Product Summery
Introduction
Welcome to The English Tenses Exercise Book – a collection of 161 exercises designed to drill the 12 key tenses of English: the past , present and future in their simple , continuous , perfect and perfect ontinuous forms. This book can be used for general, independent practice, though the exercises roughly match the guidelines laid out in The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide .
This book is designed to make you fully comfortable with forming and using the tenses, both on their own and in conjunction with other tenses.Many other excellent grammar guides and exercise books exist, but it is rare that they offer more than one or two exercises on a particular topic.This book does the opposite: the topic is narrow, but the quantity of exercises and number of examples is vast. Some examples repeat similar ideas or themes – this is to reinforce lessons, demonstrate different usage and (in some cases) provide extra continuity or engagement.
As a writer and teacher for over fifteen years, I have devised these exercises and examples with the aim of presenting English in natural use, considering various styles and subjects. You will find everyday sentences and more unusual examples; short stories and non-fiction passages;academic English and business English; and more. Regardless of your level, my hope is that the examples will help familiarise you with the tenses across a broad range of usage. The vocabulary I have chosen is generally at an intermediate level, occasionally using more basic or advanced language, and the majority of verbs come from lists of those most commonly used. The prose exercises particularly aim to present more varied and fluent use of English, and for wider exposure, some examples have been included to demonstrate how a particular tense could be used. Please do complete the book with an accompanying dictionary if necessary and feel free to get in touch if anything is unclear.
And if you find some examples lean towards life in an English seaside town, that reflects my own setting, and the setting for my website, English Lessons Brighton .
How to Use This Book
The exercises in this book primarily concern verb forms, asking you to choose and correctly form the appropriate tense for each sentence.Sentences are either presented in isolated lists or in prose format. Instructions are given for each exercise as to the tense or tenses being tested,
usually indicated in bold .
These exercises usually provide a space for you to fill in the correct tense. The information in brackets lets you know which verb to use and whether any additional words are necessary, such as a subject or adverbs. The spaces are standard sizes depending on the exercise and do not specifically indicate how long the answer should be.
The book is organised into two main sections, Tense Forms and Tenses in Use . These are divided into groups covering the past , present and future tenses, and each also contains mixed tense exercises. Within each grouping, you will find more basic list exercises and more complex prose exercises for comparative use. You may complete the exercises in any order you choose, but be aware that the book becomes more complex as it builds to more comparative use at the end of each section, particularly with the mixed tenses exercises. To present more natural use, there are occasional passive or modal examples to demonstrate wider contexts of the tenses. An additional section, Infinitives and Participles , is included at the back to specifically drill understanding of the verb forms that help complete the more complicated tenses.
You can complete these exercises mentally, but I recommend writing your answers on a piece of paper or in a notebook so that you can check them against the answers. The links at the bottom of each exercise will take you directly to the answers for that exercise, where you will also find links to go back to the exercise. A full list of exercises can be found at the back, if you wish to quickly find a particular topic.
The answers usually demonstrate complete correct sentences. Corrected sentences are shown in italics , occasional highlighted form changes are shown in bold and additional information is given in (brackets).
I hope you will enjoy these exercises and find them educational – now let’s get started!