Can you tell me what the difference is between all English tenses?

Can you tell me what the difference is between all English tenses?

English Language has between ten and sixteen tenses; these tenses are classified into three time-controlled or time-based periods. These are:

1. Present
2. Past
3. Future.

However, these three-time-controlled or determined activities of humans are further sub divided into separate or overlapping time-frame sequence.

These are:

1. Simple Present Tense
2. Simple Past Tense
3. Future Tense
4. Present Past Tense
5. Past Perfect Tense
6. Present Continous Tense
7. Future Perfect Tense
8. Future Perfect Continous Tense
9. Past Continous Tense
10. Future Continous Tense
11. Past Perfect Tense.
12. Present Perfect Continous
13. Past Future Tense
14. Past Future Perfect Tense
15. Past Future Perfect Continous Tense
16. Past Future Continous Tense.

The differences between or among the tenses are not unusual, extraordinary or necessarily too fundamental; but rather time or period certain event and action take place.

Which means, the time a man performs a particular task determines time range of past, present or the future.

To the students of English Language, here is where the difference lies: TIME, yes: TIME.

Time determines where an action or activity is placed; in other words, Time is the determinant.

Interestingly though, Time is “the ongoing sequence of events taking place, the past, present, future. The basic unit of time is the second.”

Besides, “time is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence, to compare duration of events or intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change of quantity in material reality or in conscious experience. Time in physics is unambiguously operationally defined as “what a clock reads.””

With these definitions, the “duration of events or intervals between them" create the tenses in English Language, which makes “quantify rates of change of quantity in material reality” or terms possible.

With that being said, the question is:

1. Did the action take place in the past? If so or yes; how long long?
2. Did we have any overlapping incident/event? Action that began in the time past, but continues into a future date before completed. When action or activity is performed in the past, everything that comes with it certainly wears the garb of the past; however, should such an action continues into the future date for completion, such tenses fall into these groups or categories:
3. Past Tense
4. Past Perfect Tense
5. Past Perfect Continuous Tense
6. Past Future Tense
7. Past Future Perfect Tense
8. Past Continous Tense
9. Past Future Perfect Tense
10. Past Future Perfect Continous Tense.

On the other hand, if action is recent, new and fresh within a reasonable time of occurrence, it is known as Present Tense.

Action or activity that happen just now; action that is recent; event that are new. Just like Past Tense, even though, most actions or activities happened in the time past, yet, some actions continue in to the future or run concurrently with an ongoing event, so with Present Tense.

Actions and activities may come in these forms:

1. Present Simple Tense
2. Present Continous Tense
3. Present Perfect Tense
4. Present Perfect Continous Tense.

Finally, we have Future Tense, these are events or activities/actions for later dates. Things that will happen in the future, known or unknown. Just as one expects these future activities, they may be multiple or singly. More so, they may happen concurrently.

Under this group are the following Tenses:

1. Simple Future Tense
2. Future Continuous Tense
3. Future Perfect Tense
4. Future Perfect Continuous Tense.

Interestingly, these tenses may overlap or function independently.

These are the English language Tenses.

taken from quora digest (Thanks)