Unit 11.2

Time words


Print This Post Print This Post

Advertising

Introduction

Time words are words related to time that we use to express time information and to sequence events.

Form

We usually put time words before the main verb of the sentence:

Time word + subject + verb + object
Subject + time word + verb + object

However, it is also common to find time words at the very end of the sentence:

Subject + verb + object + time word

 

It is fundamental to match time words with the correct English tenses:

TENSE TIME WORDS
Simple Present Always, every day/month/week/year, often, usually, sometimes, frequently, never.
Simple Past Ago, in (past year), last (month/week/year), yesterday.
Simple Future Next (month/week/year), tomorrow, in (future year).
Present Perfect For, just, since, yet, never/ever, always, lately, recently, already.
Present Continuous At the moment, now, right now, tonight.
Past Continuous As, while.

NOTE: Some time words may go with more than one tense.

Example

  • I always sing in the shower.
  • She went to New York five years ago.
  • He will go to school tomorrow.
  • We‘ve lived in Italy for ten years.
  • What are you readinga t the moment?
  • While I was working, the children were playing video games.

Use

We use time words to locate the action in a specific time of the past, present or future.

Summary

We use time words with specific tenses to locate past, present and future actions and we usually find them at the beginning or end of a sentence.

For example:
— “I sometimes go swimming in the lake.” = we use the simple present with sometimes.
— “I met him more than ten years ago.” = we use the simple past with ago.
Let’s revise this content within the {Form} section. Take a look at the {Example} section that shows its use within a context.

Related

Time words are words related to time that we use to express time information and to sequence events.

For better understanding:

Exercises

External link to Time words exercises (203).



More exercises

Content Rating

Please, tell us how to improve the content here.


What did you think of our explanations and exercises?

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...

Ambassadors

Open TextBooks are collaborative projects, with people from all over the world bringing their skills and interests to join in the compilation and dissemination of knowledge to everyone and everywhere.

Become an Ambassador and write your textbooks.

Online Teaching

Become a Books4Languages Online tutor & teacher.

More information here about how to be a tutor.

Translations


Contributors

The Books4Languages is a collaborative projects, with people from all over the world bringing their skills and interests to join in the compilation and dissemination of knowledge to everyone, everywhere.

License