please give the full details of english tenses?

Answer 1

Technically, English has only two tenses, past and non-past.
Other nuances of time are expressed with modals (future) and aspect (progressive, perfect).

Answer 2

Follow-up question: What language, if different than English, is your mother tongue? It might help to have something to compare the English tenses to.

Here are some (not sure about the names of the tenses, but I trust the community to correct any mistakes):
Present, Today I work.
Present progressive, Today I am working.
Present perfect, Today I have worked (earlier).
Future, Tomorrow I will work.
Future progressive, Tomorrow I will be working.
Future perfect, Tomorrow I will have worked.
Past, Yesterday I worked.
Past Progressive, Yesterday I was working.
Past perfect, Yesterday I had worked.

The use of "helping verbs" makes the list much longer than this, with the general idea being to use the unique combination of simple tense (work, worked) or participle (worked) or gerund (working) and of helping verbs (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been, have, having, has, had, etc.) to match:
- When the action started
- Whether the start time was precise or fuzzy
- When/if the action finished
- Whether the end time is precise or fuzzy
- Whether the action is ongoing, sporadic, or one-time
- Whether the actor and actee are known
- Whether the actions are definite or conditional

There have been many books written on this subject. :)

Answer 3

PRESENT SIMPLE- refers to the present but also permanent situations and habits.
Used to express habitual action- I BRUSH my teeth twice a day.
A fact (always true)- My son HAS blue eyes
A fact (same for a long time)- I WORK in an office

PRESENT CONTINUOUS- continuous activities (verb+ -ing)
Activities happening now- I'm WATCHING the tv
Temporary activities- I'm STAYING in a hotel until I find my own house
Planned future arrangements- We're MEETING at 5 at his house.

PAST SIMPLE- usually verb+ -ed
Finished action in the past- I WENT to London last week
Actions that follow in a story- She WALKED to the car and TURNED on the engine then she REALISED there was no petrol.
Past situation or habit- I USED TO SMOKE.

PAST CONTINUOUS- was/were+ verb -ing
Often used with past simple, the past continuous refers to longer (background) actions while past simple refers to shorter actions that happen in the middle of longer ones.
Used at particular times in past- I WAS EATING lunch at 1pm
Interrupted past activity- We WERE PLAYING football when it started to rain

PAST PERFECT- Action that has a finishing point. Took place in the past before something else happened. Had + past participle.
When I got home I found that someone HAD BROKEN into my house.

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS- had + been + verb -ing, began before another action in the past and either continued up to second action
- She HAD BEEN LOOKING for her keys for some time before she relised they were in her pocket.
OR was completed before the second action happened- I HAD BEEN STUDYING and decided to have a break.

PRESENT PERFECT- Events relevant to present but happened in the past, have/has + past participle
used without using the exact time.
She HAS TRAVELLED round Asia (some time in the past)
They'VE BEEN married for 10 years (started in past, still continues)

PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS- have/has + been + verb -ing
began in past still continues now- i HAVE BEEN LEARNING Spanish for 3 months
Past activity with present result- It HAS BEEN SNOWING (it's stopped now)

FUTURE VERBS, WILL & GOING TO
GOING TO- planned future activities, we are GOING TO Dubai next year for our holiday
WILL- decision formed at moment of speaking, I WILL just change my jacket quickly.


This is just basic information on the verb forms. There's more uses and more rules but it's a big and complicated subject. This is just a rough outline.