A Brief History of Tense

The standard TEFL model - twelve tenses (or forms)

In EFL and ESL, we usually talk of twelve tenses or forms, each being a combination of a time and an
aspect. Although few EFl / ESL writers would talk of a twelve tense system, that's what it really amounts
to.
But writers on grammar haven't always seen it like that (and some don't today). As so many old grammar
books are available on the web these days, whether at Project Gutenberg, Google Books or Archive.org, I
thought it might be interesting to have a look at how English tenses have been treated over the centuries,
and have a look at some old grammar books at the same time.
Archive.org deserves a special mention. Their books are freely available in several formats; the online
facsimile versions (which I link to in the text) are very easy to read through and find things in, but they
also have other formats for downloading, for example for e-readers.

The standard EFL/ESL model - twelve active Indicative tenses

Time >
Aspect

Past

Present

Future

Simple

hid

hide
hides

will hide

Continuous

was hiding
were hiding

am hiding
is hiding
are hiding

will be hiding

Perfect simple

had hidden

has hidden
have hidden

will have hidden

Perfect continuous

had been hiding

has been hiding

have been hiding

will have been hiding

Note that Continuous tenses or forms are also often known as Progressive. When looking at other
systems, I shall use these terms, Present simple, Past continuous, Future perfect etc. as referents. I shall
only be looking at Active Indicative (in other words - standard, normal) tenses, as these are the basic
building blocks of the tense system.

In the beginning were three times

The first English grammar book is generally taken to be 'A Bref Grammar for English' by William Bullokar
(Wikipedia), and published in 1586. Unfortunately I've been unable to find a copy of this on the Internet,
so we'll start with Ben Jonson's 'The English Grammar', published in 1640. Johnson doesn't appear to use
the word tense but talks of three times: past, present and future.

He then suggests that other times are expressed by what he calls a syntax, a form which he doesn't seem
to consider to be a real tense:

For the English equivalents of Jonson's Latin examples, see the section titled 'Latin Rules, OK!' below.
You can see Johnson's Grammar at [Archive.org] and a facsimile of the original at [Google Books]
In those days, English had a different pronoun for Second person singular - thou, thee, thy, thine, and as
we shall see in a minute, a different subject form for you - ye. These are no longer used (in Standard
English), but most of us are familiar with them, especially from their use in the Bible and by Shakespeare.
At that time, there was a separate verb form for Second person singular present (thou dost) and two
forms for Third person singular (he doeth / he does).

There's an example of this -th form in the first extract - hath. Jonson also points out that until the reign of
Henry VIII plural forms ended in en: loven, sayen, complainen. So while today we have only two forms in
Present simple, up until the fifteenth century there were four:

I go

Thou goest

He, she, it goeth (or goes)

We, you, they goen

Joseph Priestley - an early dissenter

Joseph Priestly was an eighteenth century polymath: dissenting clergyman and theologian, philosopher
and scientist (he is often credited with the discovery of oxygen). In his The rudiments of English
Grammar 1761 [Archive.org (London 1872)] he dissents from the three time view:

Note his use of the -eth form (instead of -s) for Third person singular. Taking this view, he anticipates
some twentieth-century linguists, who also talk of a two-tense system, with what he calls the 'Preter' tense
being more commonly known as the Preterite (= Past simple). Other verb forms he categorises as
'Compound forms', dividing them into three orders, depending on which verb form is used, and three
compounds, depending on the number of auxiliaries used:

The First order: the base form after will/shall or modal

I shall hear (= Future simple + other modal constructions)

The Second order: the -ing form after be

I am hearing, I was hearing (= Present continous, Past continuous)

The Third order: the past participle after have

I have heard, I had heard, I will have heard (= The three Perfect tenses)

The First double compound

I shall be hearing (= Future continuous and other modal constructions)

The Second double compound

I have been hearing, I had been hearing (= Present and Past perfect continuous)

The Triple compound

I shall have been hearing (= Future perfect continuous)
So, with his two tenses, three orders and three compounds, Priestley covers all twelve forms of the twelve
tense system. In his linking of will with other modals in one order he is also pre-dating the twentiethcentury linguists.

Prescriptivism and descriptivism

There was another way that Priestley was similar to modern grammar writers - he was, like Ben Jonson
before him, a descriptivist (describing grammar as it is used) - following what has been called the Doctrine
of General Usage as opposed to the Doctrine of Rules or Correctness favoured by the prescriptivists
(those who think grammars should tell you what is - in their view - correct) - see the paper from Novgorod
in the links at the end.
The grammar taught in EFL course books and grammar books is largely descriptive, reflecting how most
educated speakers use the language, pointing out the differences between informal and formal use,
rather than insisting that formal use is the only correct use, as prescriptivist grammars tend to do.

Robert Lowth, the first prescriptive grammarian

Bishop Robert Lowth was the first true prescriptivist, telling readers what they should do, rather than
describing what was done. His A Short Introduction to English Grammar with Critical Notes, first published
in 1762, was the model followed by almost every grammar book until the twentieth century (and even one
or two today). In it, Lowth follows the 'three times' approach [Archive.org] [Google Books]

Lowth then goes on to talk about 'distinctions of time', for example whether 'passing' (also referred to as
Imperfect) or 'finished' (Perfect). The simple forms he refers to as Indefinite or Undetermined time

So, apart from Perfect Continuous (which is often seen as a compound), Lowth covers all the forms of our
twelve tense system, albeit with different terminology. We shall see that this idea of 'Imperfect', taken from
Latin grammar, is very common in older grammars, and that use of the term 'Indefinite' for what we call
Simple tenses comes up again in several grammars.

Three tenses, three (or four) forms

Some later writers, such as William Smith and Theophilus Hall, the authors of 'A School Manual of
English Grammar with Copious Exercises' [Archive.org], published in 1889, stayed with the three tense
system, but allowing each 'main tense' three forms plus a fourth in the Active voice, here listed as:
Indefinite (= simple)

Incomplete (= continuous)

Complete (= perfect)

Perfect-incomplete (= perfect continuous)

Latin Rules, OK!

We saw how Ben Jonson compared his English verb forms to Latin ones, and referred to Imperfect and
Perfect forms.
In Latin, there are six tenses:

Present - amo - I love, I am loving

Imperfect - amabam - I was loving, I used to love

Perfect - amavi - I have loved, I loved

Pluperfect - amaveram - I had loved

Future - amabo - I will love, I will be loving

Future perfect - amavero - I will have loved

A couple of points are worth noting here:

Latin does not have separate Continuous or Progressive tenses

The Imperfect isn't the equivalent of Past simple, but has a meaning more like that of Past
continuous as well as 'used to'.

In Latin, the Perfect tense was used for completed actions in the past, covered by two tenses in
English - Past simple and Present perfect.
Jonson also refers to amem, amarem, amaverim, amavissem. These are the Subjunctive forms of
Present, Imperfect, Perfect and Pluperfect tenses, respectively.

Latin

English (EFL)

French

Spanish

present

present simple
present continuous

prsent

presente

imperfect

past continuous
'used to'

imparfait

imperfecto

perfect

past simple
present perfect

pass simple
pass compos

pretrito indefinido
pretrito perfecto

pluperfect

past perfect
past perfect continuous

plus-que-parfait

pluscuamperfecto

future

future simple
future continuous

futur simple

futuro

future perfect

future perfect
future perfect continuous

futur antrieur

futuro perfecto

When I was at school, we used the same names as for the Latin tenses, so we learnt about Imperfect
rather than Past continuous, Perfect rather than Present perfect, and Pluperfect rather than Past Perfect.

Six tenses - Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

Given the status of Latin, it is perhaps not surprising that many early grammarians went for a six-tense
system: there is some variation in terminology, but the actual tenses don't vary. In this system, continuous
forms are not counted as tenses, and are usually seen as variations of these six tenses.
In his famous dictionary, first published in 1766, Johnson has a section called A Grammar of the English
Tongue [Archive.org] [Google Books]. In this he lists six tenses:

Present tense - I have

Simple preterite - I had

Compound preterite - I have had

Preterpluperfect - I had had

Future - I shall (will) have

Second future - I shall (will) have had

This practice of using the term Second future for what we normally call Future perfect is quite common in
grammar books of this period.
As for continous tenses, Johnson says:
We often express the present tense as "I am going", "I am grieving"' ... So the other tenses: "we were
walking", "I have been walking", "I had been walking", "I will be walking"'.
He doesn't seem to give these a name, though, or consider them separate tenses; simply regarding them
as variations of his six tenses.

Six tenses - Lindley Murray

Another grammarian to develop the three times into six tenses was Lindley Murray. Continuing the
Lowthian idea of prescriptive grammar, Murray was the author of English grammar: adapted to the
different classes of learners, first published in 1795 and which became probably the most influential
grammar book of the first half of the nineteenth century, in both Britain and North America.

The Present tense

'I rule','She is an amiable woman','He walks out every morning'

The Imperfect tense

'I loved her','They were travelling'

The Perfect tense

'I have finished my letter'

The Pluperfect tense

'I had finished my letter before thet arrived'

The First Future tense

'The sun will rise tomorrow', 'I shall see them again'

The Second Future tense

'I shall have dined at one o'clock'
Murray departs a little from the Latin model by listing both Past continuous and Past simple as Imperfect.
More generally, he makes two distinctions:

1. between Indefinite use:

'Virtue promotes happiness'
and Definite use
'My brother is writing'

2. between imperfect, or unfinished actions

'I am writing','I was writing','I shall be writing'
and those that 'denote complete perfect action'
'I wrote','I have written','I had written','I shall have written'
It's worth noting, perhaps, that Murray makes a point about the Perfect tense (our Present perfect) which
is still very important in today's teaching:
The perfect tense not only refers to what is past, but also conveys an allusion to present time ... In
general, the perfect tense may be applied wherever the action is connected with the present time
He also uses the term 'Simple tenses' for our Present Simple and Past Simple, where no auxiliaries are
involved.

Six tenses - other grammarians

GP Quackenbos, in An English Grammar 1864 [Archive.org] has the same six tenses with the same
names as Lindley Murray.

Judson Perry Welsh, in A Practical English Grammar (Philadelphia 1889) [Archive.org] also lists six
tenses (with more modern names, but with no mention of continuous forms that I can see):
Present tense, Past tense, Present perfect tense, Past perfect tense, Future tense, Future perfect
tense
GW Henderson - English Grammar by Parallelism and Comparison (1910) [Archive.org] has the same six
tenses as Welsh. But he specifically mentions separate Progressive forms and Emphatic forms.
In his The Grammar, History and Derivation of the English Language 1890 [Archive.org], the Rev Canon
Daniel divides the three times into two tenses, one Imperfect and one Perfect, giving him six tenses, each
of which has two forms - Simple and Continuous.
In a more modern book, Teaching English grammar (New York 1957) [Archive.org] by RC Pooley,the
author also talks of six tenses, saying that 'Modern English has also added some variations within the
tenses', saying we make considerable use of emphatic and progressive forms. This book is particularly
interesting in that it compares Modern English forms with those of Old English.

Back to three - Noah Webster and William Cobbett

Noah Webster's A Grammatical Institute of the English Language (1790) is in the form of questions and
answers:

That seems to just about all he has to say about Perfect and Continuous forms and he doesn't seem to
use terms like Perfect and Imperfect at all. [Archive.org] - [Google Books]
William Cobbett was one of the most colourful figures in early 19th century England. In many ways a
radical, in others deeply conservative, he is best known for his book Rural Rides. He also spent some
time in the US and his Grammar of the English Language was first published in New York in 1818. This
consisted of a series of letters to his son, James Paul Cobbett.

Cobbett simply lists three times, ignoring what he calls 'compound times'. But in his notes to the Tenth
Edition, editor Robert Walters lists all the possible forms of one verb, saying 'Do not be afraid; it will not
confuse you, if only you will be patient'. This list includes eight tenses; the familiar six, plus two he calls
'Present tense conditional' and 'Perfect tense conditional' [Archive.org]. This list is also interesting as it
illustrates 'The Potential Mood', a concept that a lot of older grammar books talk about, but which seems
to have fallen by the wayside.

Three plus three

Some nineteenth century grammar books keep the six tense system, but subdivide them into two sets of
three:

In English Grammar: The English Language in its Elements and Forms, first published in 1850,
[Archive.org - New York 1876] William Chauncey Fowler lists:
3 Primary tenses - Past, Present, Future

3 Secondary tenses - Past perfect, Present perfect, Future perfect

Within each of these tenses he allows two forms - Simple and Progressive (Continuous). In the (Primary)
Present and Past tenses, he also includes a third form: the emphatic form - 'I do love you!', 'I did do my
homework!'.

Others take a similar approach, with a slight change of terminology. TW Harvey, in Harvey's English
Grammar (Cincinatti 1870) [Archive.org] talks of:
3 Absolute tenses - Past, Present, Future

3 Relative tenses - Past perfect, Present perfect, Future perfect

And in English Grammar and Analysis (London 1889), W Davidson and JC Alcock 1889 [Archive.org]talk
of:
3 Principal tenses - Past, Present, Future

3 Secondary tenses - Past perfect, Present perfect, Future perfect

in both of these books each tense also has a progressive form.

Six plus six

We are now getting closer to our familiar ELF twelve tense system. JD Rose, in Advanced English
Grammar through Composition (London 1917) [Archive.org] is the first I've noticed to talk of Simple
tenses in his categorisations. He divides his twelve tenses into:

Six Momentary tenses

Present, Past, Present perfect, Past perfect, Future, Future perfect

Six Continuous tenses

Present, Imperfect, Present perfect, Past perfect, Future, Future perfect
Note the use of 'Imperfect' for Past continuous - this was very common in traditional grammar teaching
(such as I had at school), and often included the 'used to' construction as well. Rose also has a couple of
strange additional tenses which he calls Future in the Past (eg. 'I should write')and Future Perfect in the
Past (eg. 'I should have written') - these are different from what we normally think of as Future in the Past
today.

And then there were nine (plus three)

A couple of books talk about nine primary tenses:
A West - The Elements of English Grammar 1907 [Archive.org] is particularly interesting as he gives the
Imperfect and Perfect forms just about every possible name he could think of:

Time

Imperfect, Incomplete,

Perfect, Complete,

Indefinite

Present
Past
Future

Unfinished, Progressive,
Continuous
I am writing
I was writing
I shall be writing

Finished
I have written
I had written
I shall have written

I write
I wrote
I shall write

West then adds that there is an additional set of three Perfect continuous tenses. He is also interesting for
rejecting the idea that the 'going to' form constituted a tense (some had called it the 'Intentional tense') as
well as the notion that the emphatic forms (see above) were separate tenses.
In The English Language; its Grammar, History and Literature 1896 JMD Meiklejohn talks of three chief
tenses, each with three subdivisions - Indefinite, Perfect and Imperfect [Archive.org (Boston 1896)]. He
then mentions Perfect continous tenses, and ends up listing the full twelve tenses: [Archive.org]

At last twelve
In An English Grammar for the Use of High School, Academy and College Classes, W.M. Baskerville,
J.W. Sewell say that while Old English only had two tenses:
English of the present day not only has a tense for each of the time divisions - past, present, future - but
has other tenses to correspond with those of highly inflected language, such as Latin and Greek
And they end up listing twelve, using the term 'Definite' for what are usually called Continuous or
Progressive tenses. [Archive.org]
JC Nesfield, in A Manual of English Grammar and Composition 1898 [Archive.org] shows a twelve tense
system consisting of three times, each with four tenses, much like the system that is usually used in EFL,
with the exception of Simple tenses being called 'Indefinite'

A new type of grammar - the scientific grammar

The grammar books we've been looking at from Lowth on have been mainly prescriptive. At the end of the
nineteenth century appeared a new kind of descriptive grammar, often aimed more at linguists. In the
Preface to A New English Grammar Logical and Historical (Oxford 1900), Henry Sweet writes:
This work is intended to supply the want of a scientific English grammar, founded on an independent
critical survey of the latest results of linguistic investigation ...
The next two extracts shows how radically this new approach differed from that of the prescriptivists:
As my exposition claims to be scientific, I confine myself to the statement and explanation of facts, without
attempting to settle the relative correctness of divergent usages. If an 'ungrammatical' expression such
as it is me is in general use among educated people, I accept it as such, simply adding that it is avoided
in the literary language.
... whatever is in general use in language is for that reason grammatically correct.
That last quote would be anathema to prescriptivists: it represents a totally different philosophy as to what
grammar is. Incidentally, there are still some prescriptivist websites that insist that 'it is me' is incorrect.
Sweet lists fourteen 'chief tenses', our familiar twelve, together with two others in the 'Preterite future'.
Sweet follows the practice we've already seen of listing Simple tenses as 'Indefinite' and Continuous
tenses as 'Definite'. [Archive.org]
As well as the concepts of Indefinite and Definite tenses, Sweet talks about Complete and Incomplete
tenses, and Primary and Secondary tenses. Primary tenses are when an action is seen in a time frame
from the present - Present simple, Past simple, Future simple etc. Secondary tenses involve actions seen
from the time of another action, such as 'I had finished writing my letter by the time he came', 'I was
writing a letter when he came in', where the first verb in each sentence represents a Secondary tense and

the second verb a Primary tense, in both these examples Past simple. But these are perhaps types of
tense rather than the main categories.
As I understand it, H Poutz in his enormous five volume Grammar of Late Modern English, (1926), written
for 'Continental' readers, especially Dutch, goes along with Sweet's idea of Primary and Secondary
tenses [Archive.org Vol 5]
Earlier, German historical linguist AE Maetzner, in An English Grammar: Methodical, Analytical, and
Historical (1874), which compares Modern English with Old English, to a certain extent seems to have
foreseen modern linguists by dividing tenses into two sets: past and present (without a separate future),
but within these sets he includes simple and compound tenses. He lists eight tenses:

Present tenses: Present (love), Perfect (have loved), First future (will love), Second future (will
have loved)

Past tenses: Preterite (loved), Plusquamperfectum (had loved), Imperfect of the future (should
love), Plusquamperfect of the future (should have loved)
He also makes what must be a very early mention of First and Second conditionals, which he includes in
Past tenses, being variations of what he calls the Imperfect of the future and Plusquampefectum of the
future, substituting would for should. Archive.org

And suddenly, there are only two (or perhaps four) - modern linguistics
As we saw earlier, Joseph Priestley put forward the idea that there are only two tenses"Present and Past;
he also pointed out that the Present tense is sometimes used for the future, and linked will to other modal
verbs.
Modern linguists tend to see two tenses, Past and Present, or as some say, Past and Nonpast. This is
because they distinguish tense only by morphology or inflexion, in other words, different forms of the main
verb itself (not the use of auxiliaries). One of the most influential grammars of the late twentieth century
was The Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, by Randolph Quirk, Sydney Greenbaum,
Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik, first published by Longman in 1985, where they talk of two tenses:
Past and Present.
In An Introduction to English Grammar, written by Greenbaum along with Gerald Nelson, and first
published in 1991, [Google Books], they say:
Tense is a time category referring to the time of the situation; the tense is indicated by the form of the
verb. There are two tense forms: past and present.
Aspect is a grammatical category referring to the way that the time of a situation is viewed by the speaker
or writer; the aspect is indicated by a combinetion of auxiliary and verb form. Verbs have two aspects: the
perfect aspect and the progressive aspect.
The reference grammar book currently fashionable amongst linguists is The Cambridge Grammar of the
English Language, by Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum and others, published in 2002. In 'A
SHORT OVERVIEW OF ENGLISH SYNTAX Based on The Cambridge Grammar of the English
Language' Huddleston says 'We have seen that there are two inflectional tenses in English: preterite and
present', and refers to Progressive and Perfect aspects (and also to Perfect 'constructions').[Available
here]
But in A Student's Introduction to English Grammar, Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey Pullum refer to two
Primary tenses: Present and Preterite, and to two Perfect tenses: also Present and Preterite (Past
Perfect), saying that:
The perfect is a past tense that is marked by means of an auxiliary verb rather than by inflection, like the
preterite. The auxiliary is have, which is followed by a past participle.
Talking of 'Perfective and imperfective interpretations' they give this table (I've simplified it a little)

System

Terms

Example

Primary tense

Preterite
Present

went
goes

Secondary tense

Perfect
Non-perfect

has gone
goes

Aspect

Progressive
Non-progressive

is going
goes

Mood

Modal
Non-modal

can go
goes

Does that perhaps mean we have four tenses now?. By Perfective, incidentally, they don't mean the
grammatical Perfect, but, as I understand it, the semantic interpretation of an action being finished, and
conversely Imprefective is used for incomplete actions.
So, as I understand it, any verb form can be categorised according to four criteria: whether it is Present or
Preterite, Perfect or Non-perfect, Progressive or Non-progressive, Modal or Non-modal.
I've only touched on this area for two reasons. First, it is difficult to link to these books as they are in
copyright, and secondly, because quite frankly I find them very difficult for a non-specialist (like me) to
understand, talking of such things as 'the Continuative perfect' and 'the Futurate'.

Personal postscript
I was preparing a lesson from an advanced course book one day when I came across something like
this: 'There are two tenses, Past and Present. There is no Future tense.' No explanation, nothing. Even
though the Upper-intermediate version of the same series (Language Leader) talks of 'Narrative tenses'
and the Pre-intermediate version, when talking about Present perfect , they asked: 'Which tense is each
sentence in, past simple or present perfect?'. In other words, students had been taught the twelve tense
system all the way up to advanced level, and they were suddenly told there were two, without any
explanation whatsoever.
As far as I'm concerned, this is just EFL writers being trendy, like the fashion for calling Phrasal verbs
Multiword verbs. It doesn't help the students one jot, unless they're going to go on to study linguistics at
an English-speaking university. It is simply confusing to change the system in midstream like this, and
they are more or less telling students that everything they had learnt so far was wrong.
The needs of linguistics and language teaching are very different: linguistics is mainly to do with analysis,
not teaching. As the different ways of constructing verb forms in English rely heavily on the use of
auxuliaries, and as English is largely a non-inflected language, it seems strange to me to distinguish
tense by inflection rather than by the use of auxiliaries. In my opinion the twelve tense system is the
easiest and clearest way of showing these forms, and their relationships to each other, to learners,
whether they be foreign learners, or native-speaker school pupils, as I've tried to show [here].

A note on the grammar books quoted.

A few are famous in the cannon of grammar books or because of their authors:

Ben Johnson (Wikipedia) - Google Books (1756)

Robert Lowth (Wikipedia) - Archive.org (1799 US) - Google Books 1838

Lindley Murray (Wikipedia) - Archive.org (1823 US) - Google Books (1817)

William Cobbett (Wikipedia) - Archive.org (1901) - Google Books (1818 US)

Joseph Priestley - The Rudiments of English Grammar: Adapted to the Use of

Schools 1772Wikpedia - Archive.org (London 1772) - Google Books (1772)
A few I found in the recommended reading section of Gwynne's Grammar. I don't know whether that's a
good or a bad sign: Gwynne is a modern prescriptivist, whose ideas are often directly opposed to those in
the grammar taught in EFL. But these books are probably typical of their time:

Rev Canon Daniel - The Grammar, History and Derivation of the English Language 1890
-Archive.org (London 1891)

GMD Meiklejohn - The English Language: Its grammar, History and Literature 1894 -Archiv.org
(Boston 1907)

JC Nesfield - Manual of English Grammar and Composition 1898 Archive.orh (London 1908)
William Smith & Theophilus Hall - A School Manual of English Grammar with Copious
Exercises 1877 - Archive.org (Toronto 1878)
Alfred A West - The Elements of English Grammar 1907 Archive.org (Toronto 1907)
As for the rest, I only have the assurance that Archive.org thought they were worth preserving in digital
form, or that they were listed in Wikipedia's History of English Grammars:

GP Quackenbos - An English Grammar 1869 - Archive.org (1864 US)

JP Welsh - A Practical English grammar (1889) - Archive.org (1889 US)

GW Henderson - English grammar by parallelism and comparison (1910) - Archive.org

JD Rose - Advanced English Grammar through Composition - London 1917

- Archive.orgincludes thou forms

RC Pooley - Teaching English Grammar ([1957]) Archive.org

TW Harvey - Harvey's English Grammar (1870) Archive.org

Davidson, Alcock - English Grammar and Analysis 1889Archive.org

WC Fowler - English Grammar: The English Language in its Elements and Forms
1850.Archive.org (1876 US) - Google Books (1850 US)

Verb patterns
verb + ing, verb + infinitive, verb + that clause
The tables show the main patterns used for over 400 of the most common verbs when one verb follows
another. They also list verbs which can commonly be followed by a that clause, as well as one or two
other patterns.

verb + to-infinitive
verb + to-infinitive

verb + obj + to-infinitive

Verb + obj + bare infinitive

verb + -ing form

verb + -ing form

verb + obj (or possessive) + -ing form

verb + obj + -ing form

verb + to-infinitive or -ing form

with no difference in meaning

with little difference in meaning

with a difference in meaning

infinitive variations
verb + for + obj + to-infinitive

verb + infinitive / perfect infinitive

verb + bare infinitive

verbs that take a that clause

verb + that + clause

verb + obj + that + clause

verb + that + obj + (should) + bare infinitive

verbs that can take a wh-word + to-infinitive or clause

verb + wh-word + to-infinitive / clause

verb + verb + obj + wh-word + to-infinitive / clause

verb + whether + to-infinitive / clause

constructions with prepositions

verb + preposition + -ing

verb + preposition + subj + -ing

verb + obj + preposition + -ing

Update 4/1/2015 - I've added a couple of extra categories :

Verb + object + to be sth (to have done sth)

Verb + object + sb/sth (object complement)

Verb + two objects - indirect object + direct object

You can also look at individual verbs to see the different ways they can be used.

Related quizzes
You can practise verb patterns with some quizzes here

Select a verb from the list on the left and see how it is used

Verbs that take an infinitive

verb + to-infinitive

verb + obj + to-infinitive

verb + obj + bare infinitive

afford to do sth

persuade sb to do sth

make sb do sth

plans and decisions

aim
arrange
choose
decide
intend
plan
prepare
propose
vote

Many of these are causative

verbs
advise
allow
ask
beg
cause
command
convince
dare
enable
encourage
entreat
expect
forbid
force
get
implore
intend
invite
leave
need
nominate
oblige
order
pay
permit
persuade
prefer
press
recommend
remind
request
require
teach
tell
train
trust
urge
want
warn
would like

have
let
make

expectations
demand
deserve
expect
hope
reckon
want
wish
would like
yearn
promises and refusals
fail
guarantee
offer
pledge
promise
refuse
resolve
swear
threaten
undertake
vow
other verbs
afford
agree
allow (passive only)
appear
apply
ask
beg
claim

have sb do sth is mainly used in

American English
I'll have my secretary call you.
In passive
structures makeneeds to
He was made to take the test
again
verb + obj + (to-)infinitive
help
help can be used with or
withoutto

consent
dare
desire
forget
get
happen
help
learn
know
manage
mean
need
negociate
plead
pretend
seek
seem
tend
train
volunteer
wait
Verbs that take an -ing form
verb + -ing form

verb + obj + -ing

verb + obj + -ing form

admit doing sth

imagine sb('s) doing sth

see sb doing sth

saying and thinking

admit
advocate
anticipate
consider
describe
deny
discuss
envisage
imagine
mention
propose
suggest

In more formal language we

can use a possessive with
these verbs when talking
about a person or group of
people I appreciate you(r) helping me
advocate
anticipate
appreciate
detest
dislike
dread
envisage
forbid
forget
forgive
foresee

We can't use possessive forms

after any of these verbs, only
object forms

liking and disliking

adore
appreciate

verbs of perception followed by

an ing-form or a bare infinitive
An -ing form suggests we see the
event in progress
He heard her closing the door
a bare infinitive suggests that we
see the completed action.
She saw him leave the house
feel
hear

detest
dislike
enjoy
fancy
feel like
mind (neg and Qs)
phrasal verbs
carry on
give up
keep on
put off
can't
can't face
can't help
can't stand
other verbs
advise
allow
avoid
delay
encourage
finish
go skiing, jogging etc
involve
keep
miss
postpone
practise
quit
recall
recommend
resent
resist
risk
spend time
tolerate

hate
imagine
involve
like
love
mind (neg and Qs)
miss
prevent
recall
recommend
recollect
regret
remember
resent
risk
start
stop
can't stand
tolerate

listen to
look at
notice
observe
overhear
see
sense
watch
can only be followed by aningform
catch
They caught him stealing
related verbs
discover
find
smell
other verbs
keep
leave
They kept us waiting
She left him sleeping

Verbs that take an infinitive or an -ing form

no difference

little difference

attempt doing sth/to do sth like doing sth/to do sth

difference
remember doing sth/to do sth

attempt
begin
cease
continue
intend
start

can't bear
dread
hate
like
love
prefer

forget
go on
mean
regret
remember
stop
try

Verbs + infinitive variations

verb + for + obj + toinfinitive

verb + infinitive or perfect

infinitive

verb + bare infinitive

wait for sb to do sth

claim to be sth / have done sth should do sth / have done sth

appeal
apply
arrange
ask
call
clamour
long
opt
pay
plead
press
vote
wait
wish
yearn

appear
claim
happen
pretend
prove
seem
tend
reporting verbs

Modal auxiliaries
can
could
will
would
shall
should
may
might
must
ought to
semi-modals
dare (in negs and Qs)
need (in negs and Qs)
other constructions
have to
be going to

Verbs which take a that clause

verb + that + clause

verb + obj + that + clause

verb + that + obj + (should) +

bare infinitive

admit that + clause

persuade sb that + clause

insist that sb (should) do sth

Reporting verbs
admit
anticipate
answer
believe
boast
brag
calculate
claim
complain
confess
confirm
consider
declare
demand
deny
disclose
explain
indicate
mention
order
pretend
profess
recall
recollect
realise
say
state
suggest
threaten
warn
Other verbs (many of these
can also be used for
reporting)
acknowledge
advise
advocate
agree
allow (admit)
appreciate
argue
arrange
assume

advise
assure
convince
guarantee
inform
persuade
promise
remind
tell
threaten
warn

In standard British English the

version with should is usually
used.
insist that sb should do sth
In more formal British English
and standard American English,
the subjunctive form with the bare
infinitive (without should) is
preferred.
insist that sb do sth
In informal British English
normal tenses are also sometimes
used.
insist that sb does sth
advise
agree
ask
beg
command
demand
desire
insist
instruct
intend
order
propose
recommend
request
require
stipulate
suggest
urge
warn

check
command
decide
demonstrate
determine
direct
doubt
dream
envisage
estimate
establish
expect
fancy
fear
feel
foresee
forget
guarantee
guess
hear
hold
hope
imagine
instruct
joke
know
learn
maintain
mean
notice
observe
plan
presume
promise
propose
prove
reckon
recognise
regret
remember
reply
report
require
resolve
reveal
see

seem
sense
show
suppose
suspect
swear
think
trust
understand
vow
wish
Verbs + object + to be sth / to have done sth / sth
verb + obj + to be + sth
imagine sb/sth to be sth

verb + obj + to be/have

presume sb/sth to be sth / to
have done sth

verb + obj + sth

consider sb/sth sth

I imagined him to be older He presumed her to have

than that.
forgotten.

They appointed him chairman.

(object complement - noun).

allow
appoint
assume
believe
cause
certify
choose
confess
consider
declare
deem
elect
estimate
expect
find
get
hold
imagine
intend
judge
know
mean
need
perceive

She considers him very helpful.

(object complement - adjective)

believe
presume
understand

appoint
baptise
believe
call
certify
choose
christen
confess
consider
crown
declare
elect
find
hold
imagine
judge
make
name
nominate
paint
presume

presume
proclaim
project
prove
repute
rumour
report
say
see
show
suppose
think
want
wish

proclaim
profess
prove
rate
suppose
think
vote
wish

Passive structures with reporting verbs

Many reporting verbs can be used in passive structures to distance the information being
reported. The two main patterns are:
Subject + passive reporting verb + to-infinitive
He is believed to be hiding in a local forest.
It + passive reporting verb + that + clause
It is thought that he had help from the outside.
The first type has several variations: we use a perfect infinitive for past reference
He is understood to have escaped in a stolen car.
We can use continuous and past continuous forms
He is considered to be managing quite well.
He is reported to have been living off wild plants.
and sometimes a passive infinitive is used
He is presumed to have been given food by local people.
The reporting verb can also be in the past
He was seen to enter the forest early in the morning.
Verbs which can take a wh- word + to-infinitive or a wh-clause
wh-words include - what, when, where, which, who, why and how (or the way)
verb + wh-word + toinfinitive / clause

verb + obj + wh-word + toinfinitive / clause

verb + whether + to-infinitive /

clause

discuss what to do / what

+ clause

tell sb how to do ... / how +

clause (or other wh- word)

discuss whether to do sth /

whether + clause

arrange
calculate

advise
inform

choose
consider

check
choose
consider
debate
decide
describe
demonstrate
determine
discover
discuss
establish
explain
find out
forget
foresee
guess
imagine
know
learn
notice
plan
realise
remember
say
see
talk about
think (about)
understand
wonder

instruct
remind
teach
tell

debate
decide
determine
discuss
find out
These two verbs can be used
forget
with or without an object - ask know
(sb) when to do sth
remember
ask
wonder
show
ask can be used with or without
an object - ask (sb) whether to do
sth
ask

Verbs which take special constructions

verb + sth done

sth needs doing

verb + sth (to be)done

have something done

something needs doing

want sth (to be) done

have
get

need

need
want

Constructions with prepositions

After prepositional verbs, phrasal verbs with a preposition particle and verbs which take
dependent prepositions we use an -ing form
verb + preposition + ing

verb + preposition + subj +

verb + obj + preposition + -ing

-ing
dream about doing sth

object to sb('s) doing sth

forgive sb for doing sth

abstain from
aim at
appeal to
apologize for
approve of
argue against
argue for
bargain on
believe in
beware of
boast about
brag about
choose between
complain about
concentrate on
decide on
disapprove of
dream about
escape from
get out of
excel at
hold off
insist on
joke about
look into
object to
participate in
persist in
reckon on
see about
set about
succeed in
take part in
think of / about
win by

approve of
begin with
disapprove of
insist on
object to

accuse sb of
acquit sb of
advise sb against
arrest sb for
blame sb for
charge sb with
compensate sb for
condemn sb for
congratulate sb on
excuse sb for
fine sb for
forbid sb from
forgive sb for
involve sb in
praise sb for
put sb up to
press sb into
prevent sb from
prohibit sb from
punish sb for
stop sb from
suspect sb of
thank sb for

Verbs that take two objects

Some verbs can take an indirect object as well as a direct object. Using an indirect object is an
alternative to using a prepositional phrase with to or for
verb + ind obj + dir obj

verb + ind obj + dir obj

(=to)

(=for)

give sb sth / sth to sb

make sb sth / sth for sb

She read him a story

He poured her a drink
(= She read a story to him) (= He poured a drink for her)
award
give
grant
hand
lend
offer
pass
pay
play
post
promise
read
sell
send
show
sing
take
teach
tell
throw
write

book
build
buy
bring
catch
choose
cook (bake etc)
find
fetch
get
keep
leave
make
order
pour
prepare
reserve
save

Infinitive of purpose
After many verbs or verb + object we can use an infinitive of purpose
I've come to help you
He's taking her to see the fireworks.
After phrasal verbs with an adverb particle we can also use an infinitive of purpose
She's gone out to buy some vegetables
She went up to greet him

Sources
These lists have been compiled from various sources: from the following books and from the links below

Grammar and Vocabulary for Cambridge Advanced and Proficiency Side and Wellman
(Longman)

Advanced Grammar in Use - Martin Hewings (Cambridge)

Practical English Usage Michael Swan (Oxford)

Business Grammar Builder

Advanced English Practice BD Graver (Oxford)

Links

BBC The Flatmates

BBC The Flatmates - different meanings

British Council Learn English - verbs followed by an infinitive

British Council Learn English - verbs followed by -ing forms

British Council Learn English - that-clauses

English Page