12 Grammar Checkups | Practice Questions for English Tenses | PRESENT PAST FUTURE

Let's start with the first checkup.

In this checkup, I want you to focus on the ‘be’ verbs.

Remember ‘be’ verbs, in the present simple tense, can be ‘is’, ‘am’, or ‘are’.

Take a look at the first sentence.

It says, ‘She _ blank _ at school.’

The subject of this sentence is ‘she’.

What ‘be’ verb do we use for ‘she’?

The correct answer is ‘is’.

Now if you were thinking of the negative, the

correct answer would be ‘she isn't’

or ‘she is not’.

That's correct as well.

And if we want to use a contraction for ‘she is’, we can say ‘she's at school’

For the next one, it says, ‘They _ blank _ twenty years old.’

The subject of this sentence is ‘they’.

What ‘be’ verb do we use for ‘they’?

The correct answer is ‘are’.

For the negative, you can also use ‘aren't’ or ‘are not’.

Also if you want to use the contraction for ‘they are’, you can say,

‘They're 20 years old.’

The next sentence says, ‘His father _ blank_ busy.’

The subject of this sentence is ‘his father’.

What subject pronoun do we use for ‘his father’?

The correct answer is ‘he’.

Remember for ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, the ‘be’ verb is ‘is’.

For the negative, we can say ‘isn't’ or ‘is not’.

And for a contraction, for ‘father’ and ‘is’, we can say, ‘His father's busy.’

Now I want you to try to find the mistakes in this sentence.

‘We isn't good friends.’

Did you find the mistake?

This is the mistake.

The subject is ‘we’ and the ‘be’ verb is ‘are’.

Therefore, the correct answer is ‘we are not’,

or the contraction, ‘we aren't good friends.’

The next sentence.

Can you find the mistake?

‘Are John a teacher?’

Think about the subject of this sentence.

The subject is ‘John’.

And ‘John’, the subject pronoun is ‘he’.

Therefore, we don't use ‘are’, we use ‘is’.

‘Is John a teacher?’

‘Is John a teacher?’

And finally, ‘It am a puppy.’

hmm This one is a big mistake.

The subject here is ‘it’.

What ‘be’ verb do we use for ‘it’?

The correct answer is ‘is’.

So we don't say, ‘It am a puppy,’ we say, ‘It is a puppy.’

Great job guys.

Let's move on to the next checkup.

For the next checkup, I want you to think of some other verbs in the present simple

tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

‘He __ blank __ …’, I want you to think of the verb, ‘like his dinner’.

What do we do to the verb when the subject is ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’?

Remember we add an ‘s’.

‘He likes his dinner.’

For the negative, you can also say, ‘He doesn't like his dinner.’

The next sentence says, ‘My students __ blank __…’, I want you to think of ‘need’,

‘…books’.

What is the subject pronoun for ‘my students’?

The correct answer is ‘they’.

If the subject is ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘we’, or ‘they’, in the present simple tense,

we don't change the verb, we keep it as is.

So the correct answer is, ‘My students need books.’

Now for the negative, you can say, ‘My students don't need books.’

The next sentence says, ‘I __ blank __…’, think of the verb,

‘…live in London.’

What do we do here?

Again the subject is ‘I’, therefore we don't change the verb.

The correct answer is, ‘I live in London.’

What's the negative?

‘I don't live in London.’

For the next part, I would like for you to try to find the mistake in the sentence.

‘He doesn't likes math.’

What's the error here?

Well this is a negative.

‘He doesn't…’, that's correct.

However, we do not add an ‘s’ when we have ‘doesn't’ in front of ‘it’.

‘Do he eat candy?’

Here we have a question.

The subject of the sentence is ‘he’.

For ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, when we're making a sentence in the present simple tense,

we use ‘does’ not ‘do’.

So the correct answer is, ‘Does he eat candy?’

And finally, ‘Sam is play computer games.’

There are two present simple verbs here and we can't have that,

so the correct way to fix this sentence is to get rid of the ‘is’.

So take that out and say, ‘Sam plays computer games.’

Add an ‘s’ because the subject is ‘Sam’ which is a ‘he’.

Great job!

Let's move on to the next practice.

For this next practice, we're taking a look at routines.

Remember the present simple tense can be used to describe events that happen regularly.

Let's take a look at the first sentence,

‘We _ blank _ the bus every day.’

And I want you to use the verb ‘take’.

Here we see the clue word ‘every day’ which shows that this is a routine.

The subject of the sentence is ‘we’.

In the present simple tense,

remember if the subject is ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘we’, or ‘they’,

we do not change the verb.

Therefore the correct answer is, ‘We take the bus every day.’

In the second sentence it says, ‘He _ blank _ to school every morning.’

Again a routine.

The subject here is ‘he’.

What do we do if the subject is ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’?

We add ‘s’ or ‘es’ to the verb.

In this example, the verb is ‘go’, so we have to add ‘es’.

‘He goes to school every morning.’

In the next sentence, it says, ‘Lizzy not play (in parenthesis) tennis.’

Here I want you to think about the negative form.

Lizzy is a ‘she’.

The subject pronoun is ‘she’ so what do we do for the negative?

We say ‘does not’ or the contraction ‘doesn't play tennis’.

We do not add an ‘s’ or ‘es’ to the end of the verb.

Instead we say ‘doesn't’ or ‘does not’.

Now I want you to find a mistake in the next sentence.

‘They watches TV at night.’

Can you figure out what's wrong with the sentence?

The subject is ‘they’.

Therefore, remember, we do not change the verb.

We say ‘watch’.

‘They watch TV at night’.

In the next sentence, or question, it says, ‘Does he plays soccer every week?’

The subject of the sentence is ‘he’.

To make a sentence, putting ‘does’ at the beginning is okay,

However, we don't put an ‘s’ at the end of ‘play’.

Therefore, the correct answer is to simply say,

‘Does he play soccer every week?’

And finally, ‘He always forget his book.’

In this case, the subject is ‘he’.

Remember, again, for he/she/it we add 's' or 'es' to the end of the verb.

What's the verb in the sentence?

It's ‘forget’.

Therefore we have to say, ‘He always forgets his book.’

Great job.

Let's move on to the next practice.

In this checkup, we'll take a look at how the present simple tense can be used to describe

future events.

Take a look at the first sentence.

It says, ‘The airplane _ blank _ tonight.’

And we're looking at the verb ‘leave’.

What is the subject of the sentence?

The correct answer is ‘airplane’.

What subject pronoun do we use for ‘airplane’?

It's ‘it’.

Remember in the present simple tense, for ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, we add an ‘s’

or ‘es’ to the verb.

The verb here is ‘leave’ so we simply add an ‘s’.

The correct answer is, ‘The airplane leaves tonight.’

In the second sentence, it says, ‘Does the movie _blank_ soon?’

And we're using the verb ‘start’.

What is the subject of this sentence?

It’s ‘movie’.

And what subject pronoun do we use for movie?

It’s ‘it’.

So it's like saying, ‘Does it _ blank _ soon?’

Well this is a question, so we already have the correct word in the front - ‘does’.

For he/she/it, when we're asking a question, we use ‘does’.

Now all we have to do is use the same verb in its base form,

so ‘Does the movie start soon?’

We do not add an ‘s’ or ‘es’ here.

Finally, it says, ‘Viki _ blank _ tomorrow.’

The subject of the sentence is ‘Vicki’.

‘Vicki’ is a girl so the subject pronoun is ‘she’.

You'll remember now that for… in this case, we put ‘works’.

w-o-r-k-s ‘works’.

‘Vicki works tomorrow.’

Now let's find the mistakes in the sentence below.

‘He do leave at 3:30 p.m.’

Actually there's only one mistake.

Can you find it?

‘He do leave at 3:30 p.m.’

We do not need the ‘do’ here.

We only use ‘do’ in a question or in the negative form.

But also the subject is ‘he’, so we would use ‘does’.

Either way we don't need this here.

Well now we have the verb ‘leave’ with the subject ‘he’.

Do you know what to do?

We simply change this to ‘leaves’.

Just like we did in the first sentence.

‘He leaves at 3:30 p.m.’

In the next sentence, ‘They don't start school today.’

We have a negative sentence.

‘They don't…’, that's correct.

‘…do not’ is correct.

For subject pronoun ‘they’.

However, in the negative form, we don't have to change the main verb at all.

Therefore, all we will do is say, ‘They don't start school today.’

No ‘s’.

Finally, ‘Does we eat at noon?’

Take a look.

What is the subject or subject pronoun in the sentence?

The correct answer is ‘we’.

Think about the question form.

Do we say ‘do’ or ‘does’ in the question form for the subject pronoun ‘we’?

The correct answer is ‘do’.

We say ‘do’.

So the correct way to say this sentence or question is,

‘Do we eat at noon?’

Great job guys.

You're done with the practice.

Thank you for your hard work.

Let's move on.

For this checkup of the present continuous tense,

we'll look at how this tense can be used to  describe an action that's happening right now.

Let's take a look at the first sentence.

‘You -blank- learning English.’

Remember for this tense, we start  with the subject and the ‘be’ verb

and then the verb ‘-ing’.

We already have the verb ‘-ing’ here, so we need the ‘be’ verb.

The subject in the first sentence is ‘you’.

For ‘you’, ‘we’, and ‘they’,  we use the ‘be’ verb - ‘are’,

so the correct answer is,

‘You are learning English’ right now.

The next sentence says,

‘She _blank_ not watching TV.’

This is the negative form of  the present continuous tense.

We have the word ‘not’ before the verb ‘-ing’,

However, we're missing the ‘be’ verb again.

What is the be verb to use  if the subject is ‘she’?

the correct answer is ‘is’.

‘She is not watching TV.’

This one says, ‘I _blank_ studying now.’

The subject here is ‘I’.

Again think of the ‘be’ verb that goes before the subject ‘I’.

The ‘be’ verb is ‘am’.

‘I am studying now.’

We can also use a contraction and say, ‘I'm studying now’

If we wanted to turn this into the negative form,

we can also say, ‘I'm not studying now.’

Now, take a look at the next  sentence and find the mistake.

‘Layla is watch a movie.’

Here we have the subject and the subject pronoun for Layla would be ‘she’.

We have the correct ‘be’ verb - ‘is’,

However, you'll notice we forgot  the ‘-ing’ at the end of the verb.

We need to say, ‘watching’.

‘Layla is watching a movie.’

The next sentence says,

‘They playing soccer now.’

What's missing?

If you got it the correct answer is we need the ‘be’ verb – ‘are’

because the subject is ‘they’.

‘They are playing soccer now.’

And finally, ‘What do you do?’

If you want to ask somebody  what they're doing right now,

you say, 'what’... and the ‘be’ verb – ‘are... you.. doing?’

‘What are you doing?’

Let's move on to the next practice.

For this checkup we'll talk about the present continuous tense

and how it can be used to describe an action that started in the past and continues today.

It's a longer action.

Let's take a look at the first sentence.

‘He _blank_ studying economics.’

Remember for this tense, we take the  subject, a ‘be’ verb, and then verb ‘-ing’.

Here we already have the verb ‘-ing’, ‘studying’.

So what are we missing?

The ‘be’ verb.

The correct ‘be’ verb for  the subject ‘he’ is ‘is’.

So, ‘He is studying economics.’

The next sentence says, ‘They're _blank_ for the fight.’

The verb we want to use is ‘train’.

Now we already have the 'be' verb here.

It's in the contraction ‘there’  because it's ‘they are’.

All we have to do now is add ‘-ing’ to the verb.

‘They're training for the fight these days.’

And ‘We _blank_ teaching at the school.’

Again we're missing the ‘be’ verb.

What is the ‘be’ verb for ‘we’?

The correct answer is ‘are’.

‘We are teaching at the school.’

Now let's look for the  mistakes in the next sentence.

‘Ben is study to become a doctor.’

Can you find the error?

Well we have the subject and we have the proper ‘be verb’.

What we're missing is the ‘-ing’ at the end of ‘study’.

The correct answer is, ‘Ben is studying to become a doctor’.

Let's look at the next sentence.

‘I don't reading that book.’

hmm

‘I don't reading that book.’

To form the negative in the present continuous, we don't use ‘do’ or ‘does’

We use the ‘be’ verb. What is the be verb for ‘I’?

The correct answer is ‘am’.

‘I am not reading that book.’

There is no contraction for ‘am not’.

Finally, ‘They are to learn English.’

We have the subject and we have the correct ‘be’ verb,

but remember we need verb ‘-ing’.

Therefore, the correct answer is,

‘They are learning English.’

Let's move on to the next checkup.

For this checkup we'll take a look at how the present continuous tense

can be used to talk about future plans.

Let's take a look.

The first sentence says, ‘They're play a game tonight.’

The verb we want to use is ‘play’.

Remember we start with the subject  and here we have it, ‘they’.

Then we have the ‘be’ verb.

In this case we used a contraction  for ‘they are – ‘they’re’.

That's correct.

After that we have to add ‘-ing’ to the end of the verb,

so the correct answer is, ‘They're playing a game tonight.’

The next sentence says, 'We _blank_ not studying tomorrow.’

Looks good but there's a word that's missing.

This is the negative form because we have ‘not’.

We simply need the ‘be’ verb for ‘we’.

The correct ‘be’ verb is ‘are’. ‘We are not studying tomorrow.’

The next sentence says, ‘Lynn is _blank_ out tonight.’

and we want to use the verb ‘go’.

Remember 'Lynn' and then the ‘be’ verb – ‘is’.

That's correct. All we have to do is add ‘-ing’.

‘Lynn is going out tonight.’

To make this negative you can say,

‘Lynn is not going out tonight.’ or ‘Lynn isn't going out tonight.’

The next sentence says, ‘Laura isn't study this evening.’

Can you find the mistake?

Remember we have to add  ‘-ing’ to the end of the verb,

so we need to say,

‘Laura isn't studying this evening.’

The next sentence says,

‘My sons will playing chess later.’

We are talking about a future plan,

so you might be tempted to use ‘well’ or ‘will’, I'm sorry.

However, instead of saying ‘will’, we use the ‘be’ verb.

‘My sons are playing chess later.’

And finally, ‘She's not to eating dinner tonight.’

There's an extra word in here that we don't need.

What is it?

It's ‘to’.

Remember, subject - ‘be’ verb, not verb ‘-ing’.

We do not need ‘to’ in this sentence.

All right well that's the end of this checkup.

Let's move on.

For this checkup, we'll take a look at the present perfect tense.

Which describes an action that happened at

an unknown or indefinite time in the past.

Let's look at the first sentence.

‘She _blank_ read that book.’

The subject in this sentence is ‘she’.

For he/she/it, in this tense we say, ‘has’.

‘She has’.

Now, take a look at the verb.

It looks like ‘read’.

But remember we need to use the past participle of the verb.

So It's actually ‘read’.

‘read’ and ‘read’ are spelled the same.

‘She has read that book.’

The second sentence says, ‘They _blank_ visit China.’

‘visit’ is the verb that you want to use here.

For ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘we’ and ‘they’, we use ‘have’.

Not ‘has’.

‘They have’

Now, what's the past participle of visit?

The answer is ‘visited’.

‘They have visited China.’

Next, ‘We _blank_ see that concert.’

Again, for ‘I’, ‘you’, we’ and ‘they’ – we use ‘have’.

‘We have’.

Now, the past participle of ‘see’ is 'seen'.

‘We have seen that concert.’

Now, let's look for the mistake in the next sentence.

‘Rick have been to Cuba.’

Take a look at the subject, ‘Rick’.

Rick is a ‘he’.

So instead of ‘have’, we need to change this to ‘has’.

‘Rick has been to Cuba.’

‘Sally and I hasn't finished work.’

The subject in this sentence is ‘Sally’ and ‘I’.

The pronoun for that is ‘we’.

‘We hasn't finished work.’

That still sounds weird, right?

We have to change this to ‘have not’ or the contraction ‘haven't’.

And finally, ‘I did go to the doctor.’

Now this sentence makes sense, but it's not the present perfect tense.

We have to change it.

Remember, we use ‘have’ for the subject, ‘I’.

But we're not done.

What is the past participle of ‘go’?

It is ‘gone’.

‘I have gone to the doctor.’

Great job.

Let's move on to the next checkup.

In this checkup, we'll talk about the present perfect tense

and how it can be used to describe an action that started in the past and is still true

today.

The first sentence says, ‘I _blank_ known Carly since 1994.’

The subject is ‘I’.

And we already have the past participle of the verb, ‘know’.

Which is ‘known’.

What are we missing?

The correct answer is ‘have’.

For ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘we’ and ‘they’, we use ‘have’ after the subject.

The next sentence says,

‘He has been here _blank_ 2 p.m.’

Now the first part is all there.

‘He has been’.

However, remember that for the present perfect tense,

we use ‘for’ or ‘since’ to talk about how long that action has been true.

In this case, we use ‘since’.

Because 2 p.m. is a specific period in time.

Next it says, ‘She _blank_ liked Tom since June.’

The subject is ‘she’.

And we have the past participle of the verb ‘like’, which is 'liked'.

What are we missing?

Again, we need ‘have’ or ‘has’.

Because the subject is ‘she’...

Can you figure out which one you need?

The correct answer is ‘has’.

‘She has liked Tom since June.’

Now, I want you to find a mistake in the next sentence.

‘I have worked here six months ago.’

Can you find a mistake here?

‘I have worked’ - that's correct.

However, in the present perfect tense, we don't use ‘ago’.

This is talking about more the past.

We want to talk about ‘since’ or ‘for’ instead.

Now ‘six months’ is not a specific time.

So we don't use ‘since’.

Instead, we talk about the duration.

So we need ‘for’.

We'll say, ‘I have worked here for six months.’

Let's take a look at the next sentence.

‘Jen have a cold for two weeks.’

At first glance, this doesn't seem that wrong.

But remember, Jen is a ‘she’.

So we need ‘has’.

‘Jen has’.

But wait a minute, ‘Jen has have a cold’?

That's not right either.

We need the past participle of ‘have’.

What is the past participle?

The correct answer is ‘had’.

‘Jen has had a cold for two weeks.’

And finally, ‘We haven't went home since Friday.’

This one is a little tricky.

The subject is ‘we’.

‘We have... have not’.

That's correct.

The contraction is ‘haven't’.

‘We haven't’.

Now the problem is, we have this verb ‘went’.

That's in the past simple tense.

We need the past participle of ‘go’.

The correct answer is ‘gone’.

‘We haven't gone home since Friday.’

Good job, guys.

Let's move on to the next checkup.

In this checkup, we'll take a look at the present perfect tense.

And how it is used to describe an action that finished recently.

We'll be focusing on the words, ‘just’, ‘already’ and ‘recently’ to show this.

Let's take a look at the first sentence.

‘She has just _blank_ that book.’

And we're using the verb, ‘read’.

Remember, we take the subject, ‘she’.

And for ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘it’, we say ‘has’.

So that's correct.

Now we need the past participle of ‘read’.

And that is ‘read’.

‘She has just read that book.’

You'll notice I use the word, ‘just’ right before the past participle.

Next it says, ‘They have already’ and the verb is ‘wake up’.

If the subject is ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’, we use ‘has’.

But if the subject is ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘we’ or ‘they’, we use ‘have’.

So that's correct.

‘They have’.

Also we have the word ‘already’ here to show that it happened recently

or that it finished recently.

Now the verb is ‘wake up’.

We need the past participle of ‘wake up’,

and that is ‘woken up’.

So the answer is,

‘They have already woken up.’

The next sentence says,

‘We have recently _blank_ work.’

And the verb is ‘finish’.

‘We have’, that's correct.

And we have the word 'recently' to show when the action finished.

And now we need to find the past participle of the verb ‘finish’.

The correct answer is.

‘We have recently finished, -ed, work.’

Now try to find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘Morty has eaten just.’

This sounds a little strange, right?

That's because ‘just’ needs to come before the verb.

Therefore, the answer is ‘Morty has just eaten.’

The next sentence says, ‘Karen has recently be sick.’

Karen is a ‘she’.

So ‘has’ is correct.

And there we have ‘recently’.

Now we need the past participle of the verb.

‘be’ is our verb and the past participle of ‘be’ is ‘been’.

‘Karen has recently been sick.’

And finally, ‘I have gone already to the dentist.’

This is similar to another question we looked at just before.

‘I have gone already to the dentist.’

The placement of ‘already’ is a little awkward.

So we can say, ‘I have already gone.’

So we can put ‘already’ before the verb,

‘I have already gone to the dentist’

Or we can put this at the end,

‘I have gone to the dentist already.’

Both of those are correct.

Now, good job.

That is the end of the checkup.

Let's move on.

In this checkup, we will talk about the present perfect continuous tense.

This tense can be used to describe an event

that started in the past and continues in the present.

Let's take a look.

The first sentence says,

‘He has _blank_ all week,’

And the verb is ‘sleep’.

For this tense, what we do is we first look at the subject, ‘he’.

For ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘it’, we put ‘has’.

Then, we add ‘been’. ‘has been’.

Finally we add ‘-ing’ to the end.

‘He has been sleeping all week.’

The next sentence says, ‘You haven't _blank_ for a year.’

and the verb is ‘travel’.

Now, this is the negative form.

So you see the contraction - ‘haven't’.

‘You have not’ or ‘You haven't’.

Again, what we do after that is add ‘been’.

Then, do you remember what to do?

Add ‘-ing’ to the verb.

‘You haven't been traveling for a year.’

Next, it says ‘They _blank_ working all day.’

So the verb ‘-ing’ has already been provided for you.

Now, take a look at the subject.

The subject is ‘they’.

Should we use ‘have’? or should we use ‘has’?

The correct answer is ‘have’.

Then what do you put?

Remember, we put ‘been’.

‘They have been working all day.’

Now if you want to make this negative, you can say,

‘They haven't been working all day.’

Now find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘My friends have been watch TV.’

‘My friends have been watch TV.’

What's the mistake?

Remember, we need to add ‘-ing’ to the end of the verb.

So we should say,

‘My friends have been watching TV.’

Next, ‘Sal did talking for 10 minutes.’

Hmm..

Sal is a ‘he'.

And ‘talking’ is already there for you.

So what's in the middle of those two words is the mistake.

For ‘he’, we use ‘has’.

So we say ‘has been’.

‘Sal has been talking for 10 minutes.’

And finally,

‘He has been to eat for an hour.’

Hmm..

‘He has been’ That's correct.

However, in this sentence, the base form of the verb ‘eat’ was used.

Instead, remember we need ‘-ing’.

This is the correct answer.

‘He has been eating for an hour.’

All right, good job. and let's move on to the next practice.

In this practice, we'll take a look at the present perfect continuous tense,

And see how it expresses an action that has been happening recently or lately.

Let's take a look at the first sentence.

‘She has _blank_ bad lately.’

And the verb is ‘feel’.

Remember for ‘she’, we use ‘has’.

Then don't forget we need to have ‘been’.

‘She has been’

After that, we add ‘-ing’ to the verb.

The correct sentence is,

‘She has been feeling bad lately.’

The next sentence says,

‘We haven't _blank_ much recently.’

And the verb is ‘cook’.

This is a negative sentence.

So we say, ‘We have not’ or the contraction - ‘haven't’.

‘We haven't’ Don't forget ‘been’, and then verb ‘-ing’.

‘We haven't been cooking much recently.’

Finally, we move on, let's try to find the mistake.

‘We has been riding bikes to school recently.’

What's the mistake in this sentence?

The subject here is ‘We’.

For ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘we’ and ‘they’, we have to say ‘have been’, not ‘has

been’.

‘We have been riding bikes to school recently.’

And for the last one,

‘Jenny lately hasn't been helping me.’

The lately is placed wrong in this sentence.

We have to say,

‘Lately, Jenny hasn't been helping me.’

or we can also say,

‘Jenny hasn't been helping me lately.’

Let's move on to the next checkup.

In this checkup, we'll talk about the present perfect continuous tense

and how it expresses an action that stopped recently

but has a present result.

The first sentence says,

‘I _blank_ . That's why I'm so sweaty.’

The verb here is ‘exercise’.

And the subject is ‘I’.

Do we use ‘has’ or ‘have’ for the subject ‘I’?

The correct answer is ‘have’.

Then, we put ‘been’ and then verb ‘-ing’.

Okay, so the correct answer is,

‘I have been exercising.

That's why I'm so sweaty.’

That's the result.

The next sentence says,

‘I'm covered in flour because I _blank_.’

And the verb is ‘bake’.

Take a look.

I have ‘I'm covered in flour because’

So this first part is the result.

I need to show the action that stopped recently in the present perfect continuous tense.

Again, the subject is ‘I’.

So we use ‘have been’.

Then, all we do is add ‘-ing’ to the end of baking.

‘I have been baking.’

So again,

‘I'm covered in flour because I have been baking.’

And we can use the contraction and say,

‘I've been baking.’

Now, find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘She has think a lot, so she has a headache.’

Take a look.

The result is that ‘she has a headache.’

So we need to use the present perfect continuous for the first part.

‘She has’ is correct.

What's missing?

Don't forget the ‘been’.

Also don't forget that we need to add ‘-ing’ to the verb.

‘She has been thinking a lot, so she has a headache.’

Look at the next sentence and find the mistake.

‘I'm so hungry because I have been diet.’

The only mistake here is that someone forgot to put the ‘-ing’ at the end of the verb, ‘diet’.

The correct answer is,

‘I'm so hungry because I have been dieting.’

Great job, everyone.

Let's move on.

In this first checkup, we'll take a look at

practice questions using the 'be' verb in the past simple tense.

Remember the 'be' verbs in the past simple tense are ‘was’ or ‘were’.

Let's take a look at the first sentence.

‘He __ at work earlier.’

The subject here is ‘we’.

So do we use ‘was’ or ‘were’?

The correct answer is ‘was’.

‘He was at work earlier.’

The next sentence says,

‘We _____ very happy yesterday.’

If the subject is ‘we’, remember the be verb is ‘were’.

‘We were very happy yesterday.’

Next, ‘My parents or they __ worried about me.’

If it's 'they', remember we have to say ‘were’.

‘My parents were worried about me.’

If I want to use the negative, I can also say ‘My parents weren't worried about me.’

And that's possible.

Now I want you to find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘We wasn't good students.’

We wasn't good students.

Can you figure out what's wrong?

The subject here is ‘we’, so we don't say ‘was not’.

We need to say ‘were not’ or the contraction ‘weren't’.

‘We weren't good students,’ is the correct answer.

The next one says, ‘Were she a teacher?’

Now, this is a question so the be verb comes at the beginning.

That's correct, but the subject here is ‘she’.

Therefore, we need to start with ‘was’.

‘Was she a teacher?’

And finally,

‘They wasn't at school.’

The subject is ‘they’, so the answer is

‘They weren't at school.’

You can use the contraction ‘weren't’ or ‘were not’.

Let's move on to the next checkup.

Now, let's practice regular verbs in the past simple tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

‘He ____ at home.’

The verb is ‘study’.

Remember, when changing a regular verb into

the past tense, we add ‘d’ or ‘ed’ to the end of the

verb.

However, there's a separate rule for words that end in ‘y’.

Such as, ‘study’.

We drop the ‘y’ and we add ‘ied’.

So the correct answer is,

‘He studied at home.’

The next sentence says, ‘We __ pencils.’

We want to use negative because it says ‘not use’.

Remember for the negative, we always use ‘did not’, no matter what the subject.

You can also use the contraction ‘didn't’.

Now, what do we do to the verb?

We keep it as ‘is’.

We do not change it.

‘We didn't’ or ‘We did not’ use pencils.

The next sentence says, ‘His friends or they walk to the gym.’

What's the past tense of ‘walk’?

We simply have to add ‘ed’ because it's a regular verb.

‘His friends walked to the gym.’

Now, find a mistake in the next sentence.

‘She didn't likes math.’

‘didn't’ is correct.

However, remember we keep the verb as ‘is’ in the base form.

So we don't say ‘likes’.

We say ‘like’.

‘She didn't like math.’

The next sentence says, ‘Did it rained this morning?’

Now this is a question.

In a question, it’s right to start the sentence with ‘Did’.

‘Did it rained?’

Do you notice the mistake?

Remember, we do not use the past tense form in the question.

We use the base form of the verb.

‘Did it rain this morning?’

And finally, ‘They not play the piano.’

The verb is an action verb.

So we need a ‘did’ in front of ‘not’.

‘They did not play the piano.’

Let's move on to the next checkup.

Now, I'll talk about irregular verbs in the past simple tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

‘He __ to school.’

And the verb is ‘run’.

‘run’ is an irregular verb, so the past tense form is ‘ran’.

‘He ran to school.’

The next sentence says, ‘We __ flowers.’

We want to use the negative because here it says ‘not grow’.

Remember, no matter what the subject in the negative form,

we say ‘did not’

or ‘didn't’.

Then we keep the verb in its base form.

‘We did not grow’ or ‘We didn't grow flowers.’

The next sentence says, ‘Where __ you teach last year?’

This is a question.

Again, all we need to put is ‘did’.

‘Where did you teach last year?’

It doesn't matter what the subject is.

We always go with ‘did’.

Next, try to find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘He didn't sold newspapers.’

Remember, in the negative, ‘didn't’ is correct for whatever subject there is.

However, we need to keep the verb in its base form.

So the correct answer is, ‘He didn't sell newspapers.’

The next sentence says, ‘Did she sing a song?’

You'll notice it's a similar problem here.

‘sang’ is the irregular past tense form of ‘sing’.

But in a question, if it starts with ‘did’,

we use the base form.

‘Did she sing a song?’

And finally, ‘We taked it home.’

Does that sound right?

‘taked’ is not correct.

The past tense of ‘take’ is ‘took’.

‘We took it home.’

Great job, everyone.

Let's move on.

In this section, let's do a checkup for the past continuous tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

‘Last night they were blank at school.’

I want you to try to fill in the blank with the negative for the verb ‘stay’.

‘not stay’

What do you think it is?

Remember, for the negative of the past continuous,

all you have to do is put ‘not’ and then ‘verb-ing’ after the 'be' verb.

‘They were not staying at school last.’

‘Last night, they were not staying at school.’

The next sentence says,

‘Two days ago you blank soccer.’

Again try the negative for the verb ‘play’.

‘Two days ago blank not play soccer.’

In this case, the first thing that's missing is the ‘be’ verb.

If the subject is ‘you’, can you think of which be verb needs to be put in there?

The correct answer is ‘were’.

And then, we say ‘not’.

What happens after that?

Remember, ‘verb-ing’.

So ‘you were not playing’

‘two days ago, you were not playing soccer’

You can also use a contraction and say,

‘You weren't playing soccer.’

Now try to find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘Yesterday, she were reading at home.’

hmmm

The subject of this sentence is ‘she’ so the ‘be’ verb to use is not ‘were’.

It's 'was'.

‘Yesterday, she was reading at home.’

In the next sentence it says, ‘Tomorrow, they were seeing their friends.’

hmmm

‘They’ and ‘were’

That's correct.

And we have the ‘verb-ing’

So what's the mistake?

Remember the past continuous is for the past.

‘Tomorrow’ is not the past.

So instead, we need to put a word that shows the past.

For example, I can say, ‘yesterday’.

‘Yesterday, they were seeing their friends.’

Let's move on.

Now, let's start a checkup of the ‘when’ usage

of the past continuous tense.

Take a look at the first example.

It says, ‘Andrea and John’ blank when they bank hurt.’

Remember ‘when’ shows an interrupting action.

It needs to be used with the past simple tense.

So let's first look at the second blank.

‘When they blank hurt’

What's the past tense of the verb ‘get’?

The answer is ‘got’.

Now let's take a look at the action that was in progress in the past.

‘Andrea and John’ or ‘they’

Well what comes after ‘they’?

‘were’.

‘Andrea and John were’

Then remember we need to add -ing to the verb.

‘They were skiing’ or ‘Andrea and John were skiing when they got hurt’.

The next example says, ‘It blank not raining when the game blank’.

And I want you to use the verb ‘start’ for the second blank.

Take a look ‘when the game blank’ what's the past tense of ‘start’?

‘started’

Now let's look at the first part of the sentence.

The subject is ‘it’.

So what ‘be’ verb do we use for 'it'?

‘was’

‘It was not raining when the game started.’

Now find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘I wasn't study at the library yesterday’.

The subject here is ‘I’ and so the ‘be’ verb ‘was’ is correct.

Here there's a contraction, ‘I wasn't’ for ‘I was not’.

Now the problem is with the verb.

Remember we need to put ‘–ing’ at the end of the verb.

‘I wasn't studying at the library yesterday.’

And finally, ‘We did meet our friends last weekend.’

That sounds right, but remember we're doing the past continuous tense.

Take a look again.

The subject is ‘we’.

We need a ‘be’ verb.

‘were’

Then what happens?

Remember, we need to add an ‘-ing’ to the end of the verb,

so we take out ‘did’ and say, ‘We were meeting our friends last weekend.’

Let's move on.

Now, for this checkup, we'll look at the ‘while’ usage of the past continuous tense.

Take a look at the first example.

‘While I blank someone blank my bike.’

When we use ‘while’ in the past continuous tense,

we're showing that two actions happened at the same time in the past

or they were happening at the same time in the past.

So we need to use the past continuous for both actions.

‘While I blank’

I want you to use ‘shop’ in the first blank.

Remember, the subject here is ‘I’ so I need to use the ‘be’ verb ‘was’.

Then ‘verb-ing’.

‘While I was shopping’

Now ‘someone’ can be a ‘he’ or ‘she’.

Therefore, again we need to use ‘was’

and then the ‘verb-ing’ of ‘steal’.

‘While I was shopping, someone was stealing my bike.’

The next sentence says,

‘While he blank’

I want you to use the verb ‘cook’.

The subject is ‘he’ and so I need to use ‘was cooking’.

‘While he was cooking, his girlfriend was cleaning.’

Did you get that?

Let's move on.

Try to find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘Jane was looking for us while we get off the plane.’

The first part of the sentence is correct.

‘Jane was looking’

Now the second part of the sentence.

Notice it's not in the past continuous tense.

‘While we get off the plane’

So what we need to do is say, ‘were getting’.

‘Jane was looking for us while we were getting off the plane.’

The next sentence says, 'I was watching TV while my wife sleep’

Again this part of the sentence did not use the past continuous tense.

My wife is a ‘she’ and so I need to say ‘was sleeping’.

‘I was watching TV while my wife was sleeping.’

Great job, everyone.

Let's move on.

Now let's take a look at some practice exercises for the basic usage of the past perfect tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

‘I blank for six hours before I had a break.’

The verb here is ‘work’.

Remember, we need to say ‘I had’.

No matter what the subject is, say ‘had’.

And then, you take the past participle of the verb.

In this case, we would say ‘worked’.

‘I had worked for six hours before I had a break.’

For the next sentence, I want you to try the negative form.

‘We blank TV before we listened to the radio.’

Remember, for the negative form, we say ‘had not’

or we use the contraction, ‘hadn't’.

‘We hadn’t’.

And then, we need the past participle.

‘We hadn't watched TV before we listened to the radio.’

Now find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘Reggie had it be to Mexico before he went to Peru.’

Well, we have the subject here and for the negative, ‘hadn't’ is correct.

However, we need the past participle of the verb ‘be’.

So the correct answer is,

‘Reggie hadn't been to Mexico before he went to Peru.’

And finally, ‘Sally and Jan or they had do their job.’

Hmm.

Remember, we need the past participle.

We don't say do.

We say ‘done’.

‘Sally and Jan had done their job before they watched TV.’

Let's move on.

In this checkup, we'll take a look at some practice exercises

for the past perfect tense that describes how long.

Let's take a look at the first sentence.

‘You blank at the park for three hours before you came home.’

Remember, we start with the subject and then ‘had’.

So I'm going to add that here,

then we need the past participle of the verb ‘be’.

And that is ‘been’.

‘You had been at the park for three hours before you came home.’

The next sentence says,

‘They blank for six hours before they took a break.’

Again, no matter what the subject, we have ‘had’ and then the past participle.

So the answer is,

‘They had studied for six hours before they took a break.’

Now, find the mistake in the next sentence.

It's a little bit longer so it might take you a while.

‘They had been known each other for ten years before they had their first fight.’

Can you find the mistake?

Well, we have the subject and ‘had’, but check this out.

There are two past participles here.

We need to get rid of one of them.

We can take out this verb and say, ‘They had known each other for ten years

before they had their first fight.’

The next sentence says, ‘I have played soccer for many years before I scored my first goal.’

This sentence doesn't look wrong at first.

But remember, in the past perfect tense, we need to say ‘had’.

‘I had played soccer for many years before I scored my first goal.’

Good job, everybody.

Let's move on.

Let's start a checkup for the past perfect continuous tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

It says, ‘They __ for a long time before they went home.’

Try to fill in the blank with the verb ‘work’ in this tense.

Remember, no matter what the subject, we follow the subject with ‘had been’.

So we say, ‘They had been’.

What happens to the verb?

Remember, we add ‘-ing’.

So the sentence is, ‘They had been working for a long time before they went home.’

Now, take a look at the second sentence.

I want you to use the negative.

‘I __ TV for a year before I started again.’

Remember, the negative form for this tense starts with the subject

and then ‘had not been’.

Or I can use the contraction ‘hadn't’.

‘I hadn't been’ And then again, verb ‘-ing’.

‘I hadn't been watching TV for a year before I started again.’

Now, try to find the mistake in this next sentence.

‘Gina and I hadn't been do any work before we started.’

What's the error?

You'll notice that the verb does not have an ‘-ing’.

To make the sentence correct, we must say, ‘Gina and I hadn't been doing

any work before we started.’

Now, find the mistake here.

‘He had be watching YouTube because he had some free time.’

‘He had’, that's correct, but we need to change ‘be’ to been’.

And ‘watching’ is correct.

So, ‘He had been watching YouTube because he had some free time.’

Let's move on.

Now, let's move on to another checkup of the past perfect continuous tense.

Take a look at the first example.

It says, ‘The company __ employees because they worked hard.’

Use the verb ‘promote’ in the past perfect continuous tense.

Remember, no matter what the subject, we follow with ‘had been’.

So we say, ‘The company had been’ and then verb ‘-ing’, so ‘promoting’.

‘The company had been promoting employees because they worked hard.’

The next example says, ‘I __ your emails for a while because they went to the spam

folder.’

Here, try to use the negative form with the verb ‘get’.

Remember, in the negative form, we say ‘had not been getting’

Or the contraction ‘hadn't been getting’.

‘I hadn't been getting your emails for a while because they went to the spam folder.’

Now look for the mistake in the next sentence.

‘I had been work a lot because I needed the money.’

What's the mistake?

Remember, we need to add ‘-ing’ to the verb.

‘I had been working a lot because I needed the money.’

The last sentence says, ‘He has been smoking because he was stressed.’

Can you find the mistake?

Remember, we're practicing the past perfect continuous.

In this case, we need ‘had’ after the subject, not ‘has’.

Great job, everyone.

Let's move on.

For this checkup let's take a look at the will usage for the future simple tense.

The first example says, ‘Jen and Paul [blank] home soon’

with the verb ‘go’.

Remember, when using ‘will’ for the future simple tense,

it doesn't matter what the subject is.

We say ‘will’ and then the base verb.

So here we can say, ‘Jen and Paul’ or ‘They will go home soon’.

‘I [blank] a scientist after I graduate.’

Try filling in the blank with ‘be’.

Again, we simply say ‘will be’.

‘I will be a scientist after I graduate.’

Now try this one, ‘We [blank] that because it smells bad.’

I want you to use the negative form with the verb ‘eat’.

Here we say, ‘will not eat’ or remember we can use the contraction ‘won't’.

‘We will not eat that’ or ‘We won't eat that because it smells bad’.

Now look for the mistake in this sentence.

‘I will eat a pizza for lunch.’

Remember, we need the base form of the verb.

‘I will eat a pizza for lunch.’

‘Angie and I will playing a game.’

Again we need the base form of the verb.

Angie and I will play a game.’

And finally, ‘Will she be cook dinner?’

This is a question.

However we need to say, ‘Will she cook dinner.’

We do not need a ‘be’ verb here.

Let's move on.

Let's practice the ‘be going to’ usage of the future simple tense.

‘We [blank] going to _blank_ soccer.’

I want you to use the verb ‘watch’.

Remember, for ‘be going to’ in the future simple tense,

we start with the subject and then the ‘be’ verb.

The subject here is ‘we’.

So we need the ‘be’ verb – ‘are’.

‘We are going to’ and then the base verb ‘watch’.

‘We are going to watch soccer.’

‘I [blank] going to [blank].’

The verb is ‘talk’.

And I want you to use the negative form.

In this case, the subject is ‘I’.

And so I use the ‘be’ verb – ‘am’.

‘I am’ and then we need ‘not’.

‘I am not going to’

Then the base verb ‘talk’.

‘Why [blank] you going to [blank]?’

The verb here is ‘go’.

In a question, especially a ‘WH’ question, we start with the ‘WH’ word,

and then the ‘be’ verb.

‘are’ is the correct ‘be’ verb because the subject is ‘you’.

Then we have ‘going to’.

And again, the base form of the verb.

‘Why are you going to go?’

Now try to find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘You are going to studying at home.’

Can you find the mistake?

‘You are going to’ that's correct.

But we need the base form of the verb.

‘You are going to study at home.’

‘You will be going to learn English.’

‘You will be going’

That sounds a little strange.

Remember, we don't need the ‘will’ here.

We're using ‘be going to’ and we need to change the ‘be’ verb to match the subject.

‘You are going to learn English’.

Or remember, you can also say, ‘You will learn English.

and finally ‘Is he going to do play soccer.’

uh-oh We have two verbs here.

‘Is he going to’ - that's correct.

But we have ‘do’ and ‘play’.

We don't need both, so we say, ‘Is he going to play soccer?’

Great job everybody.

Let's move on.

Let's start a checkup for the future continuous tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

It says, ‘They _blank_ at school tomorrow.’

I want you to use ‘will' and then the verb ‘study’, for this tense.

Remember, in the future continuous tense,

no matter what the subject, we say ‘will be’ and then verb +ing.

So the correct answer for this sentence is ‘they will be studying’

‘They will be studying at school tomorrow.’

The next sentence says.

‘Jesse _blank_ a TV show later.’

Here, instead of ‘will’ try to use ‘be going to be’.

‘Jesse _blank_ watch a TV show later.’

I want you to use the verb ‘watch’.

So, Jessie is a ‘he’ or it can be a ‘she’.

Sometimes the name is used for a boy or a girl.

Either way I need to use the ‘be’ verb – ‘is’.

‘Jesse is going to be’

and then we need verb +ing.

‘Jesse is going to be watching a TV show later.’

The next sentence, I want you to find the mistake.

‘We willn’t be studying at the library today.’

‘We will not …’

What's the contraction for ‘will not’?

Well it definitely isn't ‘willn’t’.

The contraction is ‘won't’.

‘We won't be studying at the library today.’

And finally, ‘Sally and I will be meet our friends soon.’

Remember, we need ‘will be’ and then verb +ing.

So the correct answer is,

‘Sally and I will be meeting our friends soon.’

Good job, everyone.

Let's move on.

Now, let's move on to the next checkup of the future continuous tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

It says, ‘He _blank_ at the door when the movie ends.’

I want you to use ‘will’ and the verb ‘wait’.

Remember, for this tense, we need ‘will be’ and then verb +ing,

so the correct answer is,

‘He will be waiting at the door when the movie ends.’

The next sentence says, ‘We are not …’ so this is a negative,

‘_blank_ the play when he performs’.

Here, instead of ‘will’, I want you to use ‘be going to be’ and the verb ‘see’.

We already have part of that phrase for you.

‘We are …’, here's the ‘be’ verb, ‘not’

so this is negative.

And then we say ‘going to be’

and then verb +ing.

‘We are not going to be seeing the play when he performs.’

Now find the mistake in this sentence.

‘They won't be stay at home when the delivery man visits.’

‘They won't be’

That's correct in the negative form.

However, we need verb +ing.

‘They won't be staying at home when the delivery man visits.’

And finally, ‘Terry is going to working when the manager arrives’.

‘Terry’ is a ‘he’ or ‘she’ so ‘is’ is the correct ‘be’ verb to use.

‘going to’ that's also correct.

What we're missing here is ‘be’.

‘Terry is going to be working when the manager arrives.’

Good job, everybody.

Let's move on.

Let's start this checkup for the future perfect tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

It says, ‘We _blank_ that book by tomorrow.’

The verb to use is ‘read’.

Remember, in the future perfect tense, we start with the subject,

and we have that here, ‘we’.

Then say, ‘will have’ and the past participle of the verb.

So here we need to say ‘will have’.

What is the past participle of ‘read’?

The correct answer is ‘read’.

They're spelled the same, but they are pronounced differently.

‘We will have read that book by tomorrow.’

The next sentence says, ‘She _blank_ the video by bedtime.’

Here we have ‘not’ so I want you to try the negative form.

And the verb to try is ‘watch’.

In the negative form, we start with the subject.

And instead of ‘will have’, we say ‘will not have’.

‘She will not have …’ Then we need the past participle of the verb.

In this case, it is ‘watched’.

‘She will not have watched the video by bedtime.’

Now find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘Ryan will not have be to Cuba by summer.’

This is the negative form because we have ‘will not have’.

That's correct.

But we need the past participle of ‘be’.

So we need to change it to ‘been’.

‘Ryan will not have been to Cuba by summer.’

The last sentence says, ‘I will have go to school by 8 30 a.m.’

Here, we have the affirmative, ‘will have’.

But, uh oh, we forgot the past participle of ‘go’ which is ‘gone’.

‘I will have gone to school by 8 30 a.m.’

Great job, everybody.

Let's move on.

Let's start a checkup for the future perfect continuous tense.

Take a look at the board.

The first sentence says,

‘By 10 p.m., I _blank_ that game for three hours.’

I’m looking to use the verb ‘play’.

Remember, in this tense, we need to have ‘subject’ + ‘will have been’ and then ‘verb +ing’.

So ‘By 10 p.m., I will have been playing …’

Again, we need ‘verb +ing’.

‘… I will have been playing that game for three hours.

The next sentence says,

‘When she gets here, he _blank_ dinner for an hour.’

Try to use the verb ‘cook’.

Again, no matter what the subject, it doesn't change.

‘When she gets here, he will have been cooking …’

‘When she gets here, he will have been cooking dinner for an hour.’

Now, find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘Steve and Jan will not have be waiting for a year when it arrives.’

Here, we have a negative form, ‘they will not have’.

Then we need ‘been’.

‘They will not have been …’

And then the ‘verb +ing’ is here so that's correct.

‘Steve and Jan will not have been waiting for a year when it arrives.’

The last sentence says,

‘It will have been work for 10 years on January 15th.’

So maybe here I’m talking about a computer or a TV.

Maybe some kind of machine.

‘it’ ‘It will have been …’

I see the mistake here.

We need ‘verb +ing’.

‘It will have been working for 10 years on January 15th.

Great job, everybody.

Let's move on.

Thank you so much for watching this  course on the twelve English tenses. 

Now, you have a better understanding  of how to use these tenses. 

I know studying English can be hard, but  with time and practice, you will get better. 

Please watch my other videos. And I’ll see you next time. 

Bye.