GRADE 3 · FREE LESSON

Tenses

Compare simple present, present continuous and simple past.

Understand the concept
See real examples
Practise & apply
Visual learning illustration for Tenses

What you will learn in Grade 3

Today's goal: Choose a tense based on whether an action is a habit, happening now or already finished.

Core concept

Habit: I play football every Sunday.

The simple present can describe a regular habit or repeated action.

Core concept

Now: I am playing football now.

The present continuous describes an action happening now or around the present time.

Core concept

Past: I played football yesterday.

The simple past describes an action that happened and finished in the past.

Core concept

Signal words help: every day, now, yesterday.

Signal words can help identify which tense fits the meaning and time of the action.

Core idea

Choose a tense based on whether an action is a habit, happening now or already finished.

Read the explanation, study the examples and explain the idea in your own words.

Learn with examples

Habit

play

“play” shows a present habit, routine or fact.

Now

am playing

“am playing” shows an action in progress at that time.

Past

played

“played” shows an action that happened before now.

See the skill in action

Every dayShe reads.
NowShe is reading.
YesterdayShe read.

Quick check

Which tense fits 'Yesterday I ___ to school': go or went?

Practice like a learner

  1. Choose: Every day he walks/walked to school.
  2. Choose: She is reading/read now.
  3. Change 'I play' to past.
  4. Write one sentence for each of the three tenses.
  5. Circle the time clue in each sentence.
Self-check: Can you explain the rule, give a new example and tell someone why your answer is correct?

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