![]() “I will buy you the biggest cake in the store for your birthday.” “Will” is usually used to show that you have voluntarily chosen to carry out an action, or to express a promise. While both are used to talk about something that will happen in the future, they each have a different meaning. There are two different ways of expressing this tense: using “will” or “be going to”. ![]() Unlike the past and present simple tenses, the simple future is a little more complicated! “We had been walking for over 2 hours before we finally found help.” Simple future To use it, you use “had been” followed by the present participle of the verb. The important thing to remember is that the activity being described must have already stopped, before the present moment. It doesn’t matter how long the duration was for – whether it was for a few minutes or several years, you would still use this tense. Like the present continuous, this tense is used to describe something that started in the past and continued happening for some period of time. “He had never studied art before he came to college.” Past perfect continuous You put it together by using “had” followed by the past participle of the verb. This is another way of talking about the past – but unlike the past simple tense, this is used to describe something that happened before another action, which also took place in the past. “The car broke down after they crossed the bridge.” Using the past perfect tense It’s used when something took place in the past and stopped at a clear point. If you’re talking about something that happened in the past, then this is the tense you’re most likely to use. “They’re flying in tomorrow evening.” Using the past simple tense You can also use the present continuous to talk about an activity you have planned in the near future. Instead of using the present simple tense, you use the present form of “to be”, followed by the verb, with the suffix “–ing” at the end. The present continuous tense is used when you’re talking about something that is happening in the present moment – but will also be continuing afterwards. “The train takes a detour every Thursday.” Using the present continuous tense You can also use the present simple tense to describe something that takes place regularly. It’s used when you’re talking about something that is happening right in the moment that you are describing the action – not before, or after. The present simple tense is the one you’ll use the most often. So to help you learn to choose the correct one for each situation, read on for some simple pointers on each tense. ![]() When there are lots of different tenses to learn, it can seem a little mind-boggling to decide which one you need to use – and when! ![]()
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