Posts Tagged ‘tense’

Tenses chart

February 12th, 2012 in English Learning

Learning tenses can be quite confusing but remember that basic sentence structures don’t change with change in the tense. Here is a chart that shows the structure for each tense in English.

The sentence pattern used in this chart is: subject + verb + object

Affirmative

Tense Subject Verb Object
Simple present Jane likes chocolates.
Present continuous Alice is writing a story.
Present perfect Peter has broken his leg.
Present perfect continuous James has been playing the piano.
Simple past Jane wrote a letter.
Past continuous They were singing a song.
Past perfect She had made a mistake.
Past perfect continuous She had been knitting a sweater.
Simple future I will make a cake.
Future continuous She will be singing a song.
Future perfect She will have finished the job.

Negative

Tense Subject Verb Object
Simple present Jane does not like chocolates.
Present continuous Alice is not writing a story.
Present perfect Peter has not broken his leg.
Present perfect continuous James has not been playing the piano
Simple past Jane did not wrote a letter.
Past continuous They were not singing a song.
Past perfect She had not made a mistake.
Past perfect continuous She had not been knitting a sweater.
Simple future I will not make a cake.
Future continuous She will not be singing a song.
Future perfect She will not have finished the job.