← 💬 English as a Second Language
Tenses and questions
Talking about the present, past and future, and making questions correctly.
📌 Key points
- Present simple for habits and facts: I play football every Saturday. With he/she/it add -s: She plays.
- Present continuous (am/is/are + -ing) for things happening now: Look! It is raining.
- Past simple for finished actions: I walked to school yesterday. Many verbs are irregular: go → went, see → saw, eat → ate.
- Past continuous (was/were + -ing) for an action in progress in the past: I was reading when the phone rang.
- Future: will for predictions and quick decisions (I think it will be sunny); going to for plans (I'm going to visit Gran).
- Present perfect (have/has + past participle) links the past and now: I have finished. Use ever, never, already and yet.
- Questions: use do/does (present) or did (past) + the base verb: Do you like tea? Did she go?
- Question words: who (person), where (place), when (time), why (reason), how many (number), how much (amount).
📖 Key words
- Present simple
- For habits and facts: I play, she plays.
- Present continuous
- For actions happening now: I am playing.
- Past simple
- For finished actions in the past: I played.
- Irregular verb
- A verb that does not add -ed in the past, e.g. go → went.
- Future
- Talking about later: will or going to.
- Present perfect
- have/has + past participle: I have seen.
- Question word
- Who, what, where, when, why, how.
✏️ Worked example
Complete: 'Last summer we ___ (go) to the mountains and ___ (swim) in a lake.'
- 'Last summer' is a finished time in the past, so use the past simple.
- 'go' is irregular: go → went.
- 'swim' is irregular: swim → swam.
- Answer: Last summer we went to the mountains and swam in a lake.
Look for time words: every day (present simple), now (present continuous), yesterday or last week (past simple), tomorrow (future).
Test yourself8 questions from a bank of 22. A new mix every time.
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