Simple Past, Present and Future
Form and use the simple past, present, and future verb tenses consistently in writing
What a learner can do afterwards
- Rewrite 'I walk to school' in past tense ('I walked') and future tense ('I will walk')
- Identify and correct inconsistent tense in 'Yesterday she walks to the shop and bought milk'
- Write a three-sentence paragraph maintaining consistent future tense throughout
1 · Read
You already know how a verb changes for something happening now and something that already happened. Now add one more time: the future. To talk about something that hasn't happened yet, put the word 'will' in front of the verb, like 'will walk'.
Most verbs add '-ed' for the past, like 'walked' and 'played'. But some common verbs change their whole shape: 'run' becomes 'ran', 'eat' becomes 'ate', 'go' becomes 'went', and 'buy' becomes 'bought'. The future is easy with these too: just put 'will' in front, like 'will run'.
Look at this sentence: 'Yesterday she walks to the shop and bought milk.' The word 'walks' is present tense, but the sentence is about yesterday. The fix is 'Yesterday she walked to the shop and bought milk.'
Pick one time for your sentence or paragraph and stick with it. Don't jump from past to present to future in the same story unless the time really changes.
Match the verb to the time, walked for yesterday, walk for today, will walk for tomorrow, and keep that same time all the way through.
More to read
Verb tenses
Verb tenses tell us when something happens. In English, there are three main tenses: past, present, and future.
The past tense is for things that already happened. For most verbs, you just add -ed to the end. Like this: Yesterday, I started my science fair project. I realized I needed a lot of supplies!
Some verbs do not follow the -ed rule. These are called irregular verbs. For example, go becomes went, and eat becomes ate.
The present tense is for things happening right now, or things that happen all the time. Like this: I walk to school every day. When the subject is he, she, or it, you usually add -s: She walks to school.
The future tense is for things that have not happened yet. You add the word will in front of the verb. Like this: Tomorrow, I will walk to school.
I walked. I walk. I will walk. See how the verb changes to show the time?
Avoiding inappropriate tense shifts
When you write, keep your verb tenses the same. If you start telling a story in the past tense, stay in the past tense, unless you have a good reason to change.
A tense shift is when a sentence jumps from one time to another by mistake. Look at this sentence: Yesterday she walks to the shop and bought milk. That sounds wrong, right? The word yesterday tells us this happened in the past, so walks should be walked.
Here is how to fix a tense shift. First, find the time clue in the sentence. Words like yesterday mean past, right now means present, and tomorrow means future. Next, check every verb in the sentence. Make each verb match the time clue. So the fixed sentence is: Yesterday she walked to the shop and bought milk.
Simple Aspect
Verbs can tell us when something happens. The simple form of a verb is just its past, present, and future tenses. It is the plain, everyday way of talking about time.
In the past: I walked. In the present: I walk. In the future: I will walk.
The simple form does not say if the action is still going on or already finished. It just points to a time: before now, right now, or after now. That makes it the easiest tense form to use, and the one you use most when you write and speak.
Explore more
2 · Watch
به انگلیسیTake it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.