Is it easy to learn English in a few lessons, as promised by the numerous appeals of an army of teachers who consider themselves experts in the field of education? The experience of an even larger army of students cramming English lessons for beginners shows that not everything is as easy as promised. And the first stone in the study of English grammar, which all beginners without exception stumble over, immediately knocks down a touch of aplomb and ambitions of future language users.
Such strange English times
Diligent Russian-speaking students of English courses get acquainted with the examples in the tables, starting to master the rules of behavior of the English verb. What a strange phenomenon this part of speech is in English grammar! What kind of system of incomprehensible word forms that should express the action in this or that way?different time period! And why is this necessary when everything in the native language is so clear: one present, one past and one future.
How many tenses are there in English grammar?
However, in such simple English, through which half the world communicates, and another quarter wants to learn it, there are as many as twelve tense forms of the verb only in the active voice. So, the present tense in English expresses a moment of time in reality in different ways. Native speakers, without thinking about grammar, will use one form of the verb when they talk about what they do always, sometimes, often or usually, and another if it is important for them to emphasize that they are busy with something at a given time. In the first case, they will use the cell of their innate grammatical memory where verbs are collected in the form of the present simple (Present Simple), and in the second - the present continuous (Present Continuous).
For a Russian-speaking student, it is important to understand that the action in question can be instantaneous or extended in time, it can just happen or happen usually, as always, rarely or often. Each such action in English requires the use of a verb in a strictly defined form. In Russian, the nuances of relative time are defined lexically, the participants in the dialogue specify in words how and when the action takes place: now, usually, often, from some moment or during a certain period.
The present tense is “ours” and “foreign”
Those who explain English tenses for dummies know that the best way to decipher the rule is to use your native language. For example, we say “I (now) watch TV” or “I (usually) watch TV after dinner”. In both expressions, the verb “look” is used in the present tense. But it is a completely different matter if the same phrases are spoken by an Englishman. He will say: I am watching television and I watch television after dinner. The forms of the verb themselves, without additional lexical means, show that in the first case the action takes place right now, this minute, and in the second the action is repeated, ordinary, daily.
Grammar system of time
It is not easy to understand the meaning of verb diversity in expressing the temporal layers of reality in English. Only a small example of the use of different forms of the present tense already puzzles the student. But there is still the past and the future.
Such an abundance of times surprises Russian-speaking students who are just beginning to storm the vagaries of the English verb. But later they even have to do numerous exercises for English tenses to their taste, honing the skills of correct word usage in the flow of colloquial speech. Practice shows that it is easiest to master the tense forms of the verb in the system. Thus, by placing English tenses with examples in tables, it is easier to understand their grammatical layering.
Apartment building for Englishverb
This house has four floors. Each floor is a grammatical tense: Simple, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect Continuous. There are three apartments on each floor, in each of which tenants settled - word forms of the present (Present), past (Past) and future (Future) time. An example for resettlement would be the irregular verb “drink (drink)” and the correct “watch (watch)”.
| Present | Past | Future | |
| Simple |
I drink tea I drink tea (always, often…) I watch television |
I drank tea I drank tea (yesterday…) I watched television |
I will drink tea I will drink tea (tomorrow…) I will watch television |
| Continuous |
I am drinking tea I'm drinking tea (now) I am watching television |
I was drinking tea I was drinking tea (at that moment in the past when you called…) I was watching television |
I will be drinking tea I will drink tea (at some point in the future) I will be watching television |
| Perfect |
I have drunk tea I drank tea (just now, already…) I have watched television |
I had drunk tea I drank tea (already, at some point in the past) I had watchedtelevision |
I will have drunk tea I'll have my tea already (sometime in the future) I will have watched television |
| Perfect Continuous |
I have been drinking tea for 2 h. I have been watching television since 5 o'clock |
I had been drinking tea for 2 h. I had been watching television since 5 o'clock |
I will have been drinking tea for 2 h. I will have been watching television since 5 o'clock |
Presented English tenses with examples in the tables give a systematic idea of the variety of verbal word forms. Beginners to master the topic should practice with different English verbs, substituting them in the cells of the table. But in order to correctly use temporary forms in speech, written and colloquial, this is not enough. It is important to understand the situation in which the speaker is. Each verb form points exactly to a point in time, not absolute, but relative.
How to solve a grammar problem
Effective exercises are translations of phrases from your native language into English. So you can easily learn the rules of English tenses based on your native grammar. It is important to understand why this or that word form is required in a given context, as well as to see the lexical and grammatical signals that will tell you which table window to look into.
- What do you do in the evenings?
- I usually watch TV.
- What are you doing now?
- I drink tea andwatching TV.
- What were you doing yesterday when I called?
- I was watching TV when you called.
- I'll call you tomorrow at 5. What will you do?
- Tomorrow at 5 I will be watching TV.
Here is an example of a dialogue that requires the use of six forms of verb tense in translation, two of which are present, two past and two future. What are these forms? English tenses with examples in the tables will help those who wish to learn difficult rules and put them into practice.
In the Russian version there are clue words: “usually”, “in the evenings”, “now”, “tomorrow”. And also an indication of one action in relation to another: “When you called, I was watching TV”, “Tomorrow (when you call) I will watch TV.” Look at the table and solve this grammar problem.
Learn the meaning of English tenses from the lower floor of “Perfect Continuous” and phrases from dialogues in Russian will also help.
- How long have you been watching TV?
- I have been watching TV since 5 o'clock (for two hours).
- When you called (yesterday), I had been watching TV for two hours (from 5 o'clock).
- Tomorrow, by the time you come, I will have been watching TV for two hours (from 5 o'clock).
How to say in English?
In English lessons for beginners, as vocabulary accumulates, more and more complex grammar exercises are included. But already from the first classes, the concept of times is given. First, about simple ones - from the Simple and Continuous groups, laterthe use of the tenses of the Perfect and Perfect Continuous groups is practiced. It is easier to learn the language in speech situations. That's why no rule in a box is a substitute for practical training. There is material for this all around: on the street, at home, at work. Everywhere you can train the skill “How would I say it in English.”
