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Study Resource: Comparing English verb tenses

By: Isabel McKay

Let’s compare some past, present, and future perfect continuous verbs to other verb tenses in English!

Past tenses

Verb Tense	Example	Explanation
Simple past	Nelson cooked dinner.	The dinner was finished.
Past continuous	Nelson was cooking dinner.	At a past moment, Nelson was in the middle of making dinner.
Past perfect	Nelson had cooked dinner.	At a particular past time, the dinner was finished.
Past perfect continuous	Nelson had been cooking dinner.	At a particular past time, the dinner was started, but not finished.

Present tenses

Verb Tense	Example	Explanation
Simple past	Nelson cooks dinner.	Nelson habitually cooks.
Past continuous	Nelson is cooking dinner.	Right now, Nelson is in the middle of making dinner.
Past perfect	Nelson has cooked dinner.	Right now, the dinner is finished.
Past perfect continuous	Nelson has been cooking dinner.	Right now, Nelson is in the middle of making dinner The focus is on the process leading up to this point.

Future tenses

Verb Tense	Example	Explanation
Simple past	Nelson will cook dinner.	Nelson plans to cook.
Past continuous	Nelson will be cooking dinner.	At some future moment, Nelson will be in the middle of cooking dinner.
Past perfect	Nelson will have cooked dinner.	At some future moment, the dinner will be finished.
Past perfect continuous	Nelson will have been cooking dinner (for an hour).	At some future moment, Nelson will be in the middle of cooking dinner. This is used only to describe the duration before the future moment.

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