English Grammar Essentials: Tenses, Adjectives, Questions

Posted on Jun 15, 2025 in Early Childhood Education

Question Formation: “What Did You Learn Yesterday?”

Understanding the components of a question and related vocabulary:

Tag Questions: Examples and Usage

• You live downstairs, don’t you?
• She is never late, is she?
• Let’s go swimming, shall we?

Basic Verb Forms: “To Play”

• Positive: I play
• Negative: I don’t play
• Interrogative: Do I play?

Adjective Order: OSASCPOMN Rule

When using multiple adjectives before a noun, follow this general order:

1. Opinion: expensive, beautiful, lovely
2. Size: little, big, tiny
3. Age: brand new, old, ancient
4. Shape: long, round, square
5. Colour: purple, red, blue
6. Pattern: striped, spotted, floral
7. Origin (Place): French, Italian, American
8. Material: silk (seda), wooden, plastic
9. Noun: scarf (bufanda), car, house

Verbs of Sensation: Look, Feel, Smell, Sound, Taste

These verbs can be followed by different structures to convey meaning:

• Verb + Adjective: look happy (Describes a state or how something appears)
• Verb + Like + Noun: look like a rugby player (Indicates similarity)
• Verb + As If + Clause: look as if you’ve seen a ghost (Suggests a cause or reason for the appearance)

Comprehensive English Verb Tenses

Here’s a breakdown of common English verb tenses, their uses, and examples:

Present Tenses

Present Simple

• Use: Repeated actions, habits, general truths.
• Note: Add ‘s’ for third-person singular (he, she, it). Use ‘do/does’ for questions/negatives.
• Example: I study. (Yo estudio)

Present Continuous

• Use: Actions happening now, temporary actions.
• Structure: Verb ‘to be’ (am, is, are) + verb-ing.
• Example: He is studying. (Él está estudiando)

Present Perfect Simple

• Use: Finished actions with a present result. Emphasis on the result.
• Structure: Have/Has + past participle.
• Example: I have studied. (Yo he estudiado)

Present Perfect Continuous

• Use: Actions started in the past and continuing up to the present. Emphasis on duration.
• Structure: Have/Has been + verb-ing.
• Example: I have been studying. (Yo he estado estudiando)

Past Tenses

Past Simple

• Use: Finished past actions, often repeated. Can interrupt a Past Continuous action.
• Example: I studied. (Yo estudié)

Past Continuous

• Use: Actions in progress at a specific time in the past. Often interrupted by other past actions.
• Structure: Was/Were + verb-ing.
• Example: I was studying. (Yo estaba estudiando)

Past Perfect Simple

• Use: Actions that had finished by a specific time in the past. Refers to an action that happened before another past action. Often used with ‘before’ or ‘after’.
• Example: I had studied. (Yo había estudiado)

Past Perfect Continuous

• Use: To emphasize the duration of a past action that started and finished in the past before another past action.
• Example: I had been studying. (Yo había estado estudiando)

Future Tenses

Future Simple (Will)

• Use: Spontaneous decisions, predictions, promises.
• Example: I will study. (Yo voy a estudiar)

Future Continuous

• Use: Something that will be in progress at a specific time in the future.
• Structure: Will be + verb-ing (for all subjects).
• Example: I will be studying. (Yo voy a estar estudiando)

Future Perfect Simple

• Use: Actions that will have finished by a specific time in the future. Emphasis on the result.
• Structure: Will have + past participle (for all subjects).
• Example: I will have studied. (Yo habré estudiado)

Future Perfect Continuous

• Use: To emphasize the duration of an action up to a specific time in the future.
• Structure: Will have been + verb-ing (for all subjects).
• Example: By next year, I will have been studying English for five years.

Future (Be Going To)

• Use: Planned actions, intentions, predictions based on present evidence.
• Example: I am going to study. (Yo voy a estudiar)

Expressing Habits and Familiarity

• Used to + Infinitive: Describes past habits or states that no longer exist.
  • Meaning: (Yo solía)
  • Example: I used to play soccer every day.
• Be used to + -ing: Describes being accustomed to something.
  • Meaning: (Estoy acostumbrado a)
  • Example: I am used to waking up early.
• Get used to + -ing: Describes the process of becoming accustomed to something.
  • Meaning: (Me estoy acostumbrando)
  • Example: I’m getting used to the new software.

Quick Grammar Reminders

• Adjective Order Acronym: OSASCPOMN (Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Colour, Pattern, Origin, Material, Noun)
• Tag Question Examples: Isn’t it? Is she?