Verb Tenses and Aspects Overview

(TESOL Worksheets--Teacher Training, Verb Tenses)

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[Notes: This is something I designed when I was working in teacher training to help new teachers get their heads around the tense, aspect and voice system.  It could also be used for students.] 

aspect	voice	infinitive	past tense	present tense	future (tense?)
simple	active	to eat	he ate pizza	he eats pizza	he will eat pizza
	passive	to be eaten	pizza was eaten	pizza is eaten	pizza will be eaten
continuous	active	to be eating	he was eating pizza	he is eating pizza	he will be eating pizza
	passive	to be being eaten	pizza was being eaten	pizza is being eaten	pizza will be being eaten
perfect	active	to have eaten	he had eaten pizza	he has eaten pizza	he will have eaten pizza
	passive	to have been eaten	pizza had been eaten	pizza has been eaten	pizza will have been eaten
perfect continuous	active	to have been eating	he had been eating pizza	he has been eating pizza	he will have been eating pizza
	passive	to have been being eaten	pizza had been being eaten	pizza has been being eaten	pizza will have been being eaten

Notes:
* Not all verbs have a passive voice.  Only verbs which have direct objects can be put in the passive.  For example, “I eat pizza” has a passive equivalent, but not “I sleep” or “I walk”
* Some linguists argue that English has no future tense, because the so-called “future simple” does not have its own verb form, but rather “modal verb + base form”.  However the terminology differs from one grammar book to another, and some grammar books do refer to a future tense. 
* Some of these verb structures, while technically possible, are extremely rare.  For example, a native speaker is unlikely to ever use the present perfect continuous passive (“has been being eaten”).  However, all the forms are included in this table to help illustrate the patterns of inflection.
* Infinitive structures are not considered tenses because they exist outside of time.  (Hence the name infinitive, meaning non-finite).  For example, notice how the infinitive structure does not change in these sentences even though the time reference does:
He wants to eat pizza.
He wanted to eat pizza.
He will want to eat pizza.
* Aspects can also be put into the infinitive.  For example, someone once said to a friend of mine, “You don’t want to travel, you want to have travelled.”  Meaning, she wanted to have travel stories to tell at dinner parties, but she didn’t enjoy the experience of actually travelling itself.