Tenses

Verb be complement ?Am I

Is He, she, it

Are you, we, they

Present Simple

Question

Auxiliary verb in infinitive complement ?Do I, you, we, they

Does He, she, it

Past Simple

Question

Auxiliary verb in infinitive complement ?

Did I, you, he, she,

it, we, they

Affirmative

Verb in past complement

Negative

auxiliar in verb in complementnegative in infinitve

didn´t

Past Continuous

Auxiliary complement ?Were you, we, they

Was I, He, she, it

Affirmative

you, we, they

Negative

were complement

He, she, it was complement

you, we, they weren’t complement

He, she, it wasn’t complement

Present Continuous

QuestionAuxiliary verb complement ?Verb be with -ing

Am IIs he, she, itAre we, you, they

Affirmative

Negative

I am verb complementHe, she, it is with -ingWe, you, they are

I am not verb complementHe, she, it isn’t with -ingWe, you, they aren’t

Past continuous

QuestionAuxiliary verb complement ?Verb be with -ingIN PAST

Was I, he, she, it

Were we, you, they

Affirmative

Negative

I, he, she, it was verb complement

We, you, they were with -ing

I, he, she, it wasn’t verb complement

We, you, they weren’t with -ing

Present Perfect SimpleQuestion

Auxiliary ever verb in past complement ?HAVE participle

Have I you, we, they

Has he, she, it

Affirmative

I, you, we, they have (‘ve) verb in past complement

He, she, it has (‘s) participle

I’ve eaten

You’ve drunk

We’ve talked

They’ve listened

She’s played

He’s been

It’s eaten

Present Perfect Simple

Negative

I, you, we, they haven’t verb in past complement

He, she, it hasn’t participle


FOR

Goes with periods of time, like three hours, ten minutes, a long time. It

goes just before the time period.

SINCE

Goes with points in time, like 1990, Christmas, last week. It goes just before

the time period.

EVER

Means “sometime before now”. It is used in questions, e.g. Have you ever /

Haven’t you ever…?, and in negative satatements, e.g. Nobody has ever

travelled there before. It goes between have and the past participle


NEVER

Means “at no time before” and it is used in negative statements, e.g. I’ve

never been to New York before. It goes between have and the past

participle.

JUST

Means “not so long ago”. It comes between have and the past participle,

e.g. They have just gone out.

ALREADY

Shows an action has been completed. It comes between have and the past

participle: I have already heard that song.


YET

Means “up to a specified time” and is used only in the negative and question

forms of the present perfect tense. It is normally placed at the end of a

sentence, e.g. I haven’t been to the supermarket yet.

Present Perfect ContinuousQuestion

Auxiliary BEEN verb in complement ?HAVE -ing

Have you, we, they

Has he, she, it

Affirmative

I, you, we, they have (‘ve) BEEN verb in complement

He, she, it has (‘s) -ing

I’ve been eating

You’ve been drinking

We’ve been talking

They’ve been listening

She’s been playing

He’s been speaking

It’s been eating

I went to the theatre last night. I had bought tickets

months ago because I had read some very good reviews. I

had arranged to meet my friend in the café in front of the

theatre before the show but she didn’t arrive. By the

time I left the ccafé, I had already drunk five coffees and

had been waiting for over an hour. When I walked out the

café, I saw my friend standing on the other side of the

Street. She had already picked up the tickets and was

angry because she had been waiting for a long time. She

hadn’t got my message about meeting in the café

Past Perfect SimpleQuestion

Auxiliary verb in past complement ?HAD participle

I you, we, they

he, she, it

Affirmative

I, you, we, they had (‘d) verb in past complement

He, she, it participle

I’d eaten

You’d drunk

We’d talked

They’d listened

She had played

He’d been

It had eaten

Past Perfect Simple

Negative

I, you, we, they hadn’t verb in past complement

He, she, it participle

Past Perfect ContinuousQuestion

Auxiliary BEEN verb in complement ?HAD -ing

you, we, they

he, she, it

Affirmative

I, you, we, they had (‘d) BEEN verb in complement

He, she, it -ing

I’d been eating

You had been drinking

We had been talking

They’d been listening

She’d been playing

He had been speaking

It’d been eating

Past Perfect Continuous

Negative

I, you, we, they hadn’t been verb in complement

He, she, it -ing

Past Perfect continuous

Negative

I, you, we, they haven’t been verb in complement

He, she, it hasn’t -ing

I hadn’t been eating

You hadn’t been drinking

We hadn’t been talking

They hadn’t been playing

She hadn’t been playing

He hadn’t been studying

It hadn’t been running

Tenses

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