Learn 12 English Verb Tenses in Just 17 minutes | Get Grammar Fluency

That story I just shared with you contains all  the 12 tenses of English, but you actually saw  

8 of them because we just cut it there at the  ending just because you were going to see the  

future tenses stick around till the end. To see those tenses in use as well. So let  

me ask you, wouldn't it be great if you finally  mastered all those verb tenses so that you were  

able to feel like you didn't even have to think  about them when communicating complex ideas? 

As you probably know too well, grammar  is one of the things learners tend  

to get the most frustrated about. A lot of people even hate grammar.  

They think it's made up of such strict rules  and structures that it tends to leave them  

feeling like they aren't really speaking  English, but solving some kind of math equation. 

If you think that way I'm here to  tell you that you're absolutely right,  

it can feel like a math problem in the beginning  but with the right strategy you can break through  

that initial resistance so that later that  past perfect, simple past, perfect continuous,  

even the future perfect continuous becomes  simply automatic and part of your fluency. 

Just like Kerimli, from Azerbaijan,  who says that thanks to our channel  

his English has developed so much that his  level has progressed more than his peers. 

So don't forget to hit that Subscribe  button and the Bell down below to start  

developing your English with all of our lessons. Also if you watch until the end I have a special  

gift for you, so make sure you stay tuned. With that said, let's jump into the lesson. 

I already mentioned that there are 12 different  verb tenses in English, you might already be  

familiar with some of them, so that's great! But think of each verb tense as having two levels: 

One is Structure, it's the knowledge of which  auxiliaries we need to use how verbs change  

their conjugation and how we modify sentences to  make them positive, negative and interrogative. 

The other thing is Case Use,  when do we use the present simple  

or the present continuous. "Do I need to say  this in the present perfect or the present  

perfect continuous?" and those types of things. In my opinion understanding the subtleties of the  

different uses of each verb tense takes  more time to master than understanding  

the structure of each different tense. However this is what tends to create a  

lot of confusion and many times scares learners,  so let's welcome our very own Tour of the Tenses.

The reason why a chart like this  one can be very useful is because  

it allows you to visualize all the tenses. We're going to fill out the different boxes now.  

After that we'll take a second look at the story  of Lucas that I shared with you at the beginning  

of the lesson, we'll start with the simple  tenses and for the sake of simplicity we'll  

use the same verb and object: drive my car. Simple past, I drove my car yesterday. 

I think you already know this but here we just  change the verb adding an -ed or using the correct  

word if it's an irregular verb. I used the time word yesterday,  

you can use these other ones as well. Sometimes you don't need to say it  

if the time of the action is understood. Negative: I didn't drive my car yesterday. 

Interrogative: did I drive my car yesterday? Now to the simple present:  

I drive my car every day. If I say he or she the verb changes  

to drives, these are some of the different adverbs  of frequency that you can optionally use as well. 

What are the auxiliaries to make a  negative or interrogative sentence?

Now, simple future: I will drive my car tomorrow. Here's a fun fact: technically speaking English  

doesn't have a future tense, however for the  sake of not overcomplicating things, we simply  

refer to the use of will as you see here. As the future simple you might also say I'm  

going to drive my car. For the adverb of time  

you might say any of these words. If you want to take full advantage  

of this lesson you can pause this video  now and take note of all of these words. 

As for the auxiliaries you actually don't  need any when you use will. Just add not:  

I will not or won't drive my car tomorrow. Will I drive my car tomorrow?

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Well now with the RealLife App it's a dream  come true! You can download the app for FREE  

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Let's now move on to the next aspect of the  tenses. As a technical side note here, aspect  

is when we say simple, continuous or perfect. Tense is past, present and future. 

Let's take a look at the  continuous aspect in each tense. 

In the past continuous I was driving my car  

yesterday. When we say something is in  the continuous aspect we need to be. 

For the past tense we use either was or were.  Can you guess how to form the negative and  

interrogative form of this sentence? Comment the answer down below. 

In the present continuous I'm driving my car now. Instead of now we might say right now or at  

the moment. There aren't really many  options for the present continuous. 

Instead of am we use are or is. For the  other pronouns like you, she, he, they, etc. 

In the future continuous I will be driving  my car when you arrive. This tense indicates  

that something will occur in the future and  continue for an expected length of time. 

The difference with the simple version I will  drive my car is that you emphasize that the  

action will occur over an extended time frame. For the future continuous you need the base  

form of to be. That's not the am  is our forms the base form be. 

We're now at the midway point  of this Tour of the Tenses.  

We've already seen the simple and continuous  aspect, now it gets a bit more difficult. 

Let's take a look at the perfect aspect past  perfect: I had driven my car when you arrived. 

With this tense we always use the auxiliary have,  

furthermore this tense always needs to  be associated with another past action  

in the simple past. This way the past perfect  

indicates that it's an action that happened  before the action in the simple past. 

Let's take a look at this phrase in  the past simple: when I went to Italy. 

If you say "I had already learned  Italian when I went to Italy"  

you're communicating that the action of  learning happened before you traveled to Italy. 

Present perfect: I have driven my car. Here  the verb goes in its past participle form:  

Drive is the present form of this verb, drove the  past form and driven is the past participle form. 

This sentence could also be:  I have already driven my car.  

There are a lot of different words that  you can use with the present perfect. 

Now to the future perfect: I will have  driven my car by the time you arrive. 

We need the auxiliary 'have' for this  tense. We almost always use the phrase  

by the time when we use the future perfect. With this tense we indicate that an action will be  

finished by the time another action takes place. And finally we're now combining two aspects:  

perfect and continuous. So the past perfect continuous:  

I had been driving my car for two hours when  you arrived. Like with the past perfect you  

use this tense to talk about an action that  took place before another action in the past. 

The reason why we say it with a continuous form  is to put emphasis on the duration of the action. 

Example: I had been waiting for you  for one hour when you showed up. 

Now the present perfect continuous: I  have been driving my car for two hours. 

The present perfect continuous is  a lot more common than the past  

and future present continuous. We use it  again to emphasize the duration of an action. 

And finally the future perfect continuous:  

I will have been driving my car for  two hours by the time you arrive. 

We use two auxiliaries: have and been. They  never change, again like in the future perfect  

with the future perfect continuous we need  to use the phrase 'by the time' and then  

'you' + a sentence in the present simple. I will have been traveling six hours  

by the time I land in New York. So here land is in the present. 

If you find it difficult to remember new words  you've learned check out this lesson I made about  

how to develop advanced fluency. You can click  up here or the link down below to watch it next. 

Let's now go back to the story of Lucas. I'm  going to tell it again and I'll highlight some  

sentences on screen. You have to think about  where it should go in the Tour of the Tenses.

Here we're just highlighting the key words  from the sentence. In the sentence in the  

present perfect continuous we specify the  duration of the action "he's been studying  

English for four years." You can also say it with  'since': He's been studying English since 2017. 

Let's continue with the story.

Can you also spot the other  sentences in the present simple here?

Let's continue on with the story.

So we've reached the end of today's lesson.  I hope you found it useful and now for your  

special gift we've created a downloadable  PDF with the Tour of the Tenses for you! 

The link is in the description down below. Before you go what have you learned in this  

lesson. You learned that there are  12 tenses in English. We didn't get  

in too deep about the use of these tenses but  we've shown you the form or structure of them. 

I recommend that you don't stop here and  continue exploring the tenses. Believe me,  

that when you master them your grammar  fluency is going to go through the roof. 

Lastly, if you're interested  in learning Lucas's whole story  

let us know down in the comments.  We might create a lesson on the  

short story we have written about him and  his adventure with the English language.