English Tenses Exercises: 24 Sentences, With Answers and Reasons
Four sets of six, built so that each item turns on a single visible signal — a time expression, a conjunction, or a stative verb. Work through a set, check the reasons rather than just the answers, and use the diagnostic table to pick what to read next.
How to use these
Do one set of six, then read the reason beside every item — including the ones you got right. Guessing correctly and knowing why are different skills, and only the second one survives into an exam.
- Cover the arrow and the text after it before you answer.
- Write the full verb form, not just the tense name. “Present perfect” is not an answer; “have not received” is.
- If you miss two or more in a set, stop and read the page listed in the diagnostic table before continuing.
Every item below is decided by something you can point at in the sentence. If you find yourself choosing by feel, you have missed the signal — find it before you look at the answer.
Set A — present forms
- The finance team ___ (review) the budget every quarter. → **reviews**. Every quarter marks a routine.
- Please call back later; the manager ___ (meet) a client right now. → **is meeting**. Right now marks an action in progress.
- We ___ (not receive) the signed contract yet. → **have not received**. Yet reports a gap at the present moment.
- She ___ (wait) for the supplier's reply since Tuesday. → **has been waiting**. Since plus an ongoing activity.
- The warehouse ___ (contain) over four thousand items. → **contains**. Contain is stative, so no continuous form.
- How long ___ the system ___ (be) offline? → **has the system been**. Be is stative, so the perfect simple rather than the continuous.
Set B — past forms
- While the auditors ___ (check) the ledgers, we prepared the summary. → **were checking**. The background activity.
- By the time the courier arrived, we ___ (seal) the documents. → **had sealed**. Earlier than the point reached.
- The committee ___ (meet) three times before it reached a decision. → **had met**. A count of finished events before a past point.
- We ___ (hold) the review every Friday, but we stopped last year. → **used to hold**. A past habit that has ended.
- I ___ (not know) about the price change until this morning. → **did not know**. Know is stative.
- The negotiation ___ (last) four hours and ended without agreement. → **lasted**. Finished time, plain past simple.
Set C — future forms
- The flight ___ (depart) at 6:40 tomorrow. → **departs**. A timetable takes the present simple.
- Look at the backlog — we ___ (miss) the deadline. → **are going to miss**. Evidence you can point at.
- I ___ (see) the regional director at nine on Monday; it is in my diary. → **am seeing**. A fixed arrangement.
- By December the branch ___ (operate) for a full year. → **will have been operating**. Duration up to a future point.
- Please notify us as soon as the goods ___ (clear) customs. → **clear**. A time clause takes no will.
- Fine — I ___ (call) the supplier myself. → **will call**. A decision made while speaking.
Set D — mixed contrasts
- The firm ___ (open) its Chiang Mai office in 2021. → **opened**. In 2021 is closed time.
- The firm ___ (open) three offices since 2021. → **has opened**. Since runs up to now, so the count can still rise.
- At ten tomorrow I ___ (present) the forecast. → **will be presenting**. In progress at a future moment.
- By ten tomorrow I ___ (finish) the forecast. → **will have finished**. By plus a future point.
- When I ___ (arrive), I will send you the figures. → **arrive**. A time clause again, even though the meaning is future.
- She ___ (work) here for five years, and she still does. → **has worked**. The five years reach the present.
Items 1 and 2 use the same verb and the same company, and only the time expression differs. If you can explain that pair, you can explain most of the exam items built on this contrast.
Diagnostic: what to read next
Find the set you struggled with and read the matching page before you try more exercises. Practising a rule you have not read is just repeating the same guess.
| If you missed items in | The deciding idea was | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Set A | whether the time period still includes now, and which verbs refuse the continuous | Present perfect vs past simple |
| Set B | how the four past forms order events against each other | Past tenses in English |
| Set C | evidence and arrangement, and the no-will-in-time-clauses rule | Future tenses in English |
| Set D | the whole system at once | The 12 English tenses |
- Present perfect vs past simple — the time-expression test, since vs for, already/yet/just.
- Past tenses in English — past continuous as background, when the past perfect is optional, used to vs would.
- Future tenses in English — will vs going to, arrangements vs timetables, why will never follows when.
- The 12 English tenses — the full chart and the formulas behind every form above.
Two patterns worth noticing
First, nearly every item was settled by a word that is not the verb: every quarter, right now, yet, since, by the time, as soon as, in 2021. Reading for that word before looking at the options is the single habit that moves scores.
Second, three items turned on stative verbs — contain, be, know — which simply refuse the continuous however long the situation lasts. That is a vocabulary fact rather than a tense rule, which is why it keeps catching people who know the tenses perfectly well.
Moving on to exam-style questions
Gap-fill with a prompted verb is good for learning a rule, because it forces you to produce the form. Multiple choice is a different skill: the four options are usually forms of one verb, and the work is elimination rather than production.
When these feel comfortable, move to TOEIC sample questions with answers, then read verb forms and the words that decide them for the trigger words that run through the exam's verb items.
Frequently asked questions
Which tense should I practise first if I only have a week?
- The present perfect against the past simple. It is the contrast that appears most often in business writing and the one where a wrong choice is most noticeable, and the rule behind it — finished time versus time that includes now — also settles several other forms.
Are these the same as TOEIC questions?
- No. These are gap-fill items with the verb supplied in brackets, which makes you produce the form. TOEIC sentence completion gives four finished options and asks you to eliminate three. Produce first, then switch to multiple choice.
Why is one answer sometimes acceptable in two tenses?
- Because the sentence does not force a choice. “Before the audit started, we filed everything” and “had filed everything” are both correct, since before already fixes the order. Real exam items avoid that by removing the conjunction that settles it.
Is it better to do mixed exercises or one tense at a time?
- One tense at a time while you are learning the rule, then mixed. Single-tense sets let you apply a rule you have just read; mixed sets are the only way to practise the step that an exam actually tests, which is noticing which rule applies.
What level are these exercises aimed at?
- Roughly CEFR B1 to B2. The forms go up to the future perfect continuous, but the vocabulary is everyday business English, so the difficulty sits in choosing the form rather than in understanding the sentence.
How do I decide a tense when the sentence has no time expression?
- Ask what the sentence is for. Reporting a situation as it stands now points to a present form, narrating a finished event points to the past simple, and stating a schedule or intention points to one of the future forms.