Verb tenses place actions in time — Language, 11–13 years
Verb forms help readers tell whether something happened, is happening or is expected to happen.
A verb can show time
A verb does more than name an action: its form can place that action before now, around now or after now. I walked, I walk and I will walk point to different times. The exact meaning can also depend on time words such as yesterday, today or tomorrow.
Why show the time?
Readers need to know when events happen so they can build a clear order in their minds. A recipe, a diary entry and a news report all depend on this order. Without it, I pack my bag after I left school could make the sequence confusing.
Building a timeline
Imagine that today is Friday. The match happened on Wednesday, so write The team played on Wednesday. It is happening now, so write The team is playing today. It is planned for Saturday, so write The team will play tomorrow. The time words and verb forms support one another.
The time word is not enough
A reasonable mistake is to add yesterday but leave the verb in a present form: Yesterday I walk to school. The time word tells us when, but the verb must fit that time too, so Yesterday I walked to school is clearer. People make this mistake because both parts carry time information.
Time in everyday language
You choose verb tenses when telling what happened at practice, explaining how to do something or making plans with friends. A science log uses them to separate an observation from a prediction. They also help a reader tell whether an instruction concerns now or a later step.
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