Verb Tenses

Tenses represent PRESENT PRESENT PERFECT

The baby cries. The baby has cried.
the time of the PAST PAST PERFECT
action, which is The baby cried. The baby had cried
earlier.
indicated by a
FUTURE FUTURE PERFECT
verb. The baby will The baby will have
cry later. cried before sleeping.

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Present Tense: present action or action that occurs
always, repeatedly, or habitually

The children are ready to leave for school.

David and Samuel take a bus every day.
Roxana eats cereal for breakfast.
Manuel rides his bike to school.
Jaime fishes with his grandfather on Saturdays.
The girls swim and dive at the community pool.

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Present
Tense Tip!

Third Person Singular Third Person Plural

(with –s) (without –s)
Edgardo runs They run
María swims They swim
The article explains The books explain
My teacher wants The supervisors want
The magazine describes The authors describe
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 Present Perfect Tense: Action completed (CM)
at the present time or continuing (CNG) into the present
Have or has + past participle (verb + -ed, -d, -t, -en, or -n

He has written a text message to his friend. (CM)

I have lived in Yauco for 10 years. (CNG)
CNG
They have been friends for five years. (____)
CM
Felix has broken the 10 K world’s record. (____)
CM
Brenda has brought a cake to the party. (____)
CNG
We have felt sick for two days. (____)

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 Exercises
Present (Pr) & Present Perfect (PrP)

Eat (Pr) 1. eats

Juan __________ a hamburger.
Eat (PrP) 2. has eaten a hamburger.
Juan __________
Catch (Pr) 3. catches the ball.
Yomi _________
Catch (PrP) 4. Yomi _________
has caught the ball.
Jump (Pr) 5. jumps over the fence.
Susan _________
Jump (PrP) 6. Susan _________
has jumped over the fence.
Write (Pr) 7. write
I ___________ every day.
Write (PrP) 8. I ___________
have written every day.

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Past Tense: A definite completed action in the past

The children left for school.

David and Samuel took a bus every day.
Roxana ate cereal for breakfast.
Manuel rode his bike to school.
Jaime fished with his grandfather on Saturdays.
The girls swam and dove at the community pool.

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Past
Tense Tip!

Singular Plural
I ran; Edgardo ran We ran; They ran
I swam, María swam We swam; They swam
The article explained The books explained
My teacher wanted The supervisors wanted
The magazine described The authors described

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 Past Perfect Tense: Action completed
before a stated or known time in the past
Had + Past Participle (verb + -ed, -d, -t, -en, or -n

He had written a text message to his friend yesterday.

I had lived in Yauco for 10 years before I moved to Lajas.
They had been friends for five years when I met them.
Felix had broken the world’s record before Pedro.
Brenda had brought a cake to the party that day.
We had felt sick for two days during our vacation.

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 Exercises
Past (Pa) & Past Perfect (PaP)

Eat (Pa) 1. ate

Juan __________ a hamburger.
Eat (PaP) 2. had eaten a hamburger.
Juan __________
Catch (Pa) 3. caught the ball.
Yomi _________
Catch (PaP) 4. Yomi _________
had caught the ball.
Jump (Pa) 5. jumped over the fence.
Susan _________
Jump (PaP) 6. Susan _________
had jumped over the fence.
Write (Pa) 7. wrote
I ___________ every day.
Write (PaP) 8. I ___________
had written every day.

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Future Tense: Action that has not yet occurred but will
take place in the future (uses “Will” or “going to”)

The children are going to leave for school.

David and Samuel will take a bus every day.
Roxana is going to eat cereal for breakfast.
Manuel will ride his bike to school.
Jaime will fish with his grandfather on Saturdays.
The girls will swim and dive at the community pool.

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 Future
Tense Tip!
I am going to run; Edgardo We are going to run; They
will run will run
I will swim, María is going to We will swim; They are
swim going to swim
The article will explain / is The articles will explain /are
going to explain going to explain
My teacher will want / is The supervisors will want
going to want /are going to want
The magazine will describe The authors will describe /
/ is going to describe are going to describe
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 Future Perfect Tense: Action that will be
complete before a known time in the future
Will have + Past Participle (verb + -ed, -d, -t, -en, or -n

He will have written a text message to his friend by noon.

I will have lived in Yauco for 10 years this September.
They will have been married for five years next week.
Felix will have broken the world’s record for 2 years.
Brenda will have brought a cake to the party tomorrow.
We will have felt sick for two days tomorrow.

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 Exercises
Future (F) & Future Perfect (FP)

Eat (F) 1. will eat a hamburger.

Juan __________
Eat (FP) 2. Juan will
__________
have eaten a hamburger.
Catch (F) 3. Yomi _________
is going to catch the ball.
Catch (FP) 4. Yomi _________
will have caught the ball.
Jump (F) 5. will jump over the fence.
Susan _________
Jump (FP) 6. Susan will
_________
have jumped over the fence.
Write (F) 7. will write every day.
I ___________
Write (FP) 8. I ___________
will have written every day.

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 Summary
1. The present tense is used for actions in the present or
actions that occurs repeatedly
2. Third person singular takes a singular verb (with –s)
3. Third person plural takes a plural verb (without –s)
4. The present perfect tense indicates an action completed
in the present or continuing into the present
5. The present perfect tense uses “have” or “has” with the
past participle of the verb (regular verb ending in -ed,
-d, -t, -en, or –n)
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 Summary
6. The past tense indicates that an action was completed
in the past
7. Add –d or –ed to regular verbs in the past tense.
8. Irregular verb tenses are tricky and must be learned.
9. The past perfect tense indicates that an action was
completed before a stated or known time in the past
10. The past perfect tense uses “had” + the past participle
of the verb (regular verb + -ed, -d, -t, -en, or –n)

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 Summary
11. The future tense indicates an action that has not yet
occurred but will take place in the future
12. The future tense uses “will” or the proper present tense
of “be” with “going to” and the verb.
13. The future perfect tense indicates an action that will be
complete before a known time in the future.
14. The future perfect tense uses “will have” + the past
participle of the verb (regular verb + -ed, -d, -t, -en, -n).
15. For irregular verbs, see the irregular verbs handout.
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