Verbs are words that express actions, states, or occurrences. They are a fundamental part of speech in English and help to convey what the subject of a sentence is doing or experiencing. For example, in the sentences "She runs every morning" and "He is happy," "runs" and "is" are verbs that indicate actions and states, respectively.
Tenses are grammatical categories that indicate the time at which the action or state of the verb occurs. Tenses can show whether an action is happening in the present, occurred in the past, or will happen in the future. The primary tenses in English are:
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Present Tense: Describes actions happening now or regularly.
- Simple Present: She walks.
- Present Continuous: She is walking.
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Past Tense: Describes actions that were completed in the past.
- Simple Past: She walked.
- Past Continuous: She was walking.
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Future Tense: Describes actions that will happen in the future.
- Simple Future: She will walk.
- Future Continuous: She will be walking.
Each of these tenses can further be modified to indicate aspects, such as perfect (completed actions) and perfect continuous (ongoing actions that have a connection to the past), which expands how we express time and duration. Here are examples of perfect and perfect continuous forms:
- Present Perfect: She has walked.
- Present Perfect Continuous: She has been walking.
- Past Perfect: She had walked.
- Past Perfect Continuous: She had been walking.
- Future Perfect: She will have walked.
- Future Perfect Continuous: She will have been walking.
Understanding verbs and tenses is crucial for constructing clear and coherent sentences that convey the correct meaning regarding time and action.