Verb Tenses: Rules, Examples & Exercises

On this page, you’ll discover helpful infographics and exercises for verb tenses. You can also find explanations and exercises that compare commonly confused tenses. Also, do you know the difference between verb tense and verb form?

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Verb Tenses Table with Links
Verb Tenses and Verb Forms
Easily confused Verb Tenses
- Exercises on other easily confused tenses

Verb Tenses Table with Links

Please note that are links to dedicated pages in the “Tense Type” column.

Tense Type	Auxiliaries	Verb Forms
Present Simple	do/does	base verb (e.g., work)
Past Simple	did	base verb + ed (e.g., worked)
Future Simple	will	will + base verb (e.g., will work)
Present Continuous	am/are/is	verb + ing (e.g., is working)
Past Continuous	was/were	verb + ing (e.g., was working)
Future Continuous	will + be	verb + ing (e.g., will be working)
Present Perfect	has/have	past participle (e.g., has worked)
Past Perfect	had	past participle (e.g., had worked)
Future Perfect	will have	past participle (e.g., will have worked)
Present Perfect Continuous	has/have + been	verb + ing (e.g., has been working)
Past Perfect Continuous	had + been	verb + ing (e.g., had been working)

Verb Tenses and Verb Forms

Many learners confuse verb tenses with verb forms, but they are not the same thing.

A verb tense tells us when an event happens. For example, an action can happen in the present, past, or future.

A verb form is the shape of the verb used to build a tense. Tenses are usually formed by combining auxiliary verbs with verb forms.

Here are some important verb forms:

Base form – the basic form of the verb (work, eat, go).
Present participle (-ing form) – used in continuous tenses (working, eating, going).
Past participle – used in perfect tenses (worked, eaten, gone).

Note: The -ing form is called a present participle in verb tenses and a gerund when it acts as a noun. We use the term infinitive when the base form of a verb is preceded by “to.”

Understanding the difference between verb tenses and verb forms helps us see how English tenses are built.

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