Level: intermediate
There are two tenses in English: past and present.
The present tense is used to talk about the present and to talk about the future.
There are four present tense forms:
| Present simple | I work |
|---|---|
| Present continuous | I am working |
| Present perfect | I have worked |
| Present perfect continuous | I have been working |
We can use all these forms:
- to talk about the present:
London is the capital of Britain.
He works at McDonald’s.
He is working at McDonald's.
He has worked there for three months now.
He has been working there for three months now.
- to talk about the future:
The next train leaves this evening at 17.00.
I'll phone you when I get home.
He is meeting Peter in town this afternoon.
I'll come home as soon as I have finished work.
You will be tired out after you have been working all night.
- Present tense 1
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- Present tense 2
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Level: advanced
We can use present forms to talk about the past:
- when we are telling a story:
Well, it's a lovely day and I'm just walking down the street when I see this funny guy walking towards me. Obviously he's been drinking, because he's moving from side to side …
- when we are summarising something we have read, heard or seen:
I love Ian Rankin's novels. He writes about this detective called Rebus. Rebus lives in Edinburgh and he's a brilliant detective, but he's always getting into trouble. In one book, he gets suspended and they tell him to stop working on this case. But he takes no notice …
- Present tense 3
- MultipleChoice_MTYyMzY=
- Present tense 4
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Hello uchiha itache,
It's difficult to be entirely sure without knowing the context in which the sentence is used, but the present continuous for repeated actions often suggests some kind of irritation (if we are talking about another person) or frustration (if we are talking about ourselves). For example:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello uchiha itache,
The sentence We're always meeting in the supermarket describes something which happens frequently, not a future event, and so I don't think whether it is planned or not is relevant here. The sentence suggests that the speaker does not feel happy about constantly meeting in the supermarket for some reason, but that is all we can say from it.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello raj.kumar123,
These do not look like natural sentences in English to me. You could say Thanks for acceding to our request for a meeting, for example. It is a very formal way to say this, however, and agreeing to would be much more likely.
In general, the perfect form emphasises recent completion with a concrete result. It is possible to say, for example, Thanks for having done this. However, even in this case I would say that Thanks for doing this is a far more common choice
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello dipakrgandhi,
I think there are two possibilities here: The temperature continues... or Temperatures continue...
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello dipakrgandhi,
We often omit certain words in headlines but the 'to' part of the infinitive here would not be omitted, I think, and the sentence looks odd to me even as a headline. I would say that 'to sell' is really required here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Jenkin,
This sentence is about the classic film On the Waterfront, which starred Marlon Brando. Since this sentence is summarising the plot of the film, it uses the present tense.
If you didn't know that about the film, it was difficult to get the right answer here. The person who wrote this exercise thought that people would recognise Marlon Brando's name, I suppose, but not everyone is familiar with him.
Please let us know if you have any other questions.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ibe Ben,
It all depends on how you define the word 'tense'. When someone says English has only two tenses, they use a narrow definition of the word 'tense'. Most English teachers and students use a wider definition of the word, and in this sense, yes, usually we say there are 12.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ali boroki,
The present continuous is often used to speak about arranged future plans. This means that 'he' has already spoken with Peter and they have a plan to meet at two. There is a more detailed explanation of this on our talking about the future page.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SahilK,
The other forms are not incorrect, though sound a little odd since 'for travel' is a common form in the context of advertisements. Note that 'travel' is used as both a verb and noun.
I didn't see any mistakes in your sentence, but please be aware that we do not provide this kind of service.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SahilK,
1) As far as I know, there is no good reason for this -- I'm afraid it's just the way these words are used. There are many, many patterns like this in English, and you just have to learn them.
2) You could also use the form you wrote, though it's true that the first one is probably more common.
3) Yes, they are -- good work!
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SahilK,
The correct form here is 'are' and not 'is'. I can't comment on the video you watched, of course, but people often make little mistakes when speaking, even in their own native language.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Felix,
In this context there is no difference. The present perfect emphasises that the earlier action is complete before the second action. Sometimes there is a potential difference in meaning. For example:
The first sentence could mean that I want to avoid Paul and will leave as soon as I spot him, or it could mean that I want to talk to Paul and will only leave once we have spoken. The second sentence means that I will leave after meeting Paul - I want to see (meet) him before I leave.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SahilK,
The first sentence is correct. We use 'so did' (or 'so does', 'so will' etc) to avoid repeating the verb in both halves:
I learnt all the concepts and so did my friend is much more elegant than I learnt all the concepts and my friend learnt all the concepts.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team