Simple Verb Tenses

The tense of the verb
tells WHEN the action
or state of being takes

place.

Present Tense

Present tense is used for:

●Something that is happening right now

○The dog barks.

●A common fact

○A triangle has three sides.

●A habit or repeated action

○I go to bed at 8 p.m. every night.

The present tense of the verb is the base form of the verb. When the subject is a
singular noun or he, she, or it, you usually add s to the verb.

Past Tense

Tells about things or situations that happened in the past, either once or repeatedly,
but are now finished.

How to make a verb past tense:

Most verbs

add -ed (walked, cleaned)

Verbs ending in e

drop the e and add -ed (typed, loved)

Verbs ending in consonant and y

change the y to an i and add -ed (hurried,
carried)

one syllable words ending in a vowel
then consonant

double the consonant and add -ed
(stopped, napped)

Irregular Past Tense

Some verbs are irregular - that means they don’t follow the usual pattern. You just
need to remember these verbs.

Some examples of irregular verbs:

●are - were

●is - was

●have - had

●bring - brought

●eat - ate

●find - found

●think - thought

●go - went

●fly - flew

●make - made

●see - saw

●take - took

●sit - sat

●write - wrote

Future Tense

Shows action that will happen in the future.

To form the future tense add will or shall (you’ll typically use will).

Examples:

●I will go to the store after lunch.

●They will play that video game tonight.

●He will study for the test.

Let’s Practice!