How can you tell they’ve got it: Simple Past, Present and Future?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: Rewrite 'I walk to school' in past tense ('I walked') and future tense ('I will walk'); Identify and correct inconsistent tense in 'Yesterday she walks to the shop and bought milk'; Write a three-sentence paragraph maintaining consistent future tense throughout. Or just try it together: When your child writes about something that happened yesterday, something happening now, and something that will happen tomorrow, do they change the verb correctly for each time — like "I walked", "I walk", and "I will walk"?

English Grammar & Punctuation Ages 8–9

Simple Past, Present and Future

Your child can write in the past, present and future. I walk becomes I walked and I will walk, and they keep it steady.

In curriculum terms

Form and use the simple past, present, and future verb tenses consistently in writing

Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Rewrite 'I walk to school' in past tense ('I walked') and future tense ('I will walk')
Identify and correct inconsistent tense in 'Yesterday she walks to the shop and bought milk'
Write a three-sentence paragraph maintaining consistent future tense throughout

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Try this together

When your child writes about something that happened yesterday, something happening now, and something that will happen tomorrow, do they change the verb correctly for each time — like "I walked", "I walk", and "I will walk"?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Past, Present and Progressive Tenseages 6–9Simple tenses including future extend past/present tense and progressive form knowledge

Simple Past, Present and Futurethis skill · ages 8–9

Unlocks

Modal Verbs and Possibilityages 9–10Modal verbs modify main verbs to express possibility/necessity; learners need a secure grasp of simple verb tenses before adding modal modifiers

Progressive and Continuous Tensesages 9–10Progressive tenses build on simple tenses; learners must control simple past/present/future before forming progressive (was walking, am walking, will be walking)

Consistent verb tenseages 10–11Correcting inappropriate tense shifts requires secure use of simple past, present, and future tenses

The Present Perfect Tenseages 7–11Advanced writing skill builds on earlier foundational concept

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.

Show candidate curriculum codes · 2 ACARA · 2 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E4LA09medium confidenceYear 4 · Language

understand past, present and future tenses and their impact on meaning in a sentence

AC9E3LA08low confidenceYear 3 · Language

understand that verbs are anchored in time through tense

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E4LA08low confidenceEnglish · Level 4 · Language strand

VC2E3LA08low confidenceEnglish · Level 3 · Language strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Abstract nounsages 8–9 Agreement in sentencesages 8–10 Comparatives & Superlativesages 8–9 Expanded noun phrasesages 8–10

All Grammar & Punctuation skills →