Page 1: Present and Past Tenses

This page covers the simple present, simple past, present perfect, past perfect, present progressive, and past progressive tenses in English.

The simple present is used for regular actions and general truths.

Example: "I go to school every day."

Highlight: Signal words for simple present include every day/year, sometimes, always, never, usually, often, on Thursday.

The simple past describes completed actions in the past.

Example: "Last week I went to Rome."

Vocabulary: Signal words for simple past include last week/Sunday, yesterday, ago, in 2020.

The present perfect expresses past actions with present relevance.

Example: "Look, I've just cleaned my bike."

Definition: It's formed using have/has + verb + -ed/3rd form (irregular verbs).

The past perfect indicates actions completed before another past event.

Example: "After I had done my homework, I went swimming."

The present progressive describes actions happening right now.

Example: "Where are you going?"

Highlight: Signal words include now, at the moment, today, this year, look!, listen!

The past progressive expresses ongoing actions in the past.

Example: "Yesterday I was working in the garden."

The page also introduces the present perfect progressive and past perfect progressive tenses, which express ongoing actions over a period of time.

Example: "I've been repairing my bike for two hours."