Transcription
Hi, I'm Brian Wilds, and in this video, I'm going to explain how to use all 12 tenses in English. Let's get started!
As you might be aware, English has four present tenses, and you're probably familiar with the present simple, as in "I study." We use this tense when talking about facts, habits, and schedules.
That is my phone (fact). He studies every day (habit). On weekends, we play soccer (schedule). The present simple is by far the most common verb tense in English, so you'll get plenty of practice with this over time.
The present continuous is "I am studying." We use the present continuous to describe actions that are happening right now, as in "You are watching this video right now," "I am speaking on camera," or "An airplane is flying through the sky." With this tense, the action is happening as we speak.
The present perfect is "I have studied." We use the present perfect when talking about how an action from the past describes the subject now, as in "I have studied English for 3 years." In this sentence, "have studied English" is a past action, but we're using it to describe who I am now. It's my experience, and we often use the present perfect to talk about someone's experience or lack of experience.
Examples include:
- "She has eaten breakfast already."
- "He has lived there all his life."
- "They have never been to Mexico."
We're using past experience to describe who the subject is now, and that's why this is a present tense.
Finally, the present perfect continuous is "I have been studying." We use the present perfect continuous to talk about an action that started in the past and continues nonstop into the present. For example, "I have been studying Spanish for 8 years." In other words, I started studying 8 years ago, I never stopped, and I'm still learning now.
We often use this tense to emphasize when an ongoing action first started:
- "He has been sleeping for 12 hours."
- "She has been working two jobs since February."
- "They have been traveling for 5 weeks."
Okay, great work! We finished all the present tenses of English. Now, before we move on to the past, I want to share something fun with you guys.
My wife and I recently took DNA tests to learn more about our heritage, and the results were pretty surprising. We got our My Heritage DNA kits in the mail today, and we're going to open them up and do the test to find out where we're from, where our families are from.
Cheers! Cheers! All right, here we go. Ready?
Okay, mix it... and that's it! We will see you guys in four to six weeks with the results.
Here we go: 54% English, 30.4% Irish, Scottish, and Welsh, 7% Scandinavian. Whoa!
Okay, 6.3% Mesoamerican and Andean, and there's more cool stuff: almost Egyptian, 1.7% Greek and South Italian. Maybe I had some relatives who like went across in a boat to Mesoamerica.
I'm still kind of surprised; I really did not expect Mesoamerican, Andean, or Greek and South Italian. We also used My Heritage to find hundreds of DNA matches and relatives from around the world whom we never even knew existed.
Here we go, what do you think you're going to get?
French.
French?
Yeah, Adrian is a babe.
Very Scandinavian, Iberian. You also got Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. That's all you got?
That's it! It's kind of... it's very concentrated.
Adrian found new relatives in Denmark, Canada, and France, and we might even try to meet some of them on our next big family trip.
My Heritage is currently running a promotion. If you click the link in the description box and use the coupon code WS, you'll get free shipping on your order.
Now, back to the video!
Okay, ready to talk about the past?
Let's do it! And again, we have four tenses.
First up is the past simple: "I studied." This tense is very straightforward and very common. We use it when talking about an action that started in the past and finished in the past.
For example:
- "She worked last night." In other words, she started work last night and she finished work last night.
- "He ate eggs for breakfast." He ate eggs then; he's not eating them now.
- "I lived in Chicago when I was a child." I lived there then, and I don't live there now.
Why? Because an action in the past simple is always finished in the past.
Great! Now we have the past continuous: "I was studying." We use the past continuous to describe an action that continued over a period of time in the past, but more specifically, we almost always use this tense to give context or background for another action.
Examples include:
- "I was studying when the phone rang."
- "We were living in Canada when we got engaged."
- "He was running when he caught the ball."
The past perfect is "I had studied." This tense is also used to provide context for another action in the past, but the past perfect always comes beforehand.
For example:
- "Sarah had already left by the time he got home." In other words, Sarah left before he got home.
- "I had already booked the tickets when the concert sold out." In other words, I booked the tickets before the concert sold out.
- "We had eaten a big lunch, so we weren't hungry when we got to the hotel." In other words, we ate a big lunch before we got to the hotel, so we weren't hungry.
Finally, the past perfect continuous is "I had been studying." Again, we almost always use this tense to give context, but the past perfect continuous describes an action that continued over time and then stopped at the moment of another action.
For example:
- "I had been watching TV when the power went out."
- "He had been eating pizza every day when he started the diet."
- "We had been talking about going to France for years and finally decided to go."
Congratulations! We've now covered all the past tenses in English. Excellent work!
We're on to the final stretch: the future. Again, we've got four tenses.
Let's begin with the future simple: "I will study." We use the future simple to talk about actions that we believe will happen in the future. For example:
- "I will call you tomorrow."
- "We will bring cupcakes to the party."
- "He'll be there by 6:00 p.m."
Yes, most of the time, English speakers shorten the word "will" to "’ll," as in "I'll study," "You'll study," "He'll study," etc.
There's another form of the future simple that you might already be familiar with: "going to" or "gonna," as in "I'm going to call you tomorrow," "We're gonna bring cupcakes to the park," or "He's going to be there by 6:00 p.m."
The "will" and "going to" forms have the same meaning, but "going to" is more casual.
The future continuous is "I will be studying." We use the future continuous to talk about an action that we believe will continue over a period of time in the future.
For example:
- "We will be eating dinner from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m."
- "I'll be running errands all afternoon."
Again, we can also use "going to" instead of "will," as in "They're going to be traveling all summer" or "The baby is going to be sleeping when you arrive."
The future perfect is "I will have studied." We use the future perfect to talk about actions that will be finished by a certain time in the future.
For example:
- "She will have moved to a new apartment before the end of the year." In other words, by the end of the year, she'll move to a new apartment sometime before that. It could be a day before, a week before, a month before... anytime!
Let's look at two more examples:
- "He will have finished his homework by the time dinner is ready." In other words, dinner is ready and he finished his homework sometime before that.
- "They will have come home by the spring." In other words, spring comes, and they came home sometime before that.
The action will be finished before a given time in the future.
Finally, the future perfect continuous is "I will have been studying." This time, we're talking about a continuous action that will be completed at a given time in the future.
For example:
- "He will have been driving for 6 hours straight when he arrives."
Now, honestly, English speakers rarely use this tense, but when we do, it's to emphasize the duration of an action and how long it will take.
For example:
- "We will have been living in Los Angeles for a decade this December."
- "She will have been working at the company for 40 years when she retires."
And that's it! We've covered all 12 tenses in English. Congratulations! If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
As always, thanks for watching!