Tenses at work: updates, changelogs and stories

“I have fixed the login bug yesterday” asks the listener to hear two things that English keeps apart: have fixed says that the result matters now, and yesterday says when it happened. In one week of 15 stand-up lines, checked below, five lines had a tense slip, and three of them were this one.

This lesson shows which tense each kind of work report takes. Finished work takes the present perfectpresent perfect: The verb form have or has with a past participle, as in "I've fixed the bug": a finished action whose result matters now, with no finished time named. or the past simplepast simple: The verb form for an action finished at a time in the past, as in "I fixed the bug yesterday". Regular verbs add -ed., work in progress the -ing form, and what comes next going to or will. Commit subjects take the imperativeimperative: The form of a verb that gives an instruction or an order, as in "Fix the crash" or "Open the app". Commit subjects and how-to steps use it., and changelog entries keep one form. Incident timelines and stories take the past simple, with the past continuous for background and the past perfect for what happened earlier.

Finished work: the present perfect, unless you say when

Compare three lines from a Monday stand-up:

• “I’ve fixed the login bug.” The present perfect: the fix is done, and its result, a working login, matters now.
• “I fixed the login bug yesterday.” The past simple: the line says when.
• “I have fixed the login bug yesterday.” A slip: the two forms pull in different directions.

The British Council’s grammar pages draw the line at time: once you say when something happened, or treat that period of your life as finished, use the past simple. The present perfect is for a past action with a result now, and for a period that is not over yet, such as today or this sprint. How long is a third case: with since and for, an activity that goes on takes the present perfect continuous, “I’ve been working on the refund API since Monday”, and a count of results the simple form, “I’ve closed four tickets since Monday”.

Step through the questions that choose the verb form of one line:

The program checks one week of stand-up lines for these slips and for one more, the present simple for work in progress. Press Edit and add a line of your own to WEEK:

// A week of stand-up lines checked for three tense slips this lesson names: the present perfect next to a finished
// time ("I have fixed it yesterday"), the present simple for work in progress ("Today I work on ..."), and a present
// form with since or for ("I am working on it since Monday").

const PERFECT = /\b(?:have|has|'ve|'s)\s+(?:\w+ly\s+)?(?:\w+ed|written|done|seen|made|sent|built|run|found|given|taken|gone|begun|broken)\b/i;
const FINISHED_TIME = /\b(?:yesterday|last (?:night|week|month|sprint|Monday|Tuesday|Wednesday|Thursday|Friday)|\w+ ago|at \d{1,2}:\d{2}|on (?:Monday|Tuesday|Wednesday|Thursday|Friday))\b/i;
const NOW_SIMPLE = /\b(?:today|now|currently|this week),?\s+(?:I|we)\s+(?:work|fix|write|test|build|review|migrate)\b/i;
const HOW_LONG = /\b(?:am|is|are|'m|'re)\s+\w+ing\b[^.]*\b(?:since|for (?:\d+|a few|two|three) \w+)\b/i;

function slips(line) {
  const out = [];
  if (PERFECT.test(line) && FINISHED_TIME.test(line)) out.push(`says when (${line.match(FINISHED_TIME)[0]}): past simple`);
  if (NOW_SIMPLE.test(line)) out.push('work in progress: be + -ing');
  if (HOW_LONG.test(line)) out.push('says how long: have been + -ing');
  return out;
}

const WEEK = [
  ['Monday', [
    ['I have fixed the login bug yesterday.', 'I fixed the login bug yesterday.'],
    ['Today I work on the refund API.', "Today I'm working on the refund API."],
    ['No blockers.'],
  ]],
  ['Tuesday', [
    ['I am working on the refund API since Monday.', "I've been working on the refund API since Monday."],
    ['I have reviewed two pull requests.'],
    ["The staging database is down, so I'm writing unit tests instead."],
  ]],
  ['Wednesday', [
    ['I finished the refund API yesterday evening.'],
    ['We are releasing it on Friday.'],
    ["I'm going to look at the flaky checkout test next."],
  ]],
  ['Thursday', [
    ['I have deployed the fix to staging at 11:00.', 'I deployed the fix to staging at 11:00.'],
    ['QA is testing it now.'],
    ["I'll pair with Ravi on the migration after lunch."],
  ]],
  ['Friday', [
    ['The release went out at 16:00 IST.'],
    ['I have written the release notes last night.', 'I wrote the release notes last night.'],
    ["Next week I'm starting the billing work with Meera."],
  ]],
];

let lines = 0;
let before = 0;
let after = 0;
for (const [day, items] of WEEK) {
  console.log(day);
  for (const [line, fixed] of items) {
    lines++;
    const found = slips(line);
    before += found.length ? 1 : 0;
    after += slips(fixed ?? line).length ? 1 : 0;
    console.log(`  ${line}`);
    for (const f of found) console.log(`      ${f}`);
    if (fixed) console.log(`    -> ${fixed}`);
  }
}
console.log(`\n${lines} lines: ${before} to fix before, ${after} after`);

Monday
  I have fixed the login bug yesterday.
      says when (yesterday): past simple
    -> I fixed the login bug yesterday.
  Today I work on the refund API.
      work in progress: be + -ing
    -> Today I'm working on the refund API.
  No blockers.
Tuesday
  I am working on the refund API since Monday.
      says how long: have been + -ing
    -> I've been working on the refund API since Monday.
  I have reviewed two pull requests.
  The staging database is down, so I'm writing unit tests instead.
Wednesday
  I finished the refund API yesterday evening.
  We are releasing it on Friday.
  I'm going to look at the flaky checkout test next.
Thursday
  I have deployed the fix to staging at 11:00.
      says when (at 11:00): past simple
    -> I deployed the fix to staging at 11:00.
  QA is testing it now.
  I'll pair with Ravi on the migration after lunch.
Friday
  The release went out at 16:00 IST.
  I have written the release notes last night.
      says when (last night): past simple
    -> I wrote the release notes last night.
  Next week I'm starting the billing work with Meera.

15 lines: 5 to fix before, 0 after

Five of the 15 lines needed a fix, and three of the five were the same slip: a present perfect next to yesterday, at 11:00 or last night. The other ten were right as written, including “I have reviewed two pull requests”, which names no time.

Work in progress and plans: continuous, going to or will

For work going on now, English uses the present continuous, be and the -ing form: “I’m migrating the tests”, “QA is testing the fix”. “Today I work on the refund API” sounds like a habit, not today’s task. For what comes next, the British Council’s page on future forms separates three cases, and a stand-up uses all three:

Documentation follows its own rule. Google’s style guide asks for the present tense for general behaviour, as in “The server sends an acknowledgment”, and keeps will for something that happens later.

Three more patterns have parts of their own below. State verbsstate verb: A verb that describes a state rather than an action, such as know, belong or prefer. It is not usually used in the -ing form: "I know", not "I am knowing". such as know and belong keep the simple form: “I know the cause”, not “I am knowing”. Commit subjects take the imperative, and changelog entries keep one form under headings such as Added and Fixed. Timelines and stories of past work take the past simple, with the past continuous for background and the past perfect for earlier events.

State verbs: I know, not I am knowing, with a checker Pro: opens with a Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass

Commit subjects, changelogs and release notes in one pattern Pro: opens with a Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass

Incident timelines and project stories, in the past Pro: opens with a Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass

Practise: fix the tenses of a status update

The exercise holds eight lines of a status update with the slips of the first two sections. Fix them until the sample tests pass:

// Fix the tenses of this status update: edit the words inside the quotes, keep every fact, and leave the two lines
// that are already right as they are.
export const lines = [
  'I have finished the search API last week.',
  'Today I review the payment PRs.',
  'I am waiting for the database team since Tuesday.',
  'We have released 3.9 to staging at 09:30.',
  'QA tests it now.',
  'I have written the migration guide two days ago.',
  'We are releasing to production on Thursday.',
  "I've closed six tickets this week.",
];

import { test, assert } from 'mysmartcopilot:test';
import { lines } from './update.mjs';

// The lesson's checks, as its stand-up checker applies them.
const PERFECT = /\b(?:have|has|'ve|'s)\s+(?:\w+ly\s+)?(?:\w+ed|written|done|seen|made|sent|built|run|found|given|taken|gone)\b/i;
const FINISHED_TIME = /\b(?:yesterday|last (?:night|week|month|sprint)|\w+ ago|at \d{1,2}:\d{2}|on (?:Monday|Tuesday|Wednesday|Thursday|Friday))\b/i;
const NOW_SIMPLE = /\b(?:today|now|currently|this week),?\s+(?:I|we)\s+(?:work|fix|write|test|build|review|migrate)\b/i;
const NOW_SIMPLE_THIRD = /\b(?:tests|reviews|works|checks|fixes|builds)\b[^.]*\bnow\b/i;
const HOW_LONG = /\b(?:am|is|are|'m|'re)\s+\w+ing\b[^.]*\b(?:since|for)\b/i;

test('the update still has eight lines', () => {
  assert.equal(lines.length, 8, 'keep eight lines');
});

test('a line that says when takes the past simple', () => {
  for (const line of lines) assert.ok(!(PERFECT.test(line) && FINISHED_TIME.test(line)), `says when, so past simple: "${line}"`);
});

test('work going on now takes be + -ing', () => {
  for (const line of lines) assert.ok(!NOW_SIMPLE.test(line) && !NOW_SIMPLE_THIRD.test(line), `work in progress: "${line}"`);
});

test('how long takes the present perfect continuous', () => {
  for (const line of lines) assert.ok(!HOW_LONG.test(line), `since or for with a present form: "${line}"`);
  assert.ok(/\b(?:have|'ve|has)\s+been\s+waiting\b/.test(lines[2]), 'line 3: have been waiting since Tuesday');
});

test('each fixed line has the form its rule asks for, with the same verb', () => {
  // The past simple has no helper verb in front of it: "I finished", not "I have finished" or "I had finished".
  const pastSimple = (line, verb) => new RegExp(`\\b${verb}\\b`).test(line) && !/\b(?:have|has|had|'ve|'d)\b/i.test(line);
  assert.ok(pastSimple(lines[0], 'finished'), 'line 1: the past simple, finished');
  assert.ok(/\b(?:I'm|I am)\s+reviewing\b/.test(lines[1]), "line 2: be + -ing, I'm reviewing");
  assert.ok(pastSimple(lines[3], 'released'), 'line 4: the past simple, released');
  assert.ok(/\bis\s+testing\b/.test(lines[4]), 'line 5: be + -ing, QA is testing');
  assert.ok(pastSimple(lines[5], 'wrote'), 'line 6: the past simple, wrote');
});

test('the two lines that were right stay as they are', () => {
  assert.equal(lines[6], 'We are releasing to production on Thursday.');
  assert.equal(lines[7], "I've closed six tickets this week.");
});

test('every fact stays', () => {
  const facts = ['search API', 'last week', 'payment PRs', 'database team', 'since Tuesday', '3.9', '09:30', 'QA', 'migration guide', 'two days ago'];
  const all = lines.join(' ');
  for (const fact of facts) assert.ok(all.includes(fact), `the update no longer says "${fact}"`);
});

Then check yourself on finished work and on plans. Miss a question, and the next one on the same idea is a step simpler:

Interview questions

Warm-up (fresher to mid-level): When do you use the present perfect instead of the past simple in a status update?

Use the present perfect for finished work whose result matters now, when you do not say when it happened: “I’ve fixed the login bug”, “I’ve reviewed two pull requests today”. Use the past simple as soon as you name a finished time, such as yesterday, last week or 11:00: “I fixed it yesterday”. Combining the two, “I have fixed it yesterday”, is a common slip. For how long something has been going on, use the present perfect continuous: “I’ve been working on it since Monday”.

Three longer questions on tenses at work wait in this module’s bank:

Key takeaways

• Report finished work with the present perfect when its result matters now, and with the past simple as soon as you say when it happened.
• Say how long with since or for and the present perfect continuous: “I’ve been working on it since Monday.”
• Use be + -ing for work in progress and for arrangements, going to for plans you made earlier, and will for decisions you make as you speak.