Writing sentences in the progressive present, past and future tense | English

Starter quiz

What word class helps us to find the tense of a sentence?
- Verbs ✓
- Nouns
- Adjectives
- Determiners
Which simple tense needs an auxiliary verb to 'help' the main verb and show the tense?
- Simple past
- Simple present
- Simple future ✓
Match the 'person' to the example sentences.
- First person
  
  ⇔
  
  I stand over here every day. ✓
- Second person
  
  ⇔
  
  You all need to stop talking and listen. ✓
- Third person
  
  ⇔
  
  She believes me. ✓
Match the simple tenses to the examples that use them.
- Simple past
  
  ⇔
  
  We ran down the street. ✓
- Simple present
  
  ⇔
  
  We run down this street every day. ✓
- Simple future
  
  ⇔
  
  We will run down this street to escape. ✓
Tick the sentence that is written in the simple present tense throughout.
- When Mrs. Begum laughed, we all smiled.
- Because it snowed earlier, we will stay inside for lunch.
- The town, which is close to Manchester, has many cinemas. ✓
Tick the sentence that is written in the simple future tense throughout.
- Mr. McIntyre, who is very strict, will teach us next year.
- As the sun rises, the temperature increases.
- Year 4 will sing their song and Year 5 will say a prayer. ✓

What kind of word will we always find in a progressive tense sentence?
- A verb ending -ly
- A verb ending -s
- A verb ending -ing ✓
Match the keywords to their meanings.
- Suffix
  
  ⇔
  
  A group of letters added at the end of a word. ✓
- Auxiliary verb
  
  ⇔
  
  A helping verb that's paired with a main verb. ✓
- Infinitive
  
  ⇔
  
  The 'to' form of a verb like 'to sing'. ✓
Tick all the sentences that use a progressive tense.
- She will be listening to us. ✓
- She is listening to us. ✓
- They judged me for it.
- They were judging me for it. ✓
Match the types of progressive tense to the example sentences.
- Progressive past
  
  ⇔
  
  He was riding a horse. ✓
- Progressive present
  
  ⇔
  
  He is riding a horse. ✓
- Progressive future
  
  ⇔
  
  He will be riding a horse. ✓
Tick the sentences written in the progressive present tense throughout.
- We are waiting and we are listening. ✓
- I will be listening this time.
- While we're playing, they're annoying us. ✓
- We were hoping for this.
Tick the sentences that are correctly formed in the progressive tense.
- While Sam was singing, Andeep is laughing.
- While Sam was singing, Andeep was laughing. ✓
- We will be learning maths while they were doing PE.
- We will be learning maths while they are doing PE. ✓

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The verb carries the tense of a sentence.
The progressive tense can denote present, past or future action.
The progressive tense is a tense that makes use of an auxiliary verb from the infinitive 'to be' with the main verb.
The progressive tense denotes ongoing action.
The main verb in the progressive tense always ends with the -ing suffix.

Pupils may struggle to spot progressive tenses in negative forms like 'won't be waiting'.

Highlight that we still have an auxiliary verb and an -ing verb even when a negative interrupts like in 'were not watching/aren't looking'.

Verb - a doing, being or having word
Progressive tense - a tense that denotes ongoing action
Auxiliary verb - the helping verb that is always paired with the main verb
Infinitive - any verb preceded by the word 'to'
Suffix - a letter or group of letters at the end of a word which creates another word