WEEK

5 Simple Present and Past Tense of Verbs

Learning Outcomes:
Got Questions?
1. Using verbs in the simple present tense
2. Forming and using regular and irregular You can send
past tense forms of verbs me a message
at mVLE or at
3. Pronouncing past forms of verbs in
Messenger!
sentences

Do you have a cat? If you were to draw your own cat how would it look
like? Use the outline below for your drawing.

What would you name your cat?

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Let us read a poem about a playful kitten below.

The Kitten at Play

by William Wordsworth

See the kitten on the wall,

Sporting with the leaves that fall,
Withered leaves, one, two, and three
Falling from the elder tree,
Through the calm and frosty air
Of the morning bright and fair.

See the kitten, how she starts,

Crouches, stretches, paws, and darts
With a tiger-leap half way
Now she meets her coming prey.
Let’s it go as fast and then
Has it in her power again.

Now she works with three and four,

Like an Indian conjurer;
Quick as he in feats of art,
Gracefully she plays her part;
Yet were gazing thousands there,
What would little Tabby care?

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 Simple Present Tense of Verb

Let’s read this line from the poem.

Now, she meets her coming prey.

What did you notice with the underlined word?

When does the action happen? Is it happening now or perhaps it already
happened?
When an action happens in the present time, we use the simple present
tense of the verb. Let us take a look at the rules that we need to follow in
forming the simple present tense of a verb.

RULE #1

If the subject in the sentence is singular, the verb should be also singular
(in -s form). Let us take a look at the example below.

• The kitten plays with the leaves.

singular subject

singular verb (s form)

Let study the examples below.

1. My son lives in London. 4. He loves to play basketball.

2. My father works in the university. 5.Martin always wears nice clothes.
3. George brushes his teeth twice a day.

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 RULE #2

If the subject in the sentence is plural, the verb should be also plural (in
base form). Let us take a look at the example below.
• The leaves fall from the tree.
plural subject

plural verb (base form)

Let study the examples below.

1. Rivers flow towards the ocean. 4. I love to read comic books.

2. We sing songs all together. 5. Our friends often come to see us.
3. Merry and I go to the mall every Saturday

Simple Past Tense of Regular Verbs

Do you still remember the story of the Wright Brothers? Let us read the
sentences below that are lifted from that story.

SET A
1. Orville lifted of the ground for twelve seconds.
2. They changed our lives and the world of transportation forever.
3. After five years of hard work, the Wright brothers solved the mystery of
flight.
When do you think did the actions happen?
What do we call the tense of these verbs?

All the colored verbs in the sentences are in the simple past tense. The
verbs in set A are regular verbs. We form their past form by adding -d or
-ed to the verb.

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Let us take a look at the rules that we need to follow in forming the simple
past tense of a regular verb.

RULE #1

We add -ed to verbs.

walk- walked hang- hanged cook- cooked
talk- talked visit- visited walk- walked

RULE #2

We add -d to words that end with e.

arrive- arrived love- loved complete- completed
decide- decided bake- baked live- lived

RULE #3

When words end in y, we change y to i and add -ed.

pry- pried cry- cried try- tried
fry- fried hurry- hurried

Simple Past Tense of Irregular Verbs

SET B
1. He flew a distance of 120 feet.
2. Wilbur gave it a try.
3. The brothers spent the rest of the morning taking turns.

The verbs in set B are irregular verbs. We form their past form by changing
their spelling. It helps if we memorize the past form of irregular verbs.

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 Below is a list of some past forms of irregular verbs. Try to study them.
Present Past Present Past
is was catch caught
are were come came
grow grew dig dug
begin began eat ate
bite bit freeze froze
run ran drink drank

• Where was she the other day?

• Our clean and green program began three months ago.
• I drank two bottles of water after the game yesterday.
• We ate at the new restaurant last week!
• I ran four miles a year ago.

The time expressions yesterday, earlier, last week, a year ago, and a
minute ago are used with the past tense of the verb.

Activity no. 1
THIS PART IS TO BE SUBMITTED

A. Read the paragraph below. Complete the sentences with the

correct present tense form of the verbs.

Community workers (help) _______________________us in different ways.

Some of them (take) _______________________ care of our health. The doctors
(help) _______________________ sick people get well. The nurse (assist)
_______________________ the doctor in his work. The dentists (keep)
_______________________ our teeth healthy. They work in clinics or hospitals.

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 Other workers (make) _______________________
the things we (wear) _______________________. The
dressmaker (sew) _______________________dresses for
women. The tailor (make) _______________________
pants and shirts for men. The shoemaker (make) _______________________ shoes
for men, women, and children. These workers also (mend)
_______________________ old and worn-out articles

B. Write the past forms of the regular verbs.

THIS PART IS TO BE SUBMITTED

1. help- ________________ 6. study- ________________

2. bury- ________________ 7. care- ________________
3. file- ________________ 8. yell- ________________
4. smile- ________________ 9. bark- ________________
5. climb- ________________ 10. apply- ________________

C. Write the past form of the following verbs below. The pictures will help
you. However, do not be confused with the spelling.

1. see 2. ride 3. eat

________ ________ ________

4. rise 5. win 6. come

________ ________ ________

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 D. Use the irregular verbs on page 7 to form meaningful sentences. Use the
appropriate time expressions below. The first item is done for you.

earlier last Saturday before

yesterday last year a week ago

1. I won in the singing contest yesterday.

2.

3.
THIS PART IS TO BE SUBMITTED

4.

5.

6.

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