3rd grade past, present, and future verbs worksheets
Third graders name the three simple tenses and sort confidently, including the irregular pasts (wrote, built, flew) that don't wear an -ed. The sort also sets up the harder grade-3 skill of keeping one tense steady across a whole paragraph.
Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core L.3.1.e.
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The kind of words you'll sort
Write each verb from the bank under Past, Present, or Future.
will borrowspokewill drinkwill wanderstumbledinventedwill stumblesitsdrewjumpslaughsdrinks
Columns: Past and Present and Future. "drew" belongs under past; "jumps" belongs under present; "will wander" belongs under future.
Every print pulls a fresh set of word lists at this level, so a make-up test or a second sibling never gets the same sheet.
What's on each sheet
- Sorting. Write each verb from the bank under Past, Present, or Future. 21 words per page.
Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.
How to teach this
Mix in the irregulars freely and ask students to justify each placement in a sentence: "wrote: she wrote a letter yesterday." The justification sentence is the real assessment. Connect the sort to writing: pick a column and tell a two-sentence story staying inside it.
Watch for: The future never changes the verb itself; it borrows the helper will. On these sheets, if you see will, it's future. Some past verbs skip -ed and change instead: sang, wrote, ran. They're still past.
Common questions about past, present, and future verbs
- How do irregular past verbs fit this skill?
- They're past verbs that changed their shape instead of taking -ed: sing became sang, build became built. On a sort, students place them by meaning rather than by ending, which is exactly the deeper check this skill needs by 3rd grade.
- What comes after sorting tenses?
- Keeping a tense steady. By 5th grade the standards ask students to notice and fix sentences that hop between past and present mid-story. A student who sorts quickly is ready to start that editing work early; the sort is the warm-up, consistency is the game.
Related worksheets
- 1st grade past, present, and future verbs A step easier, same skill
- 2nd grade past, present, and future verbs A step easier, same skill
- 3rd grade adverbs of how, when, and where Same grade, nearby skill
- 3rd grade articles (a, an, the) Same grade, nearby skill
- 3rd grade collective nouns Same grade, nearby skill
- Past, present, and future verbs, all grades The full progression
- All 3rd grade English worksheets Every skill at this level
- All 3rd grade worksheets Everything at this level
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Aligned to Common Core L.3.1.e. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 137, updated August 2026.
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