Presente

Present continuous - common mistakes |
Common mistakes | Correct version | Why? |
I'm believing you. | I believe you. | Some verbs are not used incontinuous tenses - these are called stative verbs (e.g. believe, come from, cost, depend, exist, feel, hate, like). |
Past continuous - common mistakes |
We wereplaying tennis every morning. | We played tennis every morning. | We use the past simple for repeated actions in the past. |
They watched TV when I came. |They were watching TV when I came. | We use the past continuous when we want to say what was happening (what was in progress) at a particular time in the past. |Present perfect - common mistakes |
I am here since last week. | I have been here since last week. | The present perfect is used to show an action whichcontinues to the present (an unfinished action). |
I've been knowing him for 5 years. | I've known him for 5 years. | Verbs such as know, want, like, etc.(stative verbs) suggest permanent states, not actions, so are used in the simple form, NOT the -ing form. |
Past perfect - common mistakes |
When I saw him, Inoticed that he had a haircut. | When I saw him I noticed that he had had a haircut. | The action (haircut) which happened before another past action must be putinto the past perfect to make the time order clear to the listener. |
He told me has been to London. | He told me he had been to London. | His original wordswere: ''I have been to London.'' However, in reported speech we move the tense back - the present perfect (have been) becomes past perfect (had been). |
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