Getting Started: What Do You Already Know?

When taking the Cambridge C1 exam, it is absolutely vital that you are able to demonstrate that you have a strong command of English tenses and other ways to express time. This is particularly important in the Speaking part of the exam where you will be expected to talk about your own past experiences, present actions, and future plans and predictions. Writing tasks will also need to include correct usage.

There are three main verb tenses in English (past, present and future) and these can all be further divided into four aspects – the simple, continuous (progressive), perfect simple, and perfect continuous (progressive). In other words, there are twelve major tenses/aspects which you, as a learner, should know how to use competently before going to the exam.

The aim of this lesson is to build your confidence regarding form and usage of all the tenses, plus other methods for talking about the past, present and future.

Before we take a look at each of these in detail over the following pages, let’s start with an activity which requires you to identify which tense and aspect is used in each example sentence. At this point, don’t worry if you are unsure of all the answers as there is plenty of opportunity for learning and practice to come. Match the sentences on the left with the tense and aspect on the right. You will also need to consider the passive aspect. If there is no example of a passive for some aspects, it is because that aspect never takes a passive form.