MANAGING TENSE SITUATIONS

A few days back, I was traveling on a bus. I was sitting near the window. In the opposite seat, a middle-aged woman and a boy of around 16 were sitting. I presumed they were mother and son. Just to while away the time, I inquired the boy about his studies. He said, he was studying in a popular school in X11 standard, he ranked 3rd in the class of 40 students, he played cricket and his favourit subject was English. 

When I asked him whether I could put some questions in English grammar, he agreed. Then I asked him whether he knew about tenses. I could feel he became very tense. He could not give any answer to any question on tenses and his mother was annoyed. She asked him to learn tenses from me. Then I taught him tenses as under.

1. Present tense: Eg. I write, you walk, he plays, they [ or we ] read. [Please note, the verb takes 'S' at the end [suffix] if the subject is third-person singular 'he'

2. Past tense: Eg. I wrote, you walked, he played, they [or we] read [red].

3. Future tense. : Eg. I will write, you will walk, he shall play, they [or we] will read.

4. Present continuous tense: Eg. I am writing, you are walking, he is playing, they [or we] are reading.

5. Past continuous tense: Eg. I was writing, you were walking, he was playing, they [or we ] were reading.

6. Future continuous tense: Eg. I will be writing, you will be walking, he shall be playing, they [ or we ] will be reading.

7. Present perfect tense: Eg. I have written, you have walked, he has played, they [or we] have read [red].

8. Past perfect tense: Eg. I had written, you had walked, he had played, they [ or we] had read [red].

9. Future perfect tense: I would have written, you would have walked, he should have played, they [ or we ] would have read [red].

10. Present perfect continuous tense: Eg. I have been writing, you have been walking, he has been playing, they [ or we ] have been reading.

11. Past perfect continuous tense: Eg. I had been writing, you had been walking, he had been playing, they [ or we ] had been reading.

12. Future perfect continuous tense : Eg. I would have been writing, you would have been walking, he should have been playing, they [ or we ] would have been reading.

Then I asked him a few questions in tenses and he answered them correctly. His mother was happy. She thanked me for taking the initiative and to spend the time usefully. I wished him all success in his exams. I also told him "if you suffer for 4 years and study hard, you will live happily for 40 years" Saying good bye to them, I left at my destination. I also told him two important points in grammar. 

1. In a sentence, when the subject is third person singular, and in present tense, the verb takes the letter 's' at the end [ suffix ]. Eg. He takes, she walks, Ram reads. 

2. In a sentence, when article THE comes before a vowel [ a,e,i,o,u ] it is pronounced as DHE. When it comes before a consonant [ other letters ] it is pronounced as DHA. Eg. DHE elephant, DHA book