All 12 English tenses side by side, with a clear guide to choosing the right one for any situation, plus common mistakes and exam practice.
English has 12 main tenses, and each one has its own full guide on this site. This page is different: it's a single reference for seeing all 12 side by side, comparing the ones that are most often confused with each other, and quickly checking which tense fits a given situation. Use this page to review and compare, and follow the links to each individual guide for full explanations, exercises and exam practice.
| Tense | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present Simple | base verb (+s) | I work. She works. |
| Present Continuous | am/is/are + -ing | I am working. |
| Present Perfect | have/has + past participle | I have worked. |
| Present Perfect Continuous | have/has been + -ing | I have been working. |
| Past Simple | past form | I worked. |
| Past Continuous | was/were + -ing | I was working. |
| Past Perfect | had + past participle | I had worked. |
| Past Perfect Continuous | had been + -ing | I had been working. |
| Future Simple | will + base verb | I will work. |
| going to future | am/is/are going to + base verb | I am going to work. |
| Future Continuous | will be + -ing | I will be working. |
| Future Perfect | will have + past participle | I will have worked. |
| Tense | Core Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present Simple | Habits, routines, permanent facts | I work in London. |
| Present Continuous | Actions happening now, or temporary situations | I'm working from home this week. |
| Present Perfect | Past actions with a connection to now, no specific time given | I've worked here for five years. |
| Present Perfect Continuous | Emphasises the duration of an ongoing or just-finished activity | I've been working on this report all morning. |
| Tense | Core Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Past Simple | A completed action at a specific past time | I visited Paris last year. |
| Past Continuous | An action in progress at a specific past moment | I was reading when she called. |
| Past Perfect | An action completed before another past action | I had finished before she arrived. |
| Past Perfect Continuous | Emphasises duration up to another past moment | I had been waiting for an hour when the bus came. |
| Form | Core Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| will | Spontaneous decisions, predictions without evidence, promises | I think I'll stay home tonight. |
| going to | Plans already decided, predictions with visible evidence | I'm going to visit my parents this weekend. |
| Present Continuous (future use) | Fixed arrangements, especially with a time/place | I'm meeting her at 6pm tomorrow. |
| Future Continuous | An action in progress at a specific future time | I'll be travelling this time next week. |
| Future Perfect | An action that will be completed before a future point | I'll have finished by Friday. |
Ask these three questions in order:
| Question | If yes |
|---|---|
| Is this about the past, present, or future? | This narrows you to one of the three main time zones. |
| Is there a specific time mentioned, or is it about duration/connection to another point? | A specific time usually needs a simple tense; duration or connection usually needs perfect or continuous forms. |
| Is the action completed, ongoing, or repeated? | Completed → simple or perfect; ongoing → continuous; repeated → simple, often with a frequency adverb. |
| ❌ Incorrect | ✅ Correct | Why |
|---|---|---|
| I am knowing the answer. | I know the answer. | Stative verbs like "know" don't normally take the continuous form. |
| I have seen him yesterday. | I saw him yesterday. | A specific past time (yesterday) needs past simple, not present perfect. |
| I will go to the cinema when I will arrive home. | I'll go to the cinema when I arrive home. | Future time clauses never use "will" inside the clause itself. |
| I am living here since 2020. | I have been living here since 2020. | "Since" with an ongoing situation needs present perfect (continuous), not present simple. |
| Exam | How This Is Tested | Sample Question |
|---|---|---|
| Cambridge B1 Preliminary / B2 First | Choosing the correct tense across mixed time references is central to the Use of English paper. | A single gapped text requiring 6-8 different tenses used correctly in context. |
| IELTS Writing & Speaking | Accurate, varied tense range across a full range (not just present/past simple) is a genuine marker of higher bands. | Describing a graph's past trend, then predicting a future trend, in the same answer. |
| Trinity GESE/ISE (SELT) | Natural movement between past, present and future within one conversation is expected at every level above A1. | Discussing your past experience, current situation and future plans in a single interview. |
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