English Grammar Cheat Sheet: Tenses, Reported Speech, and Modal Verbs

English Grammar Cheat Sheet

Tenses

Future Simple

Will + verb (future prediction, spontaneous decision, future events in a timetable)

Be Going To

Am/is/are + going to + verb (future plan, prediction based on present evidence: tomorrow, this evening, in an hour, at 7 o'clock, later, next week/month, soon, in a few minutes, in the future, on June 3rd)

Future Continuous

Will + be + verb + -ing (at this time tomorrow, next..., on Monday, in the next decade)

Future Perfect Simple

Will + have + past participle (by this time next week, by 2 o'clock, by the end of..., by then, by July, in five months)

Present Perfect Simple

Have/has + past participle (never, ever, already, just, yet, recently, lately, in recent years, for, since, How long...?)

Past Perfect Simple

Had + past participle (already, by the time, after, before, until, never, just, when, as soon as)

Present Perfect Continuous

Have/has + been + verb + -ing (for a month, year, since 2004, all night, morning, day, week, How long?)

Past Perfect Continuous

Had + been + verb + -ing (for hours, since last March, all night/morning/day/week, when, until, before)

Reported Speech (say, tell, add, admit, answer, reply, explain, observe)

• "I am writing" - was writing
• "I write" - I wrote
• "I have written" - I had written
• "I wrote" - I had written
• "I will write" - I would write
• "I must write" - I had to write
• "I should write" - I should/had to write
• "I can write" - I could write

Verbs

Questions:

• Asked, wondered, wanted to know
• "Do you live in BCN?" - She asked if I lived in Barcelona.
• "What time is it?" - She asked what time it was.
• "What do you study?" - He asked what I studied.

Commands:

• Ordered, advised, wanted, warned, told, offered + me to + infinitive
• "Study!" - She ordered/told me to study.
• "Don't leave!" - She ordered me not to leave.

Suggestions:

• "You should study" - She suggested/recommended studying.

Expressions:

• Next year - following year
• Here - there
• Today/tonight - that day/night
• Tomorrow - the following day
• Yesterday - the day before
• This - that
• These - those
• The last night - the previous night
• Your - their
• Now - then
• A week/month ago - the week/month before

Modal Verbs

• Can (ability, request, or possibility)
• Can't (strong disbelief, prohibition)
• Could (past of can, ability, possibility, polite request)
• Be able to (ability, possibility)
• Must (obligation, strong belief)
• Mustn't (prohibition)
• Have to/need to (necessity, obligation)
• Don't have to/needn't (lack of necessity - not necessary)
• Should/ought to (advice)
• May/might (possibility)
• May (polite requests, permission - "May I..."?)

Modal Perfects

• Should have (regret after an event)
• Could have (you could have done it, but you didn't)
• Couldn't have (certainty that something is not true)
• May/might have (possibility that something is true)
• Must have (certainty that something is true)
• Would have (could have flown with that airline, but didn't)

Notes:

• Should = ought to
• Able to = could
• Could = can = may/might
• Need to = have to