Study materials
Read this paragraph and count the tenses.
I work in a small studio.
This month we're finishing a big project, so I've been staying late.
Yesterday I left at ten because the client had changed the brief again.
Three sentences, five different tenses, not a single mistake. In connected text the form is chosen not for the sentence but for each event separately. The question is always the same: what is this event to my reader.
The main point of view comes first
Before choosing any forms, decide where you are standing. Are you describing your life now, or telling a story set in the past? That decision sets the tone of the whole paragraph.
In the example above the narrator stands in the present. The past sentences are guests there: they explain why the present looks the way it does.
If the main point sits in the past, as in a memory or a story, then the present becomes the guest and appears only for conclusions: That is why I still avoid that agency.
Then the role of each event
Once the point of view is set, every action gets its form from its role. There are not many roles.
| Role of the event | Form |
|---|---|
| habit, permanent state, fact | Present Simple |
| temporary situation or process now | Present Continuous |
| result visible today | Present Perfect |
| duration reaching this moment | Present Perfect Continuous |
| finished event moving the story on | Past Simple |
| background against which something happened | Past Continuous |
| event that happened even earlier | Past Perfect |
| intention, arrangement, spontaneous decision | be going to, Present Continuous, will |
The paragraph, taken apart
Go back to the text at the top. Every choice is now obvious.
I work in a small studio.
This month we're finishing a big project.
I've been staying late.
Yesterday I left at ten.
The client had changed the brief.
The two commonest shifts
The first: as soon as a date appears, the Present Perfect gives way to the Past Simple. So the natural pair looks like this.
I've just finished the report. I started it on Monday.
The second: the Past Perfect is needed only while the order of events is unclear. Once you have established it, the story returns to the Past Simple.
When we arrived, the meeting had started. We sat down and listened.
The mistakes everyone makes
The first is holding one tense across the whole text because it feels safer.
I work here. Yesterday I work until ten. → Yesterday I worked until ten.
The second is putting the Past Perfect on every past action.
I had opened the door and had seen the letter. → I opened the door and saw the letter.
The third is joining a result to a named moment.
We've signed the contract last week. → We signed the contract last week.
All three are caught by one question. Where is my reader standing, and what is this event to them: background, turning point, explanation or consequence?
Try it right now
Write a four-sentence paragraph in English about your week. One condition: at least three different tenses.
Then label each sentence with the role it plays. If some sentence has no role to give it, that is where the mistake is hiding.