English Verb Tenses Explained: What You Actually Need to Know

Look, if you've been studying English and verb tenses are driving you crazy, you're not alone. Every English learner hits this wall where they're trying to memorize "12 English verb tenses" and wondering why the hell English needs so many ways to talk about time.

Here's what's actually going on.

The Truth About English Verb Tenses

English teachers love to say there are 12 verb tenses. Past simple, past continuous, past perfect, past perfect continuous, present simple, present continuous, present perfect, present perfect continuous... you get the idea. Three time periods (past, present, future) times four "aspects" equals 12 tenses.

But here's the thing—linguists don't actually agree that English has 12 tenses. Technically, English only has two real tenses: past and present. Everything else? We build it using helper verbs like "will," "have," and "be."

That's why "I walked" changes the verb itself (walk → walked), but "I will walk" just adds a word in front. English doesn't conjugate for future tense the way, say, Spanish does.

Does this matter for you as a learner? Not really. The 12-tense system works fine for understanding how English expresses time. Just don't stress if it feels like you're learning a bunch of separate systems—you kind of are.

The Four Aspects That Actually Matter

Forget memorizing all 12 tenses individually. Instead, understand the four aspects. Once you get these, everything else clicks into place.

Simple aspect = completed actions, facts, habits. "I walked to the store." "She studies every day." No fancy helper verbs, just the main verb doing its thing.

Continuous/progressive aspect = ongoing actions. Always uses "be" + verb-ing. "I was walking to the store." "She's studying right now." Use this when the action is in progress, not finished.

Perfect aspect = connecting two time periods. Uses "have/has/had" + past participle. "I have walked to that store before" connects your past experience to now. "She had studied for hours before the test" connects earlier past to later past.

Perfect continuous = duration of an ongoing action. "I have been walking for 20 minutes" (started in the past, still walking). "She had been studying all night" (was ongoing in the past).

Here's what nobody tells you: you'll use simple and continuous aspects constantly. Perfect aspects? They're important, but they're not the daily bread of conversation. And perfect continuous? It exists, but native speakers don't use it that often.

The 95% Rule Nobody Mentions

Research shows that 95% of your English conversations will use just four verb tenses: simple past, simple present, simple future, and present perfect.

That's it. Four out of twelve.

Yes, learn the others eventually. But if you're drowning in grammar rules, focus on these four first. Get comfortable saying "I went," "I go," "I will go," and "I have gone" before worrying about future perfect continuous.

What About the Future?

Here's something weird: English doesn't actually have a future tense verb form. We can't conjugate verbs for future time the way we do for past.

Instead, we use:

Native speakers switch between these naturally based on how definite the future action feels. It's not random—"I will eat dinner" sounds weird compared to "I'm going to eat dinner"—but the rules are more about feeling than strict grammar.

Irregular Verbs Are Just Part of Life

Every English learner hates irregular verbs. Past tense of "walk" is "walked"—great, add -ed, done. But past tense of "go" is "went." Past tense of "run" is "ran." There's no pattern. You just have to know them.

The annoying truth? The most common verbs in English are irregular. "Be," "have," "do," "go," "see," "think," "know"—all irregular. You can't avoid them.

Don't waste time memorizing giant lists. Focus on the irregular verbs you actually encounter in real content. When you're watching shows or reading, you'll naturally start recognizing the patterns (or lack thereof).

Perfect Tenses Trip Everyone Up

Present perfect is probably the hardest tense for most English learners, and here's why: it doesn't translate directly to other languages, even when they have similar-looking forms.

"I have lived here for five years" means you still live here now.

"I lived here for five years" means you don't anymore.

The present perfect connects the past to the present. Use it when:

Common mistake: using present perfect with specific past times. You can't say "I have eaten breakfast this morning" if the morning is over. That's past simple territory: "I ate breakfast this morning."

How to Actually Learn Verb Tenses

Textbook drills suck. You know this already. Filling out conjugation tables doesn't teach you how to use verb tenses naturally.

What works? Seeing verb tenses in context. Lots of context. When you encounter "I've been thinking about that" in a conversation, your brain registers the meaning (continuous thought over time) and the form (have been + -ing) together.

This is why learning from immersion beats traditional grammar study. You need hundreds of examples of each tense used naturally before the patterns stick. And you need to see them in situations where the meaning is clear, so you understand why that tense was chosen.

Spaced repetition helps here too. When you turn examples you've encountered into flashcards, you're reinforcing both the form and the meaning. Not abstract grammar rules—actual sentences you could use.

What Actually Matters for Fluency

Native speakers don't think about verb tenses. They just use them. The goal isn't to consciously know you're using present perfect continuous—it's to automatically reach for the right form when you need it.

That means you need to:

Most English courses focus way too hard on step 1 and skip steps 2-4. Then learners wonder why they "know" the grammar but still make mistakes when speaking.

The problem with textbooks isn't that they're wrong about grammar—it's that they think explaining the rules is the same as teaching you to use them. It's not.

Common Mistakes Even Advanced Learners Make

Using simple present for current actions: "I eat dinner now" sounds robotic. Say "I'm eating dinner now." Simple present is for habits and facts, not the current moment (except with stative verbs like "know" or "understand").

Forgetting about stative verbs: Some verbs don't work in continuous forms. "I'm knowing the answer" is wrong—it's "I know the answer." Stative verbs (know, like, believe, want, understand) describe states, not actions.

Misusing present perfect: If you mention a specific time, use simple past. "I have seen that movie yesterday" is wrong. "I saw that movie yesterday" or "I have seen that movie" (no time specified).

Overcomplicating future forms: You don't need to stress about will vs. going to in casual conversation. Native speakers mix them up all the time. Just avoid using present simple for unscheduled future events—"I go there tomorrow" sounds wrong.

Learn Verb Tenses From Real English

Here's the approach that actually works: stop memorizing conjugation tables and start mining real content.

When you watch English shows, read articles, or listen to podcasts, you're seeing native speakers use different verb tenses naturally. "I should have called you" in a TV drama shows you past modal perfect. "We've been working on this for months" in a news interview demonstrates present perfect continuous.

Your brain picks up these patterns without conscious effort when you see them in meaningful contexts. That's how kids learn their first language, and it's how adults learn most effectively too.

The trick is making this input comprehensible. If you're watching native-level content without support, you'll miss most of the grammar patterns because you're just trying to follow the plot.

That's where Migaku comes in. When you're using the Migaku browser extension to watch English shows or read articles, you get instant lookups for any word or phrase. But more importantly, you can see the sentence structure and verb tenses being used in context.

You're not studying "present perfect continuous" in isolation. You're hearing a character say "I've been thinking about what you said" and understanding both what it means and how it's constructed. Then you can save that sentence to your flashcard deck to reinforce it later.

The mobile app lets you review these sentence cards using spaced repetition, so the verb tenses you encounter in real content get reinforced until they're automatic. No conjugation drills, no grammar tables—just real sentences with real meaning that you'll actually remember.

Plus, when you're learning from content you actually care about—whether that's Netflix shows, YouTube videos, or articles about topics you're interested in—you stay engaged. Grammar stops being this abstract thing you study and becomes something you notice naturally as you consume content.

If you want to master English verb tenses through real usage instead of textbook exercises, give Migaku a shot. There's a 10-day free trial, and you'll start seeing verb tenses in context from day one.