You will have to start with the basic tenses in English
You will have to let them know that there are only three basic tenses in the English language: the past, the present and the future. There’s also a perfect tense, but reserve that for advanced learners.
The past tense
The past tense is used to talk about anything that happened before this precise moment in time. So, whether you walked your dog an hour ago or visited Italy five years ago, you’d use the past tense.
The present tense
The present tense is used for anything that is happening right now.It can also be used for general statements.
The future tense
The future tense is used to describe anything that might happen at some point later than right now. For example, you might want to talk about what you’ll do in the evening.
Simple and continuous variations
Of course, English grammar lessons would be easy if that’s all you had to remember. To complicate things slightly, all three tenses have both simple and continuous variations. This sounds much harder than it is, so let’s look at both variations in more detail. It helps to look at the past and present tense together as they are relatively similar when it comes to grammar.
Present simple
The simple present is used to describe things that are permanent or unchanging. It can also be used to describe how often something happens or to talk about scheduled events. You can use it to describe yourself, talk about your hobbies or discuss something you believe is true.
Sharing your daily routing is a great way to practice using the simple present. You could say:
“I brush my teeth every morning.”“I eat breakfast at 7 o’clock.”“I take my dog for a walk in the evening.”“We run to school every day.”
When using ‘I’ or ‘we’ the verb remains unchanged. If you want to use ‘he’ or ‘she’, add a ‘s’ to the verb. For example:
“He runs to the park to meet his friends after school.”“She eats spaghetti because it is her favourite.”
Past simple:
If you want to talk about an action that’s already happened or is no longer true, you can use this past simple by adding +ed:
“I brushed my teeth this morning.”“I jumped in the pool on holiday.”“I cooked dinner for the whole family last night.”
Regular verbs such as ‘brush’,’ jump’ and ‘cook’ are easy to change into the past simple, however, there are also many irregular verbs you’ll have to learn. For example:
“I ate a fish.”“I went into the house.”
Present continuous:
This is slightly different to present simple as it is used to describe actions that are happening right now. To make this tense work, add ‘ing’ to the verb.
“I am having a shower.”“She is walking the dog.”“We are eating breakfast.”“He is sitting at the table.”
Past continuous:
The past continuous tense is used to describe an action that happened at a specific time. For example:
“I was watching television at midnight.”“I was reading a book at 6 in the morning.”
It can also be used to describe a continuous action that got interrupted. For example:
“I was running along the street when I saw my best friend in the car.”“I was cooking dinner when the oven started to smoke.”
Future simple:
When talking about the future you can discuss things that haven’t happened yet but might do at some point down the line. When using the future simple tense, simply add ‘will’ or ‘going to’ before an unchanged verb.
“I will go to the moon.”“I will call you later.”“I will eat an ice cream tonight.”
Future continuous:
To use the future continuous tense, you need to add ‘ing’ to the verb – just like you did for the other continuous tenses. Add the ‘ing’ form of the verb before ‘will be’ or ‘going to be.’ For example:
“I will be going to the cinema tonight if you want to come.”“I will be waiting outside the restaurant.”“We will be eating at around 7 tonight.”
Courtesy of
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