Showing tenses like you'd explain a tree

I often come across instructional materials that run along the lines of “We use the present perfect tense when...” Explanations that start by detailing the situations that take a particular verb form – but why?

Isn't that turning it all upside-down, like describing individual leaves to explain what a tree is? Surely there must be an easier way.

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - [commonly attributed to] Albert Einstein

One trunk, Five branches

Instead, lest students get lost in the foliage, I'd describe that tree from the roots up: first its trunk (the One Rule pattern), then its main branches (five formulas for Aspect) and finally its particular twigs and leaves (the various verb forms).

Get your starting point right

Starting with the One Rule and the appropriate Aspect simply means choosing one of the five principal branches that grow from the One Rule trunk. Now trees and tenses make far more sense, because you follow the logical pattern that makes all branches, twigs and leaves grow naturally.

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👉🏻 Hi, I'm Leon, and I help English language teachers discover how a ONE RULE approach to grammar ✔EMPOWERS them & their students, ✔SAVES TIME better spent on serious fun with the language, and ✔BOOSTS motivation & results. ONE RULE, to rule them all...