Verb Tense & Aspect Chart
Sometimes you don't want a lesson — you just need to check the form and steal a clean example. Here's the whole grid on one page: three times, four aspects, twelve cells. For how it all actually works, head home to P4 · The Verb System.
Each cell gives you three things: the form (the core pattern only), the core use (one headline job — most tenses do more), and one plain example. Where you're choosing between two cells, that's a P4 question, not a chart question.
| Tense & aspect | Form | Core use | Example | Home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present simple | base verb (add -s for he/she/it) | Habits, facts, general truths | She leaves at six. | P4 |
| Present continuous | am/is/are + -ing | Happening now, or around now | She is leaving now. | P4 |
| Present perfect | have/has + past participle | Past action with present relevance | She has already left. | P4 |
| Present perfect continuous | have/has been + -ing | Duration running up to now | She has been waiting all morning. | P4 |
| Past simple | past form (left, worked) | Finished action at a past time | She left at six. | P4 |
| Past continuous | was/were + -ing | Past action in progress; background | She was leaving when I rang. | P4 |
| Past perfect | had + past participle | Earlier past, before another past point | She had left before I arrived. | P4 |
| Past perfect continuous | had been + -ing | Duration up to a point in the past | She had been working all night. | P4 |
| Future simple | will + base verb | Prediction, decision, future fact | She will leave at six. | P4 |
| Future continuous | will be + -ing | In progress at a future point | She will be leaving when you arrive. | P4 |
| Future perfect | will have + past participle | Completed before a future point | She will have left by six. | P4 |
| Future perfect continuous | will have been + -ing | Duration up to a future point | By June, she'll have been living here a year. | P4 |
For verb forms (base, past, participle, -ing), the will / going to choice, and the same tenses in the passive, it's all in P4 · The Verb System.
Frequency flag (a tendency, not a rule)
The forms above are shared, UK and US. One slot leans differently often enough to notice:
Present perfect vs past simple, for a just-finished action. UK English tends to keep the present perfect (I've just eaten, I've lost my keys); US English accepts the past simple more freely in the same spot (I just ate, I lost my keys). Both are correct — it's a tendency, not a different grammar. The full picture lives in P4 · The Verb System, and every genuine UK/US divergence is collected in the Master UK/US Index.
Everywhere else, the simple, continuous, perfect and perfect-continuous cells are used the same way on both sides — so there's nothing to flag, and a blank here is honest.
One label note: continuous and progressive are the same thing. The name changes; the form doesn't.