Tenses are indicators which tell us when the verb or action was performed. It is the time of a verb’s action (Eg.: He walked – past tense) or state of being (Eg.: The mountain looked beautiful in the olden days, before the city buildings took over – past tense).

The three basic types of tenses are:

1. Past Tense – describes things that happened before, in the past. It is characterized by ‘was’ before the verb or ‘-ed’ at the end of the verb. Eg.: She was talking, He walked.

2. Present Tense – describes things that are happening right now, in the present. It is characterized by ‘is’ before the verb and ‘-ing’ at the end of the verb OR ‘-s’ at the end of the verb. Eg.: She is talking, He walks.

3. Future Tense – describes things that will happen after, in the future. It is characterized by ‘will’ before the verb. Eg.: She will talk, He will walk.

Other types of tenses include:

1. Simple Present Tense

2. Present Continuous Tense

3. Present Perfect Tense

4. Present Perfect Continuous Tense

5. Simple Past Tense

6. Past Continuous Tense

7. Past Perfect Tense

8. Past Perfect Continuous Tense

9. Simple Future Tense

10. Future Continuous Tense

11. Future Perfect Tense

12. Future Perfect Continuous Tense