Grammar — Continuous and perfect tenses: Continuous tenses
- We use the Present Continuous to talk about:
- actions in progress at the time of speaking: Ali is having a shower right now.
- temporary situations in progress now: I’m playing a lot of football.
- changes and developments: We’re becoming tired of the boy’s lies.
- We also use the Present Continuous with always or continually when something unexpected happens very often. This sometimes, but not always, indicates annoyance: She’s always disturbing me when I’m on the phone.
- We use the Past Continuous to talk about:
- actions or activities in progress at a specific time in the past: This time last year I was painting my bedroom.
- longer actions interrupted by a shorter past action: She was doing an online personality quiz when her boss walked into the room.
- We use the Future Continuous:
- to predict something in progress at a point in the future: Six months from now we’ll be studying in different cities.
- to talk about something that is expected to happen: You’ll all be coming back here in one year’s time.
- to ask politely about someone’s plans: Will you be coming to the meeting after the show?
Grammar — Continuous and perfect tenses: Perfect tenses
- We use the Present Perfect Simple to talk about:
- completed past actions that happened at an unspecified time: I’ve visited many European cities in my life.
- recent actions with a present relevance/result: We’ve recently discovered a fabulous new restaurant. Let’s go there tomorrow.
- states or actions that began in the past and continue up to now: She’s been a translator for a few years.
- recent actions where we focus on the result, not the activity: Adnan’s published a book about horses.
- We use the Past Perfect Simple to describe:
- actions or states that happened before a specific past time: It was strange because she’d bought lots of apples the night before and when she entered the kitchen there was only one.
- a clear sequence of events. We use the Past Perfect for the earlier action: As soon as I’d heard the news, I went round to their house.
- We use the Future Perfect Simple to talk about an action that will be completed before a particular time in the future: Next time I see you, you will have completely changed your eating habits!
- We use the Present Perfect Continuous to focus on the continuity of:
- actions that began in the past and continue to the present: They’ve been running for more than an hour.
- recent actions where we focus on the activity, not the result: I’ve been sending off job applications.
- We use the Past Perfect Continuous to talk about continuous actions or situations which happened before a specific time in the past: I had been keeping quiet about my running, and then I won the race.
- We use the Future Perfect Continuous to talk about something continuing up to a certain point in the future: By the end of this month we’ll have been writing this book for two years.
Grammar — Continuous and perfect tenses: Mind the trap!
- Will can be used like must to make deductions.
- A: Why isn’t she back yet?
- B: Don’t worry. She’ll have been working late.
- She’ll have got stuck in traffic.
- She’ll be sitting in a traffic jam.