Have been time in English. Schemes for constructing English sentences in groups of Simple, Continuous, Perfect tenses

2015-12-17

Hello my beloved readers.

Today we have a very important topic. Unlike foreigners, who will never be able to understand the meaning of the phrase “no, probably”, for us (even the most novice dummies!) to understand them 12 - I ask you to note, - sometimes it’s worth nothing. It's true?

And if you have ever had problems with them, then today we will solve them with you. Topic of the day: tenses in English. We will understand when, where, what is used, as well as time indicators.

Please note that for each time I attached color scheme with formulas and examples for clarity, after which you can follow the link to fix the time using exercises and online tests. Also, all the names of times (highlighted in red) are clickable - to go to separate page with more detailed rules and explanations and examples. Let's start in order.

Times are real

I was cooking when the phone rank.

The second most popular tense for many schoolchildren (the first, of course, is Present Simple) is. And the reason for this is simple: it is used if an event occurred BEFORE another event in the past (See for more details about this time).

See:

When she called I had already packed my suitcase.
I was ready to go when he called and told me that he had forgotten the keys.

No less amazing time denotes an event that began at some specific point in the past, and ended before some point in the past - or is still continuing in the past.

I had been doing this report for 3 hours when I found it in the Internet.

Future times

Commands what will happen in the future. Here are the cases in which it can be used:

• Simple future event;
  I will call you tomorrow.
• Regular actions;
  I will come here every year.
• Description of the sequence;
  I will come home, my mother will give us some food and we will hit the road.

Describes events at a specific future moment.

At 5 p.m. we will be conducting a meeting session. I expect you to be there.

C, everything is similar to its counterparts in other tenses: an action is described that starts in the future and ends then.

I will have spent a lot of time for preparation before taking part in this competition.

Many English language learners believe that they need to immediately master all tenses in order to put a long-awaited check mark on a long list of planned English tasks. But I’ll tell you as an experienced teacher - first you need to master 3-5 running times. When you know them by heart and know how to use them, then you can move on. Otherwise, you will get stuck at this stage and quit English without tasting all its charm!

By the way, I recommend to many of my friends (who want to remember or just learn the basics of English grammar) to take an online course from LinguaLeo « Grammar for Beginners» . You definitely won't be bored there. In addition, the information is as practical as possible. In addition to the 5 tenses that are proposed to be mastered in this course, everyone will find others there. basic grammar concepts, which will simply be impossible to forget after a bunch of interesting practical tasks.

How easy is it to remember all these times? A table with examples will help you with this. Everything you need in one place. Convenient, isn't it?

I hope, my dears, that now you will have much fewer questions about verb tenses. But if you still have unresolved questions, do not hesitate to write them under the article. I will be happy to answer them.

If you want to be the first to receive a selection where the best exercises on this topic will be collected - then subscribe to delicious my blog newsletter.

And for today I say goodbye.
See you again, my dears.

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And now we will look at the basics of composing simple sentences to express past, present and future tenses using examples.

Construction of sentences in the Simple group

Affirmative sentences

Let's start with the Present Simple. All affirmative sentences are constructed according to the following scheme:

1. “I” in this example is the subject. It should not be confused with the complement, since the subject performs the action, and the action is performed on the complement. Moreover, in Russian the order of words is not important to us, because it is already clear who is performing the action. We can freely say: “I eat the cake.” But in English you won’t be able to construct a sentence like this, since the one who performs the action must come first, otherwise they will simply laugh at you when you say: “The cake is eating me.” Even in the passive voice, such a phrase will sound very strange.
2. In second place should be the predicate, which expresses the action itself. In the Russian language, there are often sentences with an incomplete grammatical basis, where there is no subject or predicate, or both are absent. In the latter case, we are dealing with an impersonal sentence: “It’s dark.” In English there must always be a subject and a predicate. So, if there is no verb in a Russian sentence, then it will definitely appear in English. Let's take, for example, a one-part sentence in which there is no predicate: “The telephone is on the table.” To translate it correctly, we will need to use the verb “to be”, which will connect the subject with the predicate. As a result, the phrase will literally be translated as: “The phone is on the table.”
3. In third place, the secondary members of the sentence are lined up according to a certain rule: first comes the direct object (answers the question “who?”, “what?”, “who?”), then the indirect object (answers the same questions, but with the prepositions “with whom?” ?”, “to whom?”, etc.). This rule is not always observed and is not strict.

As in Russian, English verbs are modified depending on the person. The main changes occur in the 3rd person singular (he, she, it), where the suffix “s” or “es” is added to the predicate. As a result, we get the sentence: “He goes to school.”

Negative sentences

In addition to affirmation, there is also negation, the diagram of which looks like this:

In this scheme, all the same components are found, except for the linking verb “do” and the particle “not”, which is equivalent to the negative particle “not” in Russian. What is an auxiliary verb and why is it needed? Unlike the Russian language, where we simply put the particle “not” before the verb, in English there must be an auxiliary verb before the particle “not”. It is different for each tense, and in the case of the Present Simple it will be in the form of either “do” or “does” depending on the number and person of the subject. Example: “She does not go to school.”

Interrogative sentences

So, we have considered the affirmation, the negation, and we are left with a question, the formation of which also requires an auxiliary verb:

So, we have discussed with you the basic principles of constructing various types of sentences in Present Simple. Past Simple and Future Simple are constructed in a similar way, the main differences will be in the form of the auxiliary verb.

Constructing sentences in the Future Simple

Statement

The scheme for constructing a statement in the simple future tense (Future Simple) is as follows:

The auxiliary verb will indicates that the action takes place in the future tense, and the phrase will be translated as: “I will go to school.”

Negation

Negation is constructed using the already familiar particle “not” and the auxiliary verb “will”.

Question

Any question begins with an auxiliary verb, so when constructing a question we simply put will in first place.

Past Simple

Statement

When constructing a statement in the past tense of the Simple group, there is a small peculiarity: the suffix “ed” is added to the verb.

I specifically omitted the example with school because it uses an irregular verb. Most verbs form the simple past tense by adding the suffix “ed” to the stem (cook - cooked), but there are about 470 verbs, according to the Oxford Dictionary, that form the past tense according to their own canons. Our verb “go” also falls into their number, which will change its form to “went”: “I went to school.”

Negation

Negation in the simple past tense is constructed similarly to the Present Simple, with the only difference being that the form of the auxiliary verb “do” takes on the past form “did”.

Question

The question is also constructed by analogy with the Present Simple. We only change the form of the auxiliary verb to the past.

So we studied the construction of sentences in the entire Simple group. The main thing is to remember the patterns for all three types (affirmation, negation and question), not to forget how the word forms of verbs in the 3rd person singular change, and to memorize the main irregular verbs in order to achieve automaticity in speech.

Construction of sentences in the Continuous group

In the Continuous group there is always an auxiliary verb “to be”, the change in form of which will tell us when the action occurs: yesterday, now or tomorrow. In this group, the participle I is also always present, similar to the real participle in the Russian language. The participle itself is constructed by adding the suffix “ing” to the verb (go - going).

Statement

Let's not deviate from the structure and consider the formation of time in the Present Continuous.

The forms of the verb “to be” change depending on the person, and here the matter is not limited to changes only in the 3rd person singular. You just need to remember the forms.

In the past tense, the auxiliary verb changes its form to “was” or were” depending on the person and number.

The sentence construction scheme in the Past Continuous will be as follows:

The future tense in this group is formed without any changes, we simply put the future tense verb “will” before the auxiliary “to be”:

Denial and question

The construction of negation and question follows the general scheme for constructing sentences: when negating, we put “not” after the auxiliary verb, and when asking a question, we put the auxiliary verb in first place.

To construct the past form, you need to change the form of the auxiliary verb to “had”.

To build a future form, we additionally put “will”.

Denial and question

Negation and question are constructed in a classical way: the particle not after had (in negation), had in first place (in question).

Denial and question

These sentences are given for the sake of example only; in practice, you are unlikely to find yourself in a situation where you will need to express yourself in the Perfect Continuous. It will be much easier and faster to construct a phrase from the Simple and Continuous groups.

Simplified table of formation of all types of sentences in all tenses

For those who are encountering tenses for the first time, this article may seem a little chaotic, so as a result, I offer you a ready-made table with the formation of sentences in all tenses to make it easier for you to see the whole picture. You can use it as a cheat sheet in the initial stages of studying temporary structures. The table is taken from the Pikabu resource.

The main difficulty of the English language for beginners is tenses. There are only 12 tenses in the English language, but due to the specifics of some tenses, confusion occurs. In this article I will tell you in detail about the tenses of the English language with an example of use.

From the article you will learn:

English tenses with examples and translation into Russian

In English, there are traditionally 12 tenses. English tenses are divided into 3 groups:

1. Simple (Indefinite),
2. Continuous (Progressive),
3. Perfect.

They, in turn, in combination with the basic tense forms Present, Past and Future, form the corresponding tenses. Let's start with the group Indefinite.

Present Simple (Presen Indefinite) - Present Simple

How is it formed:

I form of the verb. This form is used in all persons and numbers, except for the third person singular: then the endings – s, -es – are added.

When to use:

1. The action occurs with a certain frequency. Used with such adverbs as always (always), rarely (rarely), often (often), usually (usually), never (ever), etc., in addition, with the word every (every day, every month, every year etc.)

She never listens to me.- She never listens to me.

I always go abroad in summer.— In the summer I always go abroad.

He goes to the theater every weekend.— He goes to the theater every weekend.

2. The effect is scientifically proven.

Water boils at 100 degrees.— Water boils at 100 degrees.

3. The sequence of actions is described.

I get up, wash my hands and face, have breakfast etc.— I get up, wash, have breakfast, etc.

Present Continuous - Present Continuous

It should be noted that some English present tenses can denote the future.

How is it formed:

verb to be + I form of the verb + ing ending.

When used: 1. the action is happening at the moment.

I am watching TV now.- I'm watching TV now.

2. the action will take place in the near future, which is planned (!).

I am flying to New York next month.— Next month I'm flying to New York.

Present Perfect - Present Perfect

The peculiarity is that the English tenses of the Perfect group can denote the past, although they are called present.

Formation: have / has + III form of the verb.

When to use the present perfect tense:

1. the action happened today, this year, this week, etc., i.e. the period has not yet ended.

Has not written 10 books and he is just twenty!- He wrote 10 books, and he’s only twenty! (Life is going)

We have met this month.— We saw each other this month (the month has not ended)

He has met me today.- Today he met me.

2. with adverbs yet (yet), just (only), recently (recently), ever (always), never (never), already (already), etc.

I have just found out about this.- I just found out about this.

I've never been to England.- I have never been to England.

She has already done this work.- She has already done this work.

3. Action in the past affects the present state

We have gone to the forest and now he has a cold.— We went to the forest, and he caught a cold.

Past Simple - Past Simple

How to form the past simple tense:

II form of the verb, i.e. verb + ending –ed (regular verbs), or II form of an irregular verb.

When to use:

1. The presence of a time marker yesterday (yesterday), last (past, last) or other.

He visited doctor last week.— Last week he visited the doctor.

I met him when I studied at the University.— I met him when I was at university.

2. The action happened in the past without any conditions.

I knew you would come.- I knew you would come.

3. Sequence of actions.

He took the taxi, asked to stop at the Time Square, looked through the window etc.— He took a taxi, asked to stop at Time Square, looked out the window, etc.

Past Continuous - Past Continuous

How to form the past continuous tense:

Verb to be in 2nd form + verb+ ing ending.

When to use:

1. The process lasted for a long time without interruption.

For example.

He was playing the piano the whole evening.— He played the piano all evening.

2. The process was interrupted by another activity.

They came in when she was speaking by the phone.— They came in while she was talking on the phone.

Past Perfect - Past Perfect

How is it formed:

2nd form of the verb have + 3rd form of the verb.

When to use:

1. When agreeing on times.

He said that he had not noticed you.- He said he didn't notice you.

2. One action happened before the other.

Example: He had left before I could figure out something.“He left before I could understand anything.”

3. There is a temporary excuse by.

He had made his decision by summer.— By the summer he made a decision.

Future Simple - Future Simple

How is it formed:

Shall (used only with 1st person) will+I form of the verb.

When to use:

The action will take place in the future. Used with time markers tomorrow, next, or a deadline is indicated.

I will call you tomorrow.- I'll call you tomorrow.

He will visit us in 3 weeks.— He will visit us in 3 weeks.

Future Continuous - Future Continuous

How it is formed.

Auxiliary verb will/shall+be+1 verb form+ing

When used. The process continues into the future.

She will be dancing the whole day tomorrow.- Tomorrow she will dance all day.

Present Perfect Continuous - Present Perfect Continuous

How is it formed:

Have/has + been + verb+ing

When to use:

1. The action lasts from a moment in the past to a moment in the present (translated by the present)

I have been waiting for this moment all my life.“I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life.”

2. with the preposition since (s).

Their family has been owning this castle since 17th century.— Their family has owned this castle since the 17th century.

Past Perfect Continuous - Past Perfect Continuous

How is it formed:

Had + been + verb+ing

When to use:

One action is interrupted by another or is its cause.

I had been working hard the whole year, so I was exhausted. “I worked hard all year and was just exhausted.

Future Perfect Continuous - Future Perfect Continuous

English tenses such as Future Perfect Continuous Past Perfect Continuous are used extremely rarely.

How is it formed:

Will/shall + have + been + verb+ ing

When to use:

The period of past and future is affected, the preposition of time by.

For example: I will have been working in this company for 10 years by 1st May.— By May 1, it will be 10 years that I have been working in this company.

Thus, we looked at 10 tenses of the English language (all based on 3 main ones).

Today we are talking about such an important section of English grammar as verb tenses. To build an English dialogue, to form your own speech, you need to know as many English verbs as possible, as well as verb tenses. A verb is an action, so it is the most commonly used part of speech in any language. How to use the time table in practice?

The catch is that there are only three verb tenses in Russian. There are many more of them in English. But in Russian there are types - perfect and imperfect, which indicate the completeness and incompleteness of the action. All these nuances are reflected in English in individual verb tenses.

Let's create a table of English tenses together and see what goes where and what's what.

In order to get a table of the formation and use of verb tenses, we need to distribute the tenses into sections - Indefinite, Perfect, Continuous, etc. Let's try to create such a table with you and see what comes of it. Let's not take any irregular verb, so as not to complicate the task. Let's make our table using the example of the verb work - to work.

Here is a table with examples of the use of verbs. You can download it on our website, and it will always help you in learning and memorizing verb tenses.

What else you need to know about verb tenses

Let's remember what adverbs are used with some tenses. This is important to know because if you know the correct adverb, you will always be able to use the correct verb. We bring to your attention the main adverbs for the main verb tenses.

So, Present Simple:

• Today - today
• Every day/night/morning/week/year - every day/night/morning/week/year
• Always - always
• Seldom - rare
• Often - often
• Usually - usually

Adverbs used in the Present Continuous:

• Now - now
• All day - all day
• At the moment - at the moment

Present Perfect and its adverbs:

• Already - already
• Ever - ever
• Never - never
• Yet - yet
• Since - with; since
• Till - until
• Until - until
• Just - just now, already

• Yesterday - yesterday
• That day - on that day
• The day before yesterday - the day before yesterday
• Then - then
• Two days ago - two days ago (three, four days, etc.)

• Tomorrow - tomorrow
• The next day/night/week/year - the next day/night/week/year
• The day after tomorrow - the day after tomorrow

How to easily learn the table of times?

We remind you that you can download the times table on our website. We advise you to learn it so that you can easily and quickly cope with the exercises, as well as constructing sentences and dialogues in English.