Tenses are verb forms used to indicate when an action or event occurs. In English, tenses are crucial as they affect sentence structure and overall meaning. Generally, there are three main categories of tenses : present, past, and future. Each of these categories has simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous forms, making a total of 12 tense forms in English.

Simple Tenses are used to state habits, general facts, or actions that happen once. For example, "She goes to school every day" (Present Simple), "He played football yesterday" (Past Simple), and "They will arrive tomorrow" (Future Simple). The structure of simple tenses is generally easier for beginners to understand.

Continuous Tenses show actions that are currently ongoing at a particular time. For example, "She is reading a book" (Present Continuous), "They were watching TV" (Past Continuous), and "I will be working at 10 AM tomorrow" (Future Continuous). These tenses help convey actions that are happening or will continue to happen.

Perfect Tenses emphasize the result or impact of an event. For example, "I have finished my homework" (Present Perfect), "He had left before I arrived" (Past Perfect), and "We will have completed the project by next week" (Future Perfect). These tenses are commonly used to show the sequence of events.

Perfect Continuous Tenses describe actions that have been ongoing for a specific period of time. For example, "She has been studying for 3 hours" (Present Perfect Continuous), "They had been living there for a year" (Past Perfect Continuous), and "I will have been working here for 5 years by next month" (Future Perfect Continuous). A deep understanding of tenses is crucial in enhancing both speaking and writing skills in English.