Tenses – Revision Practice Tests with A2 Grammar Rules & Examples

Tenses – Revision

In English, we use different tenses to talk about different times. A tense tells us when something happens – in the past, the present, or the future. At A2 level, it is important to understand and use the most common tenses correctly.

In this lesson, we will revise four key tenses:

• Present Simple – for habits and facts
• Present Continuous – for actions happening now
• Past Simple – for finished actions in the past
• Future with "going to" – for future plans

Let's meet Anna. She is 22 years old. She lives in London, she is studying for an exam right now, she worked in a café last summer, and she is going to travel to Spain next month. We will use Anna's life to help us understand each tense.

Tense 1 – Present Simple

What is it used for?

We use the Present Simple to talk about:

• Things we do regularly or as habits: She drinks coffee every morning.
• Facts that are always true: Water boils at 100°C.
• Things that are generally true about a person: He lives in Paris.

How do we form it?

For most subjects, we use the base form of the verb (the simple, basic form with no changes).
For he, she, it, we add -s or -es to the verb.

Positive (+)
I / You / We / They → base verb
He / She / It → base verb + -s / -es

Negative (–)
I / You / We / They → do not (don't) + base verb
He / She / It → does not (doesn't) + base verb

Question (?)
I / You / We / They → Do + subject + base verb?
He / She / It → Does + subject + base verb?

Subject	Positive	Negative	Question
I	I work.	I don't work.	Do I work?
You	You work.	You don't work.	Do you work?
He / She / It	She works.	She doesn't work.	Does she work?
We / They	They work.	They don't work.	Do they work?

Time words for Present Simple

These words often appear with the Present Simple. They show that something is repeated or regular:

• always, usually, often, sometimes, never
• every day / every week / every morning
• on Mondays / at weekends

Anna always drinks tea in the morning.
She never wakes up late.
She goes to the gym every Saturday.

Tense 2 – Present Continuous

What is it used for?

We use the Present Continuous to talk about:

• Actions happening right now, at this moment: She is reading a book.
• Actions happening around this time, but not necessarily at this exact second: He is learning Spanish this year.

How do we form it?

We use am / is / are + the verb with -ing at the end.

Positive (+)
I → am + verb-ing
He / She / It → is + verb-ing
You / We / They → are + verb-ing

Negative (–)
I → am not + verb-ing
He / She / It → is not (isn't) + verb-ing
You / We / They → are not (aren't) + verb-ing

Question (?)
Am I + verb-ing?
Is he / she / it + verb-ing?
Are you / we / they + verb-ing?

Subject	Positive	Negative	Question
I	I am studying.	I am not studying.	Am I studying?
He / She / It	She is studying.	She isn't studying.	Is she studying?
You / We / They	They are studying.	They aren't studying.	Are they studying?

Time words for Present Continuous

These words often appear with the Present Continuous:

• now, right now, at the moment, at present, currently, today, this week, this year

Anna is studying for her exam right now.
She is not watching TV at the moment.
Her friends are visiting her this week.

Tense 3 – Past Simple

What is it used for?

We use the Past Simple to talk about:

• Actions that are finished and happened at a specific time in the past: She visited Rome last year.
• A series of finished actions in the past: He woke up, had breakfast, and left the house.

How do we form it?

For regular verbs, we add -ed to the base verb.
For irregular verbs, the verb changes completely. You need to learn these separately.

Positive (+)
All subjects → verb + -ed (regular) or irregular past form

Negative (–)
All subjects → did not (didn't) + base verb

Question (?)
Did + subject + base verb?

Subject	Positive (regular)	Positive (irregular)	Negative	Question
I	I worked.	I went.	I didn't work.	Did I work?
She	She worked.	She went.	She didn't work.	Did she work?
They	They worked.	They went.	They didn't work.	Did they work?

Common irregular verbs

Base verb	Past Simple
go	went
have	had
see	saw
eat	ate
buy	bought
come	came
meet	met
take	took
make	made
say	said

Time words for Past Simple

These words often appear with the Past Simple:

• yesterday, last night, last week, last year, last summer
• ago (e.g. two days ago, a year ago)
• in 2019, in January, on Monday

Anna worked in a café last summer.
She met her best friend three years ago.
They didn't go to the beach yesterday.

Tense 4 – Future with "Going To"

What is it used for?

We use "going to" to talk about:

• Plans and intentions – things we have already decided to do: I am going to visit my grandmother this weekend.
• Predictions based on something we can see or know: Look at those clouds – it is going to rain.

How do we form it?

We use am / is / are + going to + base verb.

Positive (+)
I → am going to + base verb
He / She / It → is going to + base verb
You / We / They → are going to + base verb

Negative (–)
I → am not going to + base verb
He / She / It → is not (isn't) going to + base verb
You / We / They → are not (aren't) going to + base verb

Question (?)
Am I going to + base verb?
Is he / she / it going to + base verb?
Are you / we / they going to + base verb?

Subject	Positive	Negative	Question
I	I am going to travel.	I am not going to travel.	Am I going to travel?
He / She / It	She is going to travel.	She isn't going to travel.	Is she going to travel?
You / We / They	They are going to travel.	They aren't going to travel.	Are they going to travel?

Time words for "going to"

These words often appear with future "going to":

• tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, next summer
• soon, in the future, this weekend

Anna is going to travel to Spain next month.
She is going to visit museums and beaches.
Her friend isn't going to come with her.

Important Differences – Which Tense Do I Use?

Present Simple vs Present Continuous

This is a very common area of confusion. Here is a simple way to think about it:

Present Simple	Present Continuous
Habit or routine	Action happening now or around now
She drinks coffee every day.	She is drinking coffee now.
He works in a bank.	He is working from home today.
They play football at weekends.	They are playing football right now.

Past Simple vs Present Simple

Use the Past Simple for things that are finished. Use the Present Simple for things that are still true.

She worked in a café last summer. (She doesn't work there now – it is finished.)
She works at a hospital. (She still works there – it is still true.)

Past Simple vs "Going to"

Use the Past Simple for actions that already happened. Use "going to" for actions in the future.

She visited Rome last year. (finished – in the past)
She is going to visit Spain next month. (planned – in the future)

All Four Tenses – Side by Side

Here is Anna's story using all four tenses together. Notice which tense is used and why.

Tense	Sentence about Anna	Why this tense?
Present Simple	Anna lives in London.	It is a fact – still true.
Present Simple	She usually drinks tea in the morning.	It is her habit.
Present Continuous	She is studying for an exam at the moment.	It is happening around now.
Past Simple	She worked in a café last summer.	It is finished – in the past.
Future (going to)	She is going to travel to Spain next month.	It is a plan for the future.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1 – Forgetting the -s for he/she/it in Present Simple

❌ She go to school every day.
✅ She goes to school every day.

Mistake 2 – Using Present Simple instead of Present Continuous for "right now"

❌ She reads a book right now.
✅ She is reading a book right now.

Mistake 3 – Using the base verb after "did" in a negative or question (Past Simple)

❌ She didn't went to the party.
✅ She didn't go to the party.

❌ Did she went to the party?
✅ Did she go to the party?

Mistake 4 – Using an irregular past form in a negative sentence

❌ He didn't saw the film.
✅ He didn't see the film.

Mistake 5 – Forgetting "am/is/are" with "going to"

❌ She going to travel next month.
✅ She is going to travel next month.

Mistake 6 – Using "going to" instead of Past Simple for a finished action

❌ She is going to visit Rome last year.
✅ She visited Rome last year.

Mistake 7 – Adding -ing to "going to"

❌ She is going to travelling to Spain.
✅ She is going to travel to Spain.

Contractions

In spoken English and informal writing, we often shorten verb forms. These short forms are called contractions. Here are the most common ones for each tense:

Full form	Contraction	Example
do not	don't	I don't work on Sundays.
does not	doesn't	She doesn't like coffee.
I am	I'm	I'm studying now.
she is	she's	She's working today.
are not	aren't	They aren't coming.
is not	isn't	He isn't sleeping.
did not	didn't	We didn't go out.
is not going to	isn't going to	She isn't going to travel.
are not going to	aren't going to	They aren't going to stay.

Tenses Revision – Quick Summary

Here is a quick overview of the four tenses we revised in this lesson:

Tense	Use it for...	Key time words	Example
Present Simple	Habits, facts, routines	always, every day, usually, never	She works every day.
Present Continuous	Actions happening now or around now	now, at the moment, today, this week	She is working now.
Past Simple	Finished actions in the past	yesterday, last week, ago, in 2020	She worked last summer.
Going to (Future)	Plans and intentions for the future	tomorrow, next week, next year, soon	She is going to work tomorrow.

Remember these key points:

• Add -s or -es to the verb with he / she / it in the Present Simple.
• Use am / is / are + verb-ing for the Present Continuous.
• Use did not + base verb for Past Simple negatives and questions.
• Learn common irregular past forms (go → went, see → saw, etc.).
• Use am / is / are + going to + base verb for future plans.

Now practise tenses revision in the exercises below.