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  • The songs I have listened to(present perfect tense) (To my understanding, it refers to the song i recently listen to,no matter I still listen to or not.)
  • the songs I listened to(past) (the songs that I used to listen to in the very far past, but no long listen now)
  • the songs I were listening to(past continue) ( this refers or imply the moment i were listening)
  • the songs I listen to(present) (it refers to now or recent. is it same meaning with the presents perfect tense?)
  • the songs I had listened to( this one I am not sure at all)

How's the meaning difference of these sentences above. I am confusing about the meaning and pictures of it presents.

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    IMHO, this question will end up discussing all the main English tenses, which makes it too broad. Having said that, your understanding is more or less correct, though not very precise (especially your "recently" vs. "the var far past" part, and the present simple which has a wide range of uses). Also, for the usage of the perfect, I'd like to recommend reading this post: Canonical Post #2: What is the perfect, and how should I use it?. Sep 16, 2015 at 5:48

1 Answer 1

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the songs I have listened to(present perfect)
the songs I listened to(past)
the songs I was listening to(past continue)
the songs I listen to(present)
the songs I had listened to

Present Perfect: The Present Perfect is used to indicate a link between the present and the past. The time of the action is before now but not specified.

You could say it's like saying The songs I have listened to until now.

Past: Indicates that the time related to the action being talked about is over, it's in the past. In this case, the action is listen. So your sentence could be "These were the songs I listened to in the 80s."

Past Continuous: Indicates a time in the past but until a specific point. It can indicate an unfinished action. For example, "These were the songs I was listening to, when suddenly the war broke out." Another example "They were waiting for the bus when the accident happened."

Present: Indicates the action is still active in the current time. For example, "I listen to ColdPlay a lot."

Past Perfect: Indicates a time earlier than before now. It is used to make it clear that one event happened before another in the past. It does not matter which event is mentioned first - the tense makes it clear which one happened first. For example, "John had gone out when I arrived in the office."

You can learn more about tenses here: http://www.edufind.com/english-grammar/verbs/ http://www.grammarly.com/handbook/grammar/verbs/7/verb-tenses/

Downloadable worksheets to work with tenses: http://www.english-grammar.at/worksheets/tenses/tenses.htm

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