Core ConceptRead this first — the foundation of the topic
There are 3 main tenses
Past, Present, and Future
Each has 4 forms
Simple, Continuous, Perfect, and Perfect Continuous. So total = 3 × 4 = 12 tenses. SSC CGL tests your ability to spot errors and fill in the correct tense. This is one of the highest-scoring areas if you know the rules.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Key RulesCore rules you must know cold
Formula
Subject + V1 (add -s/-es for He/She/It)
Example: She writes a letter every day
Signal words
always, usually, often, never, every day.
RULE 2 — PRESENT CONTINUOUS
Use for: actions happening RIGHT NOW
Formula
Subject + is/am/are + V1+ing
Signal words: now, at this moment, currently, look, listen.
RULE 3 — PRESENT PERFECT
Use for: past action with a present result, or experience
Formula
Subject + has/have + V3
Signal words: just, already, yet, ever, never, recently, since, for.
TRAP: Never use Present Perfect with definite past time (yesterday, last year, in 2010). Use Simple Past instead.
RULE 4 — PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS
Use for: action that started in past and is STILL continuing
Formula
Subject + has/have + been + V1+ing
Signal words: since (point of time), for (period of time).
RULE 5 — SIMPLE PAST
Use for: completed action at a definite time in the past
Formula
Subject + V2
Signal words: yesterday, last week, ago, in 1990, then.
RULE 6 — PAST PERFECT
Use for: the action that happened EARLIER among two past actions
Formula
Subject + had + V3
Trick: When two past events occur, the earlier one uses Past Perfect (had + V3), the later one uses Simple Past (V2).
RULE 7 — FUTURE SIMPLE
Use for: predictions, promises, instant decisions
Formula
Subject + will + V1
RULE 8 — FUTURE PERFECT
Use for: action that will be completed before a future time
Formula
Subject + will have + V3
Signal words: by tomorrow, by next year, by the time.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
EXAM SHORTCUTS AND TRICKS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SHORTCUT 1 — SINCE vs FOR RULE
Since = point of time (since 2010, since Monday)
For = period of time (for 5 years, for two days)
Both are used with Perfect tenses ONLY. If you see 'since' or 'for' with Simple Past in an option, it is WRONG.
SHORTCUT 2 — THE GOLDEN SEQUENCE RULE
If main clause = Past, then subordinate clause = Past
Example
She said that she WAS happy. (NOT 'is')
Exception: Universal truths always stay in Present tense
Example
The teacher said that the Earth REVOLVES around the Sun. (NOT 'revolved')
SHORTCUT 3 — STATIVE VERB TRICK
Some verbs NEVER take the -ing form: know, want, love, hate, believe, understand, remember, need, seem, possess
WRONG
I am knowing the answer
CORRECT
I know the answer.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Worked ExampleSolve this step-by-step before moving on
1
Step 1
Spot the signal word — 'since 2015' = point of time.
2
Step 2
Since + point of time = Perfect Continuous tense.
3
Step 3
Formula = has/have + been + V1+ing
4
Step 4
Subject is 'She' (singular) → use 'has been working'.
Answer: (C) has been working
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WORKED EXAMPLE 2
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Question (Error Spotting): He told me that he has completed the work yesterday.
1
Step 1
'Yesterday' is a definite past time marker.
2
Step 2
With definite past time, we CANNOT use Present Perfect (has completed).
3
Step 3
We must use Simple Past instead.
4
Step 4
Correct verb = 'had completed' (because main verb is 'told' = past, so subordinate clause needs past perfect for the earlier action).
Correct Sentence: He told me that he had completed the work yesterday.
Error was in: 'has completed' → should be 'had completed'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
#1 MOST COMMON TRAP — DO NOT FALL FOR THIS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Students use PRESENT PERFECT with 'yesterday', 'last year', or 'ago'. This is ALWAYS wrong. Present Perfect never goes with a definite past time word. The moment you see 'yesterday' or 'ago', the answer is Simple Past (V2) or Past Perfect (had + V3). This single mistake causes maximum errors in SSC CGL error spotting questions.
Key Points to Remember
12 tenses total = 3 time frames (Past, Present, Future) × 4 aspects (Simple, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect Continuous)
Formula — Simple Present: Subject + V1; add -s/-es for He/She/It (3rd person singular)
Formula — Present Perfect: Subject + has/have + V3; used for past action with present result
Formula — Past Perfect: Subject + had + V3; used for the EARLIER of two past actions
Formula — Present Perfect Continuous: Subject + has/have + been + V1+ing; used with 'since' (point) or 'for' (period)
SHORTCUT — Never use Present Perfect with definite past time words: yesterday, last year, ago, in 1990
SHORTCUT — Stative verbs (know, want, love, believe, understand) NEVER take the -ing continuous form
SHORTCUT — Golden Sequence Rule: Past main clause → Past subordinate clause, EXCEPT for universal truths (always Present tense)
Signal words for tenses: just/already/yet/ever = Present Perfect; now/currently = Present Continuous; by next year = Future Perfect
Since = point of time; For = period of time — both are used ONLY with Perfect or Perfect Continuous tenses
Exam-Specific Tips
Present Perfect tense is NEVER used with definite past time expressions such as yesterday, last week, ago, or specific years like 'in 2010'
Stative verbs that cannot be used in Continuous (-ing) form include: know, want, love, hate, need, believe, understand, remember, seem, possess
The signal word 'since' always refers to a point in time and demands a Perfect or Perfect Continuous tense in the sentence
The signal word 'for' always refers to a period/duration of time and demands a Perfect or Perfect Continuous tense
Universal truths and scientific facts always remain in Simple Present tense regardless of the tense of the main clause (Sequence of Tenses exception)
Future Perfect tense formula is: Subject + will have + V3, used with time markers like 'by tomorrow' or 'by the time'
When two actions occurred in the past, the earlier action uses Past Perfect (had + V3) and the later action uses Simple Past (V2)
In Indirect Speech, if reporting verb is in Past tense, the reported speech verb shifts one tense back: Present → Past, Past → Past Perfect
Practice MCQs
Tenses — Practice Questions
43graded MCQs · easy to hard · full solution & trap analysis · showing 20 of 43
Identify the error in the sentence:
When I reached (A) the office, my boss has already left (B) for the meeting (C) that was scheduled (D) an hour ago. No error (E)
Practice 2easy
Identify the error in the sentence:
The students have submitted (A) their assignments yesterday (B), and the teacher is reviewing (C) them now (D). No error (E)
Practice 3easy
Identify the error in the sentence:
The committee (A) have decided (B) that the new policy will be (C) implemented next month (D). No error (E)
Practice 4easy
Identify the error in the sentence:
By the time the train arrives (A), we will have waited (B) at the station (C) for two hours (D). No error (E)
Practice 5easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
The manager (A) has instructed / (B) all employees to submit / (C) their reports by tomorrow / (D) No error
Practice 6easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
She (A) has been working / (B) in this company / (C) since five years / (D) No error
Practice 7easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
When he (A) arrived at the station, / (B) the train has already / (C) left for Mumbai. / (D) No error
Practice 8easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
By the time (A) the guests arrive, / (B) we will have prepared / (C) all the refreshments. / (D) No error
Practice 9easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
The students (A) have completed / (B) their project work / (C) three weeks ago. / (D) No error
Practice 10easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
She (A) has been studying / (B) medicine / (C) for the last / (D) three years and will continue. / No error (E)
Practice 11easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
By the time the project (A) will be completed, (B) the team will have (C) worked for eight months. (D) No error (E)
Practice 12easy
Choose the correct tense form to fill in the blank: By the time the ambulance ______, the patient had already lost consciousness.
Practice 13easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
By the time (A) the project is completed, / (B) we will have spent / (C) more than a million rupees / (D) on research and development. / No error (E)
Practice 14easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
The students (A) has completed (B) their assignments (C) before the deadline yesterday. (D) No error (E)
Practice 15easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
The manager (A) has instructed the team members (B) that they should submit their reports (C) by tomorrow morning. (D) No error (E)
Practice 16easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
The manager (A) has instructed / (B) all employees / (C) that they should / (D) come early tomorrow. / No error (E)
Practice 17easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
She (A) have been working (B) at this company (C) for the last five years. (D) No error (E)
Practice 18easy
Identify the error in the following sentence:
She (A) has been working / (B) in this office / (C) since / (D) five years. / No error (E)
Practice 19medium
The students (A) have completed / (B) has completed / (C) have been completing / (D) had completed their assignments, and the teacher will collect them tomorrow. No error
Practice 20medium
The manager requested that every employee (A) submits / (B) submit / (C) will submit / (D) have submitted their reports by Friday. No error.
23 more practice questions in the Study Panel
Difficulty-graded, bookmarkable, with timed mode. Free account — no credit card.
Remember: 12 tenses = 3 time frames × 4 aspects. Know all 12 formulas cold before entering the exam hall.
Trap: NEVER pair Present Perfect (has/have + V3) with yesterday, ago, last week, or any definite past time — always switch to Simple Past or Past Perfect.
Formula: Two past events → earlier action = had + V3 (Past Perfect), later action = V2 (Simple Past).
Shortcut: See 'since' → point of time → use Perfect or Perfect Continuous. See 'for' → duration → same rule applies.
Shortcut: Stative verbs (know, love, want, believe, understand) NEVER take -ing. If you see 'is knowing' or 'was believing' — it is always wrong.
Remember: Sequence of Tenses — past main clause needs past in subordinate clause, EXCEPT universal truths which always stay in Present tense.
Signal word quick map — just/already/yet = Present Perfect | now/currently = Present Continuous | by next year = Future Perfect | yesterday/ago = Simple Past.