirmative Sentences:

 Examples:

·         I have gone to the school.

·         We have gone to the school.

·         You have gone to the school.

·         They have gone to the school.

·         She has gone to the school.

·         He has gone to the school.

·         It has gone to the school.

 

Negative Sentences:

Dear friends, in the above sentences, simply put the word “not”before the verb. They become Negative Sentences. That meanshere we use “have not/ has not”.

 

Examples:

·         I have not gone to the school

·         You have not gone to the school

·         She has not gone to the school

·         He has not gone to the school

·         It has not gone to the school

 

Positive questions:

 Examples:

·         Have I gone to the school?

·         Have you gone to the school?

·         Has she gone to the school?

·         Has he gone to the school?

·         Has it gone to the school?

Negative questions:

 Examples:

·         Have I not gone to the school?

·         Have  you not gone to the school?

·         Has  she not gone to the school?

·         Has he not gone to the school?

·         Has  it not gone to the school?

 Dear friends, this lesson seems a bit difficult. In the beginning everything is difficult. But Practice makes everything easy. Read this lesson again and again. If you have any doubts, tell me. I will clear your doubts. If you have no doubts, then take a pen and a note book and write 100 examples.

Present perfect continuous tense