Verb tenses explained for parents (Australia)

"Yesterday we goed to the beach and I catched a crab!" If you have a five- or six-year-old, you have probably heard something like this and smiled. It sounds wrong to adult ears, but it is actually a sign of clever learning. Your child has worked out that we add -ed to talk about the past, and is applying that pattern to every verb, including the ones that break the rule.

A few years later the tense questions look different. Your Year 4 child writes a story that starts in the past ("The dragon flew over the hill") and slides into the present halfway through ("Then he lands and eats the sheep"). Or their homework asks them to circle the verbs and say whether each one is past, present or future.

Verb tenses are how English shows when something happens. They matter for speaking clearly, for writing that makes sense, and for reading, because tense tells a reader whether events are happening now, already happened, or are still to come. This guide covers what tense is, the forms children meet in primary school, the tricky irregular verbs, spelling the -ed ending, keeping tense steady in writing, how tense helps reading, what the Australian Curriculum expects, and easy ways to practise at home.

What is a verb tense?

A verb is a word for an action or a state, such as run, think, say, is or have. The tense of a verb is the form it takes to show time.

• I walk to school. (present)
• I walked to school. (past)
• I will walk to school. (future)

The action is the same in all three sentences. Only the time changes, and the verb carries that change. If your child is still sorting out which words are verbs in the first place, start with nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Time can also be shown by other words in a sentence, such as yesterday, now, tomorrow, last week or soon. These time words and the verb usually work as a team: "Tomorrow I will visit Nan" sounds right, while "Tomorrow I visited Nan" makes a listener stop and frown.

The three main tenses

Primary school usually starts with three big time zones.

Past

Things that have already happened. Most past-tense verbs end in -ed: jumped, played, looked, wanted. A large group of very common verbs don't follow that pattern, which is where most of the fun mistakes come from (more on those below).

Present

Things happening now, or things that are generally true. She reads every night. Koalas eat gum leaves. With he, she or it (or one person or thing), most present-tense verbs add an -s: I run, you run, he runs.

Future

Things that haven't happened yet. English doesn't have a single future ending. Instead it uses helper words: I will swim, or I am going to swim. Children often use "going to" first in their speech, and that's perfectly fine.

Going a little deeper: continuous and perfect forms

From about Year 3 onward, children meet verb groups that add extra shades of meaning to the basic time.

Continuous (or progressive) forms show something in progress. They use a form of be plus an -ing verb.

• I am eating my lunch. (happening right now)
• I was eating my lunch when the bell rang. (in progress at a past moment)
• I will be eating lunch at noon. (in progress at a future moment)

Perfect forms link two times together, often showing that something is complete. They use have, has or had with a past form of the verb.

• She has finished her homework. (done, and it matters now)
• He had left before we arrived. (one past event before another)

Your child doesn't need the technical names to use these well, but knowing them helps when feedback says "watch your tense".

Irregular verbs: why "goed" happens

A couple of hundred English verbs are irregular, and many of them are among the most common words we use. They form the past tense by changing their vowel or their whole shape rather than adding -ed.

Young children usually learn a handful of irregular past forms early by copying what they hear (went, came, saw). Then, often somewhere around ages three to five, many start "regularising" them after noticing the -ed pattern, so went briefly turns into goed. This is a normal stage, not a backwards step. Over the next few years, with lots of listening and reading, the irregular forms settle back in.

The best response at home is a gentle echo rather than a correction. If your child says, "I catched it!", you might reply, "You caught it! What a catch." They hear the standard form in a natural sentence without feeling told off.

If a few irregular verbs still trip up an older child's writing, keep a short personal list near their desk.

Spelling the -ed ending

The -ed ending is one of the most useful spelling patterns in English, and one of the most confusing, because it can sound three different ways.

• /t/ as in jumped, kissed, helped
• /d/ as in played, rained, smiled
• /id/ as in wanted, needed, painted

Children who spell by sound often write jumpt or playd. The key message is that the past ending is almost always spelled -ed, whatever it sounds like. This idea is about word parts (morphology), and the guide to spelling and morphology explains why it is such a powerful shift for young spellers.

There are a few spelling rules for adding -ed that children learn gradually:

• Words ending in silent e drop the e: bake → baked, smile → smiled.
• Short words with one short vowel and one final consonant double the consonant: hop → hopped, stop → stopped, clap → clapped.
• Words ending in a consonant plus y change y to i: cry → cried, carry → carried. But a vowel before the y keeps it: play → played.

These rules are close cousins of the ones for adding -ing and for making plurals, and they are covered more broadly in prefixes and suffixes.

Making verbs agree

Tense goes hand in hand with agreement: the verb has to match its subject.

• The dog barks. / The dogs bark.
• She was late. / They were late.

Some common slips:

• "We was going to the shops" instead of we were.
• "He don't like it" instead of he doesn't.
• "The box of toys are heavy" instead of is (the subject is box, not toys).

Many of these are normal in casual speech, and families speak many different varieties of English, all of which are valid. At school, children learn the forms expected in formal writing. A helpful way to frame it at home is "school English" for writing tasks, rather than labelling the way someone talks as wrong.

In Year 3 the curriculum focuses on clauses having a subject and a verb that agree. What counts as a clause is covered in simple, compound and complex sentences.

Keeping tense steady in writing

One of the most common writing comments primary teachers give is about tense shifting: starting in one tense and drifting into another without a reason.

We went to the zoo. We see the lions and then we have an ice cream. It was fun.

The child knows what happened; they just lost track of the time zone. A good editing habit is to read the piece aloud and listen for the verbs. Ask: "Is this happening now, or did it already happen?" Then fix any verbs that don't match.

Different kinds of writing tend to use different tenses:

• Recounts and narratives (stories and "what I did on the weekend") usually sit in the past tense.
• Information reports ("Wombats live in burrows") usually use the present tense, because the facts are generally true.
• Procedures (recipes, instructions) use command verbs: Mix the flour. Add the eggs.
• Persuasive writing often mixes present ("Kids need more play") with future ("This will help everyone").

Knowing the usual tense for each text type gives children a simple check before they hand work in. Tense also shifts on purpose inside dialogue: a story told in the past can include a character saying, "I am scared!" That's correct, because the quoted words are what the character said at that moment.

How tense helps reading

Tense isn't only a writing skill. Readers lean on it all the time, often without noticing.

Following the order of events. Signals like had already left or would later find tell a reader that the story has jumped back or forward. Children who miss these can misunderstand the sequence of a plot.

Spotting flashbacks and memories. A sudden switch to had plus a verb ("She had lived there as a baby") often means a flashback. Pointing this out helps older readers follow longer novels.

Reading smoothly. Misreading walked as walk or skipping endings changes meaning and slows comprehension. Paying attention to word endings is part of reading fluency.

Helping your child with tenses at home

Talk about time in everyday chat. "What did you do at lunch? What are you doing now? What will you do after school?" Three tenses in under a minute.

Echo, don't correct. For younger children, repeat a mistaken verb back in its standard form within a natural reply.

Read aloud often. Hearing irregular verbs in stories is the most reliable way children absorb them. Picture books and chapter books both help.

Edit together, briefly. When your older child finishes a piece of writing, pick just one thing to check: "Let's listen for the verbs. Are they all in the past?"

Notice tense in books. Every so often, stop and ask, "Is this happening now or did it happen before?" especially when a story jumps in time.

Tense skills by year level

Prep: using past and present naturally in speech; retelling a simple event that happened. See Prep reading.

Year 1: recognising verbs as words for happenings and states; starting to spell common -ed words. See Year 1 reading.

Year 2: using verb groups (was running, will go); writing recounts mostly in the past tense. See Year 2 reading.

Year 3: understanding that verbs are anchored in time through tense; making subjects and verbs agree. See Year 3 reading.

Year 4: past, present and future tenses and how they change the meaning of a sentence; keeping tense steady across a story. See Year 4 reading.

Year 5: using continuous and perfect forms in writing; following time shifts in longer texts. See Year 5 reading.

Year 6: choosing elaborated tenses to sharpen meaning; deliberate tense choices for effect. See Year 6 reading.

Where tense sits in the curriculum

In version 9 of the Australian Curriculum: English, tense sits in the Language strand. Year 1 students learn that some words represent happenings and states (verbs). Year 2 looks at how verbs can be expressed as verb groups. In Year 3, students learn that verbs are anchored in time through tense, and that the subject and verb in a clause should match. Year 4 asks students to understand past, present and future tenses and their impact on meaning in a sentence. By Year 6, they explore how careful choice of verbs and elaborated tenses can expand and sharpen ideas.

The Victorian Curriculum 2.0 follows a very similar path, and each school decides its own sequence within the year.

Games to play at home

1. Yesterday, today, tomorrow. Say an action like swim. Your child makes three sentences: "Yesterday I swam. Today I swim. Tomorrow I will swim."
2. Silly past. Take turns saying the "wrong" past form on purpose (eated, thinked) and the other person shouts the real one. Children love catching a parent out.
3. Time detective. While reading, hunt for a verb that shows the past and one that shows the present. Bonus points for finding a flashback.
4. Verb sort. Write a dozen verbs on scraps of paper in different tenses and sort them into past, present and future piles.

Mix-ups worth expecting

Over-regularising irregular verbs. Goed, runned, bringed. Normal for young children; it fades with exposure.

Doubling or not doubling. Hoped versus hopped is genuinely tricky. Saying both aloud shows the difference in meaning.

Spelling by sound. Jumpt, walkt. Remind your child that the past ending is spelled -ed even when it sounds like /t/.

Drifting between tenses. Very common in Years 2–4 writing. Reading the work aloud is the simplest fix.

Mixing up "have" forms. "I have went" instead of I have gone. Model the right form without making a fuss.

When to look more closely

Most tense errors are a normal part of learning and gradually fade. Talk to the classroom teacher if your child is in Year 2 or above and still rarely uses past-tense forms when telling you about past events, if their speech is much harder to follow than that of other children their age, or if they seem confused when stories move between past and present.

For the bigger picture, try when to worry about reading or is my child behind in reading?. A webpage cannot tell you how your own child is going, so if language or writing concerns persist, it's worth raising them with the teacher or a speech pathologist. If homework is becoming a battleground, homework without tears has some calm approaches.

FAQ

What are verb tenses for kids?

Verb tenses are the different forms a verb takes to show when something happens. I play is present, I played is past, and I will play is future.

Why does my child say "goed" instead of "went"?

They've learned the -ed rule for the past tense and are using it on every verb. It's a normal, healthy stage of language learning, and it usually fades as they hear the irregular forms more often.

How can I stop my child switching tenses in their writing?

Ask them to read their work aloud and listen just for the verbs. Before they start, agree on whether the piece is about something that already happened or something that is always true.

What year do Australian kids learn about tense?

Children use tense in speech from the early years. Under the Australian Curriculum (version 9), tense is named in Year 3, and Year 4 focuses on past, present and future and how they change meaning.

Try this tonight

At dinner, ask three questions: one about something that happened today, one about something happening right now, and one about tomorrow. Listen to the verbs your child uses in each answer, and echo back any irregular verbs in their standard form.

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