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English tenses
Tense
In modern grammar verbs have two tenses: present and past:
They want a new car. (present)
They wanted a new car. (past)
Newcomers to modern grammar find this somewhat disconcerting: 'What about I will eat' - isn't that the future tense of eat? And if it isn't the future tense, what is it?'
A more practical way of looking at things is to use the term 'tense' in a looser and wider way: to describe the form of the verb phrase that provides information about time and aspect. Using 'tense' in this way we can say that there are twelve tenses in English:
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PAST
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PRESENT
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FUTURE
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SIMPLE
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she lived
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she lives
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she will live
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CONTINUOUS
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she was living
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she is living
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she will be living
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PERFECT
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she had lived
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she has lived
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she will have lived
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PERFECT CONTINUOUS
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she had been living
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she has been living
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she will have been living
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