Understanding Verb Tense

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Understanding Verb Tense
What are the verb tenses? Present and present
perfect Past and past perfect Future and future
perfect Consistency of tense Modals Review
A Review B
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What are the verb tenses?
Verbs do a lot of work in sentences. They show
actions and states of being. They even take
different forms to show time.
flies
flew
will fly
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What are the verb tenses?
The tense of a verb indicates the time of the
action or state of being expressed by the verb.
Perfect tenses indicate that something happened
or existed before a specific point in time.
Present
Future
Past
Past
Future
Present
Present Perfect
Future Perfect
Past Perfect
Gwen plays guitar in a jazz band.
She has played in the band for three years.
Gwen will play in a concert tomorrow.
She will have played in ten concerts by April.
Gwen played last year as well.
She had played violin before then.
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What are the verb tenses?
The tenses of verbs are formed from the four
principal parts of verbs.
Base Form
smile
choose
Present Participle
is smil
is choos
ing
ing
Past
smile
d
cho
se
Past Participle
have smile
d
have cho
sen
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What are the verb tenses?
Each tense has a progressive form, which is used
to express continuing action or state of being.
am, are, is talking
Present progressive
was, were talking
Past progressive
will (shall) be talking
Future progressive
has, have been talking
Present perfect progressive
had been talking
Past perfect progressive
Future perfect progressive
will (shall) have been talking
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What are the verb tenses?Present and present
perfect
The present tense expresses an action or a state
of being that is occurring now, at the present
time.
Today we honor our veterans.
Polly is marching in the parade.
(Progressive form)
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What are the verb tenses?Present and present
perfect
The present tense is also used in these ways
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What are the verb tenses?Present and present
perfect
The present perfect tense

• expresses an action or a state of being that
  occurred at an indefinite time in the past

• is usually formed using the helping verb have or
  has plus the past participle

Mike has been in several parades.
He has played the drum in all of them.
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What are the verb tenses?Present and present
perfect
The present perfect tense is also used to express
an action or state of being that began in the
past and continues into the present. In this
case, perfect means complete.
Mr. Lee has taught music at our school since
2004.
(Progressive form)
Yoko has been taking flute lessons for six years.
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What are the verb tenses?Past and past perfect
The past tense expresses an action or a state of
being that occurred in the past but did not
continue into the present.
The two friends shared the large swing.
They were swinging for a long time.
(Progressive form)
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What are the verb tenses?Past and past perfect
The past perfect tense

• expresses an action or a state of being that
  ended before another past action or state of
  being occurred

• is usually formed using had plus the past
  participle

After Maria had gone home, Kim was bored.
She asked her dad about the time that he had been
a lifeguard at the beach.
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What are the verb tenses?Future and future
perfect
The future tense

• expresses an action or a state of being that will
  occur

• is usually formed using will or shall plus the
  base form

My family will ride the train to Chicago.
We will be arriving at five oclock.
(Progressive form)
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What are the verb tenses?
On Your Own
Change the tense of the verb in each sentence, as
indicated in parentheses. 1. I do not miss the
bus. (Change to future.) 2. Were they at the
party? (Change to past perfect.) 3. By then,
Keith had returned. (Change to future
perfect.) 4. The team will practice for an hour
with no break. (Change to future perfect
progressive.) 5. My sister dances well. (Change
to past.)
End of Section