Mark which of these are real types of tense:

 Perfect continuous

 Infinite

 Continuous

 Compound

 Simple

 Perfect

Present simple
The present simple is often the very first tense that students will come across. It is used to describe facts, express
habitual or repeated behaviors, and to describe emotions.

The most basic form of this tense can be created by pairing a subject with the present tense of a verb:

I run every day

You eat rice for lunch
She/he sings in the choir
They walk to school

Present continuous
The present continuous tense is usually taught soon after the present simple. It is used to describe activities that
are occurring at the time that the speaker is talking.

The tense uses the present form of the verb ‘to be’ and the ‘ing’ form of the main verb, for example:

I am walking
You are singing
She/he is jumping
They are writing

Because the present continuous is usually taught so soon in the language learning journey, students will often
have very little vocabulary to use with it. To counter this problem, it can help to teach them several simple verbs
beforehand, and be sure to include the verb ‘to be’ so that they know how to use it with this tense.

Once you’ve pre-taught these verbs, it can be easy to introduce the context for this tense by performing actions
and having students describe what you’re doing. Alternatively, images and video clips can be useful for
showing actions to the class, and having the students describe what’s happening.

Present tenses – Perfect and perfect continuous

Present perfect
The present perfect tense is used to describe actions or situations which started in the past but have now finished.

This tense is formed using ‘have/has’ with the past participle of the main verb:

I have tasted tofu before.

He/she has sung on a stage before.

Present perfect continuous

This final present tense is the present perfect continuous. This tense is used to describe something that started in
the past and continues to the present.

It is formed using ‘have/has’ with ‘been’ and the present participle form of the main verb:

I have been playing the piano for years.

He/she has been eating junk food for every meal.
They have been driving for a year.

There can often be confusion with English students about the use of the present perfect continuous, and the
present perfect tenses. To overcome this, it’s important to emphasize that the present perfect indicates situations
that have finished – though their effects may still continue, and that the present perfect continuous is used when
the actions have yet to finish.

Providing lots of examples can help students to see the different purposes, for example:

I have read a book this week (implies you’ve finished it)

I’ve been reading a book this week (implies you haven’t finished yet)

Past tenses – Simple and continuous

Being able to speak about the past will allow English students to talk about their experiences and to share parts of
their history with others.

Just like with the present tense, there are 4 versions of past tense which we’ll cover in this section:

 Past simple
 Past continuous
 Past perfect
 Past perfect continuous

Past simple
The past simple is the most basic past tense, and is used to describe events that occurred once in the past,
reoccurring events in the past, or something that was true for some time in the past. For example:

He ate salad.
She jumped high.
For regular verbs, the past simple tense is formed by adding ‘ed’ to the end of the verb. This gets more complex
when it comes to irregular verbs, which can form the past simple in a variety of ways that must be memorized.

He walked home.
He went home.
He ran every day.
When teaching this tense, it can be helpful to create a list of regular verbs that your students are already familiar
with. You can then use these to practice with first before moving on to irregular verbs.

Past continuous
The past continuous tense is used to describe events that were ongoing in the past.

To create this tense, the past form of the verb ‘to be’ is used with a verb in its ‘ing’ form:

He was flying.
They were singing.
The past continuous tense can be fairly simple for students who have already learned the present continuous and
the past simple. One way to teach this tense can be to create a daily schedule and ask your students what they
were doing at different times. This should naturally encourage them to use the correct form. From there you can
move on to more complicated uses.

See how a teacher practices these topics with real students

In the video below you’ll be able to see an example of a real ESL teacher helping a class of young learners to
become familiar with these tenses.

Past tenses – Perfect and perfect continuous

Past perfect
The past perfect tense is used to describe something that started in the past and continued until a given time in the
past. It is useful for clearly indicating the order of actions in the past.

This tense uses the verb ‘had’ and the past participle of the main verb, for example:

He had swum two laps of the pool before his mother joined him.
This tense can also be used to illustrate how long a past event occurred before ending at a certain point in the past:

On the twentieth of July, I had worked at the school for ten years.
When teaching this tense, it can be useful to use a timeline, showing when certain events occurred. This can help
to illustrate the context which the students will be describing. To make things more interesting, you could first
ask your students questions about things they’ve done in the past, and adapt the timeline accordingly.

Past perfect continuous (past perfect progressive)

The past perfect continuous tense is used to express ongoing actions from the past that continued until another
point. Note that this use of the tense does not specify that the action stopped at the specified past point.

It uses a combination of ‘had been’ and the ‘ing’ form of the verb:

She had been walking for an hour when her phone rang.
This tense can also be used to express an ongoing past event that did stop at a specific past time:

I had been working at the library for a year when I was fired.
This tense is rarely used in everyday conversations, and may only come up in more advanced classes, or for
lessons focusing on specific scenarios. When teaching this, context can be a big help – for example, speaking
about a much anticipated past event and the actions leading up to it.

Future tenses – Simple and continuous

Teaching your students to talk about the future can open up a whole range of possible conversations about their
plans and aspirations.

Again, as with the present and past tenses, there are 4 versions of future tense which we’ll cover in this
section:

 Future simple
 Future continuous
 Future perfect
 Future perfect continuous

Future simple
The future simple tense is used to refer to specific times in the future. There are two ways to do this in English,
both used in two distinct types of situation.

The first form uses ‘will’ and the present tense of the sentence’s verb. This is used to express a promise or a
voluntary action that will occur at some specific time in the future:

I will go to school tomorrow.

He/she/they will cook dinner.
The second form of the future simple tense is used to express plans. It is created using the present tense of the
verb ‘to be’ and ‘going to’. For example:

I am going to win some money.

He/she is going to the party on the weekend.
They are going to run a marathon.
Both versions of this tense can be used to express future predictions:

I will win the marathon.

He/she is going to win the marathon.
The key with teaching this tense can be to emphasise the difference between planned and unplanned future
events. The ‘will’ future form is an instant decision, whereas the ‘going to’ refers to plans. Highlighting the
difference between the two can be a useful approach to help your students grasp the separate uses.

Future continuous
The future continuous is used to describe fixed events or appointments that will extend over time in the future.

It is created using ‘will be’ and the main verb in its ‘ing’ form:

I will be going to the event on Saturday

He/she/they will be watching the news tomorrow evening
The future continuous is a very polite tense. In casual conversation, English speakers will often use the present
continuous tense to describe future plans or appointments.

Future tenses – Perfect and perfect continuous

Future perfect
The future perfect tense refers to an action in the future as if it has already been completed. This can be a difficult
tense to master, and even native English speakers use it rarely.

It is formed using ‘will have’ with the past participle. There can be other forms of this tense, but this is the most
common:

I will have finished my assignment by Monday.

When it comes to teaching the future perfect, it can be useful to use another timeline-based task. Mark a specific
time in the future, such as a special day, and then write a list of events that might happen before that time. Using
these two elements, your students can then form sentences about what they or others will have done by the time
the special day arrives.

Future perfect continuous

The final future tense is the future perfect continuous. This tense describes ongoing future actions that will be
completed at some time in the future. It sounds complicated, but it’s actually more simple than some of the other
future tenses.

Its most common form uses ‘will have been’ with the present participle.

In June, I will have been living here for a year.

Your students should be at an advanced level by the time they learn this, with plenty of vocabulary at their
disposal. One way to teach and practice this can be to have students draw up five-year plans and share what they
will have done by the time the five years are over.