There are only two tenses in English!

Okay, so I admit… it depends what you call a ‘tense’, but it caught your attention, right? It is a great way to look at English grammar, though. Hear me out.

When we talk about tense, we usually think about time. There are only two times in English: present and past, right? However, as we know, it's not quite so simple.

When students are asked how many tenses there are, they often start listing: present simple, past continuous, future perfect, conditionals, passive, present perfect continuous… the list keeps growing (including some made-up tenses).

The challenge is this: how do you take all of this information (like a witch's cauldron) and turn it into something clear, organised, and actually useful for you?

One approach is to think about tenses in two dimensions:

TENSE = TIME + ASPECT

Dimension 1: TIME

When you decide which form to use, the first question you should ask is "Is it present or past?" In most cases, this is easy to decide. There are only two times in English: past and present.

Dimension 2: ASPECT

Next, think about simple, continuous, and perfect as a second stage of decision. The time does not change, and the duration does not change. Only our perspective of the action changes.

You can organise this in a table to help you see the system more clearly.

The key is to distinguish between time and aspect. Rather than thinking about this as 6 different tenses, think about it as 2 times and 3 aspects. This is a much easier way for the brain to deal with them.

Still not convinced?

At this point, many students are still not convinced that aspect is not about time. Let me show you why it isn't.

Compare these:

• I lived in France

• I was living in France

  
  

Both of these are past, both are completed because they are in the past, and both could be the same duration (let's say 1 year). So, the time (when and how long) is the same for both.

Students often say that the past continuous is 'unfinished' or 'incomplete', but it's in the past, so of course it's finished. Perhaps you think the second describes a longer action, but in both cases the time period could be the same, for example one year.

So, what is the difference if it's not time? The main difference is how we 'see' the action - it's our 'perspective' of the action and how we use it in the context of everything else we say.

"I lived in France." is a simple statement, a fact, and it can stand alone. Two past simple statements together could form a sequence of events. "I lived in France, and then I lived in Spain for a bit."

“I was living in France” usually does not stand alone. It is more likely to be the context for another event, for example, "I was living in France when I met my husband." Here, the past continuous gives background information. The past simple gives the main event.

Just in case you're wondering...

The present perfect continuous and past perfect continuous do not introduce something completely new. They combine ideas you already know. They combine the meaning of both the continuous and perfect aspects (and they combine their structural components).

Oh, and conditionals and future forms are not new tenses. They just borrow structures.