Verbs/Tenses — Activity

You message a friend: ‘I reached Churchgate’, and a minute later: ‘I have reached Churchgate’. The first is a report about a moment in the past; the second tells your friend you are standing there now, ready to meet. Lawyers live on that same difference. ‘The tenant vacated the flat’ and ‘the tenant has vacated the flat’ can point to different facts about who is in possession today. This topic asks one question: how does the form of a verb fix an action in time, and how do you choose the right form every time in the exam?

In two minutes

Tense is the form of the verb that places an action in time — present, past or future — and each of those comes in four aspects (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous), giving twelve forms that say whether an action is a plain fact, in progress, completed before a point, or continuing up to a point.

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