# What's the name of this tense?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-name-of-this-tense/187472>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 10, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-name-of-this-tense/187472 "2003-07-10T14:45:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-name-of-this-tense/187472/21 "2003-07-11T13:30:13Z")

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Well, there’s really no such thing as a regular perfect tense. In English you have three perfects: present perfect, past perfect and future perfect as in:

I have done. (present perfect)  
I had done. (past perfect)  
I will have done. (future perfect)

English verbs fall into three basic categories: past, present and future, and in these categories there are four varieties of each – simple, perfect, continuous/progressive, and perfect continuous/progressive – for a total of twelve tenses.

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**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-name-of-this-tense/187472/22 "2003-07-11T15:16:55Z")

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So I hope I am right in saying we have only twelve tenses in English?

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