Tenses

There are three standard tenses in English: past, present, and future. For now, we’ll just focus on the simple present (things happening now), the simple past (things that happened before), and the simple future (things that will happen later).

• Simple Present: work(s)
• Simple Past: worked
• Simple Future: will work

The present tense for a singular third person (he, she, it) is slightly different. Look at the tables below to see the correct tenses:

Person	Past	Present	Future
I	verb + ed	verb	will verb
We	verb + ed	verb	will verb
You	verb + ed	verb	will verb
He, She, It	verb + ed	verb + s (or es)	will verb
They	verb + ed	verb	will verb

Let’s look at the verb to walk for an example:

Person	Past	Present	Future
I	walked	walk	will walk
We	walked	walk	will walk
You	walked	walk	will walk
He, She, It	walked	walks	will walk
They	walked	walk	will walk

Irregular Verbs

There are a lot of irregular verbs. Unfortunately, a fair amount of memorization is needed to keep them straight.

For quick reference, below are the tables for to be and to have:

To be

Person	Past	Present	Future
I	was	am	will be
We	were	are	will be
You	were	are	will be
He, She, It	was	is	will be
They	were	are	will be

To have

Person	Past	Present	Future
I	had	have	will have
We	had	have	will have
You	had	have	will have
He, She, It	had	has	will have
They	had	have	will have

Here’s a list of several irregular past tense verbs.

Explain Answers

1. Ysabella is really good at getting others to open up.
2. Rodrigo had a B+ in his math class.
3. Amanda will say she doesn’t want to go to the party.
   • Notice that when the tense of the first verb changed, the tense of the second verb did, as well.
4. Jordan did two hundred sit-ups.
5. Marcela runs a car wash down the street from my house.

Complex Verb Tenses

Verbs don’t have to be expressed only in present, past, or future tenses. There are more complex verb tenses that allow us to express actions with a little more variety and difference, which are created by changing the verb aspect. The verb aspect tells us whether a verb is stating a fact, a completed action, an ongoing action, or the end of an ongoing action.

Here are a few examples of these different aspects, all in the present tense:

• Simple Aspect (expressing a fact): I eat.
• Perfect Aspect (expressing a completed action): I have eaten.
• Progressive or Continuous Aspect (expressing an ongoing action): I am eating.
• Perfect Progressive Aspect (expressing the end of an ongoing action): I have been eating.

Each of these aspects can be expressed in past, present, and future tenses. For example, the different verb tenses in the perfect aspect would be:

• Past Perfect: I had eaten
• Present Perfect: I have eaten
• Future Perfect: I will have eaten

These different tenses allow for much more flexibility in our language and expression.

Watch the video below for some more information about verb aspect and to see all the different ways you can organize and use verbs.

You can view the transcript for “Introduction to verb aspect | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy” here (opens in new window).