Tenses
Present Continuous Tense (I am Doing)
Hi there, Q. Can you guess what I am doing right now? That is right; I am teaching you the English Language.
What am I doing right now?
✅ I am teaching you the English Language.
❌ I taught you the English Language.
❌ I teach you the English Language.
❌ I have taught you the English Language.
When describing events that are happening right now, you use a present participle.
A present participle is a verb that ends in –ing. Examples of present participles are doing, running, clicking, showering, and reading.
Present participles describe events happening right now. They can be very useful in creating efficient sentences. Here are some examples of sentences that we can combine by using present participles.
📎 Rutendo is in the classroom. 📎There is a class test going on right now.
🖇️ Rutendo is writing a test.
📎 The CubeSat is in the NASA rocket. 📎There is a space launch happening right now.
🖇️ The CubeSat is going into space.
📎 There are people on the bus. 📎 The bus is on fire.
🖇️ People are burning in the fire.
You can expand the present not mean different periods than just the present moment. You do that using words such as today, this week, or, this year.
✅ I am writing my O’Levels this year.
✅ Nkoloso is working hard today.
Present Perfect
Can you guess what I do for a living? Well, I write articles as a freelancer for a European company. I will tell you more about this some other time. In this section, you will learn to use simple active verbs to express the behavior of something.
What do I do?
❌ I am teaching you the English Language.
❌ I taught you the English Language.
✅ I teach you the English Language.
❌ I have taught you the English Language.
When describing a behavior or habit, you use an active verb.
An active verb is a “doing word” or a word that shows action.
Active verbs are concise (simple and to the point) and forceful. You will understand more about active verbs when we study active versus passive verbs.
✅ I cannot fight her charm. She drives me crazy.
✅ I write poems for a living. I get a decent income from it.
✅ Shumba’s playful attitude towards school angers me.
I want us to review the previous two sections. Do you remember what they were about? That’s right: “Present Continuous” and “Present Simple”, respectively.
Respectively
We use the word “respectively” to say that a list is ordered. A good example is, “Present Continuous” and “Present Simple”, respectively. The word respectively means that you studied the sections in the given order: “Present Continuous” first and then “Present Simple”.
Here are some differences between Present Simple and Present Continuous.
| Present Continuous | Present Simple |
| For things happening right now. | For behaviours or general things that happen all the time. |
| ✅ The prisoner is escaping. I am alerting prison security. | ✅ When a prisoner escapes, you alert prison security. |
| ✅ The new Samsung S23 phone is selling very well. | ✅ Samsung phones sell very well in the Asian market. |
| ✅ His lawyer is saying Ms. Tariro acted in bad faith. | ✅ Ms. Tariro is a dishonest person |
Past Simple (I did) and Past Continuous (I was doing)
What did I do in the previous section?
❌ I am teaching you the English Language.
✅ I taught you the English Language.
❌ I teach you the English Language.
❌ I have taught you the English Language.
When describing past events, use past tense.
Past tenses are words that describe an earlier event.
✅ I could not fight her charm. She drove me crazy.
✅ He wrote poems for a living. He got a decent income from it.
✅ Shumba’s playful attitude towards school angered his teacher.
Past continuous verbs explain an earlier action.
What was I doing yesterday at noon?
✅ I was replying to an email.
❌ I replied to an email.
❌ I reply to an email.
❌ I have replied to an email
“…replying to…”
When using the verb “reply”, always use the preposition “to”. Students who learn the English Language after learning Shona or Ndebele often struggle with this.
When describing past actions, you may use past continuous tenses.
Past continuous verbs explain an earlier action.
✅ I was rallying behind the Black Lives Matter campaign when the news broke.
✅ Tonde was researching a computer code for sorting words by their lengths.
✅ Emily was playing Minecraft when the power went off last night.
Present Perfect
Have I mentioned that I was a schoolteacher? Well, I taught at a government school for three months. I loved my work. The students were interesting and engaged and other teachers were very supportive. Maybe I will tell you more about that sometime. For now, imagine an inspector entering my class as I teach my students. If the inspector asks me the following question. How best should I respond?
What have you been teaching the students?
❌ I am teaching them the English Language.
❌ I taught them the English Language.
✅ I have been teaching them the English Language.
❌ I have taught them the English Language.
My response is in the present perfect continuous tense. You need not know the various tenses that we have discussed. Just make sure you understand when the tenses apply.
Present Perfect Continuous (I have been doing).
✅ I have been drinking alcohol. It sure is a bad habit. My head has been spinning since morning.
✅ She has been practicing playing the piano. You should come to watch her play at Albert’s birthday event.
✅ They have been working hard since the inspector came. The place looks terrific and the customer service is exceptional.
Have I mentioned that I was a school teacher? Well, I taught at a government school for three months. I loved my work. The students were interesting and engaged and other teachers were very supportive. Maybe I will tell you more about that sometime. For now, imagine an inspector entering my class as I teach my students. If the inspector asks me the following question. How best should I respond?
What have you been teaching the students?
❌ I am teaching them the English Language.
❌ I taught them the English Language.
✅ I have been teaching them the English Language.
❌ I have taught them the English Language.
My response is in the present perfect continuous tense. You need not know the various tenses that we have discussed. Just make sure you understand when the tenses apply.
Present Perfect Continuous (I have been doing).
✅ I have been drinking alcohol. It sure is a bad habit. My head has been spinning since morning.
✅ She has been practicing playing the piano. You should come to watch her play at Albert’s birthday event.
✅ They have been working hard since the inspector came. The place looks terrific and the customer service is exceptional.
Consistency
When telling a story, using consistent tenses is important. Here is an example.
✅ I woke up this morning. I got out of bed. After that, I went to the kitchen to make breakfast.
The paragraph consistently uses the past tense. Consistent tenses are especially useful for bunched-together events or thoughts. In the example, the three sentences explain my morning routine.
“Morning Routine.”
A morning routine is a set of activities that you do in the morning. What is your morning routine?
Imagine the paragraph had been as follows:
❌ I wake up this morning. I got out of bed. After that, I went to the kitchen to make breakfast.
The first sentence is in the present tense but the second and third sentences are in the past tense. The tenses are inconsistent, making the paragraph incorrect.
Exceptions
Sometimes, switching up the tenses is useful for storytelling. In fact, when you become an experienced writer, you will realize that switching up the tenses often leads to powerful narratives. Here is an example and explanation.
✅ The sun was shining brightly in the morning. I walked to school. In ten minutes, I will be starting my classwork.
The sentences have different tenses. However, the paragraph is consistent and correct because the storytelling does not break.
Exercises
The following exercises teach you to identify consistent (correct) and inconsistent (incorrect) paragraphs. Study each paragraph well and choose the proper answers. Note that you require a 90% or 100% score on each exercise to unlock the next.