English

How many tenses are there?

How many tenses are there?

Eight Tenses

Present Tense

Denotes an action that happens now.

Past Tense

Denotes an action that took place earlier.

Verb +s / verb- s

Simple Present Tense

am/is/are + verb + ing

Present Continuous Tense

has/have + verb in past participle form

Present Perfect Tense

has/have + been + verb + ing

Present Perfect Continuous Tense

Simple Past Tense

verb in past

was/were + verb + ing

Past Continuous Tense

had + verb in past participle form

Past Perfect Tense

had + been + verb + ing

Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Active Voice

Used to say what the subject does.

Passive Voice

Used to say what happened to the subject.

Direct Speech

Word-to-word repetition of what the speaker or writer has conveyed.

Indirect Speech

Report on what someone else said without using their exact words.

Reported Speech

The part of the narration sentence in inverted commas.

Reporting Verb

The part outside the inverted commas.

First Conditional

Used to talk about a situation that is likely to happen.

Second Conditional

Used to talk about a situation that is unlikely to happen or is imaginary.

Third Conditional

Refers to an unreal condition in the past.

Idiom

A group of words with a meaning that is different from the meanings of the individual words.

To get under one's skin

To annoy or irritate someone intensely.

Have a thick skin

To not be sensitive to insults.

Walk on air

To be very happy.

Have one's nose in the air

To be very proud of oneself or aloof.

A nip in the air

The air is cold.

Look up to someone

To admire and respect someone.

Put up with

To tolerate something or someone.

Let someone down

To fail or disappoint someone.

Turn down

To reject or refuse to consider an offer.

Draw up

To prepare a plan, agreement, or other document in detail.

Collocation

A sequence of words that regularly occur together.

Elusive

Difficult to find or catch.

Uncanny

Strange or mysterious.

Contemplating

Meditating, thinking deeply.

Dart

To move or run somewhere suddenly or rapidly.

Prance

To walk or move in a lively and proud way.

Loiter

To stand or wait around without any aim or purpose.

Amble

To walk or move at a slow, relaxed pace.

Resplendent

Very rich and grand.

Ransom

The money paid to free someone.

Creep

To move slowly and carefully in order to avoid being heard or noticed.

Offended

Upset or angry.

Viable

Capable of working successfully.

Resuscitate

To bring someone or something back to life.

Staggered

Stood unsteadily.

Venerable

Deserving great respect.