Lesson video

Hello, it's Mrs. Smart.

Welcome back to this English unit all about journalistic writing.

In today's lesson, we're going to focus on some grammar.

We are going to be practising using simple past, present, and future tense.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some lined paper, a pen or pencil, and a highlighter or a coloured pencil or pen if you've got one.

If you don't have any of those items with you right now, just pause the recording and get yourself ready.

In today's lesson, we're going to learn about and practise three different tenses.

We'll start with simple past tense, then simple present tense, and finish with simple future tense.

At the end of the lesson, we'll recap all of your learning so that hopefully you can remember it and use it in your writing.

Here is an image or a diagram to show you the three different tenses we're going to be exploring today.

We're going to start with simple past tense.

We use simple past tense to refer to events that have already happened.

They've happened in the past.

We're now going to look at three sentences, which are all examples of sentences written in the simple past tense.

Wolf peered through the windows.

Wolf entered Mrs. Puckett's property.

You can notice that I've highlighted the verb.

The verb is the really important part of the sentence because that's the doing or the being word that tells us whether the event has already happened, whether it's happening now, or whether it's going to happen in the future.

So the verb is the key word in the sentence so that we know what tense it's in.

And you'll notice in these two sentences, both of the verbs end in ed.

Regular verbs in the past tense always end with ed.

A witness saw a suspicious individual outside Mrs. Puckett's house.

You can see in this example, the verb saw doesn't have ed on the end.

That's because it is an irregular verb.

It doesn't follow the ed past tense pattern.

Can you write a sentence in the simple past tense? Use your highlighter or your coloured pen or pencil to highlight or underline the verb in your sentence.

Remember, if it's a regular verb, it's going to need to have ed on the end.

Pause the recording and off you go.

We're moving on to simple present tense now.

We use simple present tense to refer to events happening now.

For example, right now, you're watching this video that's happening in the present tense.

Let's look at some examples in sentences.

Red carries a basket of goodies.

Carries is the verb.

It tells me that it's happening in the present tense.

Wolf is six foot tall with thick, grey fur.

Now this verb, is, is quite a tricky one.

It comes from the verb to be, and it can look very, very different depending on the tense and depending on the subject of the sentence.

A witness hears raised voices.

So hears is our verb.

You'll notice that sometimes verbs in the present tense have an s on the end, but this depends on the subject of the sentence.

Can you write a sentence in the simple present tense? Remember that means it's happening right now.

Pause the recording and have a go.

Lastly, we're going to cover the simple future tense now.

We use simple future tense to refer to events that will happen in the future.

They are going to happen.

They're not happening now, they haven't already happened, but they are going to happen.

Let's look at some examples.

The police will question the accused later today.

Forensic scientists will investigate the crime scene.

The police will ask for witness statements.

I'm sure you've already noticed that before each verb in the simple future tense, we always use the word will to show that something will happen in the future.

Will question, will investigate, will ask.

None of these events have happened yet.

They're all going to happen.

Can you write a sentence in the simple future tense? Remember to use the word will before your verb to show that it will happen in the future.

Pause the recording and have a go now.

We have done lots of learning in today's lesson.

We've learnt about simple past tense, simple present tense, and simple future tense.

We've learnt what they are, we've looked at some examples, and you've had a go at practising using them as well.

Let's recap what we've learnt to make sure that we don't forget.

Can you match the tense to its definition? So down the left-hand side, we've got simple past tense, simple present tense, simple future tense.

And down the right-hand side, we have got the three definitions.

We use simple, mm, tense to refer to events that will happen in the future.

We use simple, mm, tense to refer to events that have already happened.

We use simple, tense to refer to events happening now.

Could you match the name of the tense to the definition? Pause the recording and decide your answers now.

Let's go through and see how you got on.

So simple past tense.

We use simple past tense to refer to events that have already happened.

They happened in the past.

Simple present tense.

We use simple present tense to refer to events happening now.

Simple future tense.

We use simple future tense to refer to events that will happen in the future.

They haven't happened yet.

Well done if you've got all of those correct.

Can you identify the tense used in each sentence? I have written five sentences here for you, and I haven't highlighted the verb this time to make it a little bit trickier.

I want you to read them through and decide which tense you think each sentence is.

Remember, you are looking for the verb to help you identify the tense.

Police arrested the suspect immediately.

A large man smashes through Mrs. Puckett's window.

Mrs. Puckett will need some further medical attention.

Wolf attacks Red with a large stick.

Red screamed loudly.

Pause the recording and decide which tense each of those sentences are.

Off you go.

Right.

Let's check through your answers.

Police arrested the suspect immediately.

Hopefully you identified the verb as arrested.

It's got that ed on the end to show it's a regular verb.

That is a simple past tense sentence.

Well done if you got that right.

A large man smashes through Mrs. Puckett's house.

Smashes is the verb, and it's in the simple present tense.

Well done if you got that one right.

Mrs. Puckett will need some further medical attention.

Now I can see straight away I've got that word will and then my verb need, so it must be the simple future tense.

Wolf attacks Red with a large stick.

Attacks is the verb, that's what the Wolf is doing, and I think that is in the simple present tense.

And lastly, Red screamed loudly.

I've got that clue, ed at the end of the verb scream, so I know it must be the simple past tense.

Well done if you got all of those correct.

As we've mentioned, verbs change when they are in the past, present, and future tense, and verbs are the key word that tell us whether a sentence is happening right now, whether it's happened in the past, or whether it's going to happen in the future.

So you can see this is the same sentence, but in the three different tenses.

Wolf entered Mrs. Puckett's property.

That's in the past tense with that ed on the end of the verb.

Wolf enters Mrs. Puckett's property.

That means it's happening right now.

And Wolf will enter Mrs. Puckett's property.

The key word will tells us it's going to happen in the future.

Now that was a regular example.

Now let's have a look at an irregular example.

A witness saw a large man with an axe.

A witness sees a large man with an axe.

So the present tense is sees, but when we change it to the past tense, we don't make it seeed, we don't add an ed on the end, we change the word to saw.

When we change it into the future tense, it becomes will see.

A witness will see a large man with an axe.

So you can see we're just adding the word will to the verb see.

Let's do one last activity to consolidate your learning about tenses today.

At the top of the screen, you can see the start of three sentences.

Yesterday, I.

Today, I.

Tomorrow, I.

Yesterday, I refers to the simple past tense.

Today, I refers to the simple present tense.

And tomorrow, I refers to the simple future tense.

I'm going to show you a verb in one of these three tenses, and you're going to try and change the verb into the other two tenses.

Let's look at the first example.

Today, I help.

That's in the simple present tense.

Can you change the verb help into the past tense and into the simple future tense? Off you go.

Okay, so it should be yesterday, I helped.

Good.

And tomorrow, I will help.

Well done.

The next verb is will bring.

Tomorrow, I will bring.

That's in the simple future tense.

Can you change the verb will bring into the simple present tense and the simple past tense? Off you go.

Okay, so it should be today, I bring.

Good.

And yesterday, I brought.

Well done.

That's a tricky one.

Okay, let's do one more.

This time, the verb is in the simple past tense and it's the verb gave.

Yesterday, I gave.

Okay.

Now could you change it into the simple present tense and the simple future tense? Have a think about it.

Off you go.

Okay, so it should be today, I give.

Good.

Well done.

And tomorrow, I will give.

Excellent.

Great job.

In today's lesson, we have learnt about the simple past, the simple present, and the simple future tense.

And you've had a chance to practise using all three tenses.

We had a recap at the end of the lesson to consolidate all of your learning.

Hopefully now you feel really confident with those three tenses and feel that you could use them constantly in your own writing.

Congratulations.

You have completed your lesson for today.

If you would like to, please share your work with your parents or carer.

I will see you in our next English lesson.

Goodbye.