Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham and I'm really pleased that you've decided to join me today as we begin to learn about tenses.

There's a lot of learning packed into today's lesson, but I'm going to be here to help guide you through it and I think we're going to get a lot done.

So let's make a start.

Today's lesson is called Sentences in the Simple Present, Past, and Future Tense.

And it comes from my unit called Tense Forms, Simple, Progressive, and Perfect Consolidation.

By the end of today's lesson, we are going to be able to write a range of sentence types in the simple present, past, and future tense.

Now, this is gonna be really useful for all our writing because it's gonna allow us to write in different tenses, which means we can write in many different ways.

So let's make a start.

Here are today's keywords.

My turn, your turn.

Verb.

Tense.

Simple tense.

Now, here's a really tricky one.

Auxiliary verb.

Let's do that one again.

Auxiliary verb.

And maintain.

Now, I'm sure you already know a couple of those words.

A couple might be new.

So let's go a bit deeper into their definitions and if these seem confusing, don't panic.

We'll get to them during the lesson.

A verb, as I'm sure you know, is a being, doing, or having word.

The tense of a piece of writing tells the reader when it's happening.

Is it in the past, the present, or the future? A simple tense is a type of tense and it's one that does not use an auxiliary verb in addition to the main verb in the present and the past versions of the simple tense.

Now, that all sounds very confusing, but don't worry.

We'll come onto it very shortly.

Now, that tricky word, an auxiliary verb, it's a helping verb which is paired with another verb, the main verb in a sentence, and it helps to change the tense or the meaning of that sentence.

So it's always helping out another verb.

And finally, if you maintain something, you make it stay the same.

So we are gonna be talking about maintaining the tense of a sentence or a piece of writing.

Here's our lesson outline for today.

We're going to start by talking about two tricky concepts, tense and person.

Then we'll be identifying the different simple tenses.

There are three, the simple past, the simple present, and a simple future.

And finally, we'll practise writing in those different tenses.

So let's start by looking at these two important ideas, tense and person.

Now, like we've just said, a verb is a being, a doing, or a having word.

Here are some sentences.

I know they're sentences because they contain a verb and they make complete sense on their own.

Now let's see if we can spot the verbs in these sentences.

In the first sentence, where is the bank? Is a being word.

In put those down, put is a doing word.

In Aisha has three sisters, has is a having word.

And in what a mess you have made, we've got two verbs, have and made.

Have is obviously a having verb and made is a doing word.

So we've got different types of verb going on in the same sentence.

I wonder if you can spot the verb in each of these sentences.

Pause the video and have a go.

Great effort.

Let's have a look.

In A, the verb is love.

That's a doing word.

In B, it's take, another doing word.

In how excited we were, the word were is the verb.

That's a being word.

And in the final sentence, what's the problem? What is the contracted form of what is and is is another being verb.

So really well done if you spotted that sneaky one at the end.

Now, verbs can be linked to different people or groups and we call this the person the verb is being shown in.

Let me show you what I mean.

We could say I play the guitar or we play the guitar.

Both of these are what we call the first person because we are talking from our own perspective.

We are part of the group that's playing the guitar or we are the only person playing the guitar.

But we could say you play the guitar.

We call this the second person.

We are talking to a person or a group of people.

You are playing the guitar.

We are speaking to that person.

We could also say she plays the guitar, he plays the guitar, or they play the guitar.

Each of these we would call the third person.

We are talking about another person or a group of people or even a thing.

So we can see we've got three different persons we can write in.

Now, you might have noticed that the verb play changes a little bit for she and he.

We say I play, we play, you play, but we say she plays and he plays.

We'll talk more about that in a second.

Now, sometimes the person we've used is not so easy to spot.

Look at these examples.

Jun and I like to play the flute.

Here, Jun and I is like saying we.

So that would be the first person.

We're talking about ourselves.

If I say all of you play the flute, here, all of you is talking to someone.

So that's the second person.

It's a group of people that we're talking to this time, but it's still the second person.

And in all these examples, we've got different examples of the third person.

Sam and Sofia is like saying they.

Izzy is like saying she and Class 5 is like saying they.

Each of those, we're talking about another person.

We're talking about them.

So that would be the third person.

I wonder if you can match the sentences to the person they're written in.

Year 4, you all need to calm down.

Lucas and I will wait here for you.

Sam and Andeep are not ready.

I wonder which of these is the first person, which is the second person, and which is the third person.

Pause the video and try and decide.

Okay, let's match these up.

I can see the first sentence contains the word you.

It's talking to someone else.

So that must be the second person.

The second sentence includes I, so it's someone talking from their own perspective.

That's the first person.

And the third sentence is talking about two people, Sam and Andeep.

If we're talking about someone else, that's the third person.

Really well done if you matched those up correctly.

So the verb in the sentence is what tells us the tense of the sentence when it's happening.

I sing every day.

I sang on Tuesday.

I will sing tomorrow.

Can you see we've got different forms of the verb, to sing? We've got sing, sang, and will sing.

So the way that verb changes tells us how the tense of the sentence is changing.

When I say I sing every day, I'm talking about something that is happening.

That's the present.

If I say I sang on Tuesday, I'm talking about something which has already happened.

That's the past.

The action has happened in the past.

And when I say I will sing tomorrow, I'm talking about action that is yet to happen.

It's in the future.

So we've got the past, the present, and the future.

These are different tenses.

The writing tells us when the action is happening.

Now, there are several different types of past, present, and future tenses in English and we're gonna be talking about just one of those types today.

Let's just check we've understood.

Look at each of these four sentences.

Is it showing a past, present, or future tense? Is the action happening in the past? Is it happening now or will it happen in the future? Pause the video and decide for each of these four sentences.

Okay.

A says, I wait here for the bus every day.

That word wait tells us it's happening now.

It's something I am still doing.

I will wait for you here tonight tells me something's happening in the future.

I waited for hours but you didn't come is talking about the past.

And you weren't waiting for me is also talking about the past because weren't is the contracted form of were not and were is a past tense word.

Really well done if you spotted those different tenses.

Now let's have a think about that tricky idea of tense and person.

So I've got four statements here.

I want you to decide which ones should be labelled tense and which ones should be labelled person.

Pause the video and have a think.

Worth the try on that one.

It was really tricky.

A says tells us when a verb is happening.

That's the tense.

B says tells us who is doing the verb.

That's the person.

Which one can be past, present, or future? That's the tense.

And which one can be first, second, or third? That's the person.

Really well done if you spotted those.

So for our first task this lesson, we're gonna do a really quick one.

I'm gonna show you five sentences and I want you to decide, are they in the past, the present, or the future tense? Here's an example.

Laura will go to the park on Sunday.

Those words, will go, tell me this is yet to happen.

It hasn't happened yet.

So this must be the future tense.

Here are your five sentences.

For each one.

I want you to decide, which tense is it written in, the past, the present, or the future? Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, let's check the tense of these sentences.

Alex and Sofia went to the library yesterday is in the past tense.

We will succeed if we we try our best is in the future tense.

You weren't listening is in the past tense.

I love the autumn leaves is in the present tense.

And Jacob runs down the stairs is also in the present tense.

Really good job if you spotted those.

Now, we're going to move on now to identifying the different simple tenses.

So we've already said that in English, there are several different types of tenses.

One type of present tense is the simple present tense.

Here are some examples.

I love sports.

She needs help with her spelling.

They want to come too.

Jun thinks we're rude.

Each of these contains a verb in the simple present tense, love, needs, want, and thinks.

These sentences are showing us something happening now and it uses just one verb, love, needs, want, and thinks.

And these actions are still happening.

They're in the present.

Now, notice the he, the she, and the it forms of verbs in the simple present tense look different.

I think, we think, you think, they think, he thinks, she thinks, it thinks.

Notice how we've added an S to those forms of the verb.

I wonder if you can spot the mistake in each of these simple present tense sentences.

Jacob like swimming.

Aisha and Alex studies at the same school.

Does she polishes the car every week? Hmm.

Some of those sounded a bit funny.

I wonder if you can correct the mistake in each one.

Pause the video and have a go.

I'm sure you spotted these.

A should say Jacob likes swimming.

B should say Aisha and Alex study at the same school.

And C should say, does she polish the car every week? So notice how, depending who we're talking about, we sometimes need to change the form of the verb.

Now, one type of past tense is the simple past tense.

I loved that lesson.

Aisha wanted to go home.

They needed the bathroom.

It snuffled at the door.

Again, we've used just one verb to show this action.

And all of these actions are happening in the past.

So they're telling us about something that's happened already and they're using just one verb and these actions have now finished.

Now, you might have spotted that all of these verbs in my four sentences end in -ed and in the simple past tense, the he, she, and it forms of the verb are the same.

I thought, we thought, you thought, they thought, he thought, she thought, it thought.

This time, my verb doesn't end in -ed.

Not all verbs do in the past tense, but these all have the same form for all the different people who are doing that.

I wonder if you can spot now, is each of my sentences in the simple past tense or the simple present tense? Pause the video and decide.

Great effort.

Jun and I rushed into school is in the past tense, the simple past tense.

Children line up quietly at our school is in the simple present tense.

And Andeep and Alex like to draw is in the simple present tense.

The birds flew down from the sky is in the simple past tense.

It's showing us something that has already happened and is now finished.

So we've talked about the simple present tense and the simple past tense.

One type of future tense is a simple future tense.

Here are some examples.

I will take the bus.

Sam will go out first.

They will sing the solos.

It will come with us.

All of these use two verbs, and we'll talk about that in a minute.

Will take, will go, will sing, will come.

These sentences are talking about something that is yet to happen.

It's going to happen in the future.

And you might have spotted the he, she, and it forms of these verbs are the same.

I will bring, we will bring, you will bring, they will bring, he will bring, she will bring, it will bring.

There, the verb bring is the same for every person doing it.

Now, we often make a contraction using the simple future tenses.

Let me show you.

Often we'll say I'll bring, we'll bring, you'll bring, they'll bring.

We have changed the two words, I will, to the contracted form, I'll.

And I'm sure you've seen that many times before.

But we've seen something funny in these verbs as well in the simple future tense.

We can see each one has two verbs like will take.

We use the auxiliary verb, will, and the main verb.

An auxiliary verb is a helping verb that we pair with a main verb in a sentence.

I will take the bus starts with the auxiliary verb, will, and that's paired with the main verb, take.

So we've got two verbs next to each other.

The auxiliary verb, will, is helping the main verb, take.

And it's changing its meaning.

It's telling us it's something that's going to happen in the future.

Now, I wonder if we can try and change some simple present tense sentences to the simple future tense.

And remember, in the simple future tense, we'll see that word will, the auxiliary verb, to help us change the meaning.

We've got three sentences in the simple present tense.

I wonder if you can pause the video and change them to the simple future tense.

Have a go.

Okay, let's take a look.

Jun's mum takes us to the swimming pool.

In the future tense, that would become Jun's mum will take us to the swimming pool.

Look, we've got our two verbs there, will and take.

For B, it would become Andeep will think we are wasting our time.

We have the auxiliary verb, will, and the main verb, think.

For C, it would become the children will know their 12 times table.

The auxiliary verb is will and the main verb is know.

If you manage to change those, you've done an amazing job.

Let's keep moving.

So we see that we can use the simple past tense, the simple present tense, and the simple future tense to write sentences.

Here's some examples.

I played tennis is the simple past.

In the simple present, that would be I play tennis.

And the simple future, I bet you thought of it, would be I will play tennis.

She knew the answer is the simple past.

The simple present would be she knows the answer and the simple future would be she'll know the answer.

That's a contracted form of she will know the answer with that auxiliary verb, will, sneaked in there.

So when we change the tense, the person, or the type of sentence, the verbs can change their form.

Now I wonder if we can identify those three different simple tenses in some sentences.

As we ran, it began to rain.

The school, which sits at the very edge of the village, is very small.

Class 4 will read a poem and Class 6 will say the prayers.

In number one, I can see that verb ran.

That is a past tense verb.

So this must be the simple past.

In number two, I see the verb sits and the verb is a being word.

Both of those are in the present.

So this must be a simple present sentence.

And in number three, I see some auxiliary verbs.

I see will read and I see will say.

Each time the auxiliary verb, will, is paired with the main verb, read and say.

So this must be the simple future.

Now I wonder if you can try.

Here are three sentences.

Can you decide if they're in the simple past, simple present, or simple future tense by looking carefully at those verbs? 'Cause remember, it's the verbs that tell us the tense of the sentence.

Pause the video and have a go.

Great effort.

Aisha will enjoy this, but Alex will not like this.

I see that auxiliary verb will.

This must be the simple future.

Jacob, who loved art, drew a gorgeous peacock.

Ah, we've got loved and drew.

Those are both past tense verbs.

This must be the simple past.

When the sun sets, the stars come out.

Sets and come out are both present tense verbs.

This is the simple present.

Really well done if you spotted those verbs changing the tense in those sentences.

Okay, for our second task this lesson, I think we need a bit more practise of identifying these three different simple tenses.

So I'm going to show you some sentences and I want you to identify the tense of each one and circle the verbs that helped you.

Remember, our three tenses are the simple past, the simple present, and the simple future.

Here are our sentences and for each one, I'd like you to decide which tense is it written in and circle the verbs that helped you to decide.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, let's take a look.

For A, stepped and shuddered show us it's the simple past.

For B, lives and arrives show us it's the simple present.

Now, C is a bit tricky.

I can see I've got a pair of verbs here, you'll, love.

Now, you'll is the contracted form of you will.

So there's our first verb, will, and that links to the main verb, love.

It's just been split up with that word, either.

And we've also got you'll hate, meaning you will hate.

So we've got those auxiliary verbs, will, twice in this sentence.

So it must be simple future.

Lucas wants to be a detective when he grows up.

Both of those are simple present.

These are simple future.

We've got will stand up and will sit with our auxiliary verb will.

And the last one is simple past.

Practised and won are both things that were done in the past.

Really well done if you spotted those, especially that really tricky one at C.

Okay, for our final parts of our lesson, we're going to practise writing some sentences in these different simple tenses.

When we write sentences, we often try and maintain the same tense through the whole sentence.

Now, that's definitely not always true, but it's something we often try and do.

Let me show you what I mean.

Remember that word maintain means keep the same.

So we try and keep the tense the same.

While the children watched the video, they made notes.

In the first part of my sentence.

I've got the verb watched, and in the second part, I've got made.

Both of those are in the simple past.

I've maintained the tense all the way through the sentence.

Sam will read the words and Jun will do the actions.

I bet you spotted that auxiliary verb, will.

Both of these are in the simple future.

We've maintained the tense.

The hill, which towers over the town, is 600 metres high.

We've got towers and is, both simple present verbs.

So we've maintained the tense.

So to maintain the simple present tense, we've got to check that verb form we're using to see if it's right.

Have a look at this example.

As I trek through the icy mountains, I wondered what awaits me back home.

Will everyone still be alive? I bet you've spotted that the tense has changed during that little passage.

We started off with trek, a present tense verb.

Then we moved to wondered, a simple past, and finally, will be, which are simple future verbs.

We are going to try and change it now so it maintains the simple present tense.

It would look like this.

As I trek through the icy mountains, I wonder what awaits me back home.

Is everyone still alive? Now all those verbs are in the simple present.

Now your turn.

I wonder if you can correct the tense of my passage here so that you maintain the simple present tense all the way through.

This one's not right.

So pause the video and see if you can keep every verb in blue in the simple present tense.

Have a go.

Well done.

I bet you noticed it needs to change the second two verbs.

We would write, the village, which I find at the top of the cliff, desperately needs fresh supplies.

Sadly, it has a lot of disease and poverty.

Now, all three verbs, find, needs, and has, are in the simple present.

Now we can do the same thing to try and maintain the simple past tense in our writing.

Here's another bad example.

Sofia tried desperately to win the race.

That verb tried is in the simple past.

But Sam is simply too fast.

She lies on the track and gasped for air.

Hmm.

I think two of those verbs are wrong.

They're not maintaining the simple past tense.

It should look like this.

Sofia tried desperately to win the race, but Sam was simply too fast.

She lay on the track and gasped for air.

Now that's right.

I wonder if you can correct the tense of some of the verbs in this passage to maintain the simple past.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, so that first verb, was, is in the simple past, but winds and does are both in the simple present.

So we should change those to look like this.

The path, which was narrow, wound up the steep mountainside.

Where did it lead? Now, notice we've had to change winds to wound, a tricky past tense verb.

Now our verbs have been maintained in the same tense.

We can maintain the tense when we complete sentences by using the right verb forms. So I've got the start of some sentences here.

As the snow fell, we.

Now, fell is in the past tense, so I want to complete that sentence using the simple past tense as well.

So I could say, as the snow fell, we rushed outside to have a snowball fight.

I've used rushed in the simple past.

Sam, who loves to play football.

Hmm, loves is in the simple present.

It's the end of my sentence.

I'm going to keep in the simple present.

Sam, who loves to play football, goes to practise every day.

And in the last one I've used, tomorrow, we will play netball.

That's the simple future.

So I'm going to finish my sentence in the same tense.

Tomorrow, we will play netball and we will finish our art project.

I have maintained the tense in the simple future.

I wonder if you can correct the mistake in the second verb in each sentence to maintain the tense.

Pause the video and see if you can spot what mistake has been made with the second verb in the sentence and put it right.

Have a go.

That first sentence should read, while Sofia washed the car, Izzy vacuumed the house.

B should read, Andeep, who knew the answer, put up his hand.

This class will stay in, but all the others will go outside.

We've maintained the tense from the beginning of the sentence to the end of the sentence.

Okay, for our final task in this lesson, I want you to do very similar to what we've just done.

I want you to complete the sentences using your own ideas, but maintaining the tense shown in the first verb.

So if you look at A, I've given you when lunch finished.

That's a simple past verb, finished.

So you need to complete the sentence, keeping that tense the same.

Pause the video and see if you can complete each of these sentences, maintaining the tense from the beginning.

Have a go.

Okay, let's look at some examples.

Remember, yours will look different, but hopefully we've both managed to maintain the tense.

When lunch finished, we rushed outside to play in the bright sun.

Jun rides his bike to school, but I walk most days.

Those are both simple present.

It will either be the best thing ever, or it will be the worst.

Both simple future.

Alex needs to stay in because he has a bad injury.

Simple present.

Izzy will hand out the letters and Miss Ofoedu will read the story.

Simple future.

The rain fell torrentially, but we marched on towards the campsite.

Both simple past.

So hopefully you managed to make a pair of verbs that were in the same simple tense so that the tense was maintained all the way through your sentence.

Really well done if you managed it.

Okay, there's been a lot in that lesson.

So let's review what we've learned.

We learned that a tense of a sentence tells the reader when it happened.

We learned that we can tell the tense of a sentence by looking at the verbs in that sentence.

We learned that there are many tenses in English, including the simple past, simple present, and simple future.

And we learned that sometimes we have to use an auxiliary verb to show the tense of a sentence.

And that was only the case in the simple future tense in this case.

Really well done if you've completed this lesson.

I hope it's been really helpful and I'm sure you'll be able to use lots of this knowledge in your writing.

I'd love you to try the exit quiz now to test your knowledge and I hope to see you again in a future lesson.