One Rule to Understand English Tenses and Speak Like a Native

Hey there! 👋🏼 This blog post complements our YouTube video, One Rule to Understand English Tenses and Speak Like a Native. Watch the video or simply keep reading to learn more about the nuances of English tenses and how natives use tense mixing in narratives to express stylistic choice.

Try this grammar challenge:

Can you tell what grammatical tense is being used?

“ Last weekend, I go to this new restaurant downtown, right? So, I was sitting there, waiting for my order, and I start chatting with this guy next to me. We’re talking about our favorite movies when suddenly, he mentions that he grew up in my hometown. Can you believe it? Anyway, we ended up exchanging numbers and plan to meet again next week.”

The answer is present tense, past continuous, present continuous and simple past. But wait a minute…is that too many tenses in the same paragraph? Uhm YES and NO. In school you learn that tenses should be consistent to ensure clarity and easy of understanding. In reality, it is very common for English speakers to switch from one tense to another while discussing the same event. Let’s talk about one very simple rule that can help you understand native English speakers and sound more natural when you speak. 

Before we get into it though, you should know that in some cases the tense of a sentence may not be the same as the time in which the event happened. English learners (and natives!) are often confused by this fact because of the name of the tenses, such as, present tense, past tense, future tense, etc. The fact is that the tense chosen by the speaker can depend on the speaker's perspective and the intended effect on the listener. For example, in the conditional sentence, “If I were you, I would call and make a reservation,” the past tense “were” is used to hypothesize about a future event.

Past tense is also commonly used in polite requests, such as, “I was wondering if you could help me review the presentation for tomorrow?” In this sentence, you aren’t literally describing the past action of “wondering,” but are asking politely whether the listener can help you review the presentation. Similarly, sometimes the present tense is used to describe events that took place in the past. This is a common narrative technique used when describing stories to make them feel more immediate, as if they were happening as the speaker is talking.

I know, I know, it’s very confusing!

But it gets more confusing! Like I said in the beginning, it’s common for native speakers to mix and match tenses, often switching from one tense to another while discussing the same event. Here is the golden rule: Do not try to understand sentence by sentence. The one thing that will always help you understand the speaker’s meaning is…CONTEXT! In English, individual sentences may not provide enough information for the listener to understand what the speaker is trying to say. For this reason, it is important to consider the broader situation, motives, or background information provided. This context will help you reveal the overall message and what the speaker is trying to communicate. With sufficient context, you can use context clues to correctly interpret the meaning, even if the tenses are not consistent. 

Here is an example of how context can shape meaning; Consider you are talking to a friend on the phone and she says,

“I need my rain jacket for next week, otherwise I’ll be soaked all week.”

You find this statement odd because there was no rain in the forecast for next week. Then your friend adds,

“I’m packing for a trip to Japan. I leave tomorrow and I know Japan experiences a lot of rain in the summer, so I want to be prepared. I’ll regret forgetting my raincoat if I get there and it’s pouring.”

Now, with more context, you understand why your friend needs a rain jacket next week.

But why do natives use a mix of tenses?!

In the example above, the speaker used a mix of several tenses to indicate a variety of information, such as, current situation ("I'm packing"), scheduled plans ("I leave tomorrow"), general truths ("Japan experiences"), and future conditions ("I'll regret... if I get there"). In theory, the speaker could have said the same thing using a single consistent tense, for example:

“I will be packing for a trip to Japan. I will leave tomorrow, and I know Japan will experience a lot of rain in the summer, so I want to be prepared. I will regret forgetting my raincoat if I arrive there next week and it is pouring.”

This version uses future tenses in a consistent manner that focuses on future intentions and expectations, however, it can sound unnatural and rigid, and to the native speaker. On the other hand, mixing tenses helps to convey nuances in timing and intention that are typical in everyday speech, making the narrative feel more dynamic and reflective of how people think and plan in real time.

Let’s see some more examples:

In this section you will find a short narrative talking about the Kdrama, Start Up. See if you can tell what grammatical tense I am using AND when the events happened. 

Example 1:  

Recently I watched the Korean drama, Start Up. The show is about a young woman in her mid-twenties who meets her first love after many years of lost contact. She is inspired by his successful start up company and decides to follow in his footsteps by starting her own company, but there’s a catch. The catch is that the person she meets is not, in fact, her first love. Her true first love is watching over her and protecting her from behind the scenes. Before she finds out the truth, she gradually falls for the imposter and is later hurt by the truth. I need to be honest though, I didn’t finish the show. I thought it was an interesting story at first, but then it became too predictable and boring. 

When did the events happen?

They happened in the past.

What information in the narrative told you that the events occurred in the past (These are the context clues)?

The first sentence, “recently I watched the Korean drama, Start Up,” and the last few phrases, “I didn’t finish the show,” and “it became too predictable and boring” are clues that the speaker is talking about events that happened in the past. Without these sentences, the listener might assume the events are happening as the speaker is talking because the rest of the sentences are in present tense.

Example 2:

Recently I watched the Korean drama, Start Up. The show was about a young woman in her mid-twenties who met her first love after many years of lost contact. She was inspired by his successful startup company and decided to follow in his footsteps by starting her own company, but there was a catch. The catch was that the person she met was not, in fact, her first love. Her true first love had been watching over her and protecting her from behind the scenes. Before she found out the truth, she gradually fell for the imposter and was later hurt by the truth.  I need to be honest though, I didn’t finish the show. I thought it was an interesting story at first, but then it became too predictable and boring. 

Example 2 is completely in past tense. In this version it’s easier to conclude that the events took place in the past, right? But remember, in spoken English people often switch tenses to emphasize a point, change the time frame, or express other nuances through their speech patterns.

Example 3: 

Recently I watched the Korean drama, Start Up. The show is about a young woman in her mid-twenties who meets her first love after many years of lost contact. She is inspired by his successful start up company and decides to follow in his footsteps by starting her own company, but there’s a catch. The catch is that the person she met was not, in fact, her first love. Her true first love was watching over her and protecting her from behind the scenes. Before she finds out the truth, she gradually falls for the imposter and is later hurt by the truth. I need to be honest though, I didn’t finish the show. I thought it was an interesting story at first, but then it became too predictable and boring. 

What tenses did I use in this example?

This one has a mix of present and past tense. The present tense is used to describe the ongoing plot of the drama, making the summary feel as if it were happening “in real time,” while past tense is used to discuss my personal experience with the show, indicating actions that have already been completed. This version does not follow a consistent tense pattern, but it provides enough context clues to signal to the listener that the events being discussed took place in the past. For example, the listener knows that the speaker already watched the show, from the first sentence, “Recently, I watched.” Once you are able to smoothly transition between tenses without distorting the meaning you are trying to convey, you will sound more and more like a native speaker. 

That is all for this post.

Keep training your ears by exposing yourself to natural spoken English and experimenting with different tenses. Remember, the more you practice, the better you'll get at understanding the nuances of English tenses and using them effectively in your own speech.

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