How to Read this Chart
You can see three Tenses down on the left:
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Past,
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Present, and
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Future,
...and you see the four standard Aspects along the top:
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Simple,
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Perfect,
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Progressive (sometimes called Continuous), and
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Perfect Progressive.
Note also that two verb types are represented for each Tense/Aspect:
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The regular past (walk --> walked), and
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The irregular past (write --> written).
Finally, note the allowance for the "-s" associated with the 3rd person, singular, Simple Present ("writes" and "walks").
How to Use this Chart
This chart shows the correct forms for any tense and aspect.
Of course, you also need to know what the various tenses and aspects actually mean, but that's outside the scope of this short guide.
Example ONE
Here's an example of a check for basic correctness. Consider this sentence:
*Saif walking his dog.
We can break this down into the standard Subject/Verb/Object structure:
Saif walking his dog
Subject Verb Object
Here's the important idea:
Looking at the Tense/Aspect chart, you can see that there is no Tense/Aspect which is "walking", all by itself.
So what would be the fix to the bad sentence shown above?
The -ing form of the verb (the Present Participle) is a progressive form. So assuming you do want a progressive sense, six forms are permitted. They're shaded in light green in the little chart on the right, and here's what happens if you use them to fix the sentence:
| Present Progressive | Saif is walking his dog. |
| Past Progressive | Saif was walking his dog. |
| Future Progressive | Saif will be walking his dog. |
| Present Perfect Progressive | Saif has been walking his dog. |
| Past Perfect Progressive | Saif had been walking his dog. |
| Future Perfect Progressive | Saif will have been walking his dog. |
Note, of course, that not all of these forms are desirable. You want to choose the right one; the one that best expresses what you want to say.
However, the above forms are grammatically correct.
Example TWO
Take another example:
*Saif is walked his dog.
Again, let's break this down into the standard Subject/Verb/Object structure:
Saif is walked his dog
Subject Verb Object
If you look at the chart, you'll find there are four tense/aspects that use the -ed (Past Participle). The little chart on the right shows them shaded in light blue. Given that you do want to use a Past Participle, here's what the sentence looks like if you apply each of these four fixes:
| Simple Past | Saif walked his dog. |
| Present Perfect | Saif has walked his dog. |
| Bill has walked his dog. | Saif had walked his dog. |
| Future Perfect | Saif will have walked his dog. |
