Mastering English Tenses and Grammar Structures

Present Tenses

• Present Habits: She plays tennis every weekend.
• Present Perfect Simple: I have visited London.
• Present Perfect Continuous: She has been studying for two hours.

Gerunds and Infinitives

• Gerunds (-ing): Used as subjects/objects, after prepositions, and after verbs like liking/disliking, admit, avoid, risk, and suggest.
• Infinitives (to + verb): Used to explain purpose, after adjectives, after "too" and "enough," after ordinal numbers (the first, the last), and after verbs like want, learn, agree, hope, promise, ask, and help.

Past Tenses

• Past Simple: She visited Paris last year.
• Past Continuous: Action in progress or two actions at the same time (e.g., I was reading when the phone rang).
• Used to: Past habits or states (e.g., I used to go swimming every day).
• Would: Repeated past actions or habits (e.g., We would play outside).
• Past Perfect Simple: Action completed before another past action (e.g., She had already left when I arrived).
• Past Perfect Continuous: Duration of an action until another past moment (e.g., They had been waiting for an hour when the bus came).

Future Forms

• Will: Predictions, sudden decisions, and facts.
• Going to: Plans or predictions based on evidence.
• Present Continuous / Present Simple (Future):
  • Near future plans (e.g., I am meeting my friend tomorrow).
  • Timetables and schedules (e.g., The train leaves at 8 PM).
• Future Continuous: Action in progress in the future (e.g., I will be flying to Madrid).
• Future Perfect Simple: Action completed before a future time (e.g., I will have gone to bed by midnight).
• Future Perfect Continuous: Duration until a future moment (e.g., I will have been studying here for 3 years).

Comparisons

• Comparatives: Comparing two things (adj+er / more+adj).
• Superlatives: Comparing three or more things (the+adj+est / the most+adj).
• As … as: Equality (e.g., This car is as fast as that one).
• Not as … as: Inequality (second is less than the first).
• The + comparative … the + comparative: Proportional change (e.g., The more you practice, the better you get).

Modal Verbs: Ability

• Can / Can’t: General ability (I can swim) or future plans (I can finish the project tomorrow).
• Be able to: Special ability or difficult tasks (e.g., I’m able to swim for an hour).
• Will / Won’t be able to: Future ability (e.g., I’ll be able to run a marathon).
• Could / Couldn’t: Past general ability (e.g., I could speak English at five) or specific past occasions.
• Was / Were able to, Managed to, Succeeded in: Ability on a specific past occasion (e.g., He was able to break the record).