30 Advanced Verb Tenses
Now we’ve mastered the different pieces that we need to understand in order to discuss some more advanced tenses. These advanced tenses were mentioned briefly in Helping Verbs, and they came up again in Participles. These forms are created with different forms of to be and to have:
- He had eaten everything by the time we got there.
- She is waiting for us to get there!
- He will have broken it by next Thursday, you can be sure.
- She was singing for eight hours.
When you combine a form of to be with the present participle, you create a continuous tense; these tenses indicate a sense of continuity. The subject of the sentence was (or is, or will be) doing that thing for awhile.
- Present: is working
- Past: was working
- Future: will be working (You can also say “is going to be working.”)
Practice
Convert these sentences from simple tenses to continuous tenses:
- Ivone wrote a collection of short stories entitled Vidas Vividas.
- As a pilot, Sara will fly a lot of cross-country flights.
- Zachi reads all of the latest articles on archeology.
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Show Answer
- The past continuous is was + present participle, so the correct sentence is
- Ivone was writing a collection of short stories entitled Vidas Vividas.
- The future continuous is either will be + present participle or is going to be + present participle:
- As a pilot, Sara will be flying a lot of cross-country flights.
- As a pilot, Sara is going to be flying a lot of cross-country flights.
- The present continuous is is + present participle, so the correct sentence is:
- Zachi is reading all of the latest articles on archeology.
When you combine a form of to have with the past participle of a verb, you create a perfect tense; these tenses indicate a sense of completion. This thing had been done for a while (or has been, or will have been).
- Present: has worked
- Past: had worked
- Future: will have worked
Practice
Convert these sentences from simple tenses to perfect tenses:
- Ivone wrote a collection of short stories entitled Vidas Vividas.
- As a pilot, Sara will fly a lot of cross-country flights.
- Zachi reads all of the latest articles on archeology.
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Show Answer
- The past perfect is had + past participle:
- Ivone had written a collection of short stories entitled Vidas Vividas.
- The future perfect is will have + past participle:
- As a pilot, Sara will have flown a lot of cross-country flights.
- The present perfect is has + past participle:
- Zachi has read all of the latest articles on archeology.
You can also use these together. To have must always appear first, followed by the past participle been. The present participle of any verb can then follow. These perfect continuous tenses indicate that the verb started in the past, and is still continuing:
- Present: has been working
- Past: had been working
- Future: will have been working
Practice
Convert these sentences from simple tenses to perfect continuous tenses:
- Ivone wrote a collection of short stories entitled Vidas Vividas.
- As a pilot, Sara will fly a lot of cross-country flights.
- Zachi reads all of the latest articles on archeology.
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Show Answer
- The past perfect continuous is had been + present participle:
- Ivone had been writing a collection of short stories entitled Vidas Vividas.
- The future perfect continuous is will have been + present participle:
- As a pilot, Sara will have been flying a lot of cross-country flights.
- The present perfect continuous is has been + present participle:
- Zachi has been reading all of the latest articles on archeology.
Sometimes these verb tenses can be split by adverbs: “Zachi has been studiously reading all of the latest articles on archeology.”
Now that we’ve learned about how we create each of these tenses, let’s practice using them. In this exercise, you will be asked to create some original writing. As you do so, use both simple and complex verb tenses.
Practice
Look at the following schedule for a Writer’s Workshop. Write a passage about the schedule as if it were Tuesday at 12:30.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 | Check-In | Genre Speakers | Meet Editors/Agents |
| 11:00 | Group Orientation | Genre Speakers | |
| 12:00 | Lunch | Lunch | Check-Out |
| 1:00 | Peer-to-Peer Critique | Professional Critiques | |
| 2:00 | |||
| 3:00 | Key-Note Speaker |
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Show Answer
While there are an infinite number of passages you could write, compare the tenses in your passage to ours:
This Writer’s Workshop has been going since yesterday. This morning, several genre speakers talked about the quirks of their genres. By the time attendees heard these talks, they had completed their peer-to-peer critiques, and were ready to learn more specific things about the genre they aspire to write in. After lunch today, each attendee will meet with a professional for a critique of the work. When that has finished, the key-note speaker will give an address. Tomorrow there will be a meet and greet with editors and agents. By noon tomorrow, the workshop will have ended.