Magister Academy

The Five Basic English Tenses

Base Verb to drive

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Read this

column first! 1

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The Past

Tense

The

Present Perfect

The

Present Tense

The

Present Continuous

The Future

Tense

The

Infinitive

the -ing

form

We use this

Tense for events that have finished, done, ready; for example I

drove to work yesterday. I drove my

father’s car last week.

We use this

Tense for events that started in the past, are still relevant now but may

or may not change in the future. For this Tense we use has or have

plus the past participle; for example; I have driven to

work ever since I could drive. (who’s to say whether I will need to drive to

work tomorrow?)

We use this

Tense for things that we do on a regular basis, something we do every day;

for example I drive to work every day, I

drive an Audi.

We use this

Tense for things that are happening now, ‘as we speak’; for

example “I am driving to work at the

moment…can you call me later?”

We use this

Tense for things that we intend to do in the future; for

example I will drive to work tomorrow