Verb Tense and Aspect

What follows are various uses of tense and aspect. These are contructions we use every day to make our speech more specific. This exercise is to draw your attention to why we make the subtle distinctions:

Simple Present:

He kicks people.

Simple Past:

He kicked his roommate.

Simple Future:

He will kick him again tomorrow.

Present Progressive:

He is kicking his roommate right now.

Past Progressive:

He was kicking the neighbors when the police came.

Future Profressive:

He will be kicking them all tomorrow, after he gets out of jail.

Present Perfect:

He has kicked them all for many years.

Past Perfect:

He had kicked them every day.

Future Perfect:

He will have kicked them many times, by this time tomorrow.

Present Perfect Progressive:

He has been kicking them since sunrise.

Past Perfect Progressive:

He had been kicking despite our pleas to stop.

Future Perfect Progressive:

He will have been kicking them for hours when he stops.