present tense
There are two tenses in English – past and present.
The present tenses in English are used:
- to talk about the present
- to talk about the future
- to talk about the past when we are telling a story in spoken English or when we are summarising a book, film, play etc.
There are four present tense forms in English:
| Present simple: | I work |
|---|---|
| Present continuous: | I am working |
| Present perfect: | I have worked |
| Present perfect continuous: | I have been working |
We use these forms:
- to talk about the present:
He works at McDonald’s. He has worked there for three months now.
He is working at McDonald’s. He has been working there for three months now.
London is the capital of Britain.
- to talk about the future:
The next train leaves this evening at 1700 hours.
I’ll phone you when I get home.
He’s meeting Peter in town this afternoon.
I’ll come home as soon as I have finished work.
You will be tired out after you have been working all night.
- We can use the present tenses to talk about the past...
English Grammar
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- Determiners and quantifiers
- Possessives
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- Adverbials
- Nouns
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- irregular verbs
- question forms
- verb phrases
- present tense
- past tense
- perfective aspect
- continuous aspect
- active and passive voice
- to + infinitive
- -ing forms
- talking about the present
- talking about the past
- talking about the future
- verbs in time clauses and if clauses
- wishes and hypotheses
- the verb be
- link verbs
- delexical verbs like have, take, make and give
- Modal verbs
- double object verbs
- phrasal verbs
- reflexive and ergative verbs
- verbs followed by to + infinitive
- verbs followed by -ing clauses
- verbs followed by that clause
- Clause, phrase and sentence
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Comments
Hi,
How do improve the written communication ? Please advice me because my written communication is very pathetic
Hi, this a very useful website, have learned a lot with the help of this website, but now i want to improve my specking english, is there some one who also wants to improve their specking english, if yes, please do let me know. we can share our skype id for english specking practice.
team
Hello Ridham!
We really like it when students want to practice their English together and find out about people in different parts of the world. That's why we have comment sections on almost all of our pages – so you can talk to other students!
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Regards
Jeremy Bee
The LearnEnglish Team
Dear Learn English team
greetings
i do not know when i can use Present perfect and Present perfect continuous
can you explain to me plz ?
Best regards
Mina
team
Hello Mina!
That's a very big question! Why not look at our page on the present perfect tenses? Take the time to look through the comments - this is often a difficult area for learners, and you'll see a lot of answers and information from other students and the LearnEnglish staff!
Hope that helps!
Regards
Jeremy Bee
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi. I don't understand. .......Brando plays an ex-boxer standing up to corrupt bosses....... why "play" is shown as Past in this exercise........thank you.
team
Hello Marlene,
The reason is that the action happened in the past! Did you read my answer to Niva Bose below?
Best wishes,
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team
really easy
McEwan handles the characters with his customary skills..... why "handles"is shown as Past in exercise
team
Hello,
The question is about the time the verbs are referring to, not the tense of the verbs. Remember that time and tense are different in English. 'Handles' is something that McEwan did in the past.
Best wishes,
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team