Tense — Quick Revision

12 Tenses Formula

	Simple	Continuous	Perfect	Perfect Continuous
Present	V1/V1+s	am/is/are+Ving	have/has+V3	have/has+been+Ving
Past	V2	was/were+Ving	had+V3	had+been+Ving
Future	will+V1	will+be+Ving	will+have+V3	will+have+been+Ving

Since vs For

• Since = point in time (since 2010, since Monday)
• For = duration (for 5 years, for 3 hours)
• Both need Perfect tense

Must-Remember Rules

1. Two past actions → earlier = had + V3 (Past Perfect)
2. Universal truth → always Simple Present (even in indirect speech)
3. I wish / If only → past form (were, had, could)
4. Habitual → Simple Present | Right now → Present Continuous

Signal Words

• Simple Present: always, usually, every day, often, generally
• Present Continuous: now, at this moment, currently, look!
• Present Perfect: just, already, yet, ever, never, since, for
• Past Perfect: before, after, by the time, already, as soon as