Tenses grammar with explanations

This is more than a paragraph or two answer on Reddit. There are whole books about tenses. That said, you are likely to have the best results if you can find information that matches up your native language with English. The questions a native Spanish speaker would have might be totally different than the questions a native Mandarin speaker would have. I am dealing with this in the opposite direction right now (native English speaker learning another language). The language I am learning handles verbs in general a bit differently than English, and I've definitely had to find information that matches up what I would say in English to how it is said in my target language in order to understand.

Using a *very* strict definition of tenses, English only has two tenses: present tense and past tense. Anything else typically requires more than one verb. (Most people refer to those multiple verb combinations as tenses, though.) * Present tense: I walk. * Past tense: I walked. * Future tense: I **will** walk. * Infinitive: I want **to** walk. The British Broadcasting Company has a guide to English tenses at [https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/tenses\_with\_georgie](https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/tenses_with_georgie)

English has two real tenses: past and non-past. What are often called “tenses” are actually known as *aspects* (and sometimes *moods*). The difference is that a tense tells you *when* an action took place, an aspect tells you *how* an action relates to the flow of time, and a mood tells you the speaker’s *attitude* towards an action. English has four aspects: simple, continuous/progressive, perfect, perfect continuous/progressive. Each of these can be used in both tenses, as well as with modal (mood) verbs/constructions (such as “will”, “might”, “be going to” and “could”). What exactly each means depends on the mood or tense. This is a very complicated subject, and a comprehensive overview of it could take pages and pages. Briefly: Past: 1. Simple: an action that is over and done with 2. Progressive: an action that was in progress at a specific point of time in the past (often used for actions that were interrupted) 3. Perfect: an action that happens before another in the past (used to sequence actions) 4. Perfect progressive: an action that started before and continued to (or through) another point in the past Present: 1. Simple: regular actions, states, simple facts 2. Progressive: actions that are ongoing at the moment of speech 3. Perfect: past actions with present relevance, life experience 4. Perfect progressive: actions that began in the past and continue up to (or through) the present moment (emphasizes duration) Will-future: 1. Simple: promises, spontaneous decisions, threats, certain predictions, commands, simple facts 2. Progressive: an action that will be in progress at a specific point in the future 3. Perfect: an action that happens before another point in the future (used to sequence actions) 4. Perfect progressive: an action that will begin at an earlier point and continue to (or through) another point in the future (emphasizes duration) This is by no means comprehensive. Some of these have additional and more nuanced uses, but this is a good starting point. In addition, it must be noted that other modal verbs can and do employ these aspects, but that is its own can of worms because the meanings of them also change. This unfortunately isn’t a simple topic and genuinely requires exposure to fully understand. I recommend watching movies or TV shows in English to get a sense of how the aspects, tenses, and moods, are used in addition to grammar explanations for the best possible results. Practicing with natives is also a very good idea.