Super Fun Tenses Adventure! - Tense Lesson for Kids

Super Fun Tenses Adventure!

Travel Through Time with Tenses!

What Are Tenses?

Tenses are like a time machine for sentences! They tell us when something happens—today, yesterday, or tomorrow. Tenses make stories clear and fun!

For example, "I dance" is Simple Present because it’s happening now. "I danced" is Simple Past because it happened before.

Examples: Simple Present: I dance. Simple Past: I danced. Simple Future: I will dance.

Forms of Verbs: Regular and Irregular

Verbs change their forms to show different tenses, and they can be regular or irregular!

Regular Verbs: These follow a simple rule—add -ed to make the past and past participle forms (e.g., walk → walked).

Irregular Verbs: These have special forms that don’t follow the -ed rule (e.g., go → went).

Check out these examples of regular and irregular verbs!

Type	Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
Regular	walk	walked	walked
Regular	play	played	played
Regular	jump	jumped	jumped
Regular	talk	talked	talked
Regular	dance	danced	danced
Irregular	go	went	gone
Irregular	eat	ate	eaten
Irregular	see	saw	seen
Irregular	run	ran	run
Irregular	write	wrote	written

Tense Types and Their Uses

Here are all the tenses, split into three groups: Present, Past, and Future, with their four types each!

Present Tenses

Tense	Structure	Use
Simple Present	Subject + Verb (add s/es for he/she/it)	For habits, facts, or things happening now (e.g., I dance).
Present Continuous	Subject + am/is/are + Verb-ing	For actions happening right now (e.g., I am dancing).
Present Perfect	Subject + have/has + Past Participle	For actions done recently or affecting now (e.g., I have danced).
Present Perfect Continuous	Subject + have/has + been + Verb-ing	For actions started in the past and still going (e.g., I have been dancing).

Past Tenses

Tense	Structure	Use
Simple Past	Subject + Verb-ed (or irregular past)	For actions finished in the past (e.g., I danced).
Past Continuous	Subject + was/were + Verb-ing	For actions ongoing in the past (e.g., I was dancing).
Past Perfect	Subject + had + Past Participle	For actions done before another past action (e.g., I had danced).
Past Perfect Continuous	Subject + had + been + Verb-ing	For actions ongoing before another past action (e.g., I had been dancing).

Future Tenses

Tense	Structure	Use
Simple Future	Subject + will + Verb	For actions that will happen (e.g., I will dance).
Future Continuous	Subject + will + be + Verb-ing	For actions ongoing in the future (e.g., I will be dancing).
Future Perfect	Subject + will + have + Past Participle	For actions finished by a future time (e.g., I will have danced).
Future Perfect Continuous	Subject + will + have + been + Verb-ing	For actions ongoing until a future time (e.g., I will have been dancing).

Types of Tenses

Tenses are like a map of time! There are three big groups: Present, Past, and Future, each with four special types to tell stories clearly.

Present Tense: For things happening now or all the time.
Examples: Simple Present: I dance. Present Continuous: I am dancing.
Past Tense: For things that happened before.
Examples: Simple Past: I danced. Past Continuous: I was dancing.
Future Tense: For things that will happen later.
Examples: Simple Future: I will dance. Future Continuous: I will be dancing.