Tenses Guide English Tenses Guide 1. What is a Tense? Tense shows when an action happens (present / past / future) and its aspect (simple / continuous / perfect / perfect continuous) — whether it’s routine, ongoing, completed, or continuing. 2. Verb Forms You Must Know V1 = base form (do, go, eat, play) V2 = past simple (did, went, ate, played) V3 = past participle (done, gone, eaten, played) V-ing = present participle / -ing form (doing, going, eating, playing) Auxiliaries: be (am / is / are / was / were), have (have / has / had), will (future), do / does / did (used for simple tense negatives/questions)