English times for dummies: how to remember them all?

For those who have just started learning English, times are of great difficulty. It seems that there are only three times in Russian, and why sixteen invented in English (and according to some versions twelve, twenty, and twenty-four - students are generally prone to exaggeration) is not clear. And how to remember them all is not clear. In our next series of articles we will look into the grammar of English times and consider in detail the pairs of times that cause the greatest difficulty for students for whom Russian is the native language.

So how much is English time?

Let's first understand what we have to deal with, and how many times to learn. If you ask students how much English there are, they begin to list all the forms in a row, do not forget about the passive voice and even about the mythical beast “future in the past”. But if you look at the language from the perspective of linguistics, then English will even please you. Because there are only two times in English. Let that sink in.

Yes, yes, there are only two historically, the present and the past, and this is from the point of view of morphology. If we take the verb to go, then we can change only by adding the ending - goes, and by changing the form into the form of the preterite, that is, into the past - went. And no, “going” is not a separate time. Although at the initial stages you will often say “I going to work every day” , which, unfortunately, is wrong.

There is no future time in any Germanic language. “Wait a minute, wait,” you say. “What about will go ?” Take a close look at will go . The verb “go” has undergone at least some changes in order to become a form of the future? No, did not suffer. To make the future, you had to take the modal verb will and attach it to the hapless “go” , which itself cannot turn into a future form. From the point of view of etymology, the verb will is the modern version of the willan verb, which meant “to want” (by the way, the meaning is still preserved in one formulation, but we will tell about this in the article “When you can and cannot be used after if”). Many centuries ago, the inhabitants of the British Isles expressed the future with the phrase "I want (to do something)."

By the way, in terms of the future, you can compare English with any Romanesque language, and everything will finally fall into place. In Italian, to say “I will” you simply change the form of the verb “to be” (looks like “essere” ) from the infinitive to the form of the future: “Sarò” . In French, the same thing: the form “serai” will be formed from “être”. Yes, even in Russian from “to be” it will turn out “to be.” And in English, no matter how perverted you are, the verb “to be” will not make the shape of the future, you will have to stick to something. But in this regard, English is convenient for its diversity - we are not limited by time and we can most accurately express what we are going to do. For example, there are turns to be and to be about to and many others.

Four scales of English times

Since there are only two times, which four scales are we talking about? Unfortunately, you can hardly limit yourself to two times. In Russian, you have a kind of verb - perfect and imperfect. The English view is also available, in Continuous and Perfect format. And these two species are combined in Perfect Continuous, unusual for the Russian ear, but still present in the Russian language. Simply, we prefer to point out the difference in times lexically, and in English the difference is visible grammatically.

The time scales look about the same. In each of them there are three identical points: past, present and future.

Simple: Past Simple, Present Simple, Future Simple
Continuous: Past Continuous, Present Continuous, Future Continuous
Perfect: Past Perfect, Present Perfect, Future Perfect
Perfect Continuous: Past Perfect Continuous, Present Perfect Continuous, Future Perfect Continuous

To begin, consider the grammar.

Simple scale

At the very beginning of learning English, you will have to suffer with its two main times, because they are the most difficult. All the rest are formed on the same principle, and you need to remember only the value. Times Present Simple and Past Simple have exactly the same pattern. Remember Shakespeare's Hamlet - “To be or not to be ...?” , And voila, here it is, your scheme. In both Present Simple and Past Simple, you will see a division into the verb “to be” and into all other verbs, that is, verbs of action. The verb “to be” denotes your states, emotions and professions. It is supppletive — that is, it changes completely when the face changes. For example, if you have not studied English in life, you will not understand that is is the same b e, just in the form of a third person singular. Also, the verb “to be” is able to make denials itself ( isn't, aren't, am not, not, weren't ) and even ask questions without further ado, only by putting the verb in first place in a sentence (Are you a student?). For Russian students, it is very important to give the verb “to be” a few lessons! In Russian there is a whole layer of sentences in which there is no verb "is". For example, we do not say "I am an engineer" or "Now there are three hours." And in English sentences without a verb do not happen (well, there are, but only at the C2 level, when you are fluent in styles. But at the beginner level, no, no!). Be sure to do the exercises to fix the verb, build a story about yourself, about time, about the weather, about emotions. Get used to the fact that the verb “to be” is present in many sentences.



All other verbs can not express any status, no emotion, or even professions. They are responsible for the actions. Naturally, you can say “I feel happy” , but in this sentence you will still perform an action - feel. In affirmative sentences with verbs of action, all kind of obscurantism occurs. In Present Simple it is necessary to put the ending –s for the third person singular. Past Simple will have to learn irregular verbs. But, believe me, as soon as you master these two times, it will be much easier further. The main thing is try not only to do exercises like “open brackets”, but also to write about yourself and your life. If you immediately apply the knowledge gained through a personal example, the rules will be memorized faster.

All action verbs cannot get up themselves in negative and interrogative forms, and you have to spend the precious hours of your life on mastering the auxiliary verbs do, does, and did . As you can see, in these tenses even the auxiliary verb is the same, simply in different forms. The auxiliary verb is auxiliary to save the situation: it takes on itself a negative particle not, and a form, if there is one. So, you will have “I did not see” , where the verb did not take on itself and the second form of the verb “to see” . Remember that "as in Russian" is not a ride here. It will not be possible to say “I not saw” , this is fundamentally wrong, even in the most terrible dialects they do not say that.

The last time of the Simple scale is formed very simply. The verb will is taken, and any other verb without the particle “to” is attached to it. And that's all, no endings and other indecencies. The verb will is modal, therefore it is itself auxiliary, and you don’t have to learn any more special word to make a denial. “I will see” in denial will sound like “I will not see ”.

Continuous scale

This is our imperfect view. Feel the difference between "learning" and "learning"? So it is in English, and the Continuous scale is just from the “studied” series. All three times of this scale are formed according to the same principle: we take the verb to be in the right form and attach a semantic verb to it (hereinafter V - verb) with the ending –ing . Read the previous sentence again. And one more time. And remember: No continuous scale time can be formed without the verb “to be” ! No “I studying English” !

The difference in time is only when exactly there was a time point or a period in which you did something (and the process lasted at that moment).

Present Continuous (am / are / is + Ving) indicates an action that you are doing right now. Now you are reading, “You are reading” .



Past Continuous (was / were + Ving) is used when you have done something for some time in the past or at some time in the past, for example: “I was reading a book yesterday at 7 pm” That is, at seven in the evening, the process lasted, “I read.”

Future Continuous (will be + Ving) is used exactly for the same, only your period or time point is in the future: “I will be waiting for you at 8 PM tomorrow”.

Perfect scale

And this is our perfect look. If we take the previous example, then our equivalent will be “learned”. The times of this line are very difficult for our students, because we have a view, but it is expressed in simple past tense. Well, the Russian student does not see the difference between did and have done - did and did something, what's the difference? But we will talk about the difference later, and now we will consider the grammatical scheme of these times.

All tenses of the Perfect scale are formed with the help of the verb to have in the necessary form and the semantic verb in the third form. The difference lies in when exactly this or that, let's say, effect came. When was the result or experience. For example, you want to say "I have been to Europe." There is a difference between “I was” and “I have been” in Russian too, isn't it? So in English, it can be traced. Once "visited", it means more than once and you can go again and again. Or another example from Russian, but a bit archaic. "I have not eaten today." Today is not over yet, it may be evening now, but you have not eaten. Accordingly, both examples speak of your experience at the moment, and here will be Present Perfect - have / has + V3 (“I have been to Europe”, “I haven't eaten anything today”) .



The remaining two times are rarely used in lively speech. If you really love to read, then Past Perfect you will see in the books. There, the narration most often goes in the past tense, and if some action happened before the moment described, then this is Past Perfect - had + V3 (“I had seen him before I started attending this place”) .

Future Perfect refers to the results achieved in the future: here, at a certain time in the future, you will have something done. In Russian, we usually use the preposition "to": "By two o'clock it will be ready." That is, I will have on my hands the result of something, I will already do something at that moment. Future Perfec t looks like this: will have + V3 (“I will have a report tomorrow by 3 pm”). But, again, in a lively speech you almost never hear this time.

Perfect Continuous Scale

Now we are reincarnated in Dr. Frankenstein and create a monster. Step by step.

1) We look at the name of the time. Present / Past / Future Perfect Continuous

2) See that Perfect goes first. What element do we need to create the Perfect time scale? That's right, the verb to have in the right form. So we write.
have / has, had, will have ...

3) Is this the only element needed to create the perfect time scale? No, my young Pinkertons, I still need a verb in the third form. Remember.

4) We read further - Continuous . What element do we need to create a Continuous time scale? That's right, the verb to be in the right form.

5) Reread steps 3 and 4. We need the verb to be and the verb in the third form. We combine them into one - been. And to be, and the third form! We are waiting for a thunderstorm, lower the switches and shout “It's alive!” . We fix the result. have / has, had, will have been ...

6) It remains to insert a semantic verb. What is the second element we need to create a Continuous time scale? Verb with ending –ing. Done! have / has, had, will have been + Ving

“For what ?!”, you exclaim, and you will be right. You can’t convey such horrors in Russian with any grammar. However, we very much use these times, just pass them on to the vocabulary. In all such cases, we have a starting point in the past, and the action itself continues.

Present Perfect Continuous - “I've been sitting here for half an hour” (came half an hour ago and am still sitting). Have / has been + Ving: I have been sitting here for half an hour already. This time is used quite often.

Past Perfect Continuous - “We could not drive: it was snowing all night and the roads were covered with snow” (it snowed, it went and it went, but before we tried to drive). Had been + Ving: We couldn't get through, it had been snowing all night long. You will hardly hear this time in lively speech, but you will definitely find it in fiction.

Future Perfect Continuous - “Next year I will be teaching at this university for ten years.” Will have been + Ving: Next year for 10 years. In general, this time is appropriate to use for all anniversaries and other important events, which in the future will be “as many years as”. This time is used so rarely that you probably never hear it at all.



In the next article we will talk about couples of times that are most difficult for Russian students, and also discuss in more detail how to express the future tense in English.

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