English verb forms
How do we form the different English verb forms?
The structure of the different verb forms is the easiest part of English grammar.
Essentially there are two categories of verb forms:
- Active verb forms
- Passive verb forms
and within these categories there are the sub-categories:
- Simple verb forms
- Continuous verb forms
- Perfect verb forms
- Present verb forms
- Past verb forms
- Future verb forms
- Conditional verb forms
Each of these categories have certain fixed elements:
-
Passive verb forms use:
Be + past participle (of principal verb)
So the Present Passive Simple uses the present of the verb to be and the past participle of the main verb:
Ferrari cars are made in Italy
-
Continuous verb forms use:
Be + verb + ing
In this case the Past Continuous uses the past of the verb to be and the main verb with the termination ing :
At six o’clock this afternoon the sun was shining
-
Perfect verb forms use:
have + past participle of main verb
In this case the Past Perfect uses the past of the verb to have and the past participle of the main verb:
– When we arrived at the cinema the film had started.