English Language · Lesson 8

Tenses, verb forms & sequence of tenses

JAMBWAECNECO

What the syllabus asks

JAMB: Sentence structure: tense, mood, aspect, irregular verbs, sequence of tenses

WAEC: Structure: tenses, verb forms, concord of tense, sequence of tenses, auxiliaries and modals

NECO: Structure: tenses, verb forms, concord of tense, sequence of tenses, auxiliaries and modals

What you will learn

Name and form the twelve tense forms of English.
Choose correctly between the simple past and the present perfect.
Use the past participle of common irregular verbs correctly.
Apply the sequence of tenses, including its exceptions.
Use auxiliaries and modals with the correct verb form.
Answer JAMB and WAEC tense questions quickly and accurately.

Key points

Tense shows time; aspect shows simple, continuous, perfect or perfect continuous: 12 forms in all.
Stative verbs (know, believe, own, belong) are not used in the continuous.
Past perfect marks the earlier of two past actions.
Definite past time → simple past; unfinished period or no stated time → present perfect.
Learn irregular parts: drink–drank–drunk, ring–rang–rung, lie–lay–lain, lay–laid–laid, hang–hanged (people).
After do/does/did and modals use the base form; after have/has/had the past participle.
Past main verb → past in the clause (will → would), except universal truths.
Conditionals: zero, first, second, third; "If I were", "It is high time we left".

Start here: What tense really means

Every time you speak, you place events in time. "I eat", "I ate" and "I will eat" tell your listener whether the meal is now, finished, or still to come. The form of the verb that carries this time information is called tense.

English grammar books describe two things together. Tense tells us the time: past, present or future. Aspect tells us how the action is viewed: as a simple fact, as something in progress (continuous), as something completed before a point (perfect), or as something that has been going on up to a point (perfect continuous). Three times multiplied by four aspects gives the twelve tense forms you see in the infographic.

Tense = time (past, present, future)
Aspect = how the action is viewed (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous)

Strictly speaking, English verbs change their own form only for present and past (walk/walked). The future is made with helpers such as will or shall. But for the exam it is simplest to talk about "future tense", and WAEC and JAMB do the same.

Why do examiners love tense questions? Because Nigerian speakers often carry over habits from home languages, where time may be shown by a separate word rather than a change in the verb. In Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa a speaker might add a word for "already" or "yesterday" and leave the verb unchanged. In English the verb itself must change, and the examiner checks that you know exactly how.

Worked example 8.1

Identify the time and aspect: "By December, Musa will have saved ₦50,000."

"will" points to the future.
"have saved" (have + past participle) is the perfect aspect: the saving will be complete before December.
So this is the future perfect.

Future perfect

Try it yourself. Name the tense: "The girls were dancing when the lights went off."

Show solution

"were dancing" is the past continuous (was/were + -ing); "went" is the simple past.

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Practice questions

1. Choose the option that best completes the sentence: By the time the guests arrived, we ___ the hall.

had decorated
have decorated
decorate
will decorate

Show answer

A: had decorated
Past perfect shows the earlier of two past actions.

2. Choose the correct option: She ___ in Abuja since 2019.

lived
is living
lives
has lived

Show answer

D: has lived
Present perfect with "since" for a state continuing to now.

3. Choose the correct option: If it rains tomorrow, the match ___ postponed.

was
had been
will be
would be

Show answer

C: will be
First conditional: if + present, will + verb.

4. Choose the correct option: The bell ___ before we reached the gate.

rings
had rung
has rung
rang already has

Show answer

B: had rung
Past perfect for the earlier past action.

5. Choose the correct past tense: Yesterday the boy ___ the ball over the fence.

threw
throwed
thrown
throw

Show answer

A: threw
"Throw" is irregular: throw, threw, thrown.

Key words

Tense: The form of a verb that shows the time of an action.
Aspect: Whether an action is complete, ongoing or habitual (simple, continuous, perfect).
Base form: The verb as it appears in the dictionary: go, write.
Past participle: The form used after has/have/had and in passives: gone, written.
Present participle: The -ing form: going, writing.
Regular verb: A verb that forms its past with -ed: walk, walked.
Irregular verb: A verb with an unusual past form: sing, sang, sung.
Auxiliary verb: A helping verb: be, have, do.
Modal verb: A helping verb that shows ability, permission, obligation or possibility: can, must, may.
Bare infinitive: The base form without "to": "She must go".
Sequence of tenses: The rule that verbs in a sentence agree in time with the main verb.
Stative verb: A verb describing a state, not an action: know, love, own; rarely used in the continuous.

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