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  • Intermediate
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  • About 75 min
  • 10 steps · 2 quizzes

English Tenses on a Timeline — See When Things Happen

An interactive grammar lesson for intermediate learners of English (about B1–B2). Every tense becomes a picture on one timeline…

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28 lessons · used by 2 teachers

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10 steps · 2 quizzes · about 75 minutes · open any step

  1. Welcome: tenses are about timeStart hereEnglish has many tenses — but they all answer two simple questions: when did it happen, and how is it connected to now?InteractiveHands-on · 6 min
  2. Points and barsEvery action on the timeline has one of two shapes: a point — a finished moment: I called her at 8. a bar — an action in progress, with a start and an end: I was walking at 8. Try it: decide for each sentence, then watch where it lands.InteractiveHands-on · 6 min
  3. Now: habits or happening?Two present tenses, two pictures: Present simple → dots that repeat across the timeline: habits, routines, facts. Present continuous (am / is / are + -ing) → one bar around NOW: in progress, or only for a while. Try it: sort eight sentences.InteractiveHands-on · 6 min
  4. The past: a point inside a barPast simple → a finished point: the phone rang. Past continuous (was / were + -ing) → a bar that was in progress at that moment: I was cooking. Put them together and the point cuts the bar. Try it: build your own sentence. Then open One verb changes the story.InteractiveHands-on · 6 min
  5. Check: present and pastQuiz · 5 questions
  6. Linked to now: the present perfectSome time words close the door on the past. Others keep it open until now. Past simple + a finished time: I saw it yesterday. Present perfect (have / has + past participle) + time up to now: I've already seen it. When? Not important — what matters is now.InteractiveHands-on · 6 min
  7. How long? for and sinceFor an activity that started in the past and is still going on now, use the present perfect continuous: have / has been + -ing.InteractiveHands-on · 6 min
  8. The earlier past: had + past participleWhen you tell a story in the past, the past perfect (had + past participle) marks what happened before — the earlier past. Try it: put the two events in order — drag them, or tap an event and then a box. Then see what changes without had.InteractiveHands-on · 6 min
  9. Three ways to talk about the futurewill → a decision made now, an offer, a promise, an opinion (I think…) · going to → a plan you already have, or a prediction from evidence you can see · present continuous → a fixed arrangement: time, place and people agreed · Often more than one is possible…InteractiveHands-on · 6 min
  10. Tense detectiveRead like a detective: for each sentence, find the picture that shows its time. Try it: ten sentences, all the tenses mixed together.InteractiveHands-on · 6 min

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