There's a nice little system...
Of remembering what to add to which tense. It's based on Hebrew, so you'll have to excuse a bit of it. Take the Hebrew word סמדר. Now, think of it as initials. The initials are:
ס- קונטיניו*ס*- be verb+ing מ- מושל*מ*- have verb+en ד- עתי*ד*- will verb ר- עב*ר*- verb+ed
Now, we're assuming the basic form of every verb is Present Simple, and that we need to add the appropriate things to it, according to the tense we need. The initials above represent all possible "additions". What to do with them? Simply insert the basic form of the verb istead of the word "verb". And what if I need more than one addition? Work from top to bottom, each time apply the proper addition to the left-hand word. As an example, let's say you need to say "walk" in Past Perfect Progressive (Or Continous, as some schools call it). First we use the first addition, from the top- "Continous". So be walk+ing= be walking. Now we take this word, and add the next addition: "Perfect". So have be+en walking= have been walking. And the last addition- "Past". Have+ed been walking= Had been walking. Am I wrong? Of course there are plenty of exceptions, as with any rule. The most important things to remember, besides the initials, are: be+en= been have+ed= had be= am/is/are have= have/has- according to normal rules will+ed= would And that's it, as far as i can remember. Obviousely, I did not invent this- I'm just spreading it around. Feel free to pass it on.
