There are two tenses in English – past and present.

The present tenses in English are used:

• to talk about the present
• to talk about the future
• to talk about the past when we are telling a story in spoken English or when we are summarising a book, film, play etc.

There are four present tense forms in English:

Present simple:    I work   
Present continuous:    I am working   
Present perfect:    I have worked   
Present perfect continuous:    I have been working   

We use these forms:

• to talk about the present:

He works at McDonald’s. He has worked there for three months now.
He is working at McDonald’s. He has been working there for three months now.
London is the capital of Britain.

• to talk about the future:

The next train leaves this evening at 1700 hours.
I’ll phone you when I get home.
He’s meeting Peter in town this afternoon.
I’ll come home as soon as I have finished work.
You will be tired out after you have been working all night.

• We can use the present tenses to talk about the past...

Exercise