ICSE Class 9 Grammar Revision Notes for Tenses

• The present continuous tense is used to express actions which are currently in progress.
• Progressive helping verbs (is, am, are) are used along with the ‘-ing’ form of the verb.
  
  

• The present perfect tense is used to express an action which may have happened at a specific time before now.
• Perfect helping verbs (has, have) are used with the past participle form of the verb.
  
  
• The present perfect tense is never used when the time or date of the action is mentioned.

       Examples of sentences in the present perfect tense:

Present perfect tense on a timeline:

Present Perfect Continuous Tense

• The present perfect continuous tense is used to express an action which may have happened in the past and has continued up to this very moment.
• It is formed out of the addition of perfect helping verbs (has, have) to the participle form of progressive helping verbs (been) and finally to the ‘-ing’ form of the main verb.
  
  

• The words ‘for’ and ‘since’ are used with the present perfect continuous tense to indicate the duration of the action.
• Use ‘for’ to talk about the duration of the action.

• The Principal has been lecturing us for one hour.
• It has been pouring for four hours.

• Use ‘since’ to indicate when the action began.

• Ram Singh has been working in this company since 1980.
• Both the men have been toiling in the field since morning.

1. Simple
2. Continuous
3. Perfect
4. Perfect continuous

• The simple past tense is used to express an action which was completed at one point of time in the past.
  
  

• The past perfect continuous tense is used to express an action which may have started at a particular point of time in the past and may have ended at another point of time in the past.
• It is formed out of the addition of the perfect helping verb had to the participle form of the progressive helping verb been and finally to the ‘-ing’ form of the main verb.
  
   
  
  

1. Simple
2. Continuous
3. Perfect
4. Perfect continuous

• The simple future tense is formed by adding the modal auxiliaries ‘will’, ‘would’, ‘may’, ‘shall’ and ‘might’ to the simple present tense of the main verb.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Future Perfect Tense

• The future continuous tense is formed by adding the modal auxiliaries ‘will’ or ‘would’ and the perfect helping verb ‘have’ to the participle form of the main verb.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Future Perfect Continuous Tense

• The future perfect continuous tense is formed by the addition of the modal auxiliaries will or would; perfect helping verb have; the past participle form of progressive helping verbs (been); and the present participle (-ing) form of the main verb.
  
  

Examples of sentences in the future perfect continuous tense:

 

 

Future perfect continuous tense on a timeline: