Tenses & Verb Forms explained

01 Three times, three shapes

The tense of a verb tells you when. Look for a time word in the sentence — yesterday, now, tomorrow, last week — and let it choose the verb.

A table of three tenses: past walked and was or were, present walk or walks and am is are, future will walk and will be
Tense	When	walk	be
Past	yesterday	walked	was / were
Present	every day	walk / walks	am / is / are
Future	tomorrow	will walk	will be

Most verbs add -ed for the past. Be does not, which is why it is asked about most.

02 One person or more than one

In the present tense the verb changes depending on how many.

One person or thing → the verb takes -s: He walks to school.

More than one → no -s: They walk to school.

It feels backwards, because -s usually means more than one on a noun. On a verb it means the opposite: one dog barks, two dogs bark.

The -s moves from one word to the other.

03 is, are, was, were

These four are the ones papers test most, and they follow one rule.

is — one, now. The cat is hungry.
are — more than one, now. The cats are hungry. Also always after you.
was — one, before. The cat was hungry.
were — more than one, before. The cats were hungry. Also always after you.
am — only ever after I. I am here.

04 Keep one tense

A story written in the past stays in the past. Slipping into the present halfway through is the commonest mistake in P2 writing.

“Yesterday I went to the park and I play on the swings.” — went is past, so it must be played.

Check by finding the time word. If the sentence says yesterday, every verb in it should be a past one.

Some past verbs do not take -ed. go → went, eat → ate, see → saw, run → ran, buy → bought. These have to be learnt, not worked out.

05 How to say them

These are words most children have never said out loud, and a word you cannot say is a word you avoid using. Capitals mark the syllable you lean on. Tap the speaker to hear it.

verbmore than oneverbs
A doing or being word: walk, eat, is, was.
tensesaytenssmore than onetenses
The shape of a verb showing when something happens: past, present or future.
past tense
Something that already happened. Most verbs add -ed: walked, jumped.
present tense
Something happening now or usually. One person adds -s: he walks.
future tense
Something that has not happened yet, made with will: will walk.
irregular verbsayi-REG-yuh-luhmore than oneirregular verbs
A verb whose past does not add -ed: go became went, eat became ate.

06 What each level is tested on

The same topic, asked differently as it goes up. The percentage is the share of papers at that level in which it appears.

P2
Past, present and future; is, are, was and were; and the -s on a present-tense verb after one person.
Practise P2 Tenses & Verb Forms — 10 questions →
25% of P2 papers

07 Mistakes worth knowing about

Each of these is wrong. Decide why before you open it.

“Two dogs barks.”
The -s on a verb means one, not many. Two dogs bark; one dog barks.
“The cats is hungry.”
Cats is more than one, so it takes are. Is goes with one.
“You was late.”
You always takes were and are, even about one person.
“Yesterday I goed to the park.”
Go does not add -ed. Its past is went, and it has to be learnt.
“Yesterday I went to the park and play on the swings.”
The sentence started in the past, so it stays there: played.

Now try it

10 questions across 1 levels, marked as you go with the working shown.

P210 questions