Logic of English times

Those who have studied or are learning English know how terrible many tense English forms of verbs can seem.
There are 12 temporary forms in English. And in Russian, at first glance, there are only 3, and how to associate them with English, it may be completely unclear for a beginner.

But in fact, in Russian there are not 3. See:

• did
• made
• doing
• will do
• will do

or even like this:

• went
• went down
• was walking
• I go
• going
• I go
• will go
• I will go

(I imagine a foreigner who is trying to figure out how these forms differ.)

It’s just that in Russian these options are scattered across several classifications, and in English they are combined into one.

But what if I say that in English there are actually only three temporary forms, and all the other so-called “times” are contrived? So, here, I say this :)
')
These three forms are:

1. The Present Indefinite (Simple) - simple present: <verb in 1st form> [+ es];
2. The Past Indefinite (Simple) - simple past tense: verb in the 2nd form (<verb in 1st form> + ed, irregular verbs have their own version);
3. The Future Indefinite (Simple) is a simple future tense: will + <verb in 1st form>.

That's all :) Do not believe? I'll try to convince you. Now we will build all the other temporary forms based solely on these.

You just need to keep in mind the following:

1. In the verb to be, these 3 temporary forms look like this:
   
   • is / am / are - present tense;
   • was / were - past tense;
   • will be - future time.
   
   
2. The verb to have is like this:
   
   • have / has - the present tense;
   • had - past tense;
   • will have - future tense (nothing unusual here);
   
   And let's agree that the verb means to have , and is not of any auxiliary character.
   
   
3. The verb form of the verb (<verb in 1st form> + ing) is not a verb, but an active definition.
   
   • writing author - writing author;
   • reading man - reading man.
   
   or
   
   • He is speaking. - He is the speaker.
   • They are running. - They are running.
   
   This is a characteristic of the state. The subject is characterized as performing an action himself, more precisely, being in a state of “doing” this action.
   
   
4. The 3rd form of the verb (the one that is formed as a <verb in the 1st form> + ed, and for irregular verbs has its own version) is also not a verb. This is a passive definition.
   
   • written letter - written letter;
   • read book - the read book (the verb read has all the same forms when writing)
   
   or
   
   • It is broken. - It is broken.
   • She is dressed. - She is dressed (she was dressed).
   
   The subject is characterized by the action performed on him.
   

So let's go.

1. The Present Indefinite Tense
   
   He loves her.
   
   This is the very usual form of the present tense, which was mentioned above.
   There is nothing more to say.
   
   
2. The Present Continuous Tense
   
   The man is reading.
   
   And so, as promised, there will be no time except for the past, present and future.
   And one thing has already happened. We do not need another.
   is is a form of the verb to be in the present tense
   reading is an active definition.
   
   Those. this is all the same “Present Indefinite”, forgive me teachers of English :) But after all, in fact it is. When is Present Indefinite used? One of the applications is a statement of fact, such as "I have a car". Here we just have a statement of fact:
   
   The man IS reading.
   The man is the reader.
   
   And not necessarily we are talking about the current moment. " I'm loving you, " as the lead singer of Scorpions sings, does not necessarily mean that he loves her right now :). This expression describes the state in which a man in love stays in the current period of life, so to speak.
   
   
3. The Past Indefinite Tense
   
   I bought a car.
   
   The most common past tense. Something happened once, and we call the action that took place, we state a fact.
   
   
4. The present perfect tense
   
   I have bought a car.
   
   What we see here:
   - bought is the 3rd form of the verb to buy , which, as we know, is a passive definition, i.e. here we are talking about a purchased car .
   - have - have it and nothing more; we will not call this auxiliary verb.
   We get: I have a purchased car .
   
   Not for nothing, the English have it the present time ( Present Perfect), although it should be translated into Russian in the past ( I bought the car ). The verb have something here in simple present tense. This is Present Indefinite again.
   It's simple: since I bought a car, then I have it now (purchased).
   
   Another example: I have lost my ticket.
   I have a lost ticket .
   
   The literal translation is of course ugly, but it reveals the logic of the formation of a phrase. I lost the ticket, which means that at the moment it is lost.
   How can I have a lost ticket? Also like having a lack of money in a phrase: I have no money.
   
   
5. The past perfect tense
   
   Immediately try the same logic in a more complex form. In the form in which I was at the beginning of my path of learning English for a long time I could not figure out when to use it.
   
   I had bought a car.
   
   Already the third I bought the car . But we have the verb to have in the usual past form (Past Indefinite), which tells us that I once had a car, and now I may not have it ( I had a purchased car ). It is important to understand this “once”. We carry our “now” into the past, and as if we say that at that time we had a purchased car.
   Let's say you tell someone about an episode from your life that happened last summer, and you want to say that at that time you had a car (you bought it before). The difference I had bought a car (1) from I bought a car (2) is that when we say (2), we emphasize the fact of buying a car (some action took place), when (1) is a fact of its presence in the past.
   
   I had lost my ticket. - I had a lost ticket.
   For example, now I could already find it, but at that moment, about which I tell, the ticket was lost.
   
   
6. The Past Continuous Tense
   
   I was doing my homework at 3 pm yesterday.
   
   The form is no different from Present Continuous Tense (2nd point), except that the state is described in the past. And, as we see, the verb to be has the form Past Indefinite.
   
   
7. The Present Perfect Continuous Tense
   
   Come on more hardcore cases.
   
   I have been doing this for 3 hours.
   
   This is the usual present tense. Present Indefinite (look at the verb to have ).
   Everything else is NOT verbs (we agreed at the beginning):
   - doing - active definition, i.e. doing ;
   - been - 3rd form to be , which means passive definition, which refers to the word doing . Do not convey it in Russian. Let's try to understand the meaning of this word by analogy:
   done - done;
   bought - bought;
   were - ... (in general, made it so that it was; probably the word "created" is appropriate here)
   
   So, almost literally: I have a created state of doing.
   
   Those. the state of the doer has been created, and now this created state is available.
   When can we use this logic when describing our actions? When we started doing something in the past, and at the moment we continue to do it, right?
   
   
8. The Past Perfect Continuous Tense
   
   I had been doing this for 3 hours.
   
   Of course, the verb to have can be put in the past tense (Past Indefinite).
   
   Without looking in any directories, replete with confusing descriptions, in which cases it is necessary to use this time, we understand that it changes only that it will not be about the presence of a state in the present, but about its presence in the past: the state began once and continues at that moment in the past, about which we are talking (it began, of course, up to this point).
   
   
9. The Future Indefinite Tense
   
   I will buy a car.
   
   There is simply no place. We state the fact of action in the future. Just as we can state it in the present (Present Indefinite) and the past (Past Indefinite).
   
   
10. The Future Continuous Tense
    
    He will be calling you tomorrow at 5.
    
    Also simple: a description of the state at a certain point in the future.
    The verb to be has the form Furure Indefinite, and the calling is simply a definition (the caller ).
    
    
11. The Future Perfect Tense
    
    I will have bought a car.
    I will have a purchased car.
    
    We focus on the fact that the car will be available, and not on the purchase itself.
    A more lively example: I'll buy a car by next summer .
    
    
12. The Future Perfect Continuous
    
    I will have been doing this for 3 hours.
    
    The complete analogy is Present Perfect Continuous or Past Perfect Continuous, with the exception of the tense form of the verb to have .
    Nevertheless, I will give a literal translation: I will have the created state of doing 3 hours .
    For example, I'm going to say that tomorrow I will be learning English already for 3 hours, by the time my wife arrives:
    My wife comes.
    (Honestly, I may be mistaken in the correctness of this proposal, but this is not the point.)
    

And so what happened. Absolutely all 12 English times boil down to three: Present Indefinite, Past Indefinite and Future Indefinite!
So it turns out that in English only three temporary forms in fact exist. At least, in my opinion, it is possible and useful to think so. Eh, why didn't they tell me about it in school ...

PS Of course, I understand that this is all quite rude, and about each temporary form you can still tell a lot of subtleties of its use. But in order to delve into the subtleties, you first need to understand for yourself the logic of building these forms. And the understanding of subtleties will come either with practice or with an even greater recess in the English logic of constructing phrases.

UPDATE:
I repeat, this article specifically made it coarsening and simplifying certain points to facilitate the identification of the "insides" of the language.