Practical tools for learning and teaching grammar

Definition: 
The word ‘tense’ is from Latin 
tempus
meaning time.
Before learning about tense
, students should be able to:
• recognise nouns
• recognise pronouns and understand their purpose
• know the meaning of the word verb
• recognise verbs and name verbs
Tense is indicated whenever we use a finite verb. A useful way 
to explain tense to students is by standing facing the students and 
making symbolic gestures. As the direction of reading in English 
is from left to right, we use a corresponding sequence. To the 
students’ left we indicate something occurring in the past. Directly 
in front indicates something occurring now, in the present, and to 
the right something which is to happen in the future.
Past 
Present 
Future
I laughed 
I laugh
I shall (or will) laugh
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GrAMMAr for eVerYone

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3.2 Activities: tense
1. Students draw the tense chart in their grammar exercise books. 
Provide more verbs for which students enter the correct forms on 
their chart, for example:
wreck, chip, say, hurry
It will help the students if they think in terms of the verb having a 
subject, for example:
Past 
Present 
Future
(word) sag
(subject) the bed 
sagged 
sags 
will sag
(word) write 
(subject) they 
wrote 
writes 
will write
Remember that many of these activities can be done orally, but 
students should do some examples in their grammar exercise 
books.
2. Students are given a list of subjects to which they add their own 
choice of verb, for example:
the old car 
the gate 
my friend 
thunder 
the cow 
a bull 
the milk cart 
lightning 
the monster 
slime 
Students may want to add more to their sentence.
Simple and continuous verbs
These indicate whether the action of the verb is completed or still 
going on. A simple verb is one in which the action is complete 
within the respective tense.
For example:
I cooked, I cook, I shall cook
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Verbs

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Compare this with the continuous form in which the action of the 
verb is still going on. 
Thus:
I was cooking, I am cooking, I shall be cooking
The ‘ing’ ending conveys continuity, but the sense is not complete 
without the addition of a ‘helper’ or 
auxiliary
verb (see pages
49–52).
3.3 Activities: simple and continuous verbs
1. Provide a scenario, such as: ‘My brother is looking for a job …’
Each student in turn takes the part of the brother. The others ask 
him what he can do. He acts out one thing that he can do for the 
others to guess, for example:
a. Load a truck
b. Fill ice-cream cones
2. Students change tenses by filling in the spaces:
Past
Present
Future
a. I shivered
I . . . . . . . . . .
I . . . . . . . . . .
b. . . . . . . . . . .
Jack leaves
. . . . . . . . . .
c. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 
will break
d. I did not
. . . . . . . . . . 
. . . . . . . . . .
e. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 
who will work?
3. Students now fill in the tense tables.
A sample table of tenses