How to distinguish English times

Many people are frightened by the system of English times. In native Russian, it would seem, everything is simple - three tenses: present, past and future, and in English there are twelve of them. However, the devil is not so terrible as he is painted, and learning to distinguish times in English is not so difficult.

Instruction manual

one

So, in contrast to the system of times of the Russian language, where the action occurs in the time interval (present, past and future), the English verb denotes not only when the action occurs, but also how. Therefore, four temporary groups are distinguished for a trait: simple, long, completed (or perfect) and long-completed. Their names speak for themselves.

2

Simple times (Simple Tenses) mean that the action is ordinary, occurring with a certain regularity (always, often, rarely, usually twice a week and so on). It is also used to state the fact (I live in Moscow.).

3

Long periods (Progressive / Continuous Tenses) mean that the action lasts, lasted or will last at a certain point in time (now or at this moment), a certain period of time (from and to some time), as well as during another action in past or future.

4

Compare the two sentences. "I usually eat a cheese sandwich for breakfast" and "We eat great pizza now." In the first case, the action takes place regularly (the adverb “usually” indicates this), therefore, in the English sentence you need to use the present simple time (I usually eat a cheese sandwich for breakfast), while in the second sentence the action is happening at the moment, therefore, you must eat Present Progressive / Continuous (We are eating a wonderful pizza now.)

5

Perfect Tenses means that the action has already completed or will be completed, and the result of this action is obvious. The verb in the present completed tense will be translated into the past verb into Russian. For an example, compare two sentences. "I always came on time" and "I just came." In the first sentence, the usual action in the past. Therefore, when translating, you need to use the past simple time (I always came in time). In the second sentence, the action is completed, there is a result (I'm here), so use the Present Perfect. In English, this sentence will sound like this: I have just come.

6

And finally, the last group of times - Perfect Progressive / Continuous Tenses means that the action lasted for a certain time in the past or will continue in the future, but it was completed or completed and the result will be there. That is, the use of this time implies a rather close causal relationship between the action itself and its effect.

7

Learning to use each of these times is possible only in practice. Perform as many exercises as possible, do tests, bring the skill to automatism, and then you can easily distinguish English times.

• Detailed and easy-to-understand description of the English language system
• Temporary exercises