Tenses chart

Learning tenses can be quite confusing but remember that basic sentence structures don’t change with change in the tense. Here is a chart that shows the structure for each tense in English.

The sentence pattern used in this chart is: subject + verb + object

Affirmative

Tense Subject Verb Object
Simple present Jane likes chocolates.
Present continuous Alice is writing a story.
Present perfect Peter has broken his leg.
Present perfect continuous James has been playing the piano.
Simple past Jane wrote a letter.
Past continuous They were singing a song.
Past perfect She had made a mistake.
Past perfect continuous She had been knitting a sweater.
Simple future I will make a cake.
Future continuous She will be singing a song.
Future perfect She will have finished the job.

Negative

Tense Subject Verb Object
Simple present Jane does not like chocolates.
Present continuous Alice is not writing a story.
Present perfect Peter has not broken his leg.
Present perfect continuous James has not been playing the piano
Simple past Jane did not wrote a letter.
Past continuous They were not singing a song.
Past perfect She had not made a mistake.
Past perfect continuous She had not been knitting a sweater.
Simple future I will not make a cake.
Future continuous She will not be singing a song.
Future perfect She will not have finished the job.