The Most Accurate AI Content Detector
Try Our AI Detector
Grammar

What Are Verb Tenses? 12 Types of Verb Tenses + Examples

Verb tenses indicate when an action takes place — there are 12 verb tenses including simple, perfect, and progressive verb tenses. Get tips on how to properly incorporate verb tenses in your writing.

Trusted By Industry Leaders
Trusted By Industry Leaders

Introduction

Our text compare tool is a fantastic, lightweight tool that provides plagiarism checks between two documents. Whether you are a student, blogger or publisher, this tool offers a great solution to detect and compare similarities between any two pieces of text. In this article, I will discuss the different ways to use the tool, the primary features of the tool and who this tool is for. There is an FAQ at the bottom if you run into any issues when trying to use the tool.

What makes Originality.ai’s text comparison tool stand out?

Keyword density helper – This tool comes with a built-in keyword density helper in some ways similar to the likes of SurferSEO or MarketMuse the difference being, ours is free! This feature shows the user the frequency of single or two word keywords in a document, meaning you can easily compare an article you have written against a competitor to see the major differences in keyword densities. This is especially useful for SEO’s who are looking to optimize their blog content for search engines and improve the blog’s visibility.

Ways to compare

File compare – Text comparison between files is a breeze with our tool. Simply select the files you would like to compare, hit “Upload” and our tool will automatically insert the content into the text area, then simply hit “Compare” and let our tool show you where the differences in the text are. By uploading a file, you can still check the keyword density in your content.

URL compare

Comparing text between URLs is effortless with our tool. Simply paste the URL you would like to get the content from (in our example we use a fantastic blog post by Sherice Jacob found here) hit “Submit URL” and our tool will automatically retrieve the contents of the page and paste it into the text area, then simply click “Compare” and let our tool highlight the difference between the URLs. This feature is especially useful for checking keyword density between pages!

Simple text compare

You can also easily compare text by copying and pasting it into each field, as demonstrated below.

Features of Originality.ai’s Text Compare Tool

Ease of use

Our text compare tool is created with the user in mind, it is designed to be accessible to everyone. Our tool allows users to upload files or enter a URL to extract text, this along with the lightweight design ensures a seamless experience. The interface is simple and straightforward, making it easy for users to compare text and detect the diff.

Multiple text file format support

Our tool provides support for a variety of different text files and microsoft word formats including pdf file, .docx, .odt, .doc, and .txt, giving users the ability to compare text from different sources with ease. This makes it a great solution for students, bloggers, and publishers who are looking for file comparison in different formats.

Protects intellectual property

Our text comparison tool helps you protect your intellectual property and helps prevent plagiarism. This tool provides an accurate comparison of texts, making it easy to ensure that your work is original and not copied from other sources. Our tool is a valuable resource for anyone looking to maintain the originality of their content.

User Data Privacy

Our text compare tool is secure and protects user data privacy. No data is ever saved to the tool, the users’ text is only scanned and pasted into the tool’s text area. This makes certain that users can use our tool with confidence, knowing their data is safe and secure.

Compatibility

Our text comparison tool is designed to work seamlessly across all size devices, ensuring maximum compatibility no matter your screen size. Whether you are using a large desktop monitor, a small laptop, a tablet or a smartphone, this tool adjusts to your screen size. This means that users can compare texts and detect the diff anywhere without the need for specialized hardware or software. This level of accessibility makes it an ideal solution for students or bloggers who value the originality of their work and need to compare text online anywhere at any time.

Properly applying the correct tense to a verb is essential to helping readers understand when an action is happening. 

There are 12 types of verb tenses including simple, perfect, and progressive. Learn about each verb tense and get examples of how to use verb tenses in writing.

Then, review your text with the Originality.ai Grammar Checker to catch common spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes (and make sure you’re using verb tenses correctly!).

Quick Reference Chart of 12 Verb Tense Examples

Considering there are 12 different verb tenses, here’s a quick overview of examples highlighting the differences between each tense.

Verb Tense Verb Tense Examples
Simple Present Tense She arrives today.
Simple Past Tense She arrived yesterday.
Simple Future Tense She will arrive tomorrow.
Present Perfect Tense She has arrived on time all year.
Past Perfect Tense She had arrived on time all year before they cancelled the bus route.
Future Perfect Tense She will have decided on a new bus route by the time the bus schedules change.
Present Progressive Tense She is arriving today.
Past Progressive Tense She was arriving today.
Future Progressive Tense She will be arriving tomorrow.
Present Perfect Progressive Tense She has been considering alternative bus routes since this morning.
Past Perfect Progressive Tense She had been considering new bus routes when she heard they cancelled the bus.
Future Perfect Progressive Tense She will have been considering new bus routes for hours by the time she chooses the best one.

What Are Verb Tenses?

When writing in English, a verb tense is what tells a reader when the action in a sentence occurs

  • The basic form of a verb is what tells a reader what the action is
  • The tense of the verb tells the reader when it happened: in the present, past, or future.
  • It also tells the reader whether the action is over or if it’s continuing.
  • Additionally, it clarifies whether the action is related to another action at another time. 

Therefore, changes in verb tense within writing contribute to a narrative’s timeline and help a reader understand the temporal (time) relationship between events. 

Next, let’s take a look at the 12 different types of verb tenses, which fall under 3 main categories: simple, perfect, and progressive (continuous) tenses.

The Simple Verb Tenses

To get started let’s review the three simple verb tenses in English. The simple verb tenses clarify three specific, or clear points in time

  • Present (an action that is performed)
  • Past (an action that was performed)
  • Future (an action that will be performed)

1. Simple present tense

The present tense describes an action that is being performed. 

For regular verbs, you form the simple present verb tense by adding an -s (in the third person singular) and using the basic form of the verb everywhere else.

Simple present tense examples in a sentence:

  • Statements of fact, state of being, and general truths
    • Los Angeles is a city in California.
    • I am forty years old, and I am really tired today.
  • Repetitive actions or habits
    • She drives to work at 8 a.m. every day. 
    • That car always breaks down.
  • Sequences of actions or directions 
    • When it rains, the flowers grow.
    • You drive straight for two blocks, then turn right.
  • With sensory verbs, when an action or feeling is true in the present
    • I think I love music.
    • She hears music.
  • With arranged plans in the future or scheduled actions: 
    • My plane lands at 4 p.m. next Tuesday.
    • Tell her when she arrives tomorrow

2. Simple past tense

The simple past tense describes an action that was previously completed. Essentially, it’s an action but it has already happened because it started in the past and ended in the past. 

When applying the simple past tense to a regular verb add an -ed at the end of the verb.

Simple past tense examples in a sentence:

  • It rained, and the flowers grew.
  • My plane landed at 4 p.m. yesterday.
  • I ran so fast that I fell down. (irregular verbs)
  • I thought I loved him. (one regular verb, one irregular verb)

3. Simple future tense

Then, the simple future tense describes an action that is yet to happen. It’s an action that will occur in the future (it isn’t happening now and hasn’t previously happened)

To write the simple future tense typically you add the word will or, less commonly, shall.

Simple future tense examples in a sentence:

  • It will rain tomorrow, and the flowers will grow.
  • My plan will land at 4 p.m. tomorrow.
  • Tomorrow, I will run my first marathon.
  • We shall see what happens tomorrow!

The Perfect Verb Tenses

Unlike simple tenses, perfect tenses describe when something is, was, or will be happening

The actions in the perfect tenses express a different relationship between actions and time. To write the perfect tense in a sentence use a verb’s past participle.

Past participles of verbs: a quick refresher

Regular Verbs Add -ed to the suffix (base form) of a verb. Examples of regular verbs: cook (cooked), dance (danced), learn (learned)
Irregular Verbs The past participle varies substantially. Examples of irregular verbs: be (been), become (became), sleep (slept), grow (grown)

Considering how substantially the past participle of verbs can vary, it’s best practice to look them up in a dictionary, memorize them, or review them with a grammar checker

4. Present Perfect Tense

To write the present perfect tense add have or has to a verb’s past participle

Examples of the present perfect tense:

  • Completed at an unspecified time in the past:
    • I have cooked that recipe before.
    • She has danced in the moonlight.
    • He has driven that road. (irregular past participle)
    • They have eaten that meal. (irregular past participle)
  • Begun in the past and continuing into the present:
    • For 10 years, we have purchased summer theater tickets.
    • I have been at my company for many wonderful years. (irregular past participle)

5. Past perfect tense

The past perfect tense describes a past action that occurred before a particular event (or action). You create it by adding had to a verb’s past participle.

Examples of the past perfect tense:

  • We had dated for five years before we got married.
  • The chef had created that recipe long before working at the restaurant.

6. Future perfect tense

The future perfect describes the relationship between two events at different times. 

In this case, the difference is between two future actions, and one action will occur before the other. To write the future perfect tense include will have with a verb’s past participle.

Examples of the future perfect tense:

  • I will have finished dinner by the time you finally arrive.
  • By the time the sun rises, she will have cleaned the entire house.

Progressive Forms of Verb Tenses

As if those six English verb forms weren’t enough, all six tenses have progressive forms that indicate actions in progress

You may also find the progressive tenses referred to as continuous tenses

To write the progressive verb tense you need the present participle of a verb.

Present participle of a verb: a quick refresher 

Regular and Irregular Verbs
(in most cases)
Add -ing Examples
In most cases Add -ing to the suffix (base form) of a verb. Examples: cook (cooking), dance (dancing), be (being), become (becoming)

7. Present progressive

The present progressive is an action that is currently in progress or will happen in the future.

How to write the present progressive: simply add am, is, or are to the present participle

Examples of the present progressive: 

  • I am running late. (currently in progress)
  • She is traveling to New York on Monday. (future time)
  • They are baking bread. (currently in progress)

8. Past progressive

The past progressive is a past action that was in progress when another event occurred.

How to write the past progressive: Add was or were to the present participle

Examples of the past progressive: 

  • I was running late when you called. 
  • She was traveling to New York when the connecting flight was delayed.
  • They were baking bread when the power went out.

9. Future progressive

The future progressive is an action that’s in progress and will continue.

How to write the future progressive: Add will be to the present participle.

Examples of the future progressive: 

  • I will be running too late if I wait for you.
  • She will be traveling to New York next Monday.
  • They will be baking bread to prepare for the party next week.

10. Present perfect progressive

The present perfect progressive refers to something that started before (in the past), is still happening, and may continue to happen.

How to write the present perfect progressive: Add have/has and been to the present participle. 

Examples of the present perfect progressive:

  • I have been running late since this morning.
  • She has been considering a trip to New York.
  • They have been baking bread since before dawn.

11. Past perfect progressive

The past perfect progressive refers to when something happened before (in the past), was unfolding for a period of time, and then ended.

How to write the past perfect progressive: Add had been to the present participle. 

Examples: 

  • I had been running late before you offered me a ride in your sports car!
  • She had been planning a trip to New York before the travel delays were announced.
  • They had been baking bread when the power went out and the oven turned off.

12. Future perfect progressive

The future perfect progressive tense refers to an action that is starting now (in the present) and unfolding in the future.

How to write the future perfect progressive: Add will have been to the present participle in a sentence. 

Examples of the future perfect progressive: 

  • I will have been cooking all day by the time we finally sit down to eat.
  • She will have been traveling for ten hours before she arrives in New York.
  • They will have been baking bread for five hours by the time you wake up. 

Final Thoughts

At first glance, it might seem like the present, past, and future verb tenses should cover all possible actions. 

However, because relationships between time can get so complex, we need additional verb tenses to help explain how actions exist in — and between — different temporal points. 

While some of the perfect and progressive tenses can sound confusing at first, the examples illustrate how commonly we use them in speaking and writing without realizing it!

Review your content to make sure you’re using verb tenses correctly with the Originality.ai AI Grammar Checker.

Then, discover grammar best practices in our top guides:

Melissa Fanella

Melissa Fanella is a writer, editor, and marketing professional with over 15 years of experience in content and messaging for businesses and nonprofits. Her expertise is in crafting authentic, people-first content that is compelling and engaging for audiences and positioned for business goals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to fill out the entire form?

No, that’s one of the benefits, only fill out the areas which you think will be relevant to the prompts you require.

Why is the English so poor for some prompts?

When making the tool we had to make each prompt as general as possible to be able to include every kind of input. Not to worry though ChatGPT is smart and will still understand the prompt.

In The Press

Originality.ai has been featured for its accurate ability to detect GPT-3, Chat GPT and GPT-4 generated content. See some of the coverage below…

View All Press
Featured by Leading Publications

Originality.ai did a fantastic job on all three prompts, precisely detecting them as AI-written. Additionally, after I checked with actual human-written textual content, it did determine it as 100% human-generated, which is important.

Vahan Petrosyan

searchenginejournal.com

I use this tool most frequently to check for AI content personally. My most frequent use-case is checking content submitted by freelance writers we work with for AI and plagiarism.

Tom Demers

searchengineland.com

After extensive research and testing, we determined Originality.ai to be the most accurate technology.

Rock Content Team

rockcontent.com

Jon Gillham, Founder of Originality.ai came up with a tool to detect whether the content is written by humans or AI tools. It’s built on such technology that can specifically detect content by ChatGPT-3 — by giving you a spam score of 0-100, with an accuracy of 94%.

Felix Rose-Collins

ranktracker.com

ChatGPT lacks empathy and originality. It’s also recognized as AI-generated content most of the time by plagiarism and AI detectors like Originality.ai

Ashley Stahl

forbes.com

Originality.ai Do give them a shot! 

Sri Krishna

venturebeat.com

For web publishers, Originality.ai will enable you to scan your content seamlessly, see who has checked it previously, and detect if an AI-powered tool was implored.

Industry Trends

analyticsinsight.net

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it important to check for plagiarism?

Tools for conducting a plagiarism check between two documents online are important as it helps to ensure the originality and authenticity of written work. Plagiarism undermines the value of professional and educational institutions, as well as the integrity of the authors who write articles. By checking for plagiarism, you can ensure the work that you produce is original or properly attributed to the original author. This helps prevent the distribution of copied and misrepresented information.

What is Text Comparison?

Text comparison is the process of taking two or more pieces of text and comparing them to see if there are any similarities, differences and/or plagiarism. The objective of a text comparison is to see if one of the texts has been copied or paraphrased from another text. This text compare tool for plagiarism check between two documents has been built to help you streamline that process by finding the discrepancies with ease.

How do Text Comparison Tools Work?

Text comparison tools work by analyzing and comparing the contents of two or more text documents to find similarities and differences between them. This is typically done by breaking the texts down into smaller units such as sentences or phrases, and then calculating a similarity score based on the number of identical or nearly identical units. The comparison may be based on the exact wording of the text, or it may take into account synonyms and other variations in language. The results of the comparison are usually presented in the form of a report or visual representation, highlighting the similarities and differences between the texts.

String comparison is a fundamental operation in text comparison tools that involves comparing two sequences of characters to determine if they are identical or not. This comparison can be done at the character level or at a higher level, such as the word or sentence level.

The most basic form of string comparison is the equality test, where the two strings are compared character by character and a Boolean result indicating whether they are equal or not is returned. More sophisticated string comparison algorithms use heuristics and statistical models to determine the similarity between two strings, even if they are not exactly the same. These algorithms often use techniques such as edit distance, which measures the minimum number of operations (such as insertions, deletions, and substitutions) required to transform one string into another.

Another common technique for string comparison is n-gram analysis, where the strings are divided into overlapping sequences of characters (n-grams) and the frequency of each n-gram is compared between the two strings. This allows for a more nuanced comparison that takes into account partial similarities, rather than just exact matches.

String comparison is a crucial component of text comparison tools, as it forms the basis for determining the similarities and differences between texts. The results of the string comparison can then be used to generate a report or visual representation of the similarities and differences between the texts.

What is Syntax Highlighting?

Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors and integrated development environments (IDEs) that helps to visually distinguish different elements of a code or markup language. It does this by coloring different elements of the code, such as keywords, variables, functions, and operators, based on a predefined set of rules.

The purpose of syntax highlighting is to make the code easier to read and understand, by drawing attention to the different elements and their structure. For example, keywords may be colored in a different hue to emphasize their importance, while comments or strings may be colored differently to distinguish them from the code itself. This helps to make the code more readable, reducing the cognitive load of the reader and making it easier to identify potential syntax errors.

How Can I Conduct a Plagiarism Check between Two Documents Online?

With our tool it’s easy, just enter or upload some text, click on the button “Compare text” and the tool will automatically display the diff between the two texts.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Text Compare Tool?

Using text comparison tools is much easier, more efficient, and more reliable than proofreading a piece of text by hand. Eliminate the risk of human error by using a tool to detect and display the text difference within seconds.

What Files Can You Inspect with This Text Compare Tool?

We have support for the file extensions .pdf, .docx, .odt, .doc and .txt. You can also enter your text or copy and paste text to compare.

Will My Data Be Shared?

There is never any data saved by the tool, when you hit “Upload” we are just scanning the text and pasting it into our text area so with our text compare tool, no data ever enters our servers.

Software License Agreement

Copyright © 2023, Originality.ai

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

  1. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Will My Data Be Shared?

This table below shows a heat map of features on other sites compared to ours as you can see we almost have greens across the board!

More From The Blog

Al Content Detector & Plagiarism Checker for Marketers and Writers

Use our leading tools to ensure you can hit publish with integrity!