ChartClasses 4 to 10
English Tenses and Grammar Chart
The grammar school students use every day, on a few pages: all twelve tenses with their structures and examples, the parts of speech, active and passive voice, reported speech and the irregular verbs worth knowing by heart.
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01Present tenses
| Tense | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple present | subject + base verb (+ s/es) | She walks to school. |
| Present continuous | am / is / are + verb-ing | She is walking to school. |
| Present perfect | has / have + past participle | She has walked to school. |
| Present perfect continuous | has / have been + verb-ing | She has been walking for an hour. |
02Past tenses
| Tense | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple past | subject + past form | She walked to school. |
| Past continuous | was / were + verb-ing | She was walking to school. |
| Past perfect | had + past participle | She had walked to school. |
| Past perfect continuous | had been + verb-ing | She had been walking for an hour. |
03Future tenses
| Tense | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple future | will + base verb | She will walk to school. |
| Future continuous | will be + verb-ing | She will be walking to school. |
| Future perfect | will have + past participle | She will have walked to school. |
| Future perfect continuous | will have been + verb-ing | She will have been walking for an hour. |
04Parts of speech
- Noun names a person, place, thing or idea: girl, Delhi, honesty
- Pronoun stands for a noun: he, she, it, they, who
- Verb an action or state: run, think, is
- Adjective describes a noun: tall, blue, three
- Adverb describes a verb, adjective or adverb: quickly, very, often
- Preposition shows position or relation: in, on, at, under, between
- Conjunction joins words or clauses: and, but, because, although
- Interjection shows feeling: oh, wow, alas
- Articles 'a' before consonant sounds, 'an' before vowel sounds, 'the' for something specific
05Active and passive voice
- Rule the object becomes the subject; use the right form of 'be' + past participle; add 'by' + the doer if needed
- Simple present She writes a letter. → A letter is written by her.
- Simple past The cat chased the mouse. → The mouse was chased by the cat.
- Present continuous They are building a bridge. → A bridge is being built.
- Present perfect He has finished the work. → The work has been finished.
- Future We will announce the results. → The results will be announced.
- Modals You must follow the rules. → The rules must be followed.
06Direct and reported speech
- Tense steps back is → was; are → were; has → had; will → would; can → could
- Simple past usually becomes past perfect: 'I saw it' → she said that she had seen it
- Pronouns change to match the speaker: 'I am tired,' said Ravi. → Ravi said that he was tired.
- Time and place words now → then; today → that day; tomorrow → the next day; yesterday → the day before; here → there
- Questions 'Where do you live?' → She asked where I lived. (No question mark, normal word order.)
- Commands 'Close the door.' → He told me to close the door.
07Subject–verb agreement
- Singular subject, singular verb The boy plays. The boys play.
- Each, every, everyone, either, neither take a singular verb: Everyone is here.
- Two subjects joined by 'and' take a plural verb: Ram and Sita are friends.
- Either…or, neither…nor the verb agrees with the nearer subject: Neither the teacher nor the students were late.
08Irregular verbs to know
| Base | Past | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| be | was / were | been |
| begin | began | begun |
| break | broke | broken |
| bring | brought | brought |
| buy | bought | bought |
| choose | chose | chosen |
| do | did | done |
| drink | drank | drunk |
| eat | ate | eaten |
| fly | flew | flown |
| forget | forgot | forgotten |
| give | gave | given |
| go | went | gone |
| know | knew | known |
| ride | rode | ridden |
| see | saw | seen |
| sing | sang | sung |
| speak | spoke | spoken |
| swim | swam | swum |
| take | took | taken |
| teach | taught | taught |
| think | thought | thought |
| write | wrote | written |
How to use this chart
- Learn the tense table by changing one sentence through all twelve tenses.
- Read the irregular verbs aloud in threes: go, went, gone.
- When you check writing, look at the verbs first: tense and agreement cause most mistakes.
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