Consistent verb tense · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.

Keeping your tense steady

English · Grammar & Punctuation · ages 10-11
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. Read the sentence: 'The birds sang in the tree, and a squirrel climbs up the trunk.' Which verb breaks the tense pattern?

    • trunk
    • sang
    • climbs

  2. Which sentence keeps the same tense all the way through?

    • Ava kicks the ball and it flies into the net.
    • Ava kicked the ball and it flies into the net.
    • Ava kicks the ball and it flew into the net.

  3. A story that starts in present tense should keep using present tense verbs all the way through.

    Circle one:   True   False

  4. Look at the words: cooked, served, eats. Which one does not match the others?

    cookedservedeats
    • eats
    • cooked
    • served

  5. The sentence 'Yesterday, we walk to the library and look for books' keeps a steady tense, because walk and look match each other.

    Circle one:   True   False

  6. Your story says: 'The team cheered as the ball flew into the net.' Which sentence keeps the story going in the same tense?

    • The crowd went wild.
    • The crowd goes wild.
    • The crowd will go wild.

  7. Your story says: 'The dog barks at the mailman and chases the cat. Then it ran into the house.' Which fix keeps one tense?

    • Change 'chases' to 'chased'
    • Change 'ran' to 'runs'
    • Change 'barks' to 'barked'

  8. Your story says: 'The kite soared over the field and dipped in the wind. Then it lands in a tree.' Which fix keeps one tense?

    • Change 'soared' to 'soars'
    • Change 'dipped' to 'dips'
    • Change 'lands' to 'landed'

  9. Read: 'Our class visited the science museum. A guide shows us the dinosaur bones, and we touched a real fossil. Long before the trip, we had learned about fossils in class.' Which fix is right?

    • Change 'visited' to 'visits' and keep 'shows' as it is
    • Change 'shows' to 'showed' and keep 'had learned'
    • Change 'shows' to 'showed' and change 'had learned' to 'learned'

  10. Read: 'Yesterday, Maya looked everywhere for her library book. Then she remembered she left it at school the day before.' Which change best shows that leaving the book happened even earlier?

    • Change 'left' to 'had left'
    • Change 'looked' to 'had looked'
    • Change 'remembered' to 'remembers'
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Keeping your tense steady W1-mt_npRaYRhU2V-s1

  1. climbs · Sang is past tense and climbs is present tense, so climbs breaks the pattern. Trunk is not a verb at all.
  2. Ava kicks the ball and it flies into the net. · Kicks and flies are both present tense, so the tense stays the same from start to finish.
  3. True · Yes. Whatever tense you start in, present or past, you stay in it unless the meaning calls for a shift.
  4. eats · Cooked and served are past tense. Eats is present tense, so it breaks the pattern.
  5. False · Walk and look do match each other, but the word Yesterday tells us this happened in the past. The verbs should be walked and looked.
  6. The crowd went wild. · Cheered and flew are past tense, so the next sentence should stay past tense too: went wild.
  7. Change 'ran' to 'runs' · Most of the story uses present tense (barks, chases), so change ran to runs to match.
  8. Change 'lands' to 'landed' · Soared and dipped are past tense, so lands is the verb that does not fit. Change it to landed.
  9. Change 'shows' to 'showed' and keep 'had learned' · Shows is the real mistake, so it becomes showed. Had learned is a correct flashback, so it stays.
  10. Change 'left' to 'had left' · Left is the earlier event, so had left marks it as the flashback. Looked and remembered belong to the main story and stay as they are.
Worksheet · LightMySky