Key Idea: These four tenses carry most of your English. For each one, know how to build it and when to use it.
Present simple
- Use it for habits, routines, facts and timetables.
- Base verb for I/you/we/they; add -s for he/she/it: works, goes, watches, studies, has.
- Questions and negatives: do/does + base verb. "Does she work?" "She doesn't work."
- Frequency words go before the main verb: "I always read."
Present continuous
- Form: am/is/are + -ing. "I am working." "They are working."
- Use it for actions in progress, temporary situations, changing trends and fixed future plans.
- Spelling: make → making, run → running, lie → lying.
- Stative verbs (know, want, like) and permanent habits stay in the present simple.
Past simple
- Use it for a finished action at a definite past time: yesterday, last week, in 2019, ago.
- Regular: + -ed (worked, lived, studied, stopped). Irregular: went, saw, had, was/were.
- did/didn't + base verb: "Did you go?" "I didn't see it." Never "goed".
Present perfect
- Form: have/has + past participle (gone, seen, done, eaten).
- Use it for experiences, unfinished time (today, this week) and recent news.
- for + a duration, since + a point in time. Also already, yet, ever, never.
- "I have visited Paris" but "I visited Paris last year": a stated time needs the past simple.
Ask when it happens. Always, right now, at a stated past time, or with no time given: each answer has its own tense.
"He ___ (play) tennis every Sunday." plays: a habit, and he/she/it adds -s.
"Look! It ___ (rain)." is raining: it is happening now.
Why is "I am knowing the answer" wrong? know is a stative verb. Say "I know".
"I ___ (see) that film last night." saw: a finished time is stated.
"She has lived here ___ 2020." for or since? since: 2020 is the starting point.