Tenses

Question

1. Present SimpleTom walks to school every day.Tom has strong legs.Tom is a good student.Tom dosen't walk to school every day.Tom hasn't strong legs. or Tom doesn't have strong legs.Tom is not a good student.Does Tom walk to school every day?Does Tom have strong legs?Is Tom a good student?2. Past SimpleTom walked to school every day.Tom had strong legs.Tom was a good student.Tom didn't walk to school every day.Tom hadn't strong legs. or Tom didn't have strong legs.Tom wasn't a good student.Did Tom walk to school every day?Had Tom strong legs? or Did Tom have strong legs?Was Tom a good student?3. Future SimpleTom will go to school tomorrow.Tom will have a new car next month.Tom will be a rich student.Tom will not go to school tomorrow.Tom will not have a new car next month.Tom will not be a rich student.Will Tom go to school tomorrow?Will Tom have a new car next month?Will Tom be a rich student?4. Present ContinueTom is going to school.Tom is having a new car next month.Tom is being a good student.Tom is not going to school.Tom is not having a new car next month.Tom is not being a good student.Is Tom going to school?Is Tom having a new car next month?Is Tom being a good student?5. Past ContinueTom was walking to school.Tom was having a new car.Tom was being a rich car.Tom was not walking to school.Tom was not having a new car.Tom was not being a rich car.Was Tom walking to school?Was Tom having a new car?Was Tom being a rich car?6. Future ContinueTom will be walking to school.Tom will be having a new car.Tom will be being a rich student.Tom will not be walking to school.Tom will not be having a new car.Tom will not be being a rich student.Will Tom be walking to school?Will Tom be having a new car?Will Tom be being a rich student?7. Past PerfectTom had walked to school.Tom had had strong legs.Tom had been a good student.Tom had not walked to school.Tom had not had strong legs.Tom had not been a good student.Had Tom walked to school?Had Tom had strong legs?Had Tom been a good student?8. Present PerfectTom has walked to school.Tom has had strong legs.Tom has been a good student.Tom has not walked to school.Tom has not had strong legs.Tom has not been a good student.Has Tom walked to school?Has Tom had strong legs?Has Tom been a good student?9. Future PerfectTom will have walked to school.Tom will have had a new car next month.Tom will have been a rich student.Tom will have not walked to school.Tom will have not had a new car next month.Tom will have not been a rich student.Will Tom have walked to school?Will Tom have had a new car next month?Will Tom have been a rich student?10. Past Perfect ContinueTom had been walking to school.Tom had been having a new car.Tom had been being a rich student.Tom had not been walking to school.Tom had not been having a new car.Tom had not been being a rich student.Had Tom been walking to school?Had Tom been having a new car?Had Tom been being a rich student?11. Present Perfect ContinueTom has been walking to school.Tom has been having a new car.Tom has been being a rich student.Tom has not been walking to school.Tom has not been having a new car.Tom has not been being a rich student.Has Tom been walking to school?Has Tom been having a new car?Has Tom been being a rich student?12. Future Perfect ContinueTom will have been walking to school.Tom will have been having a new car.Tom will have been being a rich student.Tom will have not been walking to school.Tom will have not been having a new car.Tom will have not been being a rich student.Will Tom have been walking to school?Will Tom have been having a new car?Will Tom have been being a rich student?Dear teachers, please check them grammaticallyI am very dubious about their meanings which have almost same meaings for some tenses.for examples, what are differences?[Present Continue] vs [Future Perfect Continue] vs [Future Continue]Tom is being a rich student. vs Tom will have been being a rich student. vs Tom will be being a rich student.[Present Simple] vs [Present Perfect] vs [Future Perfect]Tom has a new car. vs Tom has had a new car. vs Tom will have had a new car.and more...if you are an English teacher how to show all of explanations and all the differences related with all these tenses.Thanks a lot

Doll · Accepted Answer

Dear Tommy please study the tenses you have problems from another grammar book again and then ask us only the things you didn't understand.

Ant_222 · Answer

«Tom is being a rich student. vs Tom will have been being a rich student. vs Tom will be being a rich student.»

As you should have read, the Present Continuous tense is used to express an on-going (active) process, that is happening at the moment of speech (the present).

But being a student is not a process at all. Intutively people perceive it as a state. Tom is a student. The car is white. Neither Tom nor the car are not doing anything to be a student and white accordingly. They just are so. Tom can sleep, eat, play The Dig! and still be a student. The car may stand in the garage or cruise across America, but it still will be white. There's no need in a certain process for the car to remain white.

Of course, Tom should study well and the car should be taken care of, but those are processes are only supporting the corresponding states. If Tom stops to do homework he'll be expelled from his university, but it won't happen right at the moment he've decided to stop doing university tasks.

Same goes to the car: if its owner stops washing it and protecting against corrosion it'll take a considerable time for the car to get rusted all over and through, so it can no longer be called a white car.

That's why progressive tenses usually don't work with the so-called stative verbs.

But you can say:

1. Tom is a student — Now he is a student
2. Tom will be student (sometime in the future)
3. Tom was a student (when he was young)

About verbs expressing processes:

Let's take a very simple process — that of playing a game.

A process is not a state, some activity is required for the process to keep going on.

So, you can say: "I am playing a game now."
If tomorrow, say at 18:00 this process will be active, you can say: "Tomorrow at six I will be playing footbal with friends, so I will not be able (to be able — a state) to receive the parcel"

And if you say: "I play footbal" — you again express a state not a process. What state can that be? Only one — your state of being a regular footbal player. If you play footbal every Friday and Sunday, you can say on some Thursday evening: "I play footbal. And tommorow I'll be playing the final game for the cup of..."

But how to express that you became a student 3 years ago and are still a student?

"I have been a student for three years" — this Perfect tense syas that the action of your being a student began in the past (3 years ago) and is still not finished. It's called perfect because it considers a time interval up to now.

One year before you would say: "In a year I'll have been a student for three years." (Future Perfect)

And For years later you would say: "One year ago I had been a student for three years" (Past Perfect).

In the above sentences Past Pefrect expresses an unfinished (by some past moment) action, Future Perfect — an action that will be unfinished (but will have begun) at some moment in the future.

Now you can see that there's certain logic behind the names of tenses. The first word describes the time (Future, Present, Past), and the second reports the type of the action (Perfect — up to some moment, simple — a state, progressive — on-going process)

In addition to expressing states, Simple tenses are used to describe actions which are fully located in the past (Past Simple) or in the future (Future Simple):

"I will read you letter tomorrow"
"Yesterday I killed a fly"

There are also other usages of Past and Present Perfect, which you'll easily find well described in many books on grammar. I
explained only a few of them to see whether it helps at all.

P.S.: And beware, Tom: I am not an English teacher!

Marius Hancu · Answer

The OP is plainly speaking too long a posting.

Ant_222 · Answer

Marius: «The OP is plainly speaking too long a posting»

This is probably to impress us as to how long it takes to simply enumerate English tesnes. And how difficult it should be to learn and understand them!

Yoong Liat · Answer

Marius HancuThe OP is plainly speaking too long a posting.

Yes, I agree. I don't know why some of our members like to ask so many things in one post.

Hoa Thai · Answer

Could you, instead with or in addtion to words, draw or show us where we can get a timeline, from which we can readily tell the differences between tenses (simple, coutinuous, etc...)?

Thanks in advance
Hoa Thai

Ant_222 · Answer

Hoa Thai:
«Could you, instead with or in addtion to words, draw or show us where we can get a timeline, from which we can readily tell the differences between tenses (simple, coutinuous, etc...)?»


I am eating now. (Progressive)

          +--Action of eating---+      
----------|-------------|-----------|-------------->
         9:25          NOW         9:53         time


I have been eating for 5 minutes now (Perfect)

          +--Action of eating-----+    
----------|------|--------------------|-------------->
         9:25   NOW=9:30               9:53         time


I go to school every day:

       going to school------------+----------+
        |            |            |          |  
        |            | NOW        |          |    
----|ooo------|ooo|-----|ooo----|ooo->
    |  day 1      |  day 2    |    day 3  |    time 
    | (yesterday) |  (today)  | (tomorrow)|

Hoa Thai · Answer

Ant_222Hoa Thai:
«Could you, instead with or in addtion to words, draw or show us where we can get a timeline, from which we can readily tell the differences between tenses (simple, continuous, etc...)?»


I am eating now. (Progressive)

          +--Action of eating---+      
----------|-------------|-----------|-------------->
         9:25          NOW         9:53         time


I have been eating for 5 minutes now (Perfect)

          +--Action of eating-----+    
----------|------|--------------------|-------------->
         9:25   NOW=9:30               9:53         time


I go to school every day:

       going to school------------+----------+
        |            |            |          |  
        |            | NOW        |          |    
----|ooo------|ooo|-----|ooo----|ooo->
    |  day 1      |  day 2    |    day 3  |    time 
    | (yesterday) |  (today)  | (tomorrow)|

Dear Ant_222,

That is wonderful! Thank you.
Now could you please do the same for past perfect, present perfect, future perfect, and their associated progressive cousins?

Ant_222 · Answer

Hao Thai:

"Now could you please do the same for past perfect,  present
perfect, future perfect, and  their  associated  progressive
cousins?"

Ok, but that'll take some time.


                  PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE

Yesterday at 9:30 I had been eating for 5 minutes.

        |<----------------->|
        |   I am eating     |
        |                   |
        |<--->|             |
        |5 min|             |
   -+---+-----+-------------+------+-----------|----->
    | 9:25  9:30           9:53    |          NOW
    |                              |
    |<---------------------------->|<--------------...
    |      Yesterday               |     Today

Only a 5-minute part  of  the  action  os  to  left  of  the
reference point (9:30). The other 23-minute part  was  still
in the future.

I hope I'll be able to draw a similar  timeline  for  Future
Perfect Progressive yourself...


                        PAST PERFECT

Yesterday at 10:00 I had finished my breakfast

        |<--------------->|
        |   I am eating   |
        |                 |
   -+---+-----------------+---+----+-----------|----->
    | 9:25             9:53  10:00 |          NOW
    |                              |
    |<---------------------------->|<--------------...
    |      Yesterday               |     Today

You see, the whole action is to the left  of  the  reference
point (10:00). In other wods, The action of eating  _was  in
the past at 10:00.

Try to draw a diagram for Future Perfect yourself.


                PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE

It has been raining since morning

       Morning        Day        Evening   Night
     |<------->|<------------->|<------->|<----->|
     |         |               |         | 21:09 |
   --+------+--+---------------+--|------+---+---+--->
      (7:41)|                    NOW         |
            |                                |
            |<------------------------------>|
                         Raining

The reference point here is NOW (the moment of speech).
You can say "It raining now", but not "It is  raining  since
morming" because you refer to a perfect (=complete) part  os
an on-going action. The complete part is its  past  part  --
from 7:41 to NOW; and the action is not finished because  it
has a future part -- from NOW to 21:09.

| By saying "it is raining" you don't  refer  to  a  certain
| part of the action, you just say that  the  NOW  point  is
| "inside" the action of raining.
|
| Accordingly, Past Simple places NOW to the  right  of  the
| whole action (to the right of its end), and Future  Simple
| locates the whole action (its beginning) to the  right  of
| NOW.


                       PRESENT PEFECT

When one wants to express a  though  about  a  state,  not  a
process, they shouln't youse a Progressive tense:

We have been friends since 1992.

The diagram for this sentence is exactly the same as for the
previous example, but the tense is different. So,  the  only
way to understand it is  to  grasp  the  difference  between
states and action.

Another state: to be a student:

I have been a student since 2002.
In 2004 I had been a student for 2 years.
In 2008 I will have been a student for 6 years.

            ANOTHER FUNCTION OF PRESENT PERFECT

In addition to the above, this tense is also used  to  refer
to past actions (located to the left of NOW) which  have  an
actual present result or are somehow important.

For example:
"Will you go to the theater with us?"
"No, I can't. I have taken ill"

The event of taking ill is in te past,  though  the  guy  is
still sick (actual result of taking ill). And it  is  really
important, because it is the  reason  he  can't  go  to  the
theater.

"Why everybody thinks (Present Simple -- a state -- to  have
an opinion, as apposed to the  process  of  thinking,  which
creates an  opinion)  that  Frankenstein  is  the  monster's
name???"

"Don't know (again a state, to  know  ot  not  to  know,  as
opposedto the process or acquiring knowledge).  Most  of  us
haven't read the book..."

The action of reading the book is important as  regards  the
knowneldge that the reader receives. The  important  present
result is that those who have not read the it don't know who
bears the name of Frankenstein.

Did it help?

P.S.: Next time don't quote large posts entirely without  an
      apparent need.

Hoa Thai · Answer

Dear Ant_222,

Wow! I did not expect to get such a time-consuming effort (not only the timeline graphs but also the explanation). Please accept my heartfelt appreciation.

Hoa Thai

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