Sorted – The English tenses and aspects you should learn
I tend to emphasise a lexical approach to language learning. In other words, I prefer my students to learn words, collocations and create personalised sentences using newly-learned words and phrases. However, my grammar-hungry students occasionally remind me that I shouldn’t totally overlook grammar and the most important tenses. Hence, this post highlights the English tenses and aspects you should learn due to their frequency of use in everyday speech. I’ll go through what aspects are later, but in a few words, they are different versions, or reflections, of a tense. For example, when we say the “present simple”, the “simple” part is an aspect of the “present” tense.
"Uff, so many tenses’" a student exclaimed at the end of a lesson yesterday. I quickly nipped the situation in the bud by informing her that many of the tenses she learned at school are rarely used in everyday conversation. In my opinion, teachers waste their own time and the time of their students when they create fancy lesson plans which revolve around uncommonly used aspects, such as the future perfect continuous and future perfect.
HOW MANY VERB TENSES ARE THERE IN THE ENGLISH?
In my view, it's pointless to debate how many tenses there really are in English. There are how many there are. Your job is to focus on the English tenses and aspects you should learn to converse with other people. Nevertheless, for the sake of clarity, I’ll try to settle the debate on how many English tenses there are.
In this post on Lingoda, I believe that Ms Laura Jones hit the nail on the head when she wrote that there are only two main VERB English tenses - past and present.
The majority of ESL websites state that there are twelve English tenses. Some grammar-hungry maniacs claim that there are thirteen because the future may be expressed with going + infinitive.
Where does the number twelve come from? According to some misguided linguists and teachers, there are three main verb tenses: present, past and future. They divide the present, past and future verb tenses into four aspects: the simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous. Hence, three (verb tenses) multiplied by four (aspects) equals twelve “tenses”.
Back to reality. You may also be asking yourself why there are present and past verb tenses - but no future verb tense. The answer is because references to the future require a helping modal verb, such as will and might. Technically, then, will, in “I will play a few songs for you”, does not promote a separate tense in itself because it's only a reflection, or aspect, of the present tense.
SO THERE AREN'T 24 TENSES THEN?
When I saw the following table of 24 tenses, I almost fell off my chair:
- present simple
- present perfect
- present perfect continuous
- past simple
My experience and logic inform me that it's a huge waste of time to focus on the future perfect, the future continuous and the future perfect continuous. It’s mind-boggling just how many teachers get their students to study such obscure and pointless aspects of the English grammar system.
When you think about it, it’s very rare in normal conversation to have to use the future perfect: “By this time next month, I will have lived in Poland for two years.” You’re far more likely to use the present perfect continuous to emphasise how long you’ve been living in a place: "I've been living in Poland for two years."
It’s the same old nonsense with the future continuous aspect: “This time next month, I’ll be travelling around Italy.” Ok, you might say something like that when you’re really looking forward to something or are in a dreamy kind of mood. However, it's still very rare to utter something in such a way in a normal conversation.
Finally, I did wonder about adding the future simple to the equation. Native speakers use this tense all the time: “I think I’ll have another biscuit.” “Don’t worry John, I’ll take you to the airport on Saturday.” However, as this tense is often used for the unplanned future, and in conjunction with making spontaneous decisions, I went with the four tense aspects above because of their role when it comes to building and continuing conversation and talking about life experiences.
The Present Continuous
I’d like to return to the issue of the present continuous. The present continuous is certainly not one of the most common aspects that might be heard in a normal conversation. After all, while having a beer with a friend in a pub, you’re not very likely to start talking about what you’re doing at the present moment, are you? “Oh, John, I’m drinking a beer at the moment! And you?”
When it comes to the present continuous for things that are happening around the time of speaking, this time aspect may come in handy: “I’m working on a big project at the moment”. But even then, we’re more likely to use the present perfect continuous to link what’s been going on recently, with situations that are still current ("going on") in the present time.
PERSONALISE THE MOST COMMON TENSES AND ASPECTS
I’ve banged on about personalising words, phrases and grammar items a lot on this site.
When it comes to mastering aspects such as the present perfect, the answer is not to complete countless gap-fill exercises in grammar workbooks. You should focus on creating as many personalised sentences as you can which contain a target grammar structure. Such a method enables you to make an emotional connection with that grammar item.
My personalised sentences for the present perfect:
- I’ve never been to Switzerland but I’d like to go
- I’ve been to Berlin three times
- I’ve never seen the Eagles in concert. It’s one of my ambitions to see them perform live
Alternatively, you could write true stories to practise the most common English tenses and aspects. This would allow you to combine aspects such as the present perfect and past simple:
Question: Have you been to America?
Answer: Yes, I have. In 2008, I went on a six-week camping tour around the entire country. I visited cities like New Orleans, Chicago and Los Angeles and famous National Parks, such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone.
SUMMING UP - THE ENGLISH TENSES AND ASPECTS YOU SHOULD LEARN
My advice to students of English is not to panic about the English grammar system. In reality, there are not many English tenses and aspects you should learn. Throw the future perfect aspect out of the window and start writing stories detailing your life experiences using the present perfect and past simple. Write stories about your daily habits using the present simple.
All in all, focus on the essentials - and don't forget to personalise.
