English Tenses - forms

Here is a paradigm of the verb “play” which I made to illustrate forms of different tenses in English. “Play” is a very regular verb, so all forms it takes look like rules of a tense formation. I hope  this will help you to defeat the monster called English tenses. There is also a useful link which will lead you to a printable version of my tense table. Wishing you lot of luck with the tensesJ

PLAY

                                                       Simple  (do)                                               

Present            I/you/we/they play                                

                         he/she/it plays                                        

                         I/you/we/they don’t play                      

                         he/she/it doesn’t play                             

                         Do I/you/we/they play?                      

                         Does he/she/it play                                

Past                  I/you/he/she/it/we/they played                

                         I/you/he/she/it/we/they didn’t play           

                         Did I/you/he/she/it/we/they play?            

Future              I/you/he/she/it/we/they will play             

                         I/you/he/she/it/we/they won’t play           

                         Will I/you/he/she/it/we/they play?             

Continuous  (be + verb-ing)

Present            I am playing

                         you/we/they are playing

                         he/she/it is playing

                         I’m not playing

                         you/we/they aren’t playing

                         he/she/it isn’t playing

                        Am I playing?

                        Are you/we/they playing?

                        Is he/she/it playing?

Past                 I/he/she/it was playing 

                        you/we/they were playing

                        I/he/she/it wasn’t playing

                        you/we/they weren’t playing

                        Was I/he/she/it playing?

                        Were you/we/they playing?   

Future             I/you/he/she/it/we/they will be playing

                        I/you/he/she/it/we/they won’t be playing

                        Will I/you/he/she/it/we/they be playing?      

Perfect  (have + Past Participle)

Present               I/you/we/they have played

                            he/she/it has played

                            I/you/we/they haven’t played

                            he/she/it hasn’t played

                            Have I/you/we/they played?

                            Has he/she/it played?

Past                   I/you/he/she/it/we/they had played

                          I/you/he/she/it/we/they hadn’t played

                          Had I/you/he/she/it/we/they played?

Future              I/you/he/she/it/we/they will have played

                         I/you/he/she/it/we/they  won’t have played

                         Will I/you/he/she/it/we/they have played?

Perfect continuous  (have+ been+verb -ing)

Present             I/you/we/they have been playing

                        he/she/it has been playing

                        I/you/we/they haven’t been playing

he/she/it hasn’t been playing

Have I/you/we/they been playing?

Has he/she/it been playing?

Past                 I/you/he/she/it/we/they had been playing

I/you/he/she/it/we/they hadn’t been playing

Had I/you/he/she/it/we/they been playing?

Future              I/you/he/she/it/we/they will have been playing

I/you/he/she/it/we/they won’t have been playing

                       Will I/you/he/she/it/we/they have been playing?

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