Verb tense chart
A verb tense chart lays the tenses out as a grid: past, present and future across the top, and the simple, progressive and perfect forms down the side, with one example sentence in every cell so the pattern can be read across and down.
Free printable PDF, 2nd grade to 6th grade.
One page, black and white, prints the same every time.
What is on the sheet
Simple tenses (2nd grade and up)
| Tense | How it is made | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple past | verb + -ed, or the irregular past form | She walked to school. She went home. |
| Simple present | the base verb; add -s with he, she or it | She walks to school. They walk too. |
| Simple future | will + verb | She will walk to school tomorrow. |
Progressive tenses (4th grade)
| Tense | How it is made | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Past progressive | was or were + verb-ing | She was walking when it rained. |
| Present progressive | am, is or are + verb-ing | She is walking to school now. |
| Future progressive | will be + verb-ing | She will be walking at eight. |
Perfect tenses (5th grade)
| Tense | How it is made | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Past perfect | had + past participle | She had walked before the bus came. |
| Present perfect | have or has + past participle | She has walked to school all week. |
| Future perfect | will have + past participle | She will have walked a mile by nine. |
How to read the chart
Every cell uses the same verb, walk, so the only thing that changes from cell to cell is the tense. Read down the first table and the time changes: yesterday, today, tomorrow. Read across the three tables on one row and the kind of time changes: a plain action, an action in progress, an action finished before another moment. The "how it is made" column is the rule a child can apply to any other verb; the irregular verbs list on the site covers the ones that do not take -ed.
The tables are in the order the grades meet them. Second grade uses the simple tenses and knows them by "past, present, future"; 3rd grade fixes the irregulars; 4th grade adds the progressive; 5th grade the perfect; 6th grade keeps a paragraph in one tense, which is when a chart like this earns its place on the wall.
Using it
Give a sentence and have the child point to its cell. Give a cell and ask for a new sentence with a different verb. Take a short paragraph the child wrote and mark each verb's tense against the chart; a paragraph that jumps between rows is the usual 5th and 6th grade fix.
Common questions
- Why is one verb used for every example?
- So the tense is the only difference between cells. With a different verb in each row the child compares verbs instead of tenses.
- Where are the irregular verbs?
- On the irregular verbs list, which gives the past and past participle of the verbs that do not take -ed. This chart shows the pattern; that list shows the exceptions.