Use of Tense for SSC, Banking, Railways Exams

This is the age of competition – competition in each and every field. But the greatest competition is for the Jobs and Admissions.There are many exams meant for the Admissions and Written exams. There are generally four common subjects in all the tests viz English, Maths, Reasoning and General Awareness. Here English plays an important role to clear any of such exams.
Important topics in English are – Vocabulary, Grammar, Common Errors, Comprehension etc. And the Grammar includes Prepositions, Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Sentence Arrangement, Tense etc. Here in this article we shall tell you the use of Tenses for these Competitive Exams.

As you know there are three types of Tenses – Present, Past and Future. They are further divided in to Indefinite, Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous making them 12 in nos.

Learn Three Forms of Verbs from here.

Learn the use of Tenses for Competitive Exams.

Here we assume that you know the structure of the Tense. That’s why our main focus is only on its usage in a sentence. We hope that you will be benefited a lot from this post.

Use of Present Indefinite Tense :

Sub + V1 + s/es + Obj. Affirmative

Sub + Do or Does + not + V 1 + Obj Negative

Do or Does + Sub + V 1 + Obj ? Interrogative

Present Indefinite contains the words such as Daily, Everyday, Always, Often, Normally, Generally, Occasionally, Frequently, Every now and then etc to show the routine, frequency.

• I go for walk daily.

In a sentence having two parts – if one is of future, the second shall be of Present Indefinite.

• If you work hard, you will pass.

Note : In a part having if, when etc we will always use Present Indefinite Tense.

For near future Also :

• I go to Delhi tomorrow.

The sentence gives the sense Future Tense and carries future indicating words such as Tomorrow, Next etc.

Use of Past Indefinite :

Sub + V2 + Obj. Affirmative

Sub + Did + not + V 1 + Obj Negative

Did + Sub + V 1 + Obj ? Interrogative

It is used to show any event, incident of the past ;

• India got freedom in 1947.
• I went to Delhi yesterday.

You will find Words such as yesterday, ago, before etc in this tense.

If there are two parts of the sentence and if in one part would, should, could, might and Verb 1st are given we use Past Indefinite in another part.

• If you worked hard, you would pass.

In a sentence having before or after, we use Past Indefinite in a part happened later.

• The train had come before we reached the station.

The train came earlier and we reached later. There is also another simple rule here. The Past Perfect Tense ( had + V III ) agrees the  use of before and after. Before means earlier, so had + V III will come in the first part.

With the phrases like it is time/ it is high time etc.

• It is high time we went there.

To show improbability or wish or suppositions with the expressions I wish/ We wish/ Would that etc.

• I wish I knew him.
• Would that I knew him !

Future Indefinite Tense –

Sub + will or shall + V1 + Obj. Affirmative

Sub + will or shall + not + V 1 + Obj. Negative

Will or Shall + Sub + V 1 + Obj ? Interrogative

Use of Future Indefinite –

To show simple future with the future indicating words such as tomorrow, next etc.

• I shall go to Delhi tomorrow.

We will use future indefinite tense in a part of a sentence if present indefinite is given in another part.

• If you work hard, you will pass.

Click here for the Structure and Usage of Present/ Past / Future Continuous Tense

Click for Present Perfect/ Past / Future Tense Rules / Usage

Learn rules for Present/ Past and Future Perfect Continuous Tense from here.

Practice SET 1 for Tense

Practice Set 2 for Tense ( Past, Present and Future )

Translation Practice Set for Present Tense

Do Translation Practice Set for Past Tense

Translation Practice Set for Future Tense

For complete English Grammar and Question Papers of the Competitive exams bookmark this website. Also tell your friends to visit examweb.in for maximum benefits.

In my next blog I will tell you some more rules related with tense. So keep in touch with this page.