Times in English language- the main component of any training course. I know from my own experience how difficult they can be for some people. But you can’t go anywhere without them.

Eat great amount literature on this topic, but this routine only confuses.

If you want to start learning English in order to know English or simply, for example, be able to compose questions or translate texts, then this article will be your assistant.

With the help of this article you will understand the difference in times, it will help you stop being confused about times, but the rules, forms of education - all this is easily accessible for independent study. After reading, you can also go deeper into studying this topic based on the principle.

So let's get started.

There are 4 tenses in English:
Simple.
Long lasting.
Completed.
Durable-complete.

Each time is divided into:
The present
Past
Future
It’s simple, tenses are divided according to the same system in the Russian language. Now I will briefly describe each of the times and its distinctive properties and how to easily and quickly distinguish it from others.

1) Simple

This is the easiest time. The easiest.

Meaning- statement of fact. Denotes a regular, usual, natural action. Facts, truths. This time does NOT have a specific point in time.

In general, if you just say it, it shows a normal action, someone did something, someone knows something, etc. or just a fact. The same is the action that, for example, a person does every morning, or every day, or what a person did yesterday.
If the sentence contains the words - everyday, usually, never, at first, then, after, in the morning, in the evening, tomorrow, next week, next month, often, soon - then most likely this is a simple tense. You can distinguish by the presence in a sentence of auxiliary verbs in negative and interrogative sentences: do, does, did, didn"t, don"t, will, shall, will not, shall not. Remember - regularity, fact, ordinary action.

The present- the person is doing this now, or he is doing this every day (talking every day, or reading a book, writing a letter, etc.).
Past- an action that happened or happened in the past. Well, or a fact from the past (wrote a letter yesterday, worked every day, worked from 90 to 95, went shopping in the evening).
Future- an action or series of actions that will happen in the future, predictions, forecasts (I will work tomorrow, I will write a letter, I will study foreign language every day, I will do an essay soon).

2) Long-term

Process is the main meaning of time. Shows that an action is being done, has been done or will be done certain time. I did, but didn't do it. If the sentence contains the words - now, at the moment, at, when, while, at 20 o"clock, tomorrow - then most likely this is exactly what long time. They can be distinguished by the ing ending of the verbs. Auxiliary verbs - was, were, was not, were not, am, will be, shall be. Remember - it shows that time was spent on the action.

The present- an action that a person does right now, he actually does it and wastes his time, and this is exactly what is shown in the sentence (Working now, writing a letter at the moment, going home now).
Past- an action that occurred at some specific moment in the past, or that was done at the moment when another action occurred. (I was writing a letter at 7 pm; he was writing a letter when I entered the room; he had been sleeping for 4 hours).
Future- an action that will take place at a certain moment in the future (I will write a letter at 7 pm, I will dig the earth tomorrow from 7 to 9 am).

3)Completed

The result is the main meaning of time. Shows that action completed, is there a result! If a sentence contains the words - twice, lately, recently, several times, yet, already, never, just, ever - then this is most likely a completed tense. You can distinguish them by the auxiliary verbs - had, has, have, shall have, will have.

Remember - there is a result here, the action here has completed or will end, and this is either way.

The present- an action that took place in the past, but has the most direct connection with the present. Example: he has already written a letter. Let me explain: he did this in the past, but the result applies specifically to the present. Example: I just lost my key. Let me explain: what he lost was in the past, but he is talking about it now.
Past- an action that completed before a certain point in time in the past (I wrote a letter by 7 o’clock).
Future- an action that will be completed by some specific moment in the future (I will write a letter by 7 o’clock).

4) Completed - long

Here I will advise self-study. This tense is not used in colloquial speech, and it is better to come to the study of this tense after studying the above written tenses. Don't worry about it, work out the previous tenses!

So, to summarize:

Simple tense is a statement of fact.
It's a long process.
Completed is the result.
Practice makes perfect. Do simple tasks, guided by this article, and soon you will be able to easily distinguish one time from another. Improve yourself! Good luck!

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There are 4 tenses in English:

Simple.
Long lasting.
Completed.
Durable-complete.
Each time is divided into:

The present
Past
Future
It’s simple, tenses are divided according to the same system in the Russian language. Now I will briefly describe each of the times and its distinctive properties and how to easily and quickly distinguish it from others.

1) Simple.

This is the easiest time. The easiest.

Meaning - Statement of fact. Denotes a regular, usual, natural action. Facts, truths. This time does NOT have a specific point in time.

In general, if you just say it, it shows a normal action, someone did something, someone knows something, etc. or just a fact. The same is the action that, for example, a person does every morning, or every day, or what a person did yesterday.
If the sentence contains the words - everyday, usually, never, at first, then, after, in the morning, in the evening, tomorrow, next week, next month, often, soon - then most likely this is a simple tense. You can distinguish by the presence in a sentence of auxiliary verbs in negative and interrogative sentences: do, does, did, didn"t, don"t, will, shall, will not, shall not. Remember - regularity, fact, ordinary action.

Present - the person is doing it now, or he is doing it every day (talking every day, or reading a book, writing a letter, etc.)
past - an action that happened or happened in the past. Well, or a fact from the past (wrote a letter yesterday, worked every day, worked from 90 to 95, went shopping in the evening)
future - an action or a series of actions that will happen in the future, predictions, forecasts (I will work tomorrow, I will write a letter, I will study foreign language every day, I will do an essay soon)
2) Long-term.

Process is the main meaning of time. Indicates that an action is being done, has been done, or will be done for a certain time. I did, but didn't do it. If the sentence contains the words - now, at the moment, at, when, while, at 20 o"clock, tomorrow - then most likely it is a long time. You can distinguish it by the ing ending of the verbs. Auxiliary verbs - was, were , was not, were not, am, will be, shall be. Remember - shows that time was spent on the action.

The present is an action that a person does right now, he really does it and wastes his time, and this is what is shown in the sentence (Working now, writing a letter at the moment, going home now)
past - an action that occurred at some specific moment in the past, or that was done at the moment when another action occurred. (I was writing a letter at 7 pm; he was writing a letter when I entered the room, he had been sleeping for 4 hours)
future - an action that will take place at a certain moment in the future (I will write a letter at 7 pm, I will dig the earth tomorrow from 7 to 9 am)
3) Completed.

The result is the main meaning of time. Shows that the action has been completed, there is a result! If a sentence contains the words - twice, lately, recently, several times, yet, already, never, just, ever - then this is most likely a completed tense. You can distinguish them by the auxiliary verbs - had, has, have, shall have, will have.

Remember - there is a result here, the action here has completed or will be completed, and this is either way.

The present is an action that took place in the past, but has the most direct connection with the present. Example: he has already written a letter. Let me explain: he did this in the past, but the result applies specifically to the present. Example: I just lost my key. Let me explain: what he lost was in the past, but he is talking about it now.
past - an action that completed before a certain point in time in the past (I wrote a letter by 7 o'clock).
future - an action that will be completed by some specific moment in the future (I will write a letter by 7 o’clock).
4) completed - long-lasting.

Here I recommend independent study. This tense is not used in colloquial speech, and it is better to come to the study of this tense after studying the above written tenses. Don't worry about it, work out the previous tenses!

So, to summarize:

Simple tense is a statement of fact.
It's a long process.
Completed is the result.

It is known that learning English causes difficulties for many people. a complex system verb tenses. In English grammar, there are 26 types of verb tenses in both voices (active and passive). Many people can’t even remember them, let alone use them correctly. How do you remember all these English times?

To begin with, I made a table that showed all the times.

It should be taken into account that in English there are four groups of tenses:

indefinite

long (Continuous)

perfect

Perfect-Continuous.

In each of these tense groups there are four tenses:

present

past

future

future in the past (Future-in-the-past).

In addition, in English there are five forms of the verb:

infinitive (indefinite form, which is given in dictionaries)

verb in the third person and singular (always ends in -s or -es)

simple past tense (regular verbs have the ending -ed or -d, and irregular ones must be looked at in a special table of irregular verbs)

past participle (regular verbs again have the ending -ed or -d, and irregular verbs must also be looked at in a special table of irregular verbs)

present participle (always ends in -ing).

All this seems terribly complicated, although it is not. In Russian we say: I’m walking, he’s walking, we’re walking, you’re walking, you’re walking, they’re walking, it’s walking. Here are seven forms of the verb "to go" in the present tense. And there is also the future and the past. And each has its own endings and prefixes. English has few endings. This is compensated by the presence of complex and varied prepositions and a large number of tense forms of the verb.

To prevent the table from being cumbersome, the following conventions are used here:

V – infinitive.

V-es is a verb in the third person, singular, present tense.

V-ed is the simple past tense. This is a verb ending in –ed or –d. For irregular verbs, this is the second column of the table of irregular verbs.

V3 – past participle. Regular verbs typically end in –ed or –d. For irregular verbs, this is the third column of the table of irregular verbs.

V-ing is the present participle.

To illustrate the translation of each verb form, an English sentence with that form and its translation are given. The form of the verb and its translation are underlined in the sentences.

Comments are provided where required.

Please note that the forms English verb in the passive voice (Passive) there are six less than in the active voice (Active).

Print the table and carry it with you. But it’s even better to rewrite the table by hand. This way she will be better remembered. At every opportunity, just look through it. Try to grasp in detail how the translations of different tense forms differ.

It's even better if you try to make your sentences with different verbs for each tense. This is not always easy, but very rewarding work.

After about a week, you will realize that you have learned the table of English tenses by heart. Check this by restoring it on paper from memory. Now it will be much easier for you to translate from English, since you will immediately notice these forms in the texts and they will not confuse you. All other words can be looked up in dictionaries, and knowledge of tense forms will allow you to connect these words without losing the meaning and idea of ​​the author.

All! Congratulations on mastering a large part of English grammar!!!

Understand, repeat or learn tenses in English? You're kidding! It's almost like Chinese writing! Actually, no, and we know several secrets on how to easily and quickly learn and remember English tenses (there is also a table).

It is the times that become the main brake that prevents you from easily and simply mastering this most beautiful and popular language in the world. Sit back, sit back, because now we will tell you how to quickly and easily learn and remember verb tenses in English.

Method 1: how to quickly learn verb tenses in English

English tenses are easy to remember if you have a specific goal. For example, go to the UK in the summer...

Students are confused from the very beginning, believing that there are 100,500 tenses in English. In fact, everything here is the same as in our native Russian language - 3 tenses: present (Present), past (Past) and future (Future). This is how it will be easier to learn English tenses.

Then, as soon as you have mastered these basics, you will need to add other knowledge to the existing foundation.

Now is the time to find out that all verbs denoting actions in English can be divided into continuing and non-continuous (i.e. continuous and non-continuous). How to distinguish them: if an action occurs, has occurred or will occur over a certain period of time, then it is continuous (long or long-lasting). For example, Kolya was sleeping, Lena was doing her homework, Artem was reading a book.

Pay attention to words adjacent to verbs

Some additional words actively help remember tenses in English

Often you can find hints in a sentence

Now we determine whether it is important for understanding the meaning by what point in time this action will be completed. Thanks to this, we will understand whether we should use the perfect tense or not (Perfect or non-Perfect).

Now is the time to bring together all the signs of action we have identified. This way we get a complete definition of the available time. For example, Past continuous Perfect.

On a note!

The Perfect Continuous tenses are practically never used in real life. However, to pass the test and understand literary language Still, it won't hurt to study them. For example: In April I’ll have been working on the book for 10 months. In Russian it will sound something like this: In April it will be 10 months since I started working on the book. How to quickly learn English tenses: another interesting table

On a note!

When studying tenses, you will need to learn the forms of auxiliary verbs and verbal words that serve in the formation of a particular tense. And be sure to learn the table with irregular verbs!

And if you need to quickly learn a table in English, you can use this shorter version

And if you still don’t have enough time to prepare for a test or test in English, don’t hesitate to contact our authors! Having worked with this “beast” for so many decades, they certainly know how to help you! You can find out by filling out an application in the Correspondence Office.

And here is a video about how to quickly and easily learn time in English:

Anyone who has studied English as a foreign language, and even more so those who have chosen the profession of teaching English at school, lyceum, gymnasium or university, knows that the greatest difficulty for speakers of Russian is the “tens” of the English verb. Indeed, if anyone who speaks Russian as a native language knows that there are three tenses, then what bewilderment should be caused by English grammars, which state that in this language there are not three or five tenses, but twelve. However, the presence of twelve tenses recorded in grammars as a fact very rarely raises a puzzled question in anyone: what other tenses are there in the English language, besides the present, past and future? Try to answer it! Does not work? Don't waste your time. Because, besides the three mentioned, there are no other times and cannot be. In no language in the world (and there are several thousand of them) the number of verb tenses expressed in special grammatical forms does not exceed the “magic” number “three”. There may be less than three. There are languages ​​with only two forms of tenses (for example, “past” “non-past”), there are languages ​​without verb tenses at all, but there are no languages ​​where there are more than three of these tenses.

The name of any of the twelve English tenses begins with one of three words: Present, Past, Future. There are four kinds of present, four kinds of past and four kinds of future, which are known as Simple, Progressive, Perfect and Perfect Progressive. In Russian there is a similar picture, only there are fewer forms: one present (I am going), two past (I went/came) and two future (I will go/I will come). Strictly speaking, if we agree that there are 12 tenses in the English language, then we should talk about at least five tenses in Russian (in fact, there are even more). But for some reason we don't do this. Why? Yes, because we understand perfectly well that both went and came - forms of the past tense. Just as an English speaker understands that I work, I am working, I have worked and I have been working are all present tense forms.

The difficulties that English language learners encounter in mastering the grammatical forms of the verb (not only with the grammatical category of tenses, but also the passive voice) are caused by the fact that in the educational literature there is no clear theoretical understanding of the meanings and functions of verb forms, which would allow a simple explanation , what is their purpose. In other words, you need to understand well why such categories as tense, aspect, voice are needed in a language in order to clearly and simply explain the principles of functioning of the corresponding forms. This understanding provides a cognitive approach to language as a system for representing knowledge.

In accordance with this approach, any grammatical category serves to express and preserve certain knowledge in a language. Compared to the lexicon, grammar is a more abstract system, therefore the knowledge presented in it is universal in the sense that it is important for the normal functioning of society: it does not matter what language members of society communicate with each other. This means that grammatical categories that have different languages different expressions, they differ little from each other in content. That is why translation from one language (for example, Russian) to another (for example, English) is possible.

Why are the categories of time and aspect needed? Using the category of time, a person divides the entire world around him into three spheres of experience: 1) experience directly included in the sphere of perceived and conscious reality, or the present (present from the Latin praesens - mo, which is before the senses); 2) experience, preserved as a memory of what has passed by our senses, or the past (past); 3) experience, which is predicted on the basis of existing knowledge, or the future (future). It is very important to understand here that, unlike the English language, in Russian there is no one-to-one correspondence between these concepts and the so-called forms of the verb. Consider the following situation as an example.

Dad went on a business trip some time ago. Vova is studying homework in her room, mom is preparing dinner in the kitchen. The doorbell rings. The boy opens the door and, upon seeing his father, joyfully announces: “Mom, dad has arrived!”

In any school (and not only school) grammar it will be indicated that he arrived (in in this case) - the perfect past tense form denotes an action that took place in the past and was completed at the time of speech. This is a traditional approach to which all speakers of Russian are accustomed (especially since this is knowledge that none of us ever uses in practice: after all, we all learned our native language, including grammar, in infancy, when we still had no idea neither about time, nor about aspect, nor about other subtleties of grammatical science). But when studying English as a foreign language, this approach no longer suits us, since it does not allow us to correlate what we know about our native language with what we find in a foreign language. The cognitive approach focuses on answering the question: “What exactly does the boy tell his mother?” In this case, his exclamation is interpreted as follows: “I see dad. Since some point in the past, I have not seen him, that is, he was not at home, since he went on a business trip. Now dad is here again, which means he has arrived ( logical inference based on the boy's background knowledge)." In other words, the meaning of the boy’s exclamation is: “Daddy is home again (I see him again).” But this is the present time. And in the English language, where the correspondence between tense concepts and tense forms of the verb is much more consistent than in Russian, the present tense form will, of course, be used. Another question is, which of the four possible: Simple, Progressive, Perfect or Perfect Progressive? And here a correct (i.e. cognitive) understanding of the species category comes to the rescue.

Using the category of type, a person differentiates knowledge by its source: we know about something because we saw (heard, felt, etc.) it ourselves, and we know about something because this knowledge was transmitted to us in ready-made (someone said, read about it, learned at school, etc. - the possibilities here are very diverse). This distinction is very important, and we take it into account on a subconscious level all the time in our daily activities. We are all well aware of the proverb “It is better to see once than to hear a hundred times.” Its meaning is that what is seen with one’s own eyes, as a rule, is not questioned, while knowledge received from someone else’s hands is not always necessarily reliable. In this regard, look what happens if in the above situation the boy uses an imperfect one instead of the perfect form of the verb: “Mom, dad came!” Although formally this statement is grammatically correct, it cannot be used in our situation because that is not how they say it. But they don’t say that because the arrived form does not contain any indication that at the moment of the statement the boy sees his father, whereas the arrived form contains such an indication.

The difference between the Russian language and English is that in Russian this kind of semantic differences are very often conveyed not by special verb forms, but by context. Compare the following examples: Ivan smokes, despite doctors’ warnings; Look, Ivan is smoking again, despite the doctors’ warnings. In the first case, we are talking about what we know about Ivan, and it is not at all necessary that Ivan be before our eyes; he may even be in another city, even in another country. In the second case, we are talking about what we directly observe: this is directly indicated by the verb look. In English, everything is much simpler, because there these semantic differences are conveyed by special (specific) forms of the verb: Simple and Progressive, respectively. Note that the term view comes from the verb to see (which is etymologically related to the Latin videre - to see and the Greek eidos - that which is visible).

But so far we have talked about two types of knowledge, to which two types correspond: one knowledge has a definite source of information (for example, the boy in the example given), and the other has an indefinite source (for example, saying Ivan smokes, I do not make it clear how I know about this ). There are four forms of the English verb. Why so much?

Yes, because situations when we talk about what we directly observe can differ significantly, depending on what exactly we see (hear, etc.). When I say: Look, Ivan is smoking again, I have the opportunity to observe the smoking process itself (he holds a cigarette in his hand, brings it to his mouth, inhales the smoke and then releases it - an action, generally speaking, meaningless and harmful). But if mom, meeting Ivan, smells tobacco smoke emanating from his clothes and asks: Have you been smoking again?, she asks a question based on what she perceives at the moment of speech (in this case, through the olfactory organs), and this, of course, present time. But she does not observe the actual action of smoking; only certain signs are available to her perception, indicating that Ivan smoked. To express this cognitive meaning, the English language has its own special form of the verb - Perfect. This form is used when we compare what we see with what happened before (for example, in the morning Ivan didn’t smell, but now he smells like tobacco, which means he smoked). Finally, there may be cases when we talk about a directly observed action and at the same time compare what we see with what we saw at some moment (or at some moments) before. For example, I see that Ivan is smoking now, but I also saw him smoking before, throughout the day. In this case, two forms are combined that express different cognitive meanings, and we get the Perfect Progressive form, which is very disliked by many students, although in fact it is not simple, but very simple.

Given (naturally, in very in brief) explanations of the cognitive content of English verb forms can be summarized in the form of a very simple algorithm that allows you to select almost accurately correct form verb.

Algorithm for choosing an aspectual verb form:

• Decide for yourself what time it is that you are going to say (Present, Past, Future).
• Decide for yourself what you are going to talk about: what you see (saw, will see), or what you know (knew, will know).
  • If you are talking about what you see, ask yourself: “What exactly am I seeing?”
    • I see the action itself → Use the form Progressive
    • I see signs (traces) of action → Use the form Perfect
    • I see the action itself and compare what I see now with what I saw before -> Use the form Perfect Progressive
  • If about what you know (no matter where) → use the form Simple

This algorithm is like component methods for teaching grammatical forms of English verbs are described in textbook"English verb. New grammar for everyone" (Kravchenko A.V. (ed.), Irkutsk, 1999).

Moreover, a cognitive approach to English tenses makes it possible to clearly see that there are no so-called exceptions regarding the use of verbs various groups does not exist in one grammatical form or another. So, any verb (for example, see, know, remember, like, etc.) can be used in the Progressive form, you just need to know when this can and should be done, and when it cannot. The simple principle that determines the choice of passive or active voice in speech becomes clear; especially since this principle is exactly the same as in the Russian language.

In short, it turns out that there is nothing complex and incomprehensible in the system of grammatical forms of the English verb. As practice shows, a thinking person (no matter whether he is a schoolboy, student or adult) learns the meaning and functions of English tenses within short term. The rest is a matter of technique, training students in using the forms themselves and automating the selection algorithm.

A. V. Kravchenko, Irkutsk