Systematic and Explicit Instruction on Using Past, Present, and Future Verb Tenses in Complete Sentences

Nov 13, 2023

4 min read

What are Past, Present, and Future Verb Tenses?

We use past, present, and future verb tenses to tell when an action happens. A past verb tense means an action happened in the past. A future verb tense means an action is happening right now. A future verb tense means an action hasn’t happened yet but will happen in the future.

Here is a video to help your students understand past, present, and future verb tenses.

Spelling Rules for Past Tense Verbs

Most of the time, we simply add the suffix -ed to turn a present tense verb into a past tense verb. For example, walk becomes walked. The suffix -ed makes three different sounds (/ed/, /d/, and /t/). These different sounds are not a part of this writing lesson, but your students might be curious about it. We also have some rules for special spellings of past tense verbs.

most of the time, just add -ed
if a verb ends in the letter e, just add -d
if a verb ends in a consonant + y, change the y to i and add -ed
if a verb ends in a vowel + y, just add -ed
if a verb ends in a short vowel + one consonant, double the consonant and add -ed

There are also a bunch of irregular past tense verbs that don’t fit any rule. Students will just need to learn these.

Here is a video on irregular past tense verbs. Irregular past tense verbs are difficult to teach because there isn’t a rule. Students just need to recognize them.

Present Tense Verbs

Students already know how to write present tense verbs because these are the verbs we have been working with in earlier lessons. Present tense verbs can be singular or plural. Notice that past and future tense verbs are not singular or plural.

The cat eats. The cats eat.

The cat ate. The cats ate.

The cat will eat. The cats will eat.

Future Tense Verbs

Future tense verbs are written by adding will before a present tense verb. For example, the ball bounces becomes the ball will bounce.

Example Sentences

After introducing past, present, and future tense verbs to your students, you will want to show them examples. Depending on your time for writing instruction, it may be several lessons before your students are ready, for example sentences. When looking at example sentences, point out the capitalized first letter, spacing between words, and ending punctuation. Speaking of ending punctuation. I recommend sticking with periods until you can give a lesson on the other types of ending punctuation.

This should be a quick part of the lesson. You can ask students what they notice but quickly point out the important parts of the sentence. In this case, you would want students to notice how the differences in the verbs change the meaning of the sentence. You may also want to point out the different spellings of the verbs.

Past, Present, and Future Tense Pictures

You can show these five pictures to your students to help them brainstorm past, present, and future tense verbs. Give students about thirty seconds to think about each picture. Then, have them share the past, present, and future tense verbs that describe the action they see or think of with a partner. Finally, collect three to five past, present, and future tense verbs per picture to record in a class anchor chart.

Printable Resources

These ideas will get you started teaching your past, present, and future verb tense lessons, but we have printable resources that will make a huge difference. Luckily, my team at For the Love has you covered! You can get all of these resources to make planning and teaching a breeze!

Word List: A list of words for the lesson for when your mind goes blank while brainstorming.

Word Chart: A tool for students to organize words they will use to write sentences. Students record words from brainstorming on their word charts, so when they write sentences, they can focus their attention on the mechanics and syntax of the sentence instead of coming up with new ideas. Word charts are the perfect place to integrate social studies and science lessons into writing.

Example Sentences: A list of example sentences that fit the purpose of the lesson. You can use these to build anchor charts, differentiate instruction or practice for students, or clarify your own understanding of the topic.

Sentence Practice: Students will use the words from their word charts to write complete sentences. The sentence practice pages have more suggestion words as well as reminders about the mechanics of a complete sentence. Students who do not need the support of the handwriting lines can write on a piece of notebook paper, or you can give them the alternate writing paper. It does not have the specific lesson information on it.