The Complete Guide to English Tenses with Infographics

The tenses (different grammar for time) in English can be a little difficult to understand. Here is a complete guide to all 12 major verb tenses in the English language, and conditional sentences. Each verb tense has Infographics and examples to help you understand how the verbs are changed in that tense, and which time each tense is for. There are also examples of the different ways that tense can be used.

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When Do I Use the Past Continuous Tense?

1. When one action in the past happened in the middle of a longer action in the past.

Kate was working when you called.
Bruno wasn’t (was not) living in New Mexico when he met his wife.
Were you playing with the kids when the postman arrived?

2. When something unusual happened often in the past. This usually comes with an adverb such as “always”, “constantly” or “forever”.

That dog was always barking, but the family have moved now.
I was constantly locking myself out of the house when I was younger.
She was forever forgetting her appointments, so we stopped having her as a client.