How to Understand Tense in Everyday Conversation

Original EnglishLamp lesson•Reference learning mode

VISUAL LEARNING

Place an action in time.

English verb forms help signal when an action happens. Compare the same action across past, present and future before learning each tense in detail.

Sentence formation in different tenses changes the meaning of sentences.

You should use the tense according to the situation.

We have taken the phrase- play football in a sentence of different tenses in the table below. An explanation is given.

Have a look-

Tense	Example	Explanation
Simple Present	I play football every Sunday.	When we want to say that I play on Sundays regularly.
Present Continuous	I am playing football now.	Here we want to say that it is happening now.
Present Perfect	I have played football.	Here, the action period is in the past.
Present Perfect Imperfect	I have been playing football for 4 hours.	The two actions- the arrival of the mother and the action of playing football are related to each other. The play is finished, and after that, the mother arrives.
Simple Past	I played football on that day.	Here the action period is in the past.
Past Continuous	I was playing football the whole day yesterday.	The action is done in the past. The time of action is not sure.
Past Perfect	I’m playing football now.	The two actions- the arrival of the mother and the action of playing football are related to each other. The play is finished, and after that, the mother arrives.
Past Perfect Imperfect	I had been playing football for four hours when my mother arrived.	Here, we point out the playing period before the mother arrived.
Simple Future	I shall /will play football tomorrow.	Here, we say that action will be in future.
going to-future	I had played football before my mother’s arrival.	Here, I am telling a plan that I have made.
Future Continuous	I shall/will be playing football next Sunday.	Here, you might have finished playing football at a particular time in the past.
Future Perfect	I shall/ will have played football by Sunday.	I will have played before Sunday.
Conditional Simple	I would play football on a turf pitch.	The two actions- the arrival of the mother and the action of playing football are related to each other. The play is finished, and after that, the mother arrives.
Conditional Progressive	I would be playing football on a turf pitch.	This is an imaginary situation where we concentrate more on the progress of the action.
Conditional Perfect	I would have played football on a turf pitch.	Here, you might have finished playing football at a special time in the past.
Conditional Perfect Progressive	I would have been playing football on a turf pitch.	Playing football might have finished in the past.

Negative Sentences

Here are the negative sentences of the above sentences in the table.

Tense	Example
Simple Present	I do not play football every Sunday. I don’t play football every Sunday.
Present Continuous	I am not playing football now. I‘m not playing football now.
Present Perfect	I have not played football. I haven’t played football.
Present Perfect Imperfect	I have not been playing football for 4 hours. I haven’t been playing football for 4 hours.
Simple Past	I did not play football yesterday. I didn’t play football yesterday.
Past Continuous	I was not playing football yesterday. I wasn’t playing football yesterday.
Past Perfect	I had not played football before my mother’s arrival. I hadn’t played football before my mother’s arrival.
Past Perfect Imperfect	I had not been playing football for four hours before my mother arrived. I hadn’t been playing football for four hours before my mother arrived.
Simple Future	I shall /will not play football tomorrow. I shan’t / won’t play football tomorrow.
going to-future	I am not going to play football this Sunday. I‘m not going to play football this Sunday.
Future Continuous	I shall/will not be playing football next Sunday. I shan’t / won’t be playing football next Sunday.
Future Perfect	I shall/ will not have played football by Sunday. I shan’t / won’t have played football by Sunday.
Conditional Simple	I would not play football on a turf pitch. I wouldn’t play football on a turf pitch.
Conditional Progressive	I would not be playing football on a turf pitch. I wouldn’t be playing football on a turf pitch.
Conditional Perfect	I would not have played football on a turf pitch. I wouldn’t have played football on a turf pitch.
Conditional Perfect Progressive	I would not have been playing football on a turf pitch. I wouldn’t have been playing football on a turf pitch.