Year 3 Tense forms: simple, progressive and perfect worksheet

“Past, present or future?” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 3 English unit “Tense forms: simple, progressive and perfect”, for children aged 7 to 8, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 2 to 3 of the year, 5 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Past, present or future?

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 3 · English · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can change a verb to show whether something is past, present or future.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which sentence has a capital letter and a full stop? Circle one.
the bus is lateThe bus is lateThe bus is late.
2.
Which word names a thing? Circle one.
rundogquickly
3.
Which word joins the two ideas? The sun is out ___ it is warm. Circle one.
andunderyesterday

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ravi writes about his football. Watch how the verb changes when the time changes.

A quiet high street with shop fronts and a bus stop

Watch me

Yesterday Ravi played football. (past)

Today Ravi plays football. (present)

Tomorrow Ravi will play football. (future)

Now you

1.
Last week Ella ___ to the shops with Mum. Circle the right word.
goeswentwill go

C Your turn8 min

Mia is at the park. Read each sentence and circle the right word.

1.
Yesterday, Mia ___ to the park. Circle the right word.
walkwalkedwill walk
2.
Every day, Mia ___ to the park. Circle the right word.
walkswalkedwill walk
3.
Tomorrow, Mia ___ to the park. Circle the right word.
walkwalkedwill walk
4.
Yesterday, Mia ___ a fox in the park. Circle the right word.
seesawseed

Say it out loud: What word tells you the time in each sentence? What happened to the verb each time, and which verb was the odd one out?

D Spot the mistake3 min

A bucket and spade on a sandy beach by the sea

Ben says: “Yesterday we goed to the beach.”

1.
Write Ben's sentence with the verb fixed.

E Think deeper4 min

1.
Write one sentence about something you did last weekend. Then change it to be about next weekend. Tell your grown-up how the verb changed.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Past, present or future? · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. The bus is late. Picked a sentence with no capital or no full stop. Ask your child where the sentence starts and where it ends.

2. dog Picked run: that is a doing word. Ask your child whether they could point to it in the room.

3. and Picked under: that tells where, not how two ideas link. Ask your child to read the sentence with the word missing and say whether the two parts are joined.

B

1. went Picked will go: that is the future. Ask your child whether the trip has already happened. If it has, the verb is past.

C

1. walked Picked walk: that is the bare verb with no past ending. Ask your child to say the sentence about yesterday out loud.

2. walks Picked walked: that is the past. Ask your child whether Mia does this every day, or whether it happened once and finished.

3. will walk Picked walked: that is the past. Ask your child whether the walk has happened yet. It has not, so it needs will.

4. saw If your child picks seed, they added -ed, but see changes its shape and its past is saw. Say 'I see a fox', then 'Yesterday I ... a fox'.

D

1. Look for: Uses went, the irregular past of go, for example: Yesterday we went to the beach. Wrote goed again: go is irregular, so its past is went. Ask your child to say 'we went' and 'we goed' aloud and decide which sounds right.

E

1. Look for: A past sentence, then the same idea for next weekend with will, such as swam changing to will swim.

Words to use

Say“Where is the time word in the sentence? Is it about before, now or later?”

Instead of“Tell them the answer straight away so they can move on.”

After the sheet

Put three toys in a row. Say what you did with one yesterday, what you do with it now, and what you will do with it tomorrow, changing only the verb each time.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

4 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Helper verbs and -ing words(with a plan)
Simple or progressive?(with a plan)
Have and has stories(with a plan)
Still going or already done?(with a plan)

Every Year 3 English worksheet

The worksheets plan opens a printable sheet for every lesson in Years 1 to 6, each with its answers on a separate page for you. It costs £6.99 a month or £59 a year for the whole family, with no free trial.

The full StudyDen plan adds the lessons themselves, marked as your child works, with the worksheets included. It is 7 days free, then £29.99 a month.

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