Verb Tenses in English: All 12 With Examples

English has twelve verb tenses: past, present and future, each in four forms (simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous). The tense tells the reader when something happens; the form tells how it unfolds. Below you will find a formula table, a timeline, one example sentence per tense, signal words, the most common mistakes and a short quiz with answers.

The short answer: what are the 12 verb tenses?

English has three time frames (past, present, future) and four aspects (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous). Three times four gives twelve tenses. The time frame tells you when; the aspect tells you how the action is seen: as a plain fact, as something in progress, as something finished with a link to another time, or as something that has been going on for a while.

Strictly speaking, English grammar books disagree about the count. Many linguists say English has only two inflected tenses, past and present, because the future is formed with the modal will rather than a verb ending. Textbooks and exams, including most English-language teaching materials, still teach the twelve-tense chart, so this guide uses it.

How do the tenses fit on a timeline?

Picture a line running left to right, with now in the middle.

• Left of now (past): things that already happened. The simple past is a single point or a closed period. The past perfect sits further back, before another past moment.
• At now (present): habits, facts and things happening at this moment. The present perfect reaches back from now to the past.
• Right of now (future): things that have not happened yet. The future perfect looks back from a future point.

A useful way to choose between the forms is to ask three questions:

1. When? Past, present or future?
2. Finished or in progress? If in progress, use a continuous form.
3. Is there a second time that matters? If you need to show that one thing happened before another time, use a perfect form.

Formulas for all 12 tenses

For questions, negatives and short answers, the first auxiliary does the work: Has she walked? She has not walked. In the simple present and simple past, English uses do/does/did: Does she walk? She did not walk.

The present tenses

Simple present

Use it for habits, routines, general truths, timetables and instructions.

• The bus leaves at 7:45 every morning. (routine and timetable)
• Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius at sea level. (general truth)
• Mix the flour and the eggs. (instruction)

Signal words: always, usually, often, sometimes, never, every day, on Mondays. Watch out for: the third-person -s. He work is wrong; he works is right.

Present continuous

Use it for actions happening now, temporary situations and fixed future plans.

• I am revising for my chemistry exam this week. (temporary)
• They are meeting the client at 3 p.m. tomorrow. (arranged plan)

Signal words: now, right now, at the moment, currently, today, this week, Look! Watch out for: stative verbs such as know, like, want, believe and understand do not normally take the continuous. Say I know the answer, not I am knowing the answer.

Present perfect

Use it to connect the past with now: life experience, recent news with a present result, and unfinished periods such as this year.

• I have visited Edinburgh twice. (experience; no time given)
• The courier has just arrived. (recent, relevant now)
• She has written three chapters this month. (the month is not over)

Signal words: ever, never, already, yet, just, so far, since, for, recently. Watch out for: do not use it with a finished time. I have seen her yesterday is wrong; use I saw her yesterday.

Present perfect continuous

Use it for an action that began in the past and is still going on, or has only just stopped with visible results.

• We have been waiting for forty minutes. (still waiting)
• Your eyes are red. Have you been crying? (visible result)

Signal words: for, since, all day, lately, recently, how long. Watch out for: the simple form counts the result (I have written 12 pages); the continuous stresses the duration (I have been writing all morning).

The past tenses

Simple past

Use it for finished actions at a definite time in the past.

• I submitted the application on Friday.
• They moved to Toronto in 2019.

Signal words: yesterday, last week, in 2019, two days ago, when I was young. Watch out for: irregular verbs. Go becomes went (not goed) and buy becomes bought.

Past continuous

Use it for an action in progress at a past moment, or for a background action interrupted by a shorter one.

• At nine o'clock last night I was cooking dinner.
• The phone rang while I was driving home.

Signal words: while, when, as, at that moment, all evening. Watch out for: the short, interrupting action goes in the simple past; the longer background action takes the continuous.

Past perfect

Use it for an action completed before another past action or time.

• When I reached the station, the train had already left.
• She had never flown before that trip.

Signal words: before, after, by the time, already, just, never before. Watch out for: if the order of events is clear from before or after, the simple past is often enough: After she left, I locked up. For a full guide, see past perfect tense.

Past perfect continuous

Use it for an ongoing action that continued up to a point in the past.

• He was exhausted because he had been studying since six.
• By noon, the crew had been working for seven hours.

Signal words: for, since, all morning, by the time, how long (in the past). Watch out for: it is the least common tense. If you do not need to stress duration, the past perfect is usually simpler.

The future tenses

Simple future

Use will for spontaneous decisions, predictions and promises; be going to is common for plans and visible evidence.

• I will email you the report tonight. (promise)
• Look at those clouds. It is going to rain. (evidence)

Signal words: tomorrow, next week, soon, in 2030, probably, I think. Watch out for: after if, when, before, as soon as and until, use the present, not will: If it rains, we will stay in. Not If it will rain.

Future continuous

Use it for an action that will be in progress at a future time, or for polite questions about plans.

• This time next week I will be flying to Lagos.
• Will you be using the projector this afternoon?

Signal words: this time tomorrow, at 6 p.m. on Friday, next month.

Future perfect

Use it for an action that will be complete before a future time.

• By the end of June, I will have submitted my dissertation.
• They will have finished the road by the time you return.

Signal words: by, by the time, before, by next year.

Future perfect continuous

Use it for the duration of an action up to a future point.

• In March, she will have been teaching here for ten years.
• By 5 p.m. we will have been driving for nine hours.

Signal words: for, by, by the time, in (month). Watch out for: this is rare in everyday English. Use it when the length of time is the point.

Tense choices in real writing

In an essay or dissertation

Academic writing in English follows conventions rather than strict rules, and they vary by field and by department, so check your own style guide. A common pattern, found in many university writing guides, is:

• Present tense for established facts and for discussing what a source says: Smith (2021) argues that urban gardens improve wellbeing.
• Past tense for what you did and what happened in a particular study: Participants completed the survey in March.
• Present perfect for a body of research up to now: Researchers have studied this question since the 1990s.

Pick a convention and keep to it within a section. Shifting tense at random is one of the most common reasons tutors mark a paragraph as hard to follow.

The most common tense errors

A related trap is mixing up has, have, was and were; our guide to has vs have and was vs were covers it. Many tense errors come from wrong past participle forms, so keep a list of irregular verbs close when you revise.

Before and after: fixing tense in a paragraph

Before:

Last summer I go to my cousin's wedding in Manchester. We were arriving on Friday and we have visited the cathedral on Saturday. By the time the ceremony started, I am already waiting for an hour.

After:

Last summer I went to my cousin's wedding in Manchester. We arrived on Friday and visited the cathedral on Saturday. By the time the ceremony started, I had already been waiting for an hour.

What changed: go became went (finished past), were arriving became arrived (a single event), have visited became visited (a stated time), and am already waiting became had already been waiting (duration up to a past point).

Quick quiz

Choose the correct form.

1. By next June, we ______ (live) here for ten years.
2. She ______ (not finish) the report yet.
3. While I ______ (cook), the smoke alarm went off.
4. If it ______ (rain) tomorrow, the match will be postponed.
5. He ______ (work) here since 2018.

Answers: 1. will have been living (or will have lived). 2. has not finished. 3. was cooking. 4. rains. 5. has worked (or has been working).

Checking your tenses with AdeptWrite

A tool can catch slips, but you still decide which meaning you intend.

• Grammar Checker flags wrong verb forms and agreement problems, such as she go, and highlights each change so you can accept or reject it.
• Spell Checker catches typos in American or British English, including misspelt past forms. It runs in your browser.
• Sentence Rewriter helps with sentences that tangle several tenses at once.

Each tool handles up to 6,000 characters per run. Automated checks can miss context, for example a deliberate switch to the present tense for a dramatic moment, so read the result aloud before you accept it.

← All guides