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

Starter quiz

What are verbs?
- naming words for people, places and things
- words that describe nouns
- doing, being and having words ✓
Which word in this sentence is the verb? 'I love these poems!'
- I
- love ✓
- these
- poems
Which word in this sentence is the verb? 'They are very kind.'
- they
- are ✓
- very
- kind
Which word in this sentence is the verb? 'He has no money left.'
- he
- has ✓
- no
- money
- left
Which of the following sentences contains a verb that is a 'being' verb?
- We wait here every day.
- She is a great player. ✓
- They work very hard.
Which of the following sentences contains a 'having' verb?
- We're not ready yet.
- She's broken it! ✓
- We'll never make it.

What kind of word do we look at to find the tense of a sentence?
- nouns
- verbs ✓
- adjectives
- adverbs
Which simple tense requires an auxiliary verb to 'help' the main verb?
- simple past
- simple present
- simple future ✓
Match the 'person' to the sentence example.
- first person
  
  ⇔
  
  We play here every day. ✓
- second person
  
  ⇔
  
  You need to come here now! ✓
- third person
  
  ⇔
  
  They want to join us. ✓
Match the simple tenses to the example sentences that use them.
- simple past
  
  ⇔
  
  We washed the car yesterday. ✓
- simple present
  
  ⇔
  
  We wash the car every week. ✓
- simple future
  
  ⇔
  
  We will wash the car tomorrow. ✓
Tick the sentence that is written in the simple past 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, had many factories in the past.
Tick the sentence that is written in the simple present 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.

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The verb carries the tense of a sentence.
Sentences can be formed in the first, second or third person.
The simple tense can denote present, past or future action.
The simple tense is a tense that does not make use of an auxiliary verb in the past and present forms.
Tense is maintained at both sentence and whole text level (although verbs within sentences may vary in tense).

Pupils may believe all verbs in a sentence are always in the same tense.

Use the examples in the lesson to draw out the point that to maintain sense, we sometimes vary the tense of verbs in a sentence.

Verb - a doing, being or having word
Tense - tells the reader when something happens
Simple tense - a tense that does not make use of an auxiliary verb in addition to the main verb
Auxiliary verb - the helping verb that is always paired with the main verb
Maintain - keep or stay the same