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Schule > Englisch > Grammatik und Vokabeln > The English Tenses

Tenses

simple present
to express habits, general truths, repeated actions or unchanging situations, emotions and wishes
to give instructions or directions
to express future time, after some conjunctions: after, when, as soon as, until
signal words: every day/week/month, often, usually, sometimes, never, twice a day/week/month
present progressive
to describe an action that is going on at that moment
to describe a temporary event or situation ->„He usually plays the drums, but he is playing bass guitar tonight.“
with always, forever, constantly to describe and emphasize a continuing series of repeated actions
to describe an action or event in the future, which has already been planned or prepared
signal words: at the moment, right now, still, just, while
present perfect
an action or situation that started in the past and continues in the present
a repeated action in an unspecified period between the past and now
an action that was completed in the very recent past (expressed by „just“)
an action when the time is not important
when we want to give or ask details about when, where, who, we use the simple past!
signal words: up to now, until now, so far, since, often, yet, already, before, ever, just, never
present perfect progressive
it refers to an unspecified time between ‚before now‘ and ‚now‘
the speaker is interested in the process as well as the result, and this process may still be going on, or may have just finished
signal words: since, for

simple past
is used to talk about a completed action a time before now, duration is not important, the time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past

you always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with certain past time expressions:
frequency: often, sometimes, always
a definite point of time: last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago
an indefinite point of time: the other day, ages ago, a long time ago
chronological order: The door opened slowly and a man came in...
past progressive
it is used often to describe the background in a story written in past tense
to describe an unfinished action that was interrupted by another event or action
to express a change of mind
with ‚wonder‘ to make a very polite request
past perfect
the past perfect refers to a time earlier than before now
it is used to make clear that one event happened before another in the past
‚just‘ is used with the past perfect to refer to an event that was only a short time earlier than before now

past perfect progressive
the past perfect progressive refers to an action that began before another action in the past and was contiuning at the moment of the other action

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