Rpública Bolivariana de Venezuela Universidad Yacambú Facultad de Humanidades Cabudare – Edo – Lara Integrantes: Serrato Claudia Docente: Prof. Luis Chávez Cabudare, Octubre 2013

 It's all about time. Things can happen now, in the future or in the past.  The tenses simply show the time of an action or state of being as shown by a verb.  The verb ending is changed (conjugated) to show what time it is referring to.  Time can be split into three periods The Present (what you are doing), The Past (what you did) and The Future (what you are going to do, or hope / plan to do ).  The tenses we use to show what time we are talking about are split into the Simple, Continuous and Perfect tenses.

 In English we use two tenses to talk about the present and six tenses to talk about the past. There are several ways to talk about the future some of which use the present tenses, these are: PresentSimple Present Present Continuous PastSimple Past Past Continuous Present Perfect Simple Present Perfect Continuous Past Perfect Simple Past Perfect Continuous FutureUsing the Simple Present Using the Present Continuous Using the Present Perfect Simple Using the Present Perfect Continuous Using going to Using shall/will

 Time is a concept which is related to our perception of reality. There are three times: past, present and future. Tense is a grammatical category which is marked by verb inflection and expresses when an event or action happens in the flow of time.  Strictly speaking, only two English tenses are marked by the inflection of the verb: past (talked) present (talks)  Other tenses are marked by auxiliaries (be, have): past continuous (was/were talking)past perfect (had talked) past perfect continuous (had been talking) present continuous (am/are/is talking) present perfect (have/has talked) present perfect continuous (have/has been talking)  As future time is expressed with the modal will + infinitive and not with inflection, the forms with will (will talk, will be talking, will have talked, will have been talking) are not considered to be tenses. However, for the sake of convenience, we refer to them as such throughout this book.

 Therefore, the twelve basic tenses of English are: SimpleContinuousPerfect Perfect continuous PastPast simple Past continuous Past perfect Past perfect continuous Present Present simple Present continuous Present perfect Present perfect continuous Future Future simple Future continuous Future perfect Future perfect continuous

The Simple Tenses can be split into three periods of time The Present, The Past and The Future. The Simple Tenses are used to show permanent characteristics of people and events or what happens regularly, habitually or in a single completed action.

 The simple present expresses an action in the present taking place once, never or several times. It is also used for actions that take place one after another and for actions that are set by a timetable or schedule. The simple present also expresses facts in the present.  We use the present simple tense when: the action is general the action happens all the time, or habitually, in the past, present and future the action is not only happening now the statement is always true  Examples: I live in New York. The Moon goes round the Earth. John drives a taxi. He does not drive a bus. We meet every Thursday. We do not work at night. Do you play football?

 The simple past expresses an action in the past taking place once, never, several times. It can also be used for actions taking place one after another or in the middle of another action. We use the past simple tense to talk about an action or a situation - an event - in the past. The event can be short or long.  It does not matter how long ago the event is: it can be a few minutes or seconds in the past, or millions of years in the past. Also it does not matter how long the event is. It can be a few milliseconds (car explosion) or millions of years (Jurassic period). We use the past simple tense when: the event is in the past the event is completely finished we say (or understand) the time and/or place of the event  Examples: I lived in that house when I was young. He didn't like the movie. What did you eat for dinner? John drove to London on Monday. Mary did not go to work yesterday. Did you play tennis last week? I was at work yesterday.

 Forms of Past Simple: For irregular verbs, use the past form (see list of irregular verbs). For regular verbs, just add “ed”.

 The future simple tense is often called will, because we make the future simple tense with the modal auxiliary will. For negative sentences in the future simple tense, we insert not between the auxiliary verb and main verb. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and auxiliary verb.  We use the future simple tense when there is no plan or decision to do something before we speak. We make the decision spontaneously at the time of speaking. Examples: Hold on. I'll get a pen. We will see what we can do to help you. Maybe we'll stay in and watch television tonight.  We often use the future simple tense to make a prediction about the future. Again, there is no firm plan. We are saying what we think will happen. Examples: It will rain tomorrow. People won't go to Jupiter before the 22nd century. Who do you think will get the job?

 When the main verb is be, we can use the future simple tense even if we have a firm plan or decision before speaking. Examples: I'll be in London tomorrow. I'm going shopping. I won't be very long. Will you be at work tomorrow?  Will future expresses a spontaneous decision, an assumption with regard to the future or an action in the future that cannot be influenced.  Going to future expresses a conclusion regarding the immediate future or an action in the near future that has already been planned or prepared.

The Continuous Tenses are used when talking about a particular point in time. The Continous Tenses can be split into three periods of time The Present, The Past and The Future. When we talk about events that are actually happening now, we use the present continuous tense. This is formed by using the stem of the verb and adding -ing to the end, for example the verb "work" becomes "working". In some cases you need to alter the spelling a bit for example the verb "die" becomes "dying".

 The present progressive puts emphasis on the course or duration of an action.  The present progressive is used for actions going on in the moment of speaking and for actions taking place only for a short period of time. It is also used to express development and actions that are arranged for the near future.  Present continuous is also known as present continuous progressive.

 We also use the present continuous tense to talk about things that are happening around now but are temporary. Example: "What are you doing?“ "I'm building a website."  It is also used to describe trends or situations that are happening but may be temporary. Example: "What are you doing these days?“ "Unfortunately I'm working a lot."  The present continuous tense can also be used to discuss future events: "He's always cleaning his car."  The present continuous is usually used with doing verbs (verbs of action) not with verbs of state. The following verbs are not used in the continuous form:-

 The past progressive puts emphasis on the course of an action in the past.  Use of Past Progressive:  Puts emphasis on the course of an action in the past Example: He was playing football.  Two actions happening at the same time (in the past) Example: While she was preparing dinner, he was washing the dishes.  Action going on at a certain time in the past Example: When I was having breakfast, the phone suddenly rang.

 The future progressive puts emphasis on the course of an action taking place in the future.  Use of Future Progressive:  Action that is going on at a certain time in the future  Action that is sure to happen in the near future

 Future progressive puts emphasis on the course / duration of an action taking place before a certain time in the future. It can also be used to express an assumption regarding a future action.  Is not used very often as it can usually be replaced by future II simple.  Use of Future Progressive:  Action taking place before a certain time in the future  Puts emphasis on the course of an action

The Perfect Tenses are used when an action or situation in the present is linked to a moment in the past. It is often used to show things that have happened up to now but aren't finished yet or to emphasize that something happened but is not true anymore. When they end determines which of them you use. The Perfet Tenses can be split into three periods of time The Present, The Past and The Future.

The Affirmative, Negative and Interrogative Forms can be split into three periods of time The Present, The Past and The Future.