Teaching Tenses to Kids: Past, Present and Future Made Simple
Children learn tenses best through time, not terminology. Start with what happened yesterday, what happens now and what will happen tomorrow, using the child's own day as the material. Name the tenses only once the idea is clear, then teach the spelling changes that go with them: -ed, -ing, and the irregular verbs that don't follow the pattern.
Start With Time, Not Grammar
Before any labels, build the idea:
- Yesterday I … (walked to school, ate roti)
- Now I am … (sitting, reading)
- Tomorrow I will … (play, visit Nani)
Say sentences about your child's real day. Once they can complete these three frames comfortably, the tense names make sense.
The Three Basic Tenses
| Tense | Frame | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Past | Yesterday I … | walked, played, ate |
| Present | Today I … / I am … | walk, walking |
| Future | Tomorrow I will … | will walk, will play |
In Jolly Grammar, verbs are colour-coded red and taught with an action, so children can spot them in a sentence before changing their tense. See parts of speech colours and actions.
The Spelling That Goes With Tenses
This is where most children stumble, because tense changes and spelling rules collide.
| Change | Rule | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Add -ed for past | Most regular verbs | walk → walked, play → played |
| Add -ing for continuing action | Most verbs | walk → walking |
| Double the consonant | One syllable, one short vowel, one final consonant | hop → hopped, hopping |
| Drop the e | Verb ends in silent e | bake → baked, baking |
| y to i | Consonant + y, for -ed | carry → carried (but carrying) |
These are the same rules taught in spelling rules for kids. Teaching tense and spelling together saves children learning them twice.
Irregular Verbs
Some common verbs don't take -ed: go → went, eat → ate, come → came, see → saw, run → ran, is → was.
These are learned like tricky words, not by rule:
- Teach 4–5 at a time, in sentences about the child's own day.
- Use pairs: "Today I eat. Yesterday I ate."
- Return to them weekly. Irregular verbs need repetition, not explanation.
Activities That Work
- Three-column sort. Yesterday / Today / Tomorrow. Sort sentence strips into the right column.
- Photo talk. Look at a photo: "What did we do? What are we doing now? What will we do next?"
- Verb dice. Roll a verb and a tense, and make the sentence.
- Story rewrite. Take three sentences from a storybook and move them into the future.
- Daily diary. Two sentences a day, one about yesterday and one about tomorrow. Real writing beats worksheets.
Common Difficulties
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| "I goed to school" | Normal at first. Praise the logic, then teach went as an irregular pair |
| Mixing tenses in one sentence | Underline the verbs in red and check them one at a time |
| Using present for everything | Anchor with time words: yesterday, now, tomorrow |
| Getting the meaning but not the spelling | Teach the doubling and drop-e rules explicitly |
| Home-language interference | Some Indian languages mark tense differently. Say the English frame aloud together before writing |
For Children Who Speak Another Language at Home
Tense errors in speech are extremely common for children who use English mainly at school, and they usually reflect the patterns of the home language rather than carelessness. The fastest fix is oral practice: say the correct full sentence together before writing it, several times a week.
Where This Fits
Tenses are part of Jolly Grammar, taught alongside parts of speech and spelling. They build on the word-ending work in prefixes and suffixes for kids.
Children practise tenses in writing every week in our Jolly Grammar classes.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you teach tenses to a child? +
Start with time frames from the child's own day: yesterday, now and tomorrow. Name the tenses afterwards, then teach the spelling changes.
At what age do children learn tenses? +
Most children start formal work on past, present and future at around 6 to 7, though they use tenses in speech much earlier.
Why does my child say "goed" instead of "went"? +
Because they've learned the -ed rule and applied it logically. It's a good sign. Irregular verbs are then taught as pairs to remember.
What spelling rules go with tenses? +
Doubling (hop → hopped), dropping the silent e (bake → baked) and changing y to i (carry → carried).
How do I teach irregular verbs? +
Four or five at a time, in matched pairs such as "eat / ate", used in sentences about real events, revisited weekly.
Which tense should be taught first? +
Present, then past, then future. Past usually needs the most spelling work.
My child understands tenses but writes them wrongly. Why? +
Understanding the time idea and spelling the verb correctly are separate skills. Daily short dictation of tense sentences fixes the second one.