Verb tenses are grammatical forms that indicate the time of an action or state of being. They help us understand whether something happened in the past, is happening in the present, or will happen in the future. The three main tenses are past, present, and future, each of which can be further divided into simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous forms. For example, the simple present tense describes actions that are habitual or currently true, like "She reads every day." The past tense indicates actions that have already occurred, such as "He played soccer yesterday." Understanding verb tenses is essential for clear communication in the English language.