Let's Review Verb Tenses
Main Learning Goal and Core Concepts: Students will learn will learn about English simple and continuous verb tenses which all have past, present, and future forms.
Vocabulary
Simple Tenses
Simple tense is a category of verb tense. It covers the simple past tense, the simple present tense, and the simple future tense.
Continuous Tenses
The continuous tense (also called present progressive or present imperfect) shows an action that is, was, or will be in progress at a certain time.
Lesson Brief
In this lesson, we will learn about tenses. The most difficult part in the English language is understanding how tenses work in both writing and spoken English. There are four tenses: simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous. They each have present, past and future forms. Today, we will look at simple and continuous tenses:
First, we have Simple Tenses:
The present simple tense describes a general truth or an action.
- Example: I jog every morning (action)
- Example: The sun rises in the East (general truth)
The past simple tense describes an event that started and ended in the past.
- Example: I jogged yesterday afternoon.
The future simple tense describes an action you will do in the future.
- Example: I will jog tomorrow afternoon.
Second, we have Continuous Tenses:
The present continuous tense describes an event that is happening right now.
- Example: I am jogging in the park.
The past continuous tense describes an event that was going on in the past when another event happened. This is often used to describe two or more events occurring at the same time.
- Example: I was jogging in the park when I heard fireworks going off.
The future continuous tense describes an event that will occur in the future over a time period or at a given point in time.
- Example: I will be jogging in the park at 10 a.m.
Directions: From these sentences, identify the type of tenses they are. Then, determine if they are past, present or future tenses.
- Humans breathe in order to have fresh oxygen circulating through their body.
- When I was sleeping over at my friend’s apartment, her dog started to bark loudly and scared both of us.
- I made cookies yesterday and shared them with my classmates.
- Since I am disappointed in my lack of progress, I will start reading more books tomorrow.
- She is eating cookies in the kitchen.
Now try creating sentences with the tenses listed below:
- Present Continuous
- Past Continuous
- Future Simple Tense
Directions: From these sentences, identify the type of tenses they are. Then, determine if they are past, present or future tenses.
- Humans breathe in order to have fresh oxygen circulating through their body.
- Simple present
- When I was sleeping over at my friend’s apartment, her dog started to bark loudly and scared both of us.
- Past continuous
- I made cookies yesterday and shared them with my classmates.
- Simple past
- Since I am disappointed in my lack of progress, I will start reading more books tomorrow.
- Continuous Simple
- She is eating cookies in the kitchen.
- Present continuous
Now try creating sentences with the tenses listed below:
- Present Continuous
- Past Continuous
- Future Simple Tense
Notes:
If you want to learn more about English verb tenses, take a look at this article.