English Tenses

The simple past tense in English, according to Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, is used to 'describe actions or events that happened at a specific time in the past and are now completed. It's often used in narratives to recount completed actions in the past.'

To make a complete sentence, certain time expressions are used with present continuous tenses. These include: today, now, right now, at the moment, these days, currently, nowadays, this week, etc.

For example:

• He is working on a project right now.
• Currently, we are working from home.
• Today, I am going for an interview.

To make a question in present continuous tense, place the helping verb is/am/are before the subject of the sentence, and then add the main verb in 'ing' form.

For example:

• Are you studying English Verbs?
• Is she dancing at the party?

Another way to make a question in present continuous tense is by using question words like What, Where, When, Who, etc., at the beginning of the sentence.

For example:

• What are you doing?
• Where are we going?
• Who is coming for the party?

To make a negative sentence in present continous, add 'not' after the helping verb is/am/are. The structure for Present Continuous Tense in Negative Form is:

Subject + is/am/are + not + verb + ing

For example:

• I am not playing football.
• He is not watching TV today.
• She is not cooking.

Negatives in present continuous tense are used when we want to deny that an action is happening right now.

Yes, we can use present continuous tense to talk about the planned or definite future events.

For example:

• We are meeting our Science teacher tomorrow.
• She is leaving for New York next week.

These two sentences shows that the plan is already made and will be fulfilled in the future. By writing or speaking a sentence about fixed future event using present continuous tense makes the plan more certain compared to using 'will' or 'shall'.

Have a look at the Past Perfect Continuous Tense examples below:

• They had been playing outside when it began to rain.
• The cats had been meowing all night.
• The mother had been preparing the meals before the guests arrived.

Passive sentences in the Simple Present Tense are the one which the subject is acted upon. In such sentences, the subject does not do the action but is being acted upon. The passive voice uses a conjugated form of the verb 'to be' along with past participle of the main verb. 

Examples:

• Returned items are inspected by the shopkeeper. 
• The stray dog is fed by everyone in the neighbourhood. 
• The book is read. 
• The meal is cooked by Rajni. 

To form questions in the Present Indefinite Tense, one can add 'do' or 'does' before the subject and the infinitive form of the verb. When asking a question using the wh-word, place the pronoun or adverb before 'do' or 'does'. 

Examples:

• Why does Mayank never answers his phone?
• Where does Nisha work?
• Do you want to go to the park?
• Does Anjali work on Saturdays?

In English, there are four types of Present Tenses. These are:

• Simple Present Tense- Subject + V1 + s/es + Object
• Present Continuous Tense - Subject + am/is/are + V1 + ing
• Present Perfect Tense- Subject + has/have + past participle
• Present Perfect Continuous Tense- Subject + has/have + been + V1 + ing