Tense

Simple present

Verb: use Example these forms

Eat, or eats He eats lunch at noon. I eat lunch.

When to use it
Use it with repeated action, or withthings that usually, or regularly happen Use it with things that are happening now or happen regularly

Present Continuous (progressive)

Present Perfect

Present Perfect Progressive (continuous)

Am eating, or are eating, or is eating (verb to be in the present + gerund of the main verb) Have eaten or has eaten (auxiliary verb have or has in the present tense + past participle of the main verb) Have been eating or has been eating (auxiliary verb in the present tense + past participle of the verb to be + gerund of the main verb) ate

Im eating lunch. (I am eating lunch) They are eating lunch. He is eating lunch

I have eaten lunch. I have already eaten lunch. He has eaten lunch.

Use it when the action happened sometime in the past. (the action is important, but when it happened is not important)

He has been eating lunch. I have been eating lunch.

Use it when there is a need to call attention to an action that is repeated but this action is not expected, it is a bit surprising. (it is news!)

Simple Past

I ate lunch earlier today

Past Continuous

Was eating, or were eating

I was eating lunch when a fly fell in my soup.

Past Perfect

Had eaten

I had already eaten lunch when she invited me to have a piece of pizza.

Past Perfect Progressive

Had been eating

I had been eating lunch before I felt the earthquake.

Use it for something that happened in the past, and the time it happened is important, specific Use it to describe an action that got interrupted by something else. Use this tense when you need to talk about something that happened before another action Use this tense when you need to talk about an activity that was in progress when

something else happened and interrupted it; usually, this is part of a longer story - more information is expected Future Will eat I will eat lunch at 12 oclock today. Use this to tell people that you will do the activity for sure in the future. (the activity is important) Use this to announce your plans. (the plan is important)

Future

Future Perfect

or am going to eat, or is going to eat, or are going to eat Will have eaten

I am going to eat lunch at 12 oclock today.

I will have eaten lunch before I come to class tomorrow.

Future Perfect Progressive

Will have been eating

Use this tense to tell me about an activity that will happen before another. I will have been eating Use this tense to tell lunch for 10 minutes before me about an activity the dessert comes out of that will be the oven. interrupted by another activity in the future. (the interruption is important)

Questions
Questions in sentences with the verb to be Questions in sentences with the verb to have as an auxiliary verb Questions with all other verbs Am, is, are, was were Have, has, had Are you eating lunch?

How To Do This:
Have you eaten lunch? Have you been eating lunch lately? Did you have a German Sheppard dog in 1960? Do you have a German Sheppard dog? Would you like an apple? Move the verb to be to the beginning of the sentence. Move the verb to have to the beginning of the sentence. Use do, does, or did in the beginning of the sentence, and make the main verb go back to the infinitive form. Move the modal to the beginning of the sentence. Use a statement first, then make a yes or no

Have, has, had

Questions with modals

Can, should, would With all verb forms

Tag Questions

She is confused, isnt she? (Positive

statement/negative question) She isnt confused, is she? (negative statement / positive question)

question at the end, using the verb in the same tense but with the opposite idea.