Level: intermediate
There are two tenses in English: past and present.
The present tense is used to talk about the present and to talk about the future.
There are four present tense forms:
| Present simple | I work |
|---|---|
| Present continuous | I am working |
| Present perfect | I have worked |
| Present perfect continuous | I have been working |
We can use all these forms:
- to talk about the present:
London is the capital of Britain.
He works at McDonald’s.
He is working at McDonald's.
He has worked there for three months now.
He has been working there for three months now.
- to talk about the future:
The next train leaves this evening at 17.00.
I'll phone you when I get home.
He is 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.
- Present tense 1
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- Present tense 2
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Level: advanced
We can use present forms to talk about the past:
- when we are telling a story:
Well, it's a lovely day and I'm just walking down the street when I see this funny guy walking towards me. Obviously he's been drinking, because he's moving from side to side …
- when we are summarising something we have read, heard or seen:
I love Ian Rankin's novels. He writes about this detective called Rebus. Rebus lives in Edinburgh and he's a brilliant detective, but he's always getting into trouble. In one book, he gets suspended and they tell him to stop working on this case. But he takes no notice …
- Present tense 3
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- Present tense 4
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Hello Xada,
Newspapers often use non-standard forms, especially in their headlines or summaries for reasons of space. The standard form would probably be present perfect here (someone has broken a/the record), but it's hard to be sure without seeing the context in which the sentence appears.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello dipakrgandhi,
'invite' is used as a noun by many native speakers in informal contexts to mean the same thing as 'invitation'. I suppose it's also possible to see it in news headlines, where there is not a lot of space. In general, I'd recommend using 'invitation' over 'invite' (as a noun).
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi A. F.,
Both versions are correct, though I suppose the version with 'of' is more complete. The word 'of' is often left out here, especially in informal speaking or writing.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi seelan65,
There are several possiblities. It is fine to use 'confirmation' without an article here as it is an uncountable noun used in a non-specific way. You could also say the following:
This letter is to confirm the authenticity...
This letter provides confirmation of the authenticity...
We would not say '
This letter is confirming as to...', I'm afraid.Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello dipakrgandhi,
Yes, the verb should be 'deters' to agree with the singular subject.
We generally avoid commenting on examples from elsewhere like this. It's rather unfair on the original authors to comment without their having any opportunity to respond, and we also do not know the context in which the language is used.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Lal,
'time' is a very broad concept; I think you must mean something more specific but I'm not sure what. In any case, all of the sentences you wrote could be correct in certain contexts.
The last one ('How long are the waiting for?') is probably the most unusual one, but if you were speaking about a future arrangement, for example, it would be correct. 'for' speaks of a 'length' of time, i.e. duration, and 'since' indicates a duration from a point of time in the past towards the present.
I hope this helps.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi manuel24,
'Does it really matter?' is correct and is a question about how important something is, with the idea that the person asking the question doubts that whatever it is really matters. Here 'matter' is a verb in the present simple tense and so the auxiliary verb 'does' is used.
'It is really matter' is grammatically correct but means something completely different. In this case, 'matter' is a noun and the sentence is affirming that something ('it') is matter (as opposed to something pyschological perhaps? -- it's hard to know without the context).
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello manuel24,
We can use 'do' (or 'does') to add emphasis to a sentence. For example:
We do not use this construction with 'be', however.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Lal,
Yes, that's right -- in some cases, both forms can be correct, but in others no. The examples you give show that you have a good understanding of this, though if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
As for your example of cutting beans, which one is better really depends on how you see the situation. If you want to emphasise, for example, that you've done the beans and so now your brother should make the rice, the simple form (which focuses more on completion) would be better. But if the result of you chopping the beans is somehow the focus (for example, if your brother asks why you're wearing an apron), then the continuous form would be the best one.
This point of English grammar is one that can take some time to get, but it looks as if you're doing very well with it!
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Lal,
These are both correct. You can see more about the difference between these two forms on our Present perfect simple and continuous page.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi dipak,
The subject of 'helps' is the idea of good deeds bringing merit -- in other words, not the good deeds themselves, but the concept that good deeds bring merit. This idea is grammatically singular, which is why 'helps' is singular.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi jitu_jaga,
That doesn't seem right to me. Perhaps it would in context, but out of context it does not, so I'm afraid I can't explain it to you.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Japan Shah,
This rather depends on the talk's content and how you wish to relate it. You could choose to report it using reported speech (see here and here). Alternatively, you could use present forms (The talk tells us how we can...). There is no one way to do this.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello uchiha itache,
It's difficult to be entirely sure without knowing the context in which the sentence is used, but the present continuous for repeated actions often suggests some kind of irritation (if we are talking about another person) or frustration (if we are talking about ourselves). For example:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello uchiha itache,
The sentence We're always meeting in the supermarket describes something which happens frequently, not a future event, and so I don't think whether it is planned or not is relevant here. The sentence suggests that the speaker does not feel happy about constantly meeting in the supermarket for some reason, but that is all we can say from it.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello raj.kumar123,
These do not look like natural sentences in English to me. You could say Thanks for acceding to our request for a meeting, for example. It is a very formal way to say this, however, and agreeing to would be much more likely.
In general, the perfect form emphasises recent completion with a concrete result. It is possible to say, for example, Thanks for having done this. However, even in this case I would say that Thanks for doing this is a far more common choice
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello dipakrgandhi,
I think there are two possibilities here: The temperature continues... or Temperatures continue...
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello dipakrgandhi,
We often omit certain words in headlines but the 'to' part of the infinitive here would not be omitted, I think, and the sentence looks odd to me even as a headline. I would say that 'to sell' is really required here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Jenkin,
This sentence is about the classic film On the Waterfront, which starred Marlon Brando. Since this sentence is summarising the plot of the film, it uses the present tense.
If you didn't know that about the film, it was difficult to get the right answer here. The person who wrote this exercise thought that people would recognise Marlon Brando's name, I suppose, but not everyone is familiar with him.
Please let us know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ibe Ben,
It all depends on how you define the word 'tense'. When someone says English has only two tenses, they use a narrow definition of the word 'tense'. Most English teachers and students use a wider definition of the word, and in this sense, yes, usually we say there are 12.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ali boroki,
The present continuous is often used to speak about arranged future plans. This means that 'he' has already spoken with Peter and they have a plan to meet at two. There is a more detailed explanation of this on our talking about the future page.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SahilK,
The other forms are not incorrect, though sound a little odd since 'for travel' is a common form in the context of advertisements. Note that 'travel' is used as both a verb and noun.
I didn't see any mistakes in your sentence, but please be aware that we do not provide this kind of service.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SahilK,
1) As far as I know, there is no good reason for this -- I'm afraid it's just the way these words are used. There are many, many patterns like this in English, and you just have to learn them.
2) You could also use the form you wrote, though it's true that the first one is probably more common.
3) Yes, they are -- good work!
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team