English

Tenses (Simple Present, Simple Past, Simple Future)

Class 3 | Ages 8-9 | CBSE / NCERT / ICSE

🎯 Learning Objectives

Understand what tense means in English grammar.
Learn the Simple Present Tense and when to use it.
Learn the Simple Past Tense and how to form it.
Learn the Simple Future Tense and how to form it.
Identify time words that signal each tense (today, yesterday, tomorrow).
Understand the difference between regular and irregular past tense verbs.
Use all three tenses correctly in sentences with Indian context.

📖 Introduction

When did something happen? Is it happening now? Will it happen later? The answer to these questions is called tense. Tense tells us the time of an action. There are three main tenses — Present (now), Past (before), and Future (later). Let us learn how to use each one!

What is Tense?

Tense is the form of a verb that tells us when an action happens.

Tense	When?	Example
Simple Present	Now / regularly	I play cricket.
Simple Past	Already happened (before)	I played cricket yesterday.
Simple Future	Will happen (later)	I will play cricket tomorrow.

💡 Think of a timeline: ← PAST ← ← NOW (PRESENT) → → FUTURE →

Simple Present Tense

The Simple Present Tense tells us about actions that happen now, regularly, or are always true.

Rules:

• With I, we, you, they → use the base verb: I play, they eat, we go.

• With he, she, it → add -s or -es: she plays, he eats, it goes.

Subject	Verb	Sentence
I	play	I play cricket every evening.
She	plays	She plays with her friends.
He	goes	He goes to school by bus.
They	eat	They eat lunch at 1 o'clock.
Ravi	reads	Ravi reads a book every night.
We	drink	We drink milk in the morning.

Time words for Present Tense: today, now, every day, always, usually, often, sometimes

Simple Past Tense

The Simple Past Tense tells us about actions that already happened — they are finished.

Rules for Regular Verbs: Add -ed to the base verb.

play → played, walk → walked, cook → cooked, jump → jumped

Present	Past (Regular)	Example Sentence
play	played	Arjun played cricket yesterday.
walk	walked	Meena walked to school.
cook	cooked	Amma cooked biryani last night.
watch	watched	We watched a movie on Sunday.
help	helped	Sita helped her mother.
clean	cleaned	They cleaned the classroom.

Time words for Past Tense: yesterday, last week, last month, last year, ago, in the past

Irregular Past Tense Verbs

Some verbs do NOT follow the -ed rule. They change their spelling completely. These are called irregular verbs.

Present	Past	Present	Past
go	went	come	came
eat	ate	drink	drank
run	ran	sit	sat
write	wrote	read	read
see	saw	give	gave
take	took	make	made
buy	bought	bring	brought
sing	sang	swim	swam
fly	flew	know	knew
sleep	slept	tell	told

Example: Ravi went to the market. (not "goed")

Example: She ate two rotis for dinner. (not "eated")

Example: The bird flew over the banyan tree. (not "flyed")

💡 Irregular verbs must be memorised! There is no rule — you just have to learn them.

Simple Future Tense

The Simple Future Tense tells us about actions that will happen later — they have not happened yet.

Rule: Use will + base verb (or shall + base verb with I/we).

I will play, she will eat, they will go, we shall sing

Subject	Future Form	Sentence
I	will play	I will play cricket tomorrow.
She	will go	She will go to school on Monday.
They	will visit	They will visit their grandparents next week.
We	will celebrate	We will celebrate Diwali next month.
He	will study	He will study for the exam tonight.
Meena	will sing	Meena will sing at the school function.

Time words for Future Tense: tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, soon, later, in the future

Comparing All Three Tenses

Present (Now)	Past (Before)	Future (Later)
I play cricket.	I played cricket.	I will play cricket.
She eats rice.	She ate rice.	She will eat rice.
He goes to school.	He went to school.	He will go to school.
They sing songs.	They sang songs.	They will sing songs.
We drink milk.	We drank milk.	We will drink milk.

Timeline showing Past, Present, and Future tenses with example sentences and time words

Table of regular and irregular verb forms with illustrations showing actions

📝 Key Words

Word	Meaning
Tense	The form of a verb that tells us when an action happens
Present Tense	Action happening now or regularly
Past Tense	Action that already happened (finished)
Future Tense	Action that will happen later
Regular Verb	A verb that adds -ed to form the past tense (play → played)
Irregular Verb	A verb that changes its spelling in the past tense (go → went)

⭐ Key Points to Remember

Tense tells us WHEN an action happens — present, past, or future.
Simple Present: action happening now or regularly. Use base verb (add -s/-es for he/she/it).
Simple Past: action already finished. Regular verbs add -ed (played, walked, cooked).
Irregular past verbs change spelling: go→went, eat→ate, run→ran, see→saw.
Simple Future: action that will happen later. Use will + base verb.
Time words help identify tense: today/now = present, yesterday/last week = past, tomorrow/next week = future.
With he/she/it in present tense, add -s or -es to the verb.
Irregular verbs must be memorised — there is no rule for them.

✏️ Practice Questions

A. Fill in the Blanks (10 Questions)

1. Tense tells us an action happens.

2. The three main tenses are present, , and future.

3. The past tense of "play" is .

4. The past tense of "go" is .

5. The past tense of "eat" is .

6. In future tense, we use before the verb.

7. "Yesterday" is a time word for tense.

8. "Tomorrow" is a time word for tense.

9. The past tense of "run" is .

10. She (sing) a beautiful song yesterday. (Write past tense)

B. Multiple Choice Questions (5 Questions)

1. Which sentence is in the past tense?

(a) I play cricket.(b) I played cricket.(c) I will play cricket.(d) I am playing.

2. What is the past tense of "write"?

(a) writed(b) wroten(c) wrote(d) writing

3. Which time word signals future tense?

(a) yesterday(b) now(c) tomorrow(d) last week

4. "She goes to school every day." This is in which tense?

(a) past(b) present(c) future(d) none

5. What is the past tense of "buy"?

(a) buyed(b) buied(c) bought(d) buying

C. Short Answer Questions (5 Questions)

1. Write the past tense of: walk, see, give, make, bring.

2. Change to future tense: "Ravi plays cricket." → ___

3. Write three time words for each tense (present, past, future).

4. What is the difference between regular and irregular verbs? Give two examples of each.

5. Write one sentence in each tense about "eating breakfast".

D. True or False (5 Questions)

1. "Went" is the past tense of "go".

2. We add -ed to all verbs to make past tense.

3. "Will" is used to make future tense.

4. "Yesterday" is a time word for present tense.

5. "Ate" is the past tense of "eat".

E. Match the Following (5 Questions)

Present	Past
1. sing	a. flew
2. fly	b. drank
3. drink	c. sang
4. sleep	d. took
5. take	e. slept

🎨 Fun Activity — Tense Timeline

Write each sentence in all three tenses. The first one is done for you.

Present	Past	Future
I eat rice.	I ate rice.	I will eat rice.
She reads a book.
They go to the park.
He drinks water.
We sing songs.

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🎯 Learning Objectives

Understand what tense means in English grammar.
Learn the Simple Present Tense and when to use it.
Learn the Simple Past Tense and how to form it.
Learn the Simple Future Tense and how to form it.
Identify time words that signal each tense (today, yesterday, tomorrow).
Understand the difference between regular and irregular past tense verbs.
Use all three tenses correctly in sentences with Indian context.

📖 Introduction

When did something happen? Is it happening now? Will it happen later? The answer is called tense. Tense tells us the time of an action. There are three main tenses — Present (now), Past (before), and Future (later).

What is Tense?

Tense	When?	Example
Simple Present	Now / regularly	I play cricket.
Simple Past	Already happened	I played cricket yesterday.
Simple Future	Will happen later	I will play cricket tomorrow.

💡 Timeline: ← PAST ← ← NOW (PRESENT) → → FUTURE →

Simple Present Tense

Actions happening now or regularly. With he/she/it → add -s/-es.

Subject	Sentence
I / We / They	I play, We eat, They go
He / She / It	He plays, She eats, It goes

Time words: today, now, every day, always, usually, often

Simple Past Tense

Regular verbs: Add -ed → play→played, walk→walked, cook→cooked

Irregular verbs: Change spelling → go→went, eat→ate, run→ran

Present	Past (Regular)	Present	Past (Irregular)
play	played	go	went
walk	walked	eat	ate
cook	cooked	run	ran
watch	watched	see	saw
help	helped	give	gave
clean	cleaned	take	took

More irregular: write→wrote, buy→bought, sing→sang, fly→flew, sleep→slept, drink→drank, make→made, bring→brought, tell→told, sit→sat

Time words: yesterday, last week, last month, ago, in the past

Simple Future Tense

Rule: will + base verb → I will play, She will go, They will eat

Time words: tomorrow, next week, next month, soon, later

Comparing All Three Tenses

Present	Past	Future
I play cricket.	I played cricket.	I will play cricket.
She eats rice.	She ate rice.	She will eat rice.
He goes to school.	He went to school.	He will go to school.
They sing songs.	They sang songs.	They will sing songs.

📝 Key Words

Word	Meaning
Tense	The form of a verb that tells us when an action happens
Present Tense	Action happening now or regularly
Past Tense	Action that already happened (finished)
Future Tense	Action that will happen later
Regular Verb	A verb that adds -ed to form the past tense (play → played)
Irregular Verb	A verb that changes its spelling in the past tense (go → went)

⭐ Key Points to Remember

Tense tells us WHEN an action happens — present, past, or future.
Simple Present: action happening now or regularly. Add -s/-es for he/she/it.
Simple Past: action already finished. Regular verbs add -ed.
Irregular past verbs change spelling: go→went, eat→ate, run→ran, see→saw.
Simple Future: action that will happen later. Use will + base verb.
Time words: today/now = present, yesterday/last week = past, tomorrow/next week = future.
With he/she/it in present tense, add -s or -es to the verb.
Irregular verbs must be memorised — there is no rule for them.

✏️ Practice Questions

A. Fill in the Blanks

1. Tense tells us an action happens.

2. The three main tenses are present, , and future.

3. The past tense of "play" is .

4. The past tense of "go" is .

5. The past tense of "eat" is .

6. In future tense, we use before the verb.

7. "Yesterday" is a time word for tense.

8. "Tomorrow" is a time word for tense.

9. The past tense of "run" is .

10. She (sing) a beautiful song yesterday.

B. Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which sentence is in the past tense?

(a) I play cricket.(b) I played cricket.(c) I will play.(d) I am playing.

2. What is the past tense of "write"?

(a) writed(b) wroten(c) wrote(d) writing

3. Which time word signals future tense?

(a) yesterday(b) now(c) tomorrow(d) last week

4. "She goes to school every day." This is in which tense?

(a) past(b) present(c) future(d) none

5. What is the past tense of "buy"?

(a) buyed(b) buied(c) bought(d) buying

C. Short Answer Questions

1. Write the past tense of: walk, see, give, make, bring.

2. Change to future tense: "Ravi plays cricket." → ___

3. Write three time words for each tense (present, past, future).

4. What is the difference between regular and irregular verbs? Give two examples of each.

5. Write one sentence in each tense about "eating breakfast".

D. True or False

1. "Went" is the past tense of "go".

2. We add -ed to all verbs to make past tense.

3. "Will" is used to make future tense.

4. "Yesterday" is a time word for present tense.

5. "Ate" is the past tense of "eat".

E. Match the Following

Present	Past
1. sing	a. flew
2. fly	b. drank
3. drink	c. sang
4. sleep	d. took
5. take	e. slept

🎨 Fun Activity — Tense Timeline

Write each sentence in all three tenses. The first one is done for you.

Present	Past	Future
I eat rice.	I ate rice.	I will eat rice.
She reads a book.
They go to the park.
He drinks water.
We sing songs.

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Tenses (Simple Present, Simple Past, Simple Future)

🎯 Learning Objectives

📖 Introduction

What is Tense?

Simple Present Tense

Simple Past Tense

Irregular Past Tense Verbs

Simple Future Tense

Comparing All Three Tenses

📝 Key Words

✏️ Practice Questions

Tenses (Simple Present, Past, Future)

Tenses (continued)