Tense – How many types of tenses are there? With examples

Through this article today, we will learn about the different types of tenses. If you are a school student or preparing for a government job exam, you will surely know the importance of tenses. Tense plays a very important role in the English language.

If you have knowledge about tenses, you can easily get a government job. Or if you go to study or work in another English-speaking country, you will easily understand the English accent of the people there.

So, if you want to know what tenses are and how many types of tenses there are, you will have to read this article carefully until the end. So, without further delay, let’s get started and learn how many types of tenses are there? We hope you’ll enjoy this article.

Must Read: Folklore

What does tense mean?

Tense is a fixed time frame that indicates the timing of an event or action. In Hindi, tense is called tense, which provides information about time. Simply put, using tense, you can find out when an event occurred, when it is occurring, or when it will occur.

How many types of tense are there?

There are three types of tense: Present Tense, Past Tense, and Future Tense. For your information, these three tenses also have four subparts, meaning there are a total of 12 types of tenses, which we’ll provide detailed information about below.

1. Present Tense

Present tense is used to describe an action that is happening in the present moment. For example, all of the following sentences are in the present tense:

1. He is a good player.
2. He likes to play cricket.
3. He lives in Delhi.

However, there are four types of present tense, which are as follows:

A) Simple Present Tense or Present Indefinite Tense

Sentences that use “I am,” “I am,” “I am,” “I am,” “I am,” “I am,” “I am,” “I am,” “I am,” etc., Subject + Verb 1st Form + Object, and “Do/Does,” are used to indicate that they are simple present tense. Such sentences express a universal truth or habit.

Some examples are:

1. I like to play cricket.
2. I go to school.
3. Do you play cricket?

B) Present Continuous Tense

If you see sentences like “has been,” “am been,” “are,” etc., using Subject + is/am/are + Verb 1st Form + ing + Object, then understand that this is the Present Continuous Tense. In such sentences, the action is taking place.

Some examples are:

1. He is writing a book.
2. Ram is playing cricket.

C) Present Perfect Tense

Speaking of the Present Perfect Tense, if sentences using “has been”, “has been”, “are having been”, “am having been”, etc. use Subject + has/have + Verb 3rd Form + Object, you should understand that it is the Present Perfect Tense. These sentences indicate that an action or event has recently occurred in the present tense.

Some examples are:

1. Ram has eaten the food.
2. Ram has finished his homework.

D) Present Perfect Continuous Tense

In such sentences, you will see the use of time with “has been”, “are having been”, and “am been”. Furthermore, they use Subject + has been/have been + Verb 1st Form + ing + Since/For + Object. Such sentences indicate the duration of the action, indicating the time since it has been performed.

Some examples are:

1. Ram has been reading the newspaper for five hours.
2. Ram has been taking a bath since morning.

2. Past Tense

Past tense is used to describe an event or action that happened in the past.

Some examples are:

1. She used to play cricket.
2. Ram lived in Delhi.
3. Ram was a good boy.

There are four types of past tense, which are as follows:

A) Simple Past Tense or Past Indefinite Tense

If you find sentences with “it was,” “it was,” “the were,” etc., using Subject + Did + Verb 2nd form + Object, then understand that the sentence is in Simple Past Tense. Just by looking at the sentence, it becomes clear that the action occurred in the past tense.

Some examples are:

1. He played cricket.
2. Ram went to school.

B) Past Continuous Tense

In such sentences, you will see “was,” “were,” etc., using Subject + was/were + Verb 1st form + ing + Object. This means that the action is occurring in the past tense.

Some examples are:

1. He was playing cricket.
2. Ram was going to school.

C) Past Perfect Tense

Sentences like “had been”, “had been”, etc. use Subject + had + Verb 3rd form + Object + Other Words. These sentences indicate that an event ended before a specified period of time.

Examples are as follows:

1. Ram had gone to school before Shyam arrived at home.
2. The train had just left when Ramesh arrived at the station.

D) Past Perfect Continuous Tense

These sentences describe actions that began in the past and are ongoing in the past. Past Perfect Continuous Tense uses “had been”, “had been” and “had been” along with a time limit. Its structure is Subject + Had been + Verb 1st form + ing + since/for + Object.

Examples are as follows:

1. Ram had been reading a book since yesterday.
2. Ram had been living in Mumbai since 2018.

3. Future Tense

Future tense is used to provide information about future events. Examples include:

1. Ram will go to Delhi tomorrow.
2. Sita will study all day tomorrow.

A) Simple Future Tense or Future Indefinite Tense

If sentences with “will be,” “will be,” etc., use Subject + shall/will + Verb 1st form + Object, you should understand that the sentence is in the Simple Future Tense. Such sentences are used to express events that will happen in the future.

Examples include:

• Ram will read a book.
• Ram will watch a movie.

B) Future Continuous Tense

In sentences with “will be,” “will have been,” “will be,” etc., use Subject + will/shall + be + Verb 1st form + ing + Object.

Some examples are:

1. Ram will be going to Delhi this weekend.
2. After two hours, Mohan will be going to sleep.

C) Future Perfect Tense

If you see words like “chuka hoga”, “chuki hogi”, “chuki hogi” in a sentence, or “Subject + will/shell + have + Verb 3rd form + Object + other words,” you should understand that it is the Future Perfect Tense. Such sentences indicate that we will have done something in the future, i.e., in the future.

Some examples are:

1. They will have reached the station before the train arrives tomorrow.
2. Ram will have finished his work.

D) Future Perfect Continuous Tense

Sentences like these use time with “will have been,” “will have been,” and “will have been.” The structure is Subject + Shall Have Been/Will Have Been + Verb 1st form + ing + since/for + Object. These sentences indicate that an action will have been ongoing since a certain time in the future.

Some examples are:

1. Ram shall have been laughing for an hour.
2. Ram will have been waiting here for three hours by six o’clock.