by Phil Williams | Jun 10, 2021 | Grammar
I had a question recently asking about how to use the present perfect without durational adverbs, such as “for” or “since”. There are some examples of this in The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide, but I thought it would be useful to expand on the concept....
by Phil Williams | Nov 19, 2015 | Grammar
I was recently contacted with a question about my Mixed Tenses Exercise, which demonstrates that different tenses can fit into the same sentence structure. The question came from the past simple use in the first example, I played tennis every Tuesday this month. In a...
by Phil Williams | Dec 18, 2014 | Grammar
The past simple and the present perfect can both be used to show actions or events that were completed in the past. In many cases, they can demonstrate the same event – so how do we choose which tense to use? This article explains, very briefly, the fundamental...
by Phil Williams | Dec 3, 2013 | Definitions, Grammar
There are 12 basic tenses in the English language. These are the most common grammatical forms for expressing time in English. It can help to view the different time expressions on one timeline, so I have created a diagram to compare all the English tenses, below....
by Phil Williams | Apr 22, 2013 | Grammar
One of the things that makes English a rich language is the variety and flexibility of the tenses. This is covered in huge detail in my book, The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide, but this post will give you a quick introduction! The future tense is possibly the...