A present tense verb is used to express an action that is repeated multiple times. The verb will end with an "s" or "es" every time when the subject in a sentence is in a third-person perspective. Although the tense is present, the verb will show that the action happens habitually. In the sentence "Junior rides his bike to class," for example, the word "rides" acts in the present tense.
A verb in the past tense will represent an action that was started and finished in the past. Most verbs in the past tense will use the "-ed" ending. An irregular verb will uses its own special form that is unique to the word. For example, the past tense of the irregular verb write is "wrote."
The future tense form expresses actions or events that will happen at some point in the future. The simple form of the verb is used, preceded by the word "will" or "shall" for example, the future tense of the word "write" is "will write." The "to be" words "am," "is," "are" and "going to" can also be placed before the verb to create the future tense.
The present perfect tense describes verbs and situations that happened either at an indefinite time in the past, or sometime in the past and continues currently The verb is in its past participle form, and usually features the "-ed" ending. The words "has" or "have" is placed before the verb to complete the present perfect tense. The phrase "have collected" is an example of the tense.
The past perfect tense describes a completed event that occurred before another event in the past. The word "had" is placed before the past participle of the verb in order to create the tense. For an example using "had ended," the sentence can say, "The movie had ended by the time the late couple arrived to the theater."
The future perfect tense is used to describe actions that will occur in the future before another action. The tense uses the phrases "will have" or "going to have," along with the part participle of the verb. The tense can use either phrase depending on the writer's preferences. The phrases "will have learned" and "going to have learned" are examples of the future perfect tense.