Tenses (Simple Present, Simple Past, Simple Future)
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. |
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")
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. |
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) |
- 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.
Finished learning? Now test what you know!