The use of tenses in the English language

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by Marie-Luise Stromer

Created on: January 20, 2010

Present Tense Simple

This tense is used to describe facts and habitual actions.

“I play tennis.”

“Every summer I visit my grandparents.”

Present progressive

This tense is used for actions taking place at the moment, it‘s not known or important when they begin or end.

“What are you doing? - I’m watching TV.”

Exception: Together with the adverb ‘always’ Present Progressive can express a habitual negative action. “He’s always getting on my nerves.”

Past Tense Simple

This tense is used to describe actions beginning and ending in the past. Typical adverbs are: yesterday, last week (month, year), (a week, month, year) ago, dates: ’on 1st May’. If several actions are enumerated which happened one after the other, this is the tense to use.

“Yesterday I went shopping, met a friend and then had lunch with her.”

If the demonstrative pronoun ‘this’ is used with Past Tense Simple, it means that the point of time is over: “This morning I missed the bus.” (You can only say that in the afternoon)

Past Progressive

This tense isn’t used standing alone. If it’s used together with one or more other Past Progressive forms, parallel actions are described.

“While I was watching TV, my brother was reading a book and my father was doing the dishes.”

If used together with Past Tense Simple, Past Progressive describes an action in the past whose beginning and end are unknown, Past Tense simple an action interrupting it or one that is happening only for a short time.

“While I was sitting in the bathtub, the telephone rang.”

Present Perfect Simple

This tense is used for actions which started in the past and have a result in the present.

“I’ve worked in the garden and now my hands are dirty.”

Typical words are ‘for’ and ‘since’:

“I’ve learned French since I was fifteen.”

“I’ve learned French for nine years.”

If the demonstrative pronoun ‘this’ is used with Present Perfect, it means that the period of time isn’t over yet (also true for ‘today’ etc.)

“This morning I’ve learnt a lot.” (It’s still morning)

A typical difference between Past Tense and Present Perfect:

“Have you ever been to Paris?” (meaning from your birth up to the present = Present Perfect )

“Yes, I