Signal words for English verb tenses

(Key words and expressions that refer to certain tenses)

Contents

1. Signal words for English verb tenses
2. Further explanations and exercises

What are signal words and which ones are there?

When learning a language , we sometimes come across the term signal word. Basically, it refers to expressions that indicate the use of particular verb tenses . Such phrases can be single words , typical word combinations , or groups of words (in most cases adverbials ), or even whole sentences . The advantage for language learners and, in this case, mainly for English learners is clear: If we want to construct a sentence with one of those expressions, we can mostly rely on the tense that goes with it and conjugate the verb accordingly.

Be careful! However, it is essential to know that signal words are valid often or even very often but never in every case.

The most important signal words in the English language for grammatical verb tenses are the following:

• The present simple offers these very typical signal words that show regularities (that means how often something happens):
  • regularly, usually, every year, every day, normally, often, rarely etc.
    • “Peter always plays tennis on Tuesdays .”
    • currently, now, at the moment, this week, next month etc.
      • “I’m living at my friend’s house at the moment .”
      • since, for, recently; since 7 o’clock, for five years etc.
        • “Mary hasn’t seen her best friend for three years .”
        • yesterday, last year, two hours ago, last weekend, in 2007 etc.
          • “Francis moved to Italy in 2010 .”
          • just, never, how long, for, since, already etc.
            • “We had already left when the band started to play.”

            Further explanations referring to the ‘Signal words for English verb tenses’

            • Comparison present simple and present continuous
            • Use of the present perfect continuous
            • Adverbs of indefinite frequency
            • Overview of the English verb tenses

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