Mixed Tense Review helps you communicate about integrated narration, present relevance and future sequencing. Start with the meaning, notice the pattern, and then use it in complete sentences.
By the end of this lesson, you can
- I can select tenses accurately by using time, sequence and aspect clues.
- Recognise and build the form: contrast of simple, continuous, perfect and perfect-continuous aspects.
- Use the pattern accurately in a meaningful sentence.
Meaning and use
Use Mixed Tense Review for integrated narration, present relevance and future sequencing. Always read the whole situation before choosing the form: grammar expresses a meaning, not only a pattern.
I bought this book last week.
A finished time expression such as 'last week' requires the past simple.
Please wait; I am talking to a customer.
Use the present continuous for an action happening now.
She has worked in three countries so far.
'So far' links experience to the present and takes the present perfect.
contrast of simple, continuous, perfect and perfect-continuous aspectsKeep this pattern visible while you study the examples. Then cover it and rebuild one example from memory.
Key rules to notice
These rules explain why the form is correct. Focus on the subject, auxiliary, verb form, word order and time or meaning clues.
- A finished time expression such as 'last week' requires the past simple.
- Use the present continuous for an action happening now.
- 'So far' links experience to the present and takes the present perfect.
- Use the past continuous for the action in progress when another action occurred.
- The departure occurred before the later past phone call.
Common mistakes
Not:I have bought this book last week.
Use:I bought this book last week.
A finished time expression such as 'last week' requires the past simple.
Not:Please wait; I talk to a customer.
Use:Please wait; I am talking to a customer.
Use the present continuous for an action happening now.
Not:She worked in three countries so far.
Use:She has worked in three countries so far.
'So far' links experience to the present and takes the present perfect.
Check before you practise
Complete each sentence mentally, then reveal the answer.
When we arrived, they ____ dinner.
were having
Use the past continuous for the action in progress when another action occurred.
By the time I called, he ____.
had left
The departure occurred before the later past phone call.
This time next month, we ____ in Tokyo.
will be living
Use the future continuous for a situation in progress at a future time.