Verbs and Tenses (Past, Present, Future)
"Identify action and helping verbs, and conjugate regular and irregular verbs across tenses."
A Today you'll learn
- Identify action verbs and helping verbs (is, am, are, was, were, will)
- Form simple present, simple past, and simple future tenses correctly
- Recognise common irregular past tense verbs (went, saw, ate, wrote, thought)
B Let's understand
A verb is a doing word that expresses an action (run, eat, jump) or a state of being (is, am, are, was). Tense tells us when the action happens. The Simple Present tense describes things happening right now or habitual truths (She sings; The sun rises). The Simple Past tense describes actions that have already finished yesterday or earlier (She sang; I played). Regular past verbs add -ed (walk -> walked), but many common verbs are irregular (go -> went, eat -> ate, see -> saw). The Simple Future tense describes actions that will happen later (She will sing; We shall travel tomorrow).
C See it step by step
- Identify verb: "reads" (present tense).
- Past tense: "read" (pronounced red) -> "Rohan read a book."
- Future tense: add "will" + base verb -> "Rohan will read a book."
- "Go" is an irregular verb.
- Irregular verbs do not add -ed to show past tense.
- The correct past tense form of "go" is "went".
D Your turn
E Ready to practise?
Verbs show what someone or something does
Verbs show what someone or something does, feels, or is.
Present tense
Present tense: happens now or regularly (walk / walks).
Past tense
Past tense: already happened (walked; ate; wrote).
Future tense
Future tense: will happen in the future (will walk; will eat).
Key idea 5
Regular verbs add -ed in the past; irregular verbs change spelling entirely.