New
New
Year 3

Progressive present, past and future tense

I can recognise the progressive present, progressive past and progressive future tense in a range of verbs.

New
New
Year 3

Progressive present, past and future tense

I can recognise the progressive present, progressive past and progressive future tense in a range of verbs.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. The verb carries the tense of a sentence.
  2. The simple tense is a tense that does not make use of an auxiliary verb with the main verb in the past and present.
  3. The progressive tense is a tense that uses an auxiliary verb from the infinitive 'to be' paired with the main verb.
  4. The progressive tense denotes ongoing action.
  5. The main verb in the progressive tense always ends with the -ing suffix.

Keywords

  • Simple tense - a tense that does not make use of an auxiliary verb in addition to the main verb in the present and past

  • Auxiliary verb - the helping verb that is always paired with the main verb

  • Progressive tense - a tense that denotes ongoing action

  • Infinitive - any verb preceded by the word 'to'

  • Suffix - a letter or group of letters at the end of a word which creates another word

Common misconception

Pupils may think that any time a word ends with -ing, it is a verb in the progressive tense.

Sometimes, words ending -ing are acting as adjectives. We must look at the word before the word ending in -ing to check if it's a verb.

Present pupils with a wide range of sentence examples where words ending in -ing are working as adjectives ('The sparkling water flowed past me.') compared to a wide range where they are working as progressive tense verbs ('He was singing happily.')
Teacher tip

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Fill in the blank. The __________ tells you the tense of a sentence.
Correct answer: verb
noun
adverb
adjective
punctuation
Q2.
Which sentence sounds like its tense is correct when you read it out loud?
Correct answer: Yesterday, you knew the answer to that question.
Yesterday, you knows the answer to that question.
Yesterday, you will know the answer to that question.
Q3.
Which tense tells us that the action is yet to happen / has not happened yet?
Correct Answer: future tense, Future tense, future, Future
Q4.
Which sentence is in the present tense?
They will catch the ball expertly in the game tomorrow.
They almost caught the ball in the game last week.
Correct answer: They catch the ball every time they play.
Q5.
Match the person to the perspective.
Correct Answer:first person,I / we

I / we

Correct Answer:second person,you

you

Correct Answer:third person,he / she / it / they

he / she / it / they

Q6.
Which is the best definition of an auxiliary verb?
a main verb
an imperative verb
an adverb verb
Correct answer: a helping verb

6 Questions

Q1.
Which word class carries the tense of a sentence?
adjective
adverb
noun
Correct answer: verb
Q2.
Which suffix does the main verb in a progressive tense always end with?
Correct answer: -ing
-ed
-ies
-ly
Q3.
Match each part of a progressive tense sentence with their job.
Correct Answer:auxiliary verb,paired with the main verb and tells us the tense

paired with the main verb and tells us the tense

Correct Answer:main verb,always ends with -ing and doesn't change when the tense does

always ends with -ing and doesn't change when the tense does

Correct Answer:noun,the person, place or thing that does the main verb

the person, place or thing that does the main verb

Correct Answer:punctuation,marks the beginning and end of the sentence

marks the beginning and end of the sentence

Q4.
What sort of action does a progressive tense sentence tell us about?
action that has definitely finished
action that will never happen
Correct answer: action that is ongoing over a timeframe
Q5.
Which words tell you that the following sentence is in the progressive future tense? 'Five kangaroos will be visiting the zoo next week.'
five kangaroos
next week
the zoo
Correct answer: will be
be visiting
Q6.
Which word tells you that the following sentence is in the progressive past tense? 'I was learning to play the guitar last year.'
Correct answer: was
learning
last
year