What is tense?

Tense is a grammatical term used to indicate the time in which the verb of a sentence is happening. English has three main tenses: past, present, and future.

Past tense is used to describe actions, events, or situations that have already happened. Examples include "I ate breakfast this morning" and "She went to the store yesterday."

Present tense is used to describe actions, events, or situations that are currently happening. Examples include "I am typing this sentence" and "The sun is shining today."

Future tense is used to describe actions, events, or situations that will happen in the future. Examples include "I will go to the store tomorrow" and "They are going to have dinner at 7pm tonight."

Each main tense also has different forms such as simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous. These forms are used to provide additional information about the duration, completeness, or progress of the verb. For example, "I have been working all day" uses the present perfect continuous tense to indicate that the action of working started in the past and continues up to the present moment.

Correctly using tense is important because it can affect the clarity and accuracy of the sentence. If the tense is incorrect, it can lead to confusion or miscommunication.