Verb Tenses

Every verb has four basic forms, called its principal parts: the present, the present participle, the past, and the past participle. These principal parts are used to make all of the forms and tenses of the verb.

Stunt people take risks on screen. Present Stunt people are doing dangerous things. Present Participle Polly Berson performed stunts for 27 years. Past Most stunt people have trained for many years. Past Participle

A regular verb is a verb whose past and past participle are formed by adding –ed or –d to the present. The present participle is formed by adding –ing to the present.

to look Presentlook Present Participle(h.v.) look + -ing Pastlooked Past Participle(h.v.) look + -ed

Helping Verb Tenses Presentam, is, are have, has do, does Pastwas, were, been had did

Irregular verbs are verbs whose past and past participle forms are not made by adding –ed or –d to the present. Refer to the chart to see how to form the past and past participle forms of many irregular verbs.

A tense is a verb form that shows time of an action or condition. Verbs have three simple tenses: 1. Present 2. Past 3. Future

The present tense shows that an action or condition occurs now. She is late for school. The past tense shows that an action or condition was completed in the past. She was late for school. The future tense shows that an action or condition will occur in the future. She will be late for school.

A progressive form of a tense expresses an action or condition in progress. The progressive forms of the three simple tenses are: 1. Are 2. Were 3. Will

The present perfect tense places an action or condition in a stretch of time leading up to the present. The past perfect tense places a past action or condition before another past action or condition. The future perfect tense places a future action or condition before another future action or condition.