Learn Tenses with Examples

Tense indicates the time of a verb. We use tenses in English to talk about the time of action. There are three forms of tense - Past, Present and Future. Each of these has four sub types. They have a definite usage.

Present Tense expresses the situation that exists only in the current time. It also represents repeated actions and unchanging truths. 

For example:

I wake up at 6:00am every day. (Repeated action).

The sun rises in the east (Unchanging truth).

He is sleeping right now. 

Past tense expresses those actions which were started & finished in past.   Also it is used in conditional sentences to talk about hypothetical situations where it refers the future tense.

For example: 

I was very naughty when I was young.

We went to the market yesterday.

If he had come on time, we would have reached early.

Future Tense expresses the time which is yet to come.  Thus it talks about the actions which will happen in future. In future tense will/ shall are used to make sentences. Both have same meaning but “Shall” is more polite.

For example: 

I will go to Chennai next week

Shall I come with you?

I won’t have lunch today.

Almost every grammar rule has some exceptions; therefore the usage of tenses is not simple. However English learning can begin with some basic information about the tenses.