A working guide to the architecture of English verbs — for anyone who has ever wondered whether they have done or had done or will have been doing.
There are three times — past, present, future — and four ways of looking at an action: simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous. Twelve combinations in total.
The trick most learners miss is that tense isn't only about when something happened. It's about how the speaker positions themselves relative to the action. I ate and I have eaten both refer to the past, but the second pulls the past into the present moment.
Read through the matrix, then take the test.
Used for habits, routines, general truths, and unchanging facts. The action belongs to no particular moment — it's just true.
For actions happening right now, or temporary actions happening "around now." Also used for arranged future plans.
For past actions that connect to the present — either because they just happened, because their result still matters, or because they happened at some unspecified time. The bridge between past and now.
For actions that started in the past and continue into the present, emphasizing the duration. Often answers "how long?"
For completed actions in the past, at a specific time. Done. Finished. Sealed off from now.
For actions in progress at a specific moment in the past. Often the background to another, shorter past event.
The "past before the past." Used when one past action happened before another past action, to make the sequence unmistakable.
For actions that were ongoing up to a point in the past. Emphasizes the duration of something before something else happened.
For spontaneous decisions, predictions, promises, and general future facts. "Going to" is also common for planned futures.
For actions that will be in progress at a specific time in the future.
For actions that will be completed before a specific point in the future.
For actions that will have been ongoing up to a specific point in the future. The rarest of the twelve — but real and useful.
One hundred questions drawn from all twelve tenses, in random order. Choose the form that fits the sentence. You'll see whether you were right immediately, and your full score at the end.