Present tenses in English: basic contrast

Infographic by Mestre Miguel 

Present perfect and past simple

PRESENT PERFECT: FORM AND USE:

1. Present Perfect is used for actions in the past which have a connection to the present. The time when these actions happened is not relevant so there is often no time complement.
   
   
   
2. Present Perfect is used for recently completed actions. Actions that take place in a recent past. 
   
3. Present Perfect is also used for actions beginning in the past that continue up to the present.

EXERCISES

• BBC
• Present perfect man (www.isabelperez.com)
• Exercise 1 (www-englisch-hilfen.de)
• Exercise 2 (www.englisch-hilfen.de)
• English at home: grammar and exercises
• Hot Potatoes exercise
• Unit 3 final test
• Affirmative senteces in present perfect
• Negative sentences in present perfect (www.ego4u.com)
• Sentences with "never" in present perfect (www.ego4u.com)
• Questions in present perfect (www.ego4u.com)
• Exercise: affirmative, negative or question (Perfect English Grammar)
• Exercise 2 : affirmative, negative or question (Perfect English Grammar)
• Choose the right verb form (Using English)
• Choose the right verb (British Council)
• Put the sentences in order

TYPICAL ADVERBS

• ever / never / just / already / yet
• exercise from Grammar Bank
• exercise from Baladre Info

PAST SIMPLE: FORM AND USE:

• Positive sentence → Subject + verb+ ed or irregular form (I played with her.- She came with us.)
• Questions → Auxiliary verb + subject +verb (Did they read the story?)
• Negative sentence → Subject + auxiliary verb + verb ( I didn’t like it.) 

USE:

• For completed action in the past (We saw your sister yesterday.)
• For a series of completed actions (I woke up, had a shower, had breakfast and went to school.)
• For longer actions that start and stop in the past; time expressions usually go with it (My sister lived in London for years.)
• For talking about habits which stopped in the past (She studied Japanese when she was in high school.)
• For past facts or generalizations (Old people never played football.)

CONTRAST:

PAST SIMPLE & PRESENT PERFECT - CONTRAST

• past simple or present perfect (English Hilfen)
• past simple or present perfect (Study Zone)
• ESL lounge
• English Grammar Secrets
• Perfect English Grammar
• Perfect English Grammar 2
• Isabel Pérez -exercise 1
• Isabel Pérez -exercise 2

TEXTS

• Loch Ness

Present simple and present continuous

PRESENT SIMPLE AND PRESENT CONTINUOUS

Eso 3-present simple and present continuous (1) from Ana Arias Castro

PRESENT SIMPLE

form

• affirmative: subject + infinitive (+3^rd p –(e)s)
• negative: subject + don’t/doesn’t + infinitive
• question: do/does + subject + infinitive

Remember that we only add the –(e)s in the 3^rd person affirmative form and that be is an exception: am / is / are

use

• facts and permanent states.
• habits and routines
• 1^st type conditional sentences
• stative verbs that are not used in the pres. cont. (see, hear, believe, want, know, understand, think, like, love...)

Key words: how often / always / sometimes / often / never / usually / every day / once a week / twice a month... / if (in conditional sentences)

examples

• Snow melts at 0ºC.
• Harry lives in Liverpool.
• My dog plays football with us.
• Daniel washes his jacket every week.
• We don’t like football.
• She doesn’t understand baseball.
• Do you enjoy dining out?
• Does Rafael Nadal train in the morning?
• If you drink too much you’ll have to go to the toilet.

PRESENT CONTINUOUS

form

subject + am / is / are + (not) + -ing

Remember the rules for -ing

use

• actions happening at the moment of speaking
• Key words: now / at the moment

examples

• My sister is watching TV now.
• They aren’t listening to me.
•  I’m not sleeping now.
• He’s setting the washing machine.

INTERESTING LINKS:

In this unit we are revising the form and uses of two very common tenses: present simple and present continuous. These links will lead you to useful materials for you:

• Summary of tenses
• Tenses in detail
• Worksheet: unit 1
• Revision test for unit 1: Unit 1
• Isabel Pérez:
• Present simple: explanations and exercises
• Present continuous: explanations and exercises
• Englisch-hilfen:
• exercise 1
• exercise 2
• exercise 3
• Execise 4
• Exercise 5
• Exercise 6
• Exercise 7
• Exercise 8
• Exercise 9
• Exercise 10

Present simple and present continuous from Cynthia Maurizzio

present simple and present continuous from jesusmarcos42

Present simple and present continuous

PRESENT SIMPLE

GRAMMAR:

• Isabel Pérez
• Englisch Hilfen

EXERCISES

• Isabel Pérez-affirmative1
• Isabel Pérez-affirmative2-word order
• Englisch Hilfen-affirmatives1
• Englisxh Hilfen-affirmatives2
• Ego4you affirmatives
• Really Learn English-affirmatives
• Really Learn English-affirmatives2
• Really Learn English-affirmatives3
• Really Learn English-affirmatives4
• Really LEarn English-affirmatives5

READING COMPREHENSION EXERCISES

• Tim's day text & questions
• My name is Ben
• Simple present stories from The ESL Times

PRESENT CONTINUOUS

EXERCISES

• affirmative sentences (Englisch Hilfen)
• affirmative sentences2 (Englisch HIlfen)
• negatives (Englisch Hilfen)
• questions (Englisch Hilfen)
• affirmatives-negatives-questions (Englisch Hilfen)

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRESENT SIMPLE AND CONTINUOUS

Eso 3-present simple and present continuous (1) from Ana Arias Castro

EXERCISES

• exercise 1
• exercise 2

Past simple & past continuous

Past simple is often used for past events in a past time. Most stories are told using this tense and it is often used together with past continuous.

Past continuous or past progressive is one of the tenses we are going to study this year.

The following chart summarises the most important aspects you'll have to learn about both of them:

USES:

• Past simple is used to tell about past event or stories:
• We went to Ireland and there we met your sister.
• My parents spent a weekend in Coruña but they didn't go to the port.
• When did they release the film? Last Friday?
• Past continuous is often used to talk about what was happening at a specific time in the past (talking about memories...)
• We were watching the film at lunch time.
• Two past continuous tenses can be used to talk about long, simultaneous actions in the past:
• We were studying while the dogs were barking in the yard.
• Both tenses are used to talk about something that happened at one point (in the past simple) while a longer action was taking place (in the past continuous). In this use, the clause referring to the longer action, is often introduced by while or as; or, alternatively, the shorter action clauses is introduced by when:
• We weren't watching the film when my sister rang.
• They found the lost key as they were having a walk along the river.
• Myrtle broke here leg while she was exercising in the park.

EXERCISES:

past simple

• Revision of regular verbs -englisch-hilfen.de
• Revision of irregular verbs1 -englisch-hilfen.de
• Revision of irregular verbs2 -englisch-hilfen.de
• Revision of irregular verbs3 -englisch-hilfen.de
• Revision of irregular verbs4 -englisch-hilfen.de
• Past simple Boy -www.isabelperez.es 
• Questions in the past simple
• Past continuous and past simple exercise -British Council
• Complete with the right affirmative form of past tense-My English Pages
• Write affirmative sentences in past simple (Don't forget punctuation)
• Write these sentences in the negative
• Fill the gaps with past simple forms- Learn English Today
• Fill the gaps with past simple forms - To Learn English
• Present simple or past simple - To Learn English
• Sentences and questions in the past simple1-Englisch Hilfen
• Sentences and questions in the past simple2-Englisch Hilfen

past continuous

• Past continuous 1
• Past contunuous 2 - statements
• Past continuous 3 - statements
• Past continuous 4 - negative
• Past continuous 5 - questions
• Past continuous 6 questions
• Past continuous use

contrast:

• Past simple versus past continuous 1
• Past simple versus past continuous 2
• Past simple versus past continuous 3
• Past simple versus past continuous 4
• Past simple versus past continuous 5
• Past simple boy (from www.isabelperez.com)
• Lady past continuous (from www.isabelperez.com)
• Choose the right tense exercise (perfect-english-grammar.com)
• Revision exercise for unit 2 (past simple / past continuous / jobs / questions)
• Shakira's life (past simple exercise)