Verb tense consistency worksheets

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A sentence picks a time and sticks to it. If the first verb is past, its teammates ride past too: she set the table and poured the water, not pours.

Three grades, two different sets of sentences: 5th and 6th grade share one. Print one here, or open a grade for examples and teaching notes.

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  1. 5th grade Core grade

    Examples and teaching notes

    Each print is a different sheet with its own answer key. You don't need to sign up.

    Fifth graders complete verb chains without shifting tense: the sentence's anchor verb and time words set the tense, and the child writes the matching form from the base verb.

  2. 6th grade

    Examples and teaching notes

    Sixth graders hold tense steady across longer chains and spot the shift error in their own drafts, the single most common grammar note on upper-grade writing.

  3. 7th grade

    Examples and teaching notes

    Verb tense consistency means every verb in a sentence stays in the time the sentence set. Seventh grade chains run three verbs long and put the time marker several words from the blank, so the reader has to hold the tense across a whole sentence rather than a single pair of verbs.

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