VA ClassesVerb Tenses
Tense is not a label to memorise. It is where in time the sentence is standing, and the verb is the only word that has to change to move it. Once a child can see that on a line, past and future stop being vocabulary and start being positions.
Tense is a position
The verb carries the time. Move the sentence into the past or the future and the verb is the word that changes.
Children are usually given the three names first and the meaning afterwards, which is the wrong way round, because past and future are not really vocabulary. They are places on a line, and the verb is what tells you which one you are standing on.
Notice how little else changes. I stays, to school stays, and the sentence still means the same event. That is worth pointing out to a child who is rewriting a paragraph into the past and changing everything they can see, because the job is much smaller than they think it is.
The ed pattern
Most verbs move into the past the same way: add ed.
Past usually adds ed: walk becomes walked, jump becomes jumped.
Future puts will in front and leaves the verb alone: I will walk.
Present is the plain verb: I walk. It picks up an s for he, she or it, and that is the next topic.
When the pattern fails
About two hundred English verbs ignore the ed rule, and they are the ones children use most: go, come, eat, run, see, take, give, make, think. There is no pattern hiding underneath them, and pretending there is one wastes everybody's time.
Goed is a good mistake. A child who writes I goed to the park has learned the rule and is applying it faithfully to a verb that does not follow it. That is a smarter error than copying went without knowing why, and it is worth saying so out loud before correcting it, because the child usually thinks they have simply failed.
The useful move is to learn them in the pairs children actually need, a few at a time, rather than working down a list of two hundred. Go and went. Eat and ate. See and saw. Ten pairs covers most of what a nine year old writes in a week, and the rest arrive slowly through reading rather than through drilling.
Staying in one tense
The other half of this topic is not about single verbs at all. It is about not wandering.
I walked to the park and I see a dog. The first verb is in the past, the second slips into the present, and the reader is jolted out of the story. This happens most when a child is enjoying what they are writing, because they start telling it as though it is happening now. Read the paragraph back and listen for the jolt rather than checking each verb in turn.
Worked examples
Rewrite in the past: Every day I ride my bike.
- Find the verb. What am I doing? Riding, so the verb is ride.
- Ride is irregular, so ed will not work. Rided is not a word.
- The past of ride is rode.
- Change the time word at the front so it matches, and leave everything else alone.
Yesterday I rode my bike.
Rewrite in the future: She cooked dinner.
- Find the verb: cooked.
- Future does not change the verb, it puts will in front of the plain form.
- The plain form of cooked is cook.
- So it becomes will cook, and she stays exactly as it is.
She will cook dinner.
Find the tense mistake: We packed our bags and drive to the beach.
- There are two verbs here, so check them one at a time.
- Packed is in the past.
- Drive is in the present, so the sentence has moved in time halfway through.
- The first verb sets the tense, so the second one has to join it.
We packed our bags and drove to the beach.
Common mistakes
Adding ed to an irregular verb
Goed, eated, runned, catched. Every one of these is the rule being obeyed, and a child producing them has understood more than a child who has memorised went without noticing there was a rule to break. Correct the word and say why the guess was reasonable, or you teach them to distrust the pattern that works for most verbs.
Changing more than the verb
Asked to put a sentence in the past, children often rewrite the nouns too, or add words that were never there. The verb is the only thing that has to move. Showing that on the timeline usually settles it faster than saying it.
Drifting between tenses in a story
A whole page starts in the past and ends in the present without the writer noticing. It is not a grammar failure so much as a sign they were absorbed in the story, which is why it turns up in their best writing rather than their worst. Read it aloud and the jolt is obvious.
Practice questions
Seven questions. One attempt each, and the explanation appears once the answer is in.
Check yourself
No sign up. Nothing is sent anywhere, the score stays on this device.
What to learn next
For parents. At dinner, ask your child to tell you about their day twice: once as it happened, and once as though it is happening right now. The second version forces every verb to move, and doing it out loud with somebody listening does more than a worksheet, because they can hear immediately when one of them gets left behind.
Keep going
Still stuck on this?
Send us the question and a teacher will answer it. No charge, and you do not have to be a student here.
What to learn next
Everything in the Learning Hub
Every topic is free and every one ends with practice questions. Start anywhere.
Fractions
Math · 9 topics
What Is a Fraction?Equivalent FractionsSimplifying FractionsComparing FractionsAdding and Subtracting Fractions With the Same DenominatorAdding Fractions With Different DenominatorsFinding a Fraction of a NumberMixed Numbers and Improper FractionsFractions to DecimalsDecimals and percentages
Math · 7 topics
What Are Decimals?Comparing and Ordering DecimalsAdding and Subtracting DecimalsRounding DecimalsWhat Are Percentages?Finding a Percentage of a NumberFractions, Decimals and PercentagesScience: matter and the water cycle
Science · 5 topics
What Is Matter?Solids, Liquids and GasesChanging StateThe Water CycleMixtures and SolutionsWhole numbers
Math · 10 topics
Place Value to 1,000,000Rounding Whole NumbersAdding and Subtracting With RegroupingTimes Tables That Actually StickMultiplying by 10, 100 and 1000Long Multiplication, Step by StepShort DivisionLong Division, Step by StepFactors, Multiples and PrimesOrder of OperationsForces and energy
Science · 6 topics
Forces and MotionFrictionGravity, Mass and WeightLevers and Simple MachinesEnergy and Its FormsSimple CircuitsEnglish: words and sentences
English · 6 topics
Nouns, Verbs and AdjectivesWhat Makes a Sentence, and What Does NotCapital Letters, Full Stops and CommasApostrophesVerb TensesSubject and Verb AgreementStuck on this topic? Get one class, free.
A tutor works through it live with your child, one on one, and sends you a short written report afterwards. No card needed.