Verbs and Tenses: Past, Present, Future
Understanding and applying regular and irregular verbs in different tenses.
About This Topic
Year 3 students explore verbs and tenses to show when actions happen: past, present, and future. Regular verbs follow patterns, such as walk-walked for past tense or adding -s for third person present, like walks. Irregular verbs require memorisation, for example, go-went-gone or eat-ate-eaten. Future tense uses 'will' or 'going to', as in 'I will jump' or 'She is going to run'. This builds clear sentence construction aligned with EN2/3g standards.
These skills support narrative writing, recounts, and instructions across the curriculum. Students learn to sequence events logically, which strengthens reading comprehension and oral storytelling. Regular practice helps differentiate verb forms in context, fostering precision in expression.
Active learning suits this topic well. Sorting verbs on timelines, acting out tenses in pairs, or building sentences collaboratively makes abstract grammar visible and engaging. Students retain concepts better through movement and discussion, turning rules into tools they use confidently in writing.
Key Questions
- Explain how verb tense indicates when an action occurred.
- Differentiate between regular and irregular verbs with examples.
- Construct sentences that correctly use verbs in the past, present, and future tenses.
Learning Objectives
- Identify the past, present, and future forms of common regular and irregular verbs.
- Construct sentences using appropriate past, present, and future verb tenses to describe events.
- Differentiate between regular verb conjugations (e.g., walk, walks, walked) and irregular verb forms (e.g., go, went, gone).
- Explain how verb tense changes the meaning of a sentence to indicate the time of an action.
Before You Start
Why: Students need to be able to identify verbs as action words before they can learn to conjugate them into different tenses.
Why: Understanding how to form a basic sentence (subject-verb-object) is necessary for applying verb tenses correctly.
Key Vocabulary
| Verb | A word that describes an action, occurrence, or state of being. Verbs are essential for forming sentences. |
| Past Tense | Verbs in the past tense show that an action happened before now. For regular verbs, we often add -ed (e.g., played, jumped). |
| Present Tense | Verbs in the present tense show that an action is happening now or happens regularly. We might add -s for the third person singular (e.g., he plays, she jumps). |
| Future Tense | Verbs in the future tense show that an action will happen later. We often use 'will' or 'going to' before the base verb (e.g., will play, going to jump). |
| Irregular Verb | A verb that does not form its past tense by adding -ed. These verbs have unique past tense forms that must be memorized (e.g., eat, ate; go, went). |
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Common MisconceptionAll verbs add -ed to make past tense.
What to Teach Instead
Many students overlook irregular verbs like 'see-saw'. Hands-on sorting activities with visual timelines help them spot patterns and exceptions through grouping and peer talk. Acting out verbs reinforces the unique changes.
Common MisconceptionFuture tense only describes tomorrow.
What to Teach Instead
Future tense covers any time after now, using 'will' or 'going to'. Timeline discussions clarify this scope. Collaborative sentence building lets students test ideas and refine understanding in context.
Common MisconceptionPresent tense means actions happening right now.
What to Teach Instead
Present tense includes habits and facts, like 'I play football'. Role-play scenarios distinguish simple present from continuous. Group charades build recognition through immediate feedback and fun repetition.
Active Learning Ideas
See all activitiesTimeline Sort: Tense Matching
Prepare cards with verbs in base form and sentences needing tenses. Students sort them onto a class timeline divided into past, present, future. Pairs discuss and justify choices, then share with the group. Extend by writing one new sentence per tense.
Verb Charades: Tense Acting
Students draw a verb card and act it out in a specified tense while others guess the verb and tense. Use props for irregular verbs like 'run' in past tense. Rotate roles so everyone performs and guesses.
Sentence Relay: Tense Builders
Divide class into teams. Each student adds a word to build a sentence in a called tense, passing a baton. Include regular and irregular verbs. Teams read finished sentences aloud for feedback.
Tense Hopscotch: Floor Game
Draw hopscotch grid labelled past, present, future. Call a verb; students hop to the tense and say a sentence using it. Adapt for irregulars by providing hints. Whole class observes and corrects.
Real-World Connections
- Journalists use different verb tenses to report on events that have happened (past tense), are happening now (present tense), or are expected to happen (future tense) in news articles.
- Authors of storybooks carefully choose verb tenses to create a consistent timeline for their characters' adventures, helping young readers follow the sequence of events.
- Computer programmers use specific verb forms and tenses within code to instruct machines on when to perform actions, ensuring programs run correctly.
Assessment Ideas
Provide students with three sentences, each missing a verb. One sentence should require a past tense verb, one present, and one future. Ask students to fill in the blanks with appropriate verbs and identify the tense they used for each.
Write a list of verbs on the board (e.g., 'run', 'see', 'play', 'eat'). Ask students to write the past tense and future tense form for each, circling any irregular verbs they encounter. Review answers as a class.
Pose the question: 'How does changing the verb tense from 'I walk' to 'I walked' change the meaning of the sentence?' Facilitate a brief class discussion, encouraging students to explain that the tense tells us *when* the action happened.