Despite being native speakers of English, we do not necessarily know the grammar of our own language. Strictly speaking, it is not necessary, for the most part we can recognise when something is grammatically incorrect because we have spoken the language all our lives but it is useful to know if we are going to enter some form of teaching. The grammar of the English language is replete with rather unedifying labels, this is because those that came to construct a grammar of English were schooled in the classics and tried to shoe horn Latin and Greek structures into our Germanic based English grammar. This article will try to break those labels down to simplify the concepts.

Tenses are to do with time. The labels that we used are all prefaced with either past, present or future. The second part of the label we use are simple, progressive (U.S) or continuous (UK), perfect and perfect continuous. As we have three time frames and four tense types so we can say that there are 12 active tenses in the English language.

Simple tenses refer to actions that we think of as complete or always true. It is important to realise that the tense that we choose to use is related to how we perceive an action, whether it is complete or in a process or one that has happened over a period of time, maybe making a connection between different time frames.

Continuous or progressive tenses, as the name suggests, are used to describe actions that are not completed but are, were or will be in a continuous state at the point we are talking about. Right now I am writing this article, the article is not finished yet so I use a continuous tense - I am writing.

Perfect tenses are perhaps the most difficult tense to understand and to teach. The Present Perfect connects an action or actions from the past to the present (I have seen that film three times). Past Perfect performs a similar function but from one point in the past to another (I had lived in New York for 15 years) and the future perfect tense connects the present to a point in the future (I will have written this article by 5 o'clock).

Perfect continuous tenses relate to the same time periods as related for the perfect tenses in the last paragraph but with actions that we think about as not completed - I have been writing this article for the last half an hour.

When tenses are taught they are often presented in terms of form and function. The previous paragraphs briefly described the function of tenses i.e what they are used for. The form is how they are built or what patterns they follow.

Tenses are formed from the infinitive verb which is the form you will find in the dictionary. The infinitive does not have anything added to it. It is the base form. Except for irregular verbs we can confidently go through the same form processes for all verbs for all tenses.

Present simple verbs do not change at all from the infinitive except when the subject is he or she or it, where we add an s. So we say 'I speak English' (complete always true action) but 'He speaks French'. When we use the past simple we add 'ed' e.g He walked to the park' ' He kicked the ball'. Unfortunately, a lot of the most common verbs are irregular and change in their own ways for the past simple e.g He saw / I spoke / We wrote etc. The future simple uses 'will' so we have 'I will finish this article.

Continuous or progressive tenses use the verb to be to help form them. These words that help the main verb to form tenses are called auxiliaries. The main verb is formed into the continuous tense by adding -ing onto the infinitive. So we can say ' I am writing', 'He was speaking' and 'They will be playing' all structured by subject + verb to be + verb-ing.

Perfect tenses use 'have' as an auxiliary. So we can say 'I have lived in New York all my life', 'They had played for an hour' and 'We will have finished by this evening' all using the structure - subject + have / had / or will have + past participle. The past participle is known as the third form of the verb. Verbs have an infinitive, a gerund or present participle which the -ing form, a past form usually formed by adding -ed and a past participle - this will be the same as the past form for regular verbs and something different in irregular verbs. Here is an example:

drink - infinitive
drank - past form
drunk - past participle
drinking - gerund or present participle

Finally, the prefect continuous tenses are formed using a combination or have and be as help. So, we say 'I had been waiting for half an hour', 'I have been writing this article for 30 minutes' and 'Next year I will have been working with the company for ten years.' The structure here is subject + have / had or will have + been + verb-ing.

These, then, are the twelve active tenses that exist in English. There are equivalent passive forms and some will give answers other than 12, which have their own logic but for the sake of teaching repeated patterns related to actions 12 seems to have the most power. These forms are further modified when used in the negative sense or when used to make questions. The existence of irregular verbs dilutes the strength of the patterns but there are groups of irregular verbs that have their own family of patterns that they follow. Finding the patterns really is the key to coming to a good understanding of the forms and functions that they employ.