Tenses

Neil Welcome to 6 Minute Grammar with me, Neil…

Catherine
And me, Catherine. Hello.

Neil
In this programme we’re looking at six different English tenses.

Catherine And our first tense is: the present simple. So, Neil, a question: Where do you live?

Neil I live in London. And the present simple I live tells us that this is a fact, or a permanent situation. London is home.

Catherine Good - and as well as facts, we use the present simple for regular activities too, with phrases like every day or on Saturdays . For example we bring you 6 Minute Grammar on Tuesdays !

Neil Indeed, and words like usually , sometimes , always , and often go with the present simple.

Catherine Here’s Harry with an example.

Harry 6 Minute Grammar usually finishes with a quiz!

Catherine
That’s true, it does. And our second tense is: the present continuous.

Neil
Yes, and one of the uses of the present continuous tense to talk about activities happening now. Here’s Harry, with an example.

Harry You ‘re listening to 6 Minute Grammar right now.

Neil That’s an activity happening now. But here’s a different example.

Harry I’m from near Bristol, but I ‘m living in London at the moment.

Catherine The present continuous I ‘m living tells us that this is a temporary situation. London isn’t Harry’s permanent home. With this use of the present continuous, look out for time expressions like at the moment, this year, these days .

Neil And a sentence like I ‘m studying Russian this month doesn’t mean I’m studying it right this minute. It means I’m doing it off and on, around this time.

Catherine So far so good. But Neil: if we use the present continuous tense for things happening now, why do we say things like I understand and that coffee smells good ? That ‘s happening now - but we used the present simple.

Neil Good question! And the answer is, some verbs don’t take a continuous form. They’re often verbs of thinking or feeling like understand or smell, or know, believe, remember, hear, sound, want, need. We keep them in the simple tense.

IDENT
6 Minute Grammar from BBC Learning English.

Catherine And we’re talking about tenses. Now for tenses three and four: that’s the past simple and the present perfect. And our examples are from a postcard that our colleague Finn sent us - and he’s on holiday in India, the lucky man. So Harry, can you read it for us please?

Harry Hello from Goa! Have you ever been here? We arrived two days ago. It ‘s been really hot since then. I ‘ve already done some sunbathing but we haven ‘t seen much yet.

Catherine Lucky Finn. So: let’s look at the tenses. The sentence we arrived two days ago is past simple.

Neil Yes: use the past simple when something clearly finished in the past. It often goes with phrases like two days ago , yesterday ,and last month .

Catherine But with the present perfect, we don’t usually say when things happened. We just want to know whether something has happened or not.

Neil So, Finn’s sentences I ‘ve already done some sunbathing and we haven ‘t seen much yet are good examples of this.

Catherine Exactly. And the words already, yet and just often go with the present perfect. Examples please Harry…

Harry Have you ever been here? It ‘s been really hot since then.

Neil With the present perfect, we’re interested in past experiences more than past times or dates. So we use ever and never . Have you ever been to Goa, Catherine?

Catherine No: I ‘ve never been to Goa Neil. I’d like to, but I never have. And if we need to talk about when things happened, we can use the words for and since with the present perfect. Finn ‘ s been in Goa for two days ; and it ‘ s been really hot since he arrived . Now for our next tense, and here ‘s Harry with more of Finn’s postcard.

Harry We ‘re going to visit the market tomorrow , and we’re coming home next Wednesday .

Neil We use going to with an infinitive verb for things you plan or expect to happen. Finn has a plan to visit the market tomorrow.

Catherine Yes, and Finn also says we ‘re coming home next Wednesday . And that’s tense six, the present continuous for future arrangements.

Neil Yes. It’s like going to but it ‘s a definite arrangement. He’s probably got his plane tickets.

Catherine Right. So that’s our six tenses. And now it’s quiz time!! Question one. Which is correct? Is it a) I ‘m needing some new shoes or b) I need some new shoes?

Neil It’s b) I need some new shoes. Question two: which is correct: a) Did you see Luke since Saturday? Or b) Have you seen Luke since Saturday?

Catherine And it’s b) Have you seen Luke since Saturday. And the last one: which is correct? Is it a) It ‘s going to rain tomorrow. Or b) It ‘s raining tomorrow.

Neil It’s a) It ‘s going to rain tomorrow.

Catherine Well done if you got those right. That brings us to the end of the programme.

Neil There’s more about this on our website at bbclearningenglish.com. Join us again for more 6 Minute Grammar.

Both Bye!