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Exercises - Past simple or past continuous?

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Exercises - Past simple or past continuous?

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Written explanation of conditionals 0, 1, and 2

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Written explanation of conditionals 0, 1, and 2

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ALL CONDITIONALS | 0,1,2,3 and MIXED CONDITIONALS - English Grammar | if....

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English Grammar

Conditional sentences have two parts: the if-clause and the main clause.

Example sentence: If it rains, I will cancel the trip.

If it rains is the if-clause and I will cancel the trip is the main clause.

The IF-clause introduces a condition. The main clause is the result of that condition.

What happens in the main clause is conditional to what happens in the if-clause. In other words the main clause only happens when the events in the if-clause happen.

There are 4 main types of conditional clauses (if-clauses)...

Conditionals Summary Chart

As you can see, each type of conditional has its own combination of tense used in the if-clause and tense used the main clause. These different pairings of tenses give each type of conditional its own meaning.

Other types of conditional clauses

Now, these four types of conditional clauses are the traditional ones though there are OTHER types of conditional clauses.

IF + PRESENT SIMPLE, ...+ IMPERATIVE

We use the imperative to give instructions of advice.

If you see John, tell him he needs to come to my office.

If you travel abroad, remember your passport

If you go to Australia, send me a postcard.

If you go to the supermarket, bring back some milk.

If Mike comes, call me.

If you drink, don't drive.

The highlighted words are in the imperative. These sentences are similar to saying: If the first condition happens, you must do this (in the second/imperative clause).

Next activity

See our grammar notes about the following:

We also have this lesson about an Introduction to conditionals - If clauses.

If you found this grammar guide about Conditionals in English useful, let others know about it:

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Conditionals and IF clauses - English Grammar

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Conditionals in English with examples and a summary chart

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Explanations and examples for future tenses

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Explanations and examples for future tenses

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Need to know: "Will/going to" and future continuous tense

Do not need to know yet: Future perfect tenses

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What Is the Future Tense? (with Examples)

The future tense is a verb tense used for a future activity or a future state of being. For example:

I will jump in the lake.

I will be happy.
(This is a future state of being.)

Table of Contents

The Four Future Tenses Explained

Simple Future Tense

Examples of the Simple Future Tense

Future Progressive Tense

Examples of the Future Progressive Tense

Future Perfect Tense

Examples of the Future Perfect Tense

Future Perfect Progressive Tense

Examples of the Future Perfect Progressive Tense

Interactive Verb Conjugation Tables

Video Lesson

Printable Test

The Four Future Tenses Explained

The future tense is categorized further depending on whether the action will be in progress or will be completed (called the aspect of a verb). The four future tenses are:

Simple Future Tense

Here is an infographic summarizing the simple future tense.

Examples of the Simple Future Tense

I will play after breakfast.

Susan will not go to Germany.

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. (Greek biographer Plutarch)

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later. (Author Og Mandino)

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. (Physicist Albert Einstein)

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea. (Robert A Heinlein)

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. (Activist Martin Luther King Jr)

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. (Chinese philosophe Confucius)
( Have to is known as a modal auxiliary verb. Like must, it is used to express obligation.)
Happiness is your dentist telling you it won't hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill. (Producer Johnny Carson)
(Remember that won't is a contraction of will not and is often used to form the simple future tense.
I won't be a rock star. I will be a legend. (Singer Freddie Mercury)

Read more about the simple future tense.
Future Progressive Tense

Here is an infographic summarizing the future progressive tense.

Examples of the Future Progressive Tense

I will be playing for an hour.

Will I be spending too much money if I buy the newer model?

He will be fighting his way to the boxing championship.

Always be nice to those younger than you because they are the ones who will be writing about you.

In September, we will be enjoying all the fruit we planted last March.

Those who are laughing now will be crying later.

Soon I will be doing what I love again. (Guitarist Vinnie Vincent)

I'll be performing at 80 years old. Music is like fashion - it changes. But some things will always be the same. (Singer Toni Braxton)
(Remember that I'll is a contraction of I will.)
Every breath you take. Every move you make. Every bond you break. Every step you take, I'll be watching you. (Singer Sting)

She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes.
( She'll is a contraction of she will.)
She'll be riding six white horses when she comes.

The next time you see a spider's web, please pause and look a little closer. You'll be seeing one of the most high-performance materials known to man. (Biologist Cheryl Hayashi)
( You'll is a contraction of you will.)
In my case, there's no revolving door. I won't be going back to government. (Politician Mary Schapiro)
( Won't is a contraction of will not.)
Read more about the future progressive tense.
Future Perfect Tense

Here is an infographic summarizing the future perfect tense.

Examples of the Future Perfect Tense

I will have played by breakfast.

By September, Jenny will have taken over that role.

Will you have graduated by this time next year?

I hope that, when I leave this planet, I will have touched a few people in a positive way. (Actor Will Rothhaar)

The rain will not have stopped before the competition starts.

You won't have sold a single car by tomorrow if you stay here.
( Won't is a contraction of will not.)
Read more about the future perfect tense.
Future Perfect Progressive Tense

Here is an infographic summarizing the future perfect progressive tense.

Examples of the Future Perfect Progressive Tense

I will have been playing for 2 hours by breakfast.

By the time the boat arrives, they will have been living without proper food for two weeks.

Shops that will have been running for three or two years by then will have to close down.

They will have been driving for ten hours by the time they arrive in Scotland.

If it rains again tomorrow, then it will have been raining for three days.

He will be agitated when he arrives because he will have been working for ten hours.

When you are promoted next year, how long will you have been working on the factory floor?

You will not have been waiting for over an hour when the taxi arrives. That's not true.

Read more about the future perfect progressive tense. The tables below show all 12 tenses so you can see the past progressive tense among the other tenses. (You can change the verb by clicking one of the green buttons.)
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The future tense is the verb tense used to describe a future event or state of being. The four future tenses are the simple future tense, the future progressive tense, the future perfect tense, and the future perfect progressive tense. This page contains examples of the future tense and has an interactive and printable exercise worksheet.

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Explanations and examples for past tenses

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Explanations and examples for past tenses

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What Is the Past Tense? (with Examples)
The past tense is a verb tense used for a past activity or a past state of being. For example:

I jumped in the lake.

I was happy.
(This is a past state of being.)
The tense of a verb is determined by when the action took place. The three main tenses are:
Examples of the Types of Past Tenses
The past tense is categorized further depending on whether the action was in progress or has been completed. The four past tenses are:

The 4 Past Tenses

Examples

Uses

More about the Four Past Tenses
Below are more examples of the four past tenses. There is also an infographic for each one showing how it is formed and used.
Simple Past Tense
Here is an infographic summarizing the simple past tense.

Examples of the Simple Past Tense

I played when I was younger.

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. (Italian sculptor Michelangelo)

Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing. (Actor and comedian Robert Benchley)

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do. (French writer Voltaire)

I wanted to buy a candle holder, but the store didn't have one. So I got a cake. (Comedian Mitch Hedberg)

I have never played a hero before so I jumped at the chance. (Actor Adrian Edmondson)

My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.

Read more about the simple past tense (including how to form the negative version with did not).
Past Progressive Tense
Here is an infographic summarizing the past progressive tense.

Examples of the Past Progressive Tense
+

I was playing for an hour.

I was falling asleep when the phone rang.

We were preparing a picnic, and then it started to rain.

I feel like I sort of missed the eighties. At the time, we didn't know we were having fun, which is probably the way it always is. (Novelist Tama Janowitz)

She was seeing a psychiatrist, two plumbers, and a bartender. (Comedian Rodney Dangerfield)

I told my therapist I was having nightmares about nuclear explosions. He said don't worry it's not the end of the world. (Comedian Jay London)

I have an idea that the phrase 'weaker sex' was coined by some woman to disarm the man she was preparing to overwhelm. (Poet Ogden Nash)

I was having trouble making ends meet, and my beginnings weren't meeting either. (Author Allan Sherman)

Read more about the past progressive tense.
Past Perfect Tense
Here is an infographic summarizing the past perfect tense.

Examples of the Past Perfect Tense
+

I had played already.

I had crossed the line. I was free, but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land. (Political activist Harriet Tubman)

I had seen birth and death but had thought they were different. (Poet T S Eliot)

There are so many things that we wish we had done yesterday, so few that we feel like doing today. (Journalist Mignon McLaughlin)

I phoned my dad to tell him I had stopped smoking. He called me a quitter.

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.

If we had had more time for discussion we should probably have made a great many more mistakes. (Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky)

What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner. (Author Sidonie Gabrielle Colette)

I had always seen myself as a star; I wanted to be a galaxy. (Dancer Twyla Tharp)
(Note that adverbs (here, always can appear in the middle of the verb chain.)
Read more about the past perfect tense.
Past Perfect Progressive Tense
Here is an infographic summarizing the past perfect tense.

Examples of the Past Perfect Progressive Tense
+

I had been playing since I was ten.

I had been weeding my garden for weeks, but I just surrendered to the weeds in the end.

The jury had been considering its verdict for several hours when the judge effectively ordered them to find Jones guilty.

I was coming home from kindergarten. Well, they told me it was kindergarten. I found out later I had been working in a factory for ten years. (Comedian Ellen DeGeneres)

I had been writing fiction since I was in eighth grade, because I loved it. (Author Thomas Perry)

I thought that I was learning how to live, but I had been learning how to die. (Polymath Leonardo da Vinci)

Even though I had been boxing for three years, I had no idea that I could beat somebody in the ring.

Many people had been asking me to write an autobiography. I thought I'd better tell my story before other people told it for me. (Comedian Michael Palin)

It was funny to read a script that was so similar to what had been going on in my life. (Actress Piper Perabo)

I'd been shouting and shouting and no one wanted to hear me. (Singer Brenda Fassie)

Read more about the past perfect progressive tense.
Verb Tense Widget
Use this widget to learn about the different tenses. How do you use this widget? Well, if there's a button, a drop-down menu, or a , then you can click it!

Select the tenses.

Present Tenses

Past Tenses

Future Tenses

Slider Showing All the Tenses
The following slider shows all 12 tenses. All the past tenses are highlighted with a yellow background.

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The past tense is the verb tense used for a past activity or a past state of being. The past tense is categorized further depending on whether the action was in progress or has been completed. The four past tenses are the simple past tense, the past progressive tense, the past perfect tense, and the past perfect progressive tense.

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Grading criteria for the speaking and writing sections on the exma

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Grading criteria for the speaking and writing sections on the exma

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Teorija, uzdevumi un testi priekšmetā Eksāmens angļu valodā.

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Exercises Explanation Downloads

Third conditional - past unreal situations

Exercise 1

Choose the correct form to make third conditional sentences.

Third conditional - Grammar Chart

If clause and main clause

We use if + past perfect to talk about an imaginary or hypothetical situation in the past. And we use would have, could have or might have + past participle in the main clauseto talk about the result or consequence of that imaginary situation.

If the jacket had been a bit cheaper, I might have bought it.

Comma

As with all conditional types, we use a comma after the if-clause when it goes at the beginning of the sentence, but we don't use a comma when the if-clause goes at the end.

Unless

We can also use unless in conditional sentences to mean if ... ( not)

I wouldn't have arrived on time unless I had taken a taxi.

= I wouldn't have arrived on time had if I n't taken a taxi.

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Third conditional - past unreal situations - Test-English

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Third conditional - past unreal situations. If I had done ... I would have. Imagined situations in the past. English intermediate grammar exercises.

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Exercises - Past perfect simple or  past perfect continuous?

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Exercises - Past perfect simple or  past perfect continuous?

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Past Tenses - Exercise 1 | English Grammar Online

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English Grammar Exercise - Past Tenses — Exercise 1|Choose Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, or Past Perfect Continuous to fill in the gaps.