In this lesson we are going to look at the three different structures that determine the meaning of a sentence: positive, negative, and question. In English, as in many languages, the order of the different types of words in a sentence is important. This structure determines the meaning of the sentence.

Now pay attention, because this is probably the most important thing you will learn in this course. These three easy structures are the same for any verb, in any tense. This is the framework that all communication in English is based on!

Tense is one of the most confusing parts of language. Tense is what makes verbs so much harder to learn and to use than nouns. For people learning English, tense is one of the biggest challenges, because English does tense in a way that is very different from some other languages. But the way English uses tense actually does make sense, and it follows a few simple rules. If you can understand these rules, tense becomes a lot easier. Even the most complicated tenses will make more sense.

In our last lesson, we learned that tense answers the question “When does the action happen?” In this lesson, we are going to ask how do we form tense? We are going to talk about how the key to forming tense is in the auxiliary verb and not in the main verb.

The present continuous tense is one of the most common tenses in English and it is easy to learn. It will serve as our model tense for the rest of the course and because it demonstrates all our core ideas perfectly.

The past continuous is a very easy tense to form and use. It follows the pattern exactly and is very similar to the present continuous. It is never irregular itself, though it does use “be” as its auxiliary verb, which is very irregular.

Like the other continuous tenses, the future continuous is never irregular. But with the future continuous, there is an extra positive benefit. You don’t even have to worry about the different forms of the verb “to be,” which is normally very irregular. The future continuous always uses the base form, just “be.” Even though the future continuous sounds like it ought to be a challenge, this actually makes it one of the easiest tenses to form and use.

Now that we have covered all the tenses with the continuous type of action, we are going to start looking at the perfect type of action more closely. Perfect tenses can be tricky, and many people learning English find them the most difficult tenses to understand. The Present Perfect is especially hard because it is used in several different ways and because it isn’t used the same way in many other languages, which makes it difficult to translate. However, by peeling back the layers and using the core ideas we’ve been talking about in this course, we can make the Present Perfect tense make sense.

Now that we have introduced the Present Perfect tense, we can talk about the other tenses of the perfect type of action. All the perfect tenses are very similar, and share the quirks of the Present Perfect tense.

For the Past Perfect, the action of the verb is already finished in the past moment we are talking about, so the action must have been even further in the past.

I this lesson we will look at the Future Perfect tense, what it means and how it is formed. It is a Perfect tense so we know that it refers to an action that is finished and we are focusing on how that affects the time of action, in this case a moment in the future. As it is a future tense it will, like the future continuous use the extra auxiliary verb "will".

The present simple actually has some of the biggest exceptions to the rules. Now that we understand the rules from previous lessons, you will see what I mean.

The Past Simple tense is a tense that can be frustrating because it can be irregular with some verbs, but it is one of the most common tenses in English. Fortunately, with the understanding we’ve gained from peeling back the layers of complexity, we’ll be able to use the Past Simple quite easily.

The Future Simple tense is one of the easiest tenses to both form and use. It will be a good tense to wrap up with, demonstrating how our core ideas really do make tense make sense.