Tenses — Quick Reference

The 12-Tense Grid

English has 12 tenses = 3 times × 4 aspects. Here’s the whole system:

	Simple	Continuous	Perfect	Perfect Continuous
Past	I ate	I was eating	I had eaten	I had been eating
Present	I eat	I am eating	I have eaten	I have been eating
Future	I will eat	I will be eating	I will have eaten	I will have been eating

Simple = a fact, a habit, a completed action. Snapshot. 📸
Continuous = in progress, happening around a point in time. Video. 🎥
Perfect = connects an earlier time to a later time. Bridge. 🌉
Perfect Continuous = in progress for a duration, connecting two times. Progress bar. ⏳

Present Simple

S + V(s/es) → She works every day.

Past Simple

S + V-ed / V2 → She worked yesterday.

Present Continuous

S + am/is/are + V-ing → She is working right now.

Present Perfect

S + have/has + V3 (past participle) → She has worked here since 2020.

Past Continuous

S + was/were + V-ing → She was working when I called.

Future Simple

S + will + V → She will work tomorrow.

Tense	Common Signal Words
Present Simple	always, usually, every day, never, sometimes
Past Simple	yesterday, last week, in 2020, ago, when I was…
Present Continuous	right now, at the moment, currently, look!
Present Perfect	since, for, already, yet, ever, never, just
Past Continuous	while, when, at that time, all day yesterday
Future Simple	tomorrow, next week, soon, I think… will

The #1 confusion for Mandarin speakers:

Past Simple	Present Perfect
Finished. The connection to now is broken.	Still relevant. The connection to now is alive.
I lived* in Paris.* (I don’t anymore.)	I have lived* in Paris.* (Maybe I still do, or the experience matters now.)
I lost* my keys.* (Telling a story.)	I have lost* my keys.* (I need help NOW.)

Want the full lesson? → The Tense System (Learn page) →

Mandarin speaker? → Why tenses are hard for you →