And by the way, how many tenses can you name off the top of your head? I had to look them up to refresh my own memory for writing this article, and if you’d like a refresher as well, there is a free chart that you can download below.

It’s no wonder that teaching parts of speech and grammar in English gets so complicated! Some people say that it isn’t worthwhile to teach verb tenses – after the basic past, present, and future – because we just forget them anyway. Still, kids definitely need to be able to use all of the tenses in their writing, and when they’re working on their writing, it is helpful to have the terminology to talk about the words that they are using.

So how many tenses are there? It somewhat depends on what you count, but mainly, the consensus seems to be that there are twelve.

There are past, present, and future time frames, each in four different modes (called “aspects”) – simple, continuous (also called progressive), perfect, and perfect continuous.

The three simple tenses are the basic forms of the verb, such as dance (present), danced (past), and will dance (future).

The three continuous (or progressive) tenses are created by using a form of the verb be with the present participle form (the -ing form) of the main verb, to make verbs such as am dancing (present continuous), was dancing (past continuous), and will be dancing (future continuous).

The three perfect tenses use a form of the verb have plus the past participle form of the main verb. Examples include have danced (present perfect), had danced (past perfect), and will have danced (future perfect).

And finally, the three perfect continuous tenses use a form of the verb have, plus the word been, plus the present participle of the main verb. Examples include have been dancing (present perfect continuous), had been dancing (past perfect continuous), and will have been dancing (future perfect continuous).

Maybe a chart will be the easiest way to present this clearly to kids, too. You can download your copy here: Verb Tenses

In the Common Core Standards, the first three of these modes are addressed directly. The simple tenses are addressed in the primary grades, the continuous tenses in fourth grade, and the perfect tenses in fifth grade. All of these tenses, plus the perfect continuous tenses come into play again in the upper grades where students are learning to use them correctly in their own writing, and also correcting errors involving inappropriate tense shifts.

I’ve created a Notes and Practice Set for the fifth-grade standard, L5.1b – “Form and use the perfect verb tenses,” and next I’ll be working on the fourth-grade one, L4.1b – “Form and use the progressive verb tenses.”

These Notes and Practice Sets are small, inexpensive resources with just enough material to teach one particular objective. Each one includes a page of notes and three practice sheets. Here are images of the notes and the practice pages for perfect verb tenses.

Here’s one more idea. After your kids have learned what they need to know about verb tenses, informally evaluate what they have learned with a quick game in which you present one verb, and then have kids draw two cards, one that says either present, past, or future, and one that says either simple, continuous, or perfect. Then, the students must give the correct form of the verb to match the two cards that they drew. Of course, the game could be modified as needed according to the number of tenses they have learned.

For perfect verb tenses, lessons could be extended by getting into irregular verbs and their irregular past participles. I’ve gone into this with my Notes and Practice set for perfect verb tenses.

So, download the free chart, and, if you are interested, check out the Notes and Practice Set, and have fun teaching your kids more than they ever wanted to know about verb tenses!