(Most past participles have the same form as the simple past tense, but there are important irregular forms. Perfect tenses in English use forms of ‘have’ and a past Participle form (ending in -ing.) See all the tenses of the Verb to Be here. They useįorms of ‘be’ as a helping verb, while the main verb is in the present We also have four conditional tenses in English for what would be (or would have been) true under certain conditions (if.)Ĭontinuous tenses show that something is ongoing. The present perfect tense is actually more about the past than the present. There are also combinations like the present perfect continuous tense. Each of these basic tenses has a simple form, a continuous (or progressive) form, and a perfect form.
