<p>On most of the writing questions I take on the SAT, the ones I miss are always about the verbs and tense of them. Can someone just list them all, like the name, when to use them, and an example sentence! Like present perfect, past progressive, etc. These confuse me so much!! thank you!</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know anything about present perfect, past progressive or any of those complex grammar rules… I certainly didn’t memorize them, and I can’t see how much that will help. It might actually take longer to identify and then match the tense with the correct answer if you take that approach… That being said, I think silverturtle’s guide explains some of it. Although it’s unnecessary.</p>
<p>I recommend just reading up on common SAT error id guide (I used a free sparknotes guide haha) that’ll most likely go over stuff like ambiguity, tense, and other stuff like that. Then keep doing practice tests and you’ll begin to see patterns in the type of errors that are common on the SAT. It was enough to net me 80mc.</p>
<p>Perhaps this will help from Purdue: [Purdue</a> OWL: Verb Tenses](<a href=“Purdue OWL® - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University”>Purdue OWL® - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University)</p>
<p>Although I am a non-native myself, I believe I have a good grasp of this stuff thanks to the international school I attend. However, if I make any stupid mistake, I beg those more familiar with it to correct me! 
Let me list the tenses with an example sentence and a short explanation:</p>
<p>Present simple - the simplest tense of all, obviously: “I go skiing.”</p>
<p>Present continuous (progressive) - we use this one to talk about processes that are taking place right now: “I am writing a post about tenses.”</p>
<p>Past simple - this one is used to describe what happened in the past and it “does not count” in the present, it is history: “I went to the city yesterday.”</p>
<p>Present perfect - now it might get more difficult, especially when there is no such thing in your first language. Here, we are talking about the impact something that happened in the past has on the present, on our actions etc. We can, for example, talk about our experiences: “I have visited Zimbabwe twice.” (not that I really have, though :D). Because you HAVE BEEN to Zimbabwe, you can talk about it with your friends, family etc. It has a certain impact on the present days. Moreover, we use it when we talk about changes: “I have become a teacher.” - I was not a teacher before I graduated from university, “I have lost my keys.” - I had them before I trew them somewhere. Finally, we use present perfect when talking about recent occurences: “I have not seen her lately.” - She is probably missing and I do not know about her current location. NOTE that you CANNOT use present perfect with a time reference. Whenever you should use one, use past simple instead! There is no such thing as “I have seen her a year ago.” - that is a big no-no! :)</p>
<p>Present perfect continuous: this one resembles the “normal” present perfect in many ways, although it is important to understand the differences. We are now emphasizing the process that relates to an action, the time period for which it lasts. For example, we say: “I have been studying English for 5 years.” - We stress both the fact that it lasts 5 years already and the fact that it is still going on, it has not stopped. On a rainy day, we would tell our friend from the other coast that “it has been raining for 2 hours,” meaning that it is still raining…</p>
<p>Past continuous (progressive): Something easier, to loosen it up a bit :). This one is used when talking about processes in the past that have ended, but we still want to emphasize the period for which it was going on. “Yesterday, I was cooking dinner for an hour.”, “I was talking to my classmate the whole lesson, which drove the teacher crazy.”</p>
<p>Past perfect: Yet another perfect tense which is, however, a lot easier for foreigners to understand than the present one. It is used mainly in narrative - so you are likely to encounter it in books, stories etc. We are talking about something that happened BEFORE a point in the past. For example: “When I got to the party, everyone had already left.” - clearly, the people who were at the party got the idea of “wrapping it up” before you managed to arrive. If you used present simple instead, the meaning would be different: “When I got to the party, everyone left.” - The people started for the door at the point you arrived, maybe they do not like you much… :)</p>
<p>Past perfect continuous: Again, this tense emphasizes the period for which it was taking place, but - as well as in the previous example - it happened before a point in the past. Consider: “She was angry, because she had been studying all night.” - Because she had spent the night studying, she was angry at you…</p>
<p>Simple future: It is really siimple - you are telling someone about what will happen in the future. “I will go to the movies tomorrow.”</p>
<p>Simple future continuous (in fact, I am not sure if it is really called like this, but based on the previous ones, I suppose so. It has really become a subconscious thing for me, so the names do not matter much. For you, it will be like this, as well!): Again, the time period matters: “I will be cooking dinner tomorrow.” - Probably, I am stressing the fact it will require some effort from me and will be time consuming.</p>
<p>Future perfect: We discuss what will be finished in the future: “By this time next year, I will have taken my SATs.”</p>
<p>Hope this helps. Sorry for any mistakes that might appear. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! :)</p>
<p>bm 10 char</p>
<p>@mrcrazyOG: OMG thank you sooo much!!! the guide was super helpful!!!</p>
<p>and what does “bm 10 char” mean?</p>
<p>@hotintel3: You are welcome When doing this, I relieved the boredom of a rainy day… :D</p>