Present Tense

We can use all these forms:

to talk about the present:
London is the capital of Britain.

He works at McDonald’s.

He is working at McDonald's.

He has worked there for three months now.

He has been working there for three months now.
to talk about the future:
The next train leaves this evening at 17.00.

I'll phone you when I get home.

He is 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.

With most verbs, the past tense is formed by adding –ed:

But there are a lot of irregular past tense forms in English. Here are the most common irregular verbs in English, with their past tense forms:

Base form	Past tense
be begin break bring buy build choose come cost cut do draw drive eat feel find get give go have hear hold keep know leave lead let lie lose make mean meet pay put run say sell send set sit speak spend stand take teach tell think understand wear win write	was/were began broke brought bought built chose came cost cut did drew drove ate felt found got gave went had heard held kept knew left led let lay lost made meant met paid put ran said sold sent set sat spoke spent stood took taught told thought understood wore won wrote

something that happened once in the past:
I met my wife in 1983.

We went to Spain for our holidays.

They got home very late last night.
something that happened several times in the past:
When I was a boy, I walked a mile to school every day.

We swam a lot while we were on holiday.

They always enjoyed visiting their friends.
something that was true for some time in the past:
I lived abroad for ten years.

He enjoyed being a student.

She played a lot of tennis when she was younger.
we often use expressions with ago with the past simple:
I met my wife a long time ago.

Future Simple Tense

The formula for the simple future is will + [root form of verb].

Example
I will learn a new language.
Jen will read that book.

It doesn’t matter if the subject is singular or plural; the formula for the simple future doesn’t change.

But...

There is another way to show that something will happen in the future. It follows the formula [am/is/are] + going to + [root form verb].

Example
I am going to learn a new language.
Jen is going to read that book.

The “going to” construction is common in speech and casual writing. Keep in mind though that it’s on the informal side, so it’s a good idea to stick to the will + [root form] construction in formal writing.

Common Verbs in the Simple Past

The “Going to” Construction