--- title: Tenses: past, present and future — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Tenses: past, present and future», a lesson of the language course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Tense is the form of a verb that shows when something happens: I go (present), I went (past); time words like "yesterday" and "tomorrow" --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / Tenses: past, present and future # Tenses: past, present and future Lesson 8 of the language course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/0/) — Tense is the form of a verb that shows when something happens: I go (present), I went (past); time words like "yesterday" and "tomorrow" must match the verb, so "Yesterday I go to the zoo" needs "went". - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/1/) — English has no special future ending on the verb, unlike Ukrainian or French; it uses helpers instead: "I will go", "I'm going to go", or even the present with a time word: "The train leaves at five". - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/2/) — "I've eaten breakfast" links the past to now (so I'm not hungry); "I ate breakfast at 7" just tells you about a finished time; after "have" you need the special form: gone, eaten, seen, so it is "I have gone", never "I have went". - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/3/) — "I was swimming when the lifeguard blew the whistle" mixes a long action going on (was swimming) with a short one that cut in (blew). - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/4/) — Storytellers often say "So I'm walking down the road, and this dog comes up to me..." to make a past story feel live; and in Irish English "I'm after eating my dinner" means I have just eaten, not that I'm about to. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/5/) — Tense is the form of a verb that shows time; the past tense is for things that already happened. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/6/) — The historic present tells a past story in the present tense to make it exciting; in written stories you usually choose one tense and keep it. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/8/) — Gonna is the spoken form of "going to"; "I was going to" shows a past plan that didn't happen; write "going to" in formal work. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/9/) — Ngl is texting slang for "not gonna lie", meaning honestly. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/10/) — The past participle is the verb form used after have, like gone, eaten and seen; have plus a past participle is called the present perfect. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/11/) — Use went on its own (I went) and gone after have (I have gone); "I have went" is heard in some dialects but not in standard English. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/12/) — The present perfect (I've eaten) links the past to now; the simple past (I ate) tells of a finished time; Americans often say "Did you eat yet?" where British speakers say "Have you eaten yet?" - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/13/) — In Irish English "I'm after eating" means "I have just eaten"; this pattern comes from the Irish language. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/14/) — The past continuous is was or were plus an -ing verb, for an action in progress in the past: "I was swimming". - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/15/) — Blow is irregular: blow, blew, blown. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/16/) — The future continuous is "will be" plus an -ing verb: "I will be swimming at 3 o'clock tomorrow". - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/8-tenses-past-present-future/17/) — Indian English, used by millions, has its own patterns, such as "I am knowing him for years", where British and American English say "I have known him for years". - ← previous: [Kinds of sentences: statements, questions, commands, exclamations](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/7-kinds-of-sentences/) - next →: [Irregular verbs: goed, brung and other brave mistakes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/9-irregular-verbs-goed-brung-and-brave-mistakes/) - ↑ back to [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/)