Year 3 - English
Progressive present, past and future tense
Tense forms: simple, progressive and perfect
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils learn formal conventions around simple and progressive tense forms in the present, past and future tenses. They learn about main and auxiliary verbs, including that main verbs can be having, as well as doing or being verbs. Pupils also learn about the perfect present tense.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to recognise the progressive present, progressive past and progressive future tense in a range of verbs.
Key Notes
- The verb carries the tense of a sentence.
- The simple tense is a tense that does not make use of an auxiliary verb with the main verb in the past and present.
- The progressive tense is a tense that uses an auxiliary verb from the infinitive 'to be' paired with the main verb.
- The progressive tense denotes ongoing action.
- The main verb in the progressive tense always ends with the -ing suffix.
Vocabulary To Learn
- 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 Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils may think that any time a word ends with -ing, it is a verb in the progressive tense.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
The verb carries the tense of a sentence. The simple tense is a tense that does not make use of an auxiliary verb with the main verb in the past and present.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'simple tense'
a tense that does not make use of an auxiliary verb in addition to the main verb in the present and past.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Pupils may think that any time a word ends with -ing, it is a verb in the progressive tense. Correction: 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.
More Lessons In This Unit
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