Tenses | Class 6 english — School Syllabus

What you'll learn

Construct sentences in simple present, simple past, and simple future tense
Recognize signal words that indicate each tense
Form negative sentences and questions in all three simple tenses
Understand the full 12-tense system as a reference framework

Key concepts

The 12-Tense Overview

English has three time periods (Present, Past, Future) and four aspects (Simple, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect Continuous).

	Simple	Continuous	Perfect	Perfect Continuous
Present	eat	am/is/are eating	have/has eaten	have/has been eating
Past	ate	was/were eating	had eaten	had been eating
Future	will eat	will be eating	will have eaten	will have been eating

Focus for Grade 6: Simple Present, Simple Past, Simple Future — the three in the first column.

Simple Present Tense

Structure:

Affirmative: Subject + V1 (+ s/es for 3rd person singular)
Negative: Subject + do/does + not + V1
Question: Do/Does + Subject + V1?

Signal words: always, usually, often, sometimes, never, every day/week/year, generally

Person	Affirmative	Negative	Question
I/We/You/They	work	do not work	Do they work?
He/She/It	works	does not work	Does she work?

Adding -s/-es rules:

Most verbs: add -s → run → runs
Verbs ending in -ch/-sh/-x/-o: add -es → watch → watches
Consonant + y: change y to ies → carry → carries

Worked Example: She _____ (go) to school every day. → She goes to school every day. They _____ (not/play) chess on Sundays. → They do not play chess on Sundays.

Simple Past Tense

Structure:

Affirmative: Subject + V2 (past form)
Negative: Subject + did + not + V1
Question: Did + Subject + V1?

Signal words: yesterday, last week/month/year, ago, in (year), once, then, at that time

Regular past forms (add -ed):

Rule	Present	Past
Add -ed	walk	walked
Ends in -e: add -d	love	loved
Consonant + y: y → ied	study	studied
Short vowel + consonant: double + ed	stop	stopped

Common irregular verbs:

Present	Past	Present	Past
go	went	come	came
see	saw	eat	ate
write	wrote	take	took
buy	bought	think	thought
run	ran	sing	sang

Worked Example: She _____ (write) a letter yesterday. → She wrote a letter yesterday. Did they _____ (watch) the match? → Did they watch the match? ✓ (V1 after did)

Common mistake: "Did they watched?" is wrong. After 'did', always use the base form (V1).

Simple Future Tense

Structure:

Affirmative: Subject + will + V1
Negative: Subject + will + not (won't) + V1
Question: Will + Subject + V1?

Signal words: tomorrow, next week/month/year, soon, in the future, later, by next (time period)

Worked Example: They _____ (visit) the museum next Friday. → They will visit the museum next Friday. Will he _____ (come) to the party? → Will he come to the party? ✓

Going to (planned future): Subject + am/is/are + going to + V1 Used for plans already decided: "I am going to start a new book this evening."

Quick Comparison Table

Feature	Simple Present	Simple Past	Simple Future
Time reference	Habitual / general truth	Completed past action	Action yet to happen
Auxiliary for negative	do / does	did	will
Main verb form	V1 (+ s/es)	V2	V1
Example signal word	every day	yesterday	tomorrow

Signal Word Strategy

When filling in the blank, find the signal word first, then decide the tense.

"Last night, I _____ (read) for two hours." → Last night → Past → read ✓ "She always _____ (arrive) early." → Always → Present → arrives ✓ "We _____ (travel) to Shimla next month." → Next month → Future → will travel ✓

Quick check

Fill in: He _____ (not/eat) lunch yet. (Present — use do/does not)
Change to negative: "They completed the project on time."
Identify the tense: "The children were playing" — simple past or past continuous?
Which auxiliary do you use to form a question in simple past?
Fill in: By this time tomorrow, she _____ (reach) Kolkata.

Open the Practice tab for graded questions on Tenses.