Verbs or the action words fall in two categories:

* Auxiliary verbs– be(is/am/are), have, do, can, could, may, might, will, shall, should, would, ought, need, dare.

* Main verbs– play, work, jump, sing, dance, go, come and so on.

Let us see the verb ‘play’ in various tenses:

Present

Simple– she plays

Continuous– she is playing

Perfect– she has played

Perfect continuous– she has been playing

Past

Simple– she played

Continuous– she was playing

Perfect– she had played

Perfect continuous– she had been playing

Future

Simple– she will play

Continuous– she will be playing

Perfect– she will have played

Perfect continuous– she will have been playing

Negatives of tenses

Affirmative                     Negative

she does                         she does not

they do                           they do not

he has                             he has not

we have                          we have not

Sam is                             Sam is not

I am                                 I am not

they are                         they are not

You can                          You can not

she did                           she did not

he had                            he had not

You must                      You must not

Contractions of negatives

In statements, negatives of tenses are contracted in the following manner:

It does not                        It doesn’t

I do not                                I don’t

He has not                  He hasn’t/He’s not

We have not           We haven’t/We’ve not

Tom is not                 Tom isn’t/Tom’s not

I am not                            I ain’t/I’m not

They are not          They aren’t/They’re not

She can not                          She can’t

I did not                                  I didn’t

We had not                          We hadn’t   

They must not                   They mustn’t

He will not                      He won’t/He’ll not

I shall not                                 I shan’t