The English verb system in its basic structure is very regular and fairly free of inflection. It does not consist of 12 to 17 tenses as some sources claim. It is a combinatorial system whose building blocks are: two simple forms (traditionally called ‘simple present’ and ‘simple past’), two auxiliaries (BE and HAVE) and two participles (verb + ing, commonly called ‘present participle, and ‘past participle’). Together they can be combined to form various structures of different semantic complexity. This I demonstrate with the Verb Structure Circle.
Besides these three elements, we have a limited set of modal auxiliaries. They commonly combine with infinitives which is why I did not include them in the verb structure circle. Semantically they stand in contrast to the so-called ‘simple present’ and ‘simple past’. The reason for this lies in the core meaning of the two simple forms which is FACTUALITY. We use the two to express things we believe to be true, or want others to believe to be true. Or that happened in the past, we believe happened in the past or want others to believe happened in the past. We use them, especially the first simple form, to express characteristics of people or things, scientific and other facts, regular events and habits, to name a few.
Modal auxiliaries ‘modify’ factuality. With them we can express what ‘might have happened’ (in the past), ‘could have happened’, ‘should have happened’, but didn’t. Or ‘must have happened’, but we don’t know for sure. We can express what should happen, could happen, can happen, will happen, might happen, may happen, must happen. Future time reference lies in the semantic nature of the second group of structures, but is not essential to the semantic description of the single modal auxiliaries. A modal always combines with an infinitive, a ‘basic’ infinitive (you should go…) or a perfect infinitive (you should have gone).
Generally, we need to note that the main verbs of English and the auxiliaries take on different roles in complex verb structures. (By complex I mean verb structures that consist of more than one verb.) Main verbs function grammatically ‘on their own’ in the first and second forms. Otherwise they take on unchanging participle form. This is very important to understand and internalize. Main verbs change grammatically via inflection only in the two simple forms. And with the first form (‘simple present’), the change is minor (third person singular -s). With the second form, an -ed is added to form the past tense. In addition, there are roughly 200 irregular verbs where the changes are of different kinds and need to be memorized.
In all other structures, the main verb occurs in unchanging participle form. The grammatical ‘work’ is done by an auxiliary: forms of BE, HAVE, and DO as a dummy auxiliary for questions and negations.
The two tables below show the forms main verbs take. The first table shows some regular verbs. The second shows irregular ones. The latter need to be learned by heart as they are structurally rather unpredictable. However, they tend to be highly frequently used common verbs.
Infinitive | present participle | past form | past participle |
accept | accepting | accepted | accepted |
agree | agreeing | agreed | agreed |
arrive | arriving | arrived | arrived |
belong | belonging | belonged | belonged |
bake | baking | baked | baked |
call | calling | called | called |
calculate | calculating | calculated | calculated |
dance | dancing | danced | danced |
divide | dividing | divided | divided |
enjoy | enjoying | enjoyed | enjoyed |
employ | employing | employed | employed |
found | founding | founded | founded |
gloat | gloating | gloated | gloated |
reach | reaching | reached | reached |
talk | talking | talked | talked |
walk | walking | walked | walked |
yield | yielding | yielded | yielded |
Infinitive | present participle | past form | past participle |
begin | beginning | began | begun |
bring | bringing | brought | brought |
come | coming | came | come |
catch | catching | caught | caught |
do | doing | did | done |
drive | driving | drove | driven |
drink | drinking | drank | drunk |
eat | eating | ate | eaten |
fall | falling | fell | fallen |
find | finding | found | found |
get | getting | got | got/gotten |
grow | growing | grew | grown |
hold | holding | held | held |
know | knowing | knew | known |
leave | leaving | left | left |
teach | teaching | taught | taught |
win | winning | wan | won |
How the single elements combine into verb structures, their meanings and how they are used you find in The Verb Structure Circle.