It’s no news that English can be difficult to learn from the aspect of tenses, the notorious grammatical categories of time. Even though some might argue that knowing tenses is not important for general communication needs, they form one of the most important chapters of the English grammar and showing a decent command of tenses always leaves a good impression.

Tense with excitement

By a dictionary definition, tense is a set of forms taken by a verb to indicate the time (or the continuance or completeness) of the action in relation to the time of the utterance. Different languages have different ways of expressing or indicating time, so it is not always easy for learners to draw parallels in grammar and rely on logic.

English language has 12 major verb tenses, with the most basic forms being those for past, present, and future, each further divided into four separate categories of time (Simple, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect Continuous).

However, some classifications suggest 16, 24 and other numbers appears as well. No wonder there’s confusion surrounding them. The reason for the varying quantity can be explained by the fact that passive forms, future in the past (nice one, right?!) and conditional forms have been added to the basic forms.

Story of the twelve tenses

The article looks at the some of the 12 basic English tenses in their active form. For the purpose of the article, we will disregard passive forms and conditional forms, as these would take the concept of “annoying” to a whole new level and deserve an article of their own. Here is a quick recap of the principal tenses with corresponding examples.

1. Present Simple (I write)
2. Present Continuous (I am writing)
3. Present Perfect (I have searched)
4. Present Perfect Continuous (I have been searching)
5. Past Simple (I ate)
6. Past Continuous (I was eating)
7. Past Perfect (I had watched)
8. Past Perfect Continuous (I had been watching)
9. Future Simple (I will drive)
10. Future Continuous (I will be driving)
11. Future Perfect (I will have worked)
12. Future Perfect Continuous (I will have been working)

Don’t worry, it’s only tense

The analysis below is based on the writer’s experience with English learners and their troubles with tenses. There are tenses that usually have clearer rules about when they should be used, such as Future Simple, which describes events that haven’t happened yet, predictions or intended actions.

It takes the form will + the main verb for all persons. There really are no exceptions and that’s that. The same can be said for Past Simple. This tense describes events that began and ended in the past, so they are completed and cannot be repeated.

However, this tense takes the infamous irregular verbs, which is a challenge in itself. Its negative and question forms can be tricky, too.

And then there’s Present Perfect. Either Simple or Continuous. It might probably be the most difficult tense to understand for learners because it has several different uses, which are not easy to translate to other languages either because there is no counterpart in foreign language or an equivalent tense is not used in the same way.

Let’s take, for example, the sentence:

They have finally completed refurbishing the lounge last Friday.

Well, this sentence is wrong because Present Perfect cannot be used with expressions of finished time, i.e. specified times in the past, such as last Friday. The correct way of using this sentence would therefore be: They finally completed refurbishing the lounge last Friday. (Past Tense Simple)

Now, what is wrong with the following example:

I was in the company for seven years?

Well, if you still work there, you should use Present Perfect, but if you no longer work there, Past Simple should be used, however, without the time expression for.

Smells like tense spirit

We know that Present Perfect often associates with adverbs of indefinite time, such as just, recently, already, yet, since, etc., and never with expressions of definite time, as we have seen above. It expresses an action that continues up to the present time, it goes with certain constructions (this is the only time…, this is the first time…, it is the second best…, etc.), and in generally expresses a connection of a past event to the present.

For the above reason and the accompanying confusions, Present Perfect deserves a special place in the list of annoying tenses.

All perfect tenses can be difficult to understand at first. Present Perfect is not the only bad guy here, its past namesake, older brother, if you may, Past Perfect, can be a challenge to cope. Although it has a fairly simple definition of use, by which it describes a past event in relation to another event, it involves more complex time relationships. It takes the form had + the past participle of the verb.

Here’s an example.

The strange man had just left the premises when the guard arrived.

One action occurred (had left) before the other (arrived). Now, this seems rather straightforward – it contains two events in the past. So, where’s the problem? Well, it is not used often in spoken speech, which is why it is referred to as a narrative tense. Speakers tend to forget it exists and avoid using it. But it is very useful, nevertheless, and it sounds awfully good if used correctly.

Sweet Tense O'Mine

Of course, there are other examples of annoying tenses. Present Simple and Present Continuous may be confusing to some learners, too, especially when it comes to verbs that cannot be used in -ing form, the so-called stative verbs, such as understand, like, prefer, believe, etc. So, make sure you never say anything like: I am understanding you. However, there are stative verbs that do take the -ing form, but their meaning changes. Of course, it does.

And what about Future Perfect Continuous? The name is scary and its definition is not soothing, either. It describes an action that will extend over a period of time and will be performed in relation to another future event. It is formed by using the phrase will have been with the present participle of the verb (-ing form): By 2023 I will have been living here for fifteen years.

Every tense you take

Be as it may, English learners worry too much about tenses. The closing idea for the article was borrowed from the website EnglishClub, because it sounds reassuring after giving you the creeps with the above examples.

“If you stopped 100 native English speakers in the street and asked them about tense, 1 of them might give you an intelligent answer – If you were lucky. The other 99 would know little about terms like “past perfect” or “present continuous”. And they would know nothing about aspect, voice or mood. But they can all speak fluent English and communicate effectively. […] Be like those native speakers! Speak naturally!