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Benjy Posted 6 years ago
Software & Reviews

THE 12 TENSES IN ENGLISH

Tenses are the forms of the verb that indicate the time of an action or state of existence. There are twelve tenses in English and they are as follows:

  1. Simple Present Tense
  2. Simple Past
  3. Simple Future
  4. Present Continuous
  5. Past Continuous
  6. Future Continuous
  7. Present Perfect
  8. Past Perfect
  9. Future Perfect
  10. Present Perfect Continuous
  11. Past Perfect Continuous
  12. Future Perfect Continuous

Each of the above tenses has its uses in English sentences. For example, the simple present tense can be used to express habitual actions: Jack walks to school every day. It can also be used to report universal truths or scientific facts: A cup of sugar dissolves in water.

For a more detailed audio-visual explanation of the 12 tenses and their various uses, with copious examples, watch the following video lecture:

  

Top answer

" On the one extreme, academic linguists say there are two . The definition of tense is a finite inflected verb form. There are only two of these in English: the present and past forms which you can find in a dictionary.

— AlpheccaStars

  • " On the one extreme, academic linguists say there are two .
  • The definition of tense is a finite inflected verb form.
  • There are only two of these in English: the present and past forms which you can find in a dictionary.
  • English uses verb phrases in contrast to languages such as Latin, Russian and Spanish which have complex inflected verb systems.
  • On the other extreme, ESL teachers name every possible verb form combination as "a tense", including moods, voice and aspects.
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1 Answers
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benjyThere are twelve tenses in English

Linguists give a wide range of answers to the question, "How many tenses are in the English language?"

On the one extreme, academic linguists say there are two. The definition of tense is a finite inflected verb form. There are only two of these in English: the present and past forms which you can find i

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