Tenses

What Tenses means

In this first subsection of grammar we're going to be talking about tenses so the first question that you may have when looking at a writing task one question is which tense should I use so let's talk about that. Basically if the year in the graph is before the present year. So right now I'm recording this video in the year 2000 18 so if I see any date on my info graphic that is before the year 2018 for example something like the year 1990 then I'm going to use the past tense. On the other hand if the year in the info graphic is after the present year for example something like 20 50 then you have to use the future tense when writing your essay.

And finally if there is no year that is mentioned then you have to use the present simple tense. In general when you write a sentence it should be in the same tense. This means that you should not change the tense of the sentence midway through the sentence. However there are some exceptions to this.

How to use it

There are certain rules for when to change the tense of a sentence. Midway usually you only change the tense of a sentence if the timing of an action requires it. If the timing of a certain action that is happening in a sentence requires that you change the tense then you should change the tense. Otherwise you should write the entire sentence in the same tense so let's explore this concept in a bit more detail.

First we'll talk about when not to change the tense in general. You should not change the tense of a sentence if there is no time change for the action. So let's look at an example of that. So here we have an incorrect sentence.

The sentence reads during the lecture Jane stood up and drops her phone. What I want you to notice here is that the word stood is in past tense whereas the word drops is in present tense. Because in the sentence we don't have any time change for the action. You see the action of Jane standing up and dropping her phone happened at the same time.

So because these actions happened at the same time we have to use the same tense so the correct version of the sentence would read during the lecture. Jane stood up and dropped her phone. Both actions are happening at the same time. Therefore we use the same tense.

In this case both verbs are in past tense. On the other hand you could also write during the lecture Jane stands up and drops her phone. This is also correct because both verbs are happening in the same tense. In this case they're both in present tense.

Now let's talk about when to actually change the tense. Firstly you should only change the tense when there is a need to do so. So when is there a need to change the tense. Usually it's the timing of the actions within a sentence that decide whether we need to change the tense or not so let's look at an example of that.

PDF reference notes

Tenses Grammatical Range & Accuracy: Writing Task 1 mastership.co Learn from the world’s best IELTS course. -- 1 of 4 -- Present Tenses Description Timeline Example Subject, Verb, Object Simple Shows repetition, habit or generalization I eat rice everyday. S + V1 + O Continuous Shows that an ongoing action is happening now I am eating rice right now. S+ ‘am/is/are’ + (V+ing) + O Perfect Shows that an action has happened once or many times before now I have eaten all of the rice.

S + ‘have/has’ + V3 + O Perfect Continuous Shows that an action started in the past and has continued until now I have been eating rice for 2 hours. S + ‘have/has been’ + (V+ing) + O Now F P X X X X X X X X X Now F P Now F P X Now F P X -- 2 of 4 -- Past Tenses Description Timeline Example Subject, Verb, Object Simple Shows that a completed action took place at a specific time in the past I ate rice yesterday. S + V2 + O Continuous Shows that an action was ongoing in past (sometimes this action may be interrupted) I was eating rice when you arrived. S + ‘was/were’ + (V+ing) + O Perfect Shows that something happened before another action in the past I had eaten all of the rice when you arrived.

S + ’had’ + V3 + O Perfect Continuous Shows that something started in the past and continued up until another action in past I had been eating rice for 2 hours when you arrived. S + ‘had been’ + (V+ing) + O Now F P X Now F P Now F P Now F P X X X X X -- 3 of 4 -- Future Tenses Description Timeline Example Subject, Verb, Object Simple Shows that an action will happen in the future I will eat rice tomorrow. S + ‘will’ + V + O Continuous Show that an action will continue in the future (this action may be interrupted) I will be eating rice when you arrive. S + ‘will be’ + (V+ing) + O Perfect Shows that something will happen before another action in the future I will have eaten the pizza by the time you arrive.

S + ‘will have’ + V3 + O Perfect Continuous Shows that something will continue up until a particular event or time in the future I will have been eating pizza for 2 hours when you arrive. S + ‘will have been’ + (V+ing) +O Now F P X Now F P Now F P Now F P X X X X X -- 4 of 4 --

Practice focus

Here we have a correct version of a sentence the sentences when Jane comes here we will go to the movies. Notice that we have two different tenses in this sentence. Here we have a present simple tense. And here we have a future simple tense.

Because the timing of the actions is different. You see we have two different actions here. So here is our first action. This action hasn't yet happened.

It will happen in the future when Jane comes here. We will go to the movies. This is the second action. I want you to notice that the second action will happen after the first action.

So since we have two different actions happening at different timings we need to change the tense midway through the sentence let's look at another example. Sam reached for the Apple after he had already eaten two oranges so I want you to notice that we have two different verbs here in two different tenses. The first one is reached which is in past simple tense and or second tense. Here is the past perfect tense.