Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

What is a verb?

A verb is a doing word or a being word. It tells us what someone does or what someone is.

• Ama runs to school.
• Kofi eats kenkey.
• Abena is happy.
• The trotro stops at the junction.

Every sentence needs a verb. Without a verb, it is not a sentence. "Kofi to the market" is not a sentence. "Kofi walks to the market" is.

Try this: Find the verb in each sentence.

1. The teacher writes on the board.
2. We play football after school.
3. My mother sells tomatoes.
4. The dog barks at night.

What is tense?

Tense tells us when something happens.

There are three main tenses:

• Past: it already happened. Yesterday Kofi walked to school.
• Present: it is happening now, or it happens every day. Today Kofi walks to school.
• Future: it has not happened yet. Tomorrow Kofi will walk to school.

The verb changes its shape to show the time. The verb is like a clock inside the sentence.

Try this: Say three things about yourself: one that happened yesterday, one that happens every day, and one that will happen tomorrow.

Time words

Some words tell us the tense before we even see the verb. We call them time words.

Past: yesterday, last week, last year, ago, this morning (if it is now afternoon), when I was small.

Present: now, today, every day, always, usually, often, at the moment.

Future: tomorrow, next week, next year, soon, later, in two days.

• Yesterday we visited Grandma. (past)
• We always sweep the classroom. (present)
• Next week the school will close. (future)

Try this: Make a list of five more time words. Put each one under Past, Present or Future.

The simple present

We use the simple present for things that happen every day or are always true.

• I walk to school.
• Kofi walks to school.
• The sun rises in the east.
• We eat jollof on Sundays.

Notice the -s. When we talk about he, she or it (one person or thing), the verb takes an s:

• I walk → he walks
• You eat → she eats
• They sing → it sings

Try this: Fill in the gaps.

1. Ama ___ (like) mangoes.
2. The boys ___ (play) football.
3. My father ___ (drive) a trotro.
4. We ___ (go) to church on Sunday.

Adding -s and -es

Most verbs just add -s for he, she or it: walks, eats, plays, sings.

But some verbs add -es. These are verbs that end in -s, -sh, -ch, -x or -o:

• wash → washes
• watch → watches
• fix → fixes
• go → goes
• do → does

Verbs that end in a consonant + y change y to ies:

• carry → carries
• fly → flies
• study → studies

But if there is a vowel before y, just add s: play → plays.

Try this: Write the he/she form: brush, cry, kiss, buy, teach.

The present continuous

The present continuous is for things happening right now, at this moment.

We make it with am / is / are + verb + -ing.

• I am reading a book.
• Kofi is eating kenkey.
• The children are playing outside.

Compare:

• Ama sells oranges. (every day, her job)
• Ama is selling oranges. (right now, at this moment)

Try this: Look around. Write three sentences about what people are doing right now. Use is or are and -ing.

The simple past

We use the simple past for things that already happened and are finished.

For most verbs, we add -ed:

• walk → walked

• play → played

• cook → cooked

• jump → jumped

• Yesterday Abena walked to the market.

• Last Saturday we played football.

• My mother cooked banku last night.

The good news: in the past tense, the verb is the same for everyone. I walked, he walked, they walked.

Try this: Change to the past: I clean my room. Kofi kicks the ball. They watch TV.

Spelling the -ed ending

Adding -ed has a few rules.

Rule 1: If the verb already ends in e, just add d.

• like → liked
• dance → danced
• bake → baked

Rule 2: If the verb ends in consonant + y, change y to ied.

• cry → cried
• carry → carried
• study → studied

Rule 3: Short verbs ending in one vowel + one consonant double the last letter.

• stop → stopped
• plan → planned
• hop → hopped

Try this: Write the past tense: hope, try, drop, wash, hurry.

Regular verbs

A regular verb follows the rule: add -ed for the past.

Here are some regular verbs you use every day:

Present	Past
walk	walked
talk	talked
cook	cooked
wash	washed
help	helped
play	played
clean	cleaned
open	opened
want	wanted
visit	visited

• Kofi helped his father on the farm.
• We visited Cape Coast last year.
• Ama wanted to buy a new pencil.

Try this: Write a sentence in the past tense using three of these verbs.

Irregular verbs

Some verbs are irregular. They do not add -ed. They change in their own special way.

• go → went (not "goed")

• eat → ate (not "eated")

• see → saw

• have → had

• come → came

• take → took

• give → gave

• run → ran

• Yesterday I went to the market.

• Kofi ate three balls of kenkey.

• We saw an elephant at Mole.

There is no rule for these. You must learn them by heart. The more you read, the more you will remember them.

Try this: Cover the past column. Can you say each past form without looking?

More irregular verbs

Here are more common irregular verbs.

Present	Past
buy	bought
bring	brought
think	thought
catch	caught
teach	taught
make	made
say	said
sing	sang
drink	drank
swim	swam
write	wrote
speak	spoke
sit	sat
sleep	slept
tell	told

• Ama bought bread for GH₵5.
• The teacher taught us about fractions.
• Kwame wrote a letter to his uncle.

Try this: Write a sentence for five of these verbs, all in the past.

Verbs that do not change

A few irregular verbs look exactly the same in the present and past.

• put → put

• cut → cut

• hit → hit

• let → let

• read → read (but it sounds different: "reed" and "red")

• hurt → hurt

• Every day Ama puts her bag on the desk. (present, with -s)

• Yesterday Ama put her bag on the desk. (past, no -s)

How do we know the tense? Look for the time word and look at whether the verb has -s.

Try this: Write two sentences with "cut", one present and one past. Use a time word in each.

To be: am, is, are, was, were

The verb to be is the most irregular verb of all.

Present:

• I am
• you are
• he / she / it is
• we / they are

Past:

• I was

• you were

• he / she / it was

• we / they were

• Today I am at school. Yesterday I was at home.

• The pupils are quiet now. They were noisy before.

• It is hot today. It was cool yesterday.

Try this: Fill in was or were.

1. The market ___ busy yesterday.
2. We ___ late for school.
3. My grandmother ___ a teacher.

Telling what happened yesterday

Ama tells her class what she did yesterday:

"Yesterday I woke up at six. I swept the compound and fetched water. Then I ate porridge and walked to school. After school, I helped my mother at the market. We sold all the tomatoes. In the evening I did my homework and went to bed at nine."

Count the verbs. Which are regular (fetched, walked, helped)? Which are irregular (woke, swept, ate, sold, did, went)?

Try this: Write five sentences about what you did yesterday. Start with "Yesterday I...". Underline every past tense verb.

Did not, in the past

To say something did not happen in the past, use did not (or didn't) + the present form of the verb.

• I did not go to school. (not "did not went")
• Kofi did not eat his lunch. (not "did not ate")
• They didn't play football.

The word did carries the past. So the main verb goes back to its plain form.

Questions work the same way: Did you go? Did Ama eat?

• "Did you see the match?" "No, I didn't see it."

Try this: Make these negative: Ama bought bread. We went to Kumasi. He wrote a letter.

The simple future

The simple future is for things that have not happened yet.

We make it with will + verb.

• Tomorrow I will visit my aunt.
• Next week we will write a test.
• Kofi will be ten years old in March.

The verb after will never changes. No -s, no -ed, no -ing.

• She will go (not "will goes")
• They will eat (not "will ate")

We can shorten will to 'll: I'll, you'll, she'll, we'll.

Try this: Change to the future: I play football. Ama cooks rice. We clean the classroom.

Going to

Another way to talk about the future is am / is / are going to + verb.

• I am going to buy a new book.
• Abena is going to visit her grandmother.
• We are going to plant maize this season.

We often use going to for plans we have already decided.

• "What are you going to do on Saturday?"
• "I'm going to wash my school uniform."

Will and going to both talk about the future. Both are correct.

Try this: Write three plans for the weekend using "going to".

Will not

To say something will not happen, use will not or won't.

• I will not be late tomorrow.
• Kofi won't forget his homework again.
• It won't rain today.

Questions use Will at the front:

• Will you come to my party?
• Will the trotro stop here?

Short answers: "Yes, I will." "No, I won't."

Try this: Answer these questions in full sentences.

1. Will you go to school tomorrow?
2. Will it be hot next week?
3. Will your class win the sports competition?

Telling what will happen tomorrow

Kwame tells his friend about tomorrow:

"Tomorrow is Saturday. I will wake up late. I am going to help my father wash the car. Then we will go to the market to buy a new football. In the afternoon my cousins will visit. We will play until it gets dark. I won't do any homework. Sunday is for homework!"

Find all the future verbs. Which use will? Which use going to? Which one is negative?

Try this: Write five sentences about what you will do tomorrow. Start with "Tomorrow I will..."

One verb, three tenses

Here is the verb cook in all three tenses:

• Past: Yesterday my mother cooked jollof.
• Present: Every Sunday my mother cooks jollof.
• Future: Tomorrow my mother will cook jollof.

Here is the irregular verb eat:

• Past: Yesterday I ate jollof.
• Present: I eat jollof every Sunday.
• Future: I will eat jollof tomorrow.

Only the past tense changes shape for irregular verbs. The future always uses will + plain verb.

Try this: Write the verb go in all three tenses, each in a sentence about school.

Choosing the right tense

Read the time word. Then choose the tense.

1. Yesterday Kofi ___ (play) football. → played (past)
2. Every day Kofi ___ (play) football. → plays (present)
3. Tomorrow Kofi ___ (play) football. → will play (future)

Now with an irregular verb:

1. Last week we ___ (go) to Kumasi. → went
2. We ___ (go) to Kumasi every holiday. → go
3. Next month we ___ (go) to Kumasi. → will go

Try this: Choose the tense.

1. Last night I ___ (see) a film.
2. My sister ___ (sing) in the choir every Sunday.
3. Next year I ___ (be) in Basic 5.

Keeping the same tense

When you tell a story, stay in the same tense. Do not jump between past and present.

Wrong: Yesterday I went to the market. I buy some oranges. Then I walk home.

Right: Yesterday I went to the market. I bought some oranges. Then I walked home.

The first version is confusing. Did it happen yesterday or today?

If your story is about yesterday, keep every verb in the past. If it is about tomorrow, keep every verb in the future.

Try this: Fix this story so every verb is past tense: "Last Sunday we visit my uncle. He gives us rice and stew. We play with our cousins and come home at six."

Past tense story: The lost goat

Read the story. All the verbs are in the past tense.

Last Saturday, Abena's goat ran away. Abena looked everywhere. She asked the neighbours. She checked behind the church. Nobody had seen it.

Then she heard a sound near the trotro station. The goat was eating a trader's cabbages! The trader was very angry. Abena said sorry and paid GH₵2 for the cabbages. She tied a rope to the goat and led it home.

Try this: List all the verbs in the story. Put them in two groups: regular and irregular.

Future tense story: Sports day

Read the story. All the verbs are in the future.

Next Friday will be sports day. The whole school will go to the big field. Basic 4 will wear yellow. Kofi will run the 100 metres. Ama is going to throw the ball. The teachers will sell meat pies and sobolo.

Our class will not lose this year. We will practise every afternoon. At the end, the headteacher will give a cup to the winning class. I hope it will be us!

Try this: Rewrite the first four sentences as if sports day was yesterday. Change every verb to the past.

Asking questions in each tense

Present: Use Do or Does.

• Do you like rice?
• Does Kofi walk to school?

Past: Use Did.

• Did you like the film?
• Did Kofi walk to school yesterday?

Future: Use Will.

• Will you like the new teacher?
• Will Kofi walk to school tomorrow?

After do, does, did or will, the main verb stays in its plain form: like, walk.

Try this: Write one question in each tense to ask your friend about food.

Question words

Question words go at the front: What, Where, When, Who, Why, How.

• What did you eat yesterday?
• Where does your uncle live?
• When will the rain stop?
• Who did you see at the market?
• Why are you late?
• How will we get to Kumasi?

The tense is still shown by do/does, did or will.

Try this: Write three questions to ask a friend about last weekend. Write three about next weekend. Use different question words.

Was doing: the past continuous

Sometimes we want to say something was happening in the past, for a while.

We use was / were + verb + -ing.

• At six o'clock, I was sweeping the yard.
• The children were playing when it started to rain.
• Ama was reading while Kofi was cooking.

Compare:

• I swept the yard. (finished, simple past)
• I was sweeping the yard when my friend came. (in the middle of it)

Try this: What were you doing at 7 o'clock this morning? Write two sentences using "was" or "were" + -ing.

Have and has

The verb have is irregular.

Present: I have, you have, he/she/it has, we have, they have. Past: had for everyone. Future: will have.

• Ama has two brothers.
• Yesterday we had rice for lunch.
• Tomorrow we will have a test.

Has / have can also help other verbs: "I have finished my work." This means it is done now.

Try this: Fill in have, has or had.

1. Kofi ___ a new bag today.
2. Last year I ___ a bicycle.
3. They ___ three goats.

Do and does

The verb do is irregular too.

Present: I do, you do, he/she/it does, we do, they do. Past: did. Future: will do.

• I do my homework every evening.
• Abena does her homework after dinner.
• Yesterday I did my homework early.
• Tomorrow I will do it before dinner.

Remember, do/does/did also help make questions and negatives: "Do you...?" "She doesn't..." "We didn't..."

Try this: Write three sentences about homework, one in each tense, using do.

Common mistakes

Mistake 1: Adding -ed to irregular verbs. "I goed." ✗ → "I went." ✓ "She eated." ✗ → "She ate." ✓

Mistake 2: Two past markers. "I did not went." ✗ → "I did not go." ✓

Mistake 3: Forgetting -s in the present. "Kofi walk to school." ✗ → "Kofi walks to school." ✓

Mistake 4: Changing the verb after will. "She will goes." ✗ → "She will go." ✓

Mistake 5: Mixing tenses in a story. "Yesterday I go and buy..." ✗ → "Yesterday I went and bought..." ✓

Try this: Find and fix the mistake: "Last week Ama buyed a dress and she will wears it on Sunday."

Tense in Ghanaian languages

In Twi, Ga, Ewe and other Ghanaian languages, tense works differently. Often a short word before the verb shows the time.

For example, in Twi:

• Mekɔ = I go (present)
• Mekɔɔ = I went (past)
• Mɛkɔ = I will go (future)

The idea is the same: the verb changes a little to show when. English uses -ed, will, and irregular forms. Your language has its own way.

Try this: Ask a parent or elder how to say "I ate", "I eat" and "I will eat" in your home language. Write them down.

Practice: present tense

Write the correct present form.

1. Kofi ___ (go) to school by trotro.
2. The girls ___ (sing) every morning.
3. My mother ___ (sell) kenkey at the market.
4. We ___ (play) football on Saturdays.
5. The baby ___ (cry) at night.
6. Abena ___ (wash) the plates after dinner.
7. The sun ___ (rise) at six.
8. I ___ (like) fried plantain.
9. Our teacher ___ (teach) us English.
10. The dog ___ (run) after the goats.

When you have finished, read each sentence aloud. Does it sound right?

Practice: past tense

Write the correct past form. Watch out for irregular verbs!

1. Yesterday Ama ___ (walk) to the market.
2. Last week we ___ (go) to Kumasi.
3. Kofi ___ (eat) three bananas.
4. The teacher ___ (write) on the board.
5. I ___ (see) a snake near the river.
6. They ___ (play) football all afternoon.
7. My father ___ (buy) a new radio.
8. She ___ (carry) water on her head.
9. We ___ (sing) the national anthem.
10. The rain ___ (stop) at four o'clock.

Which five verbs are irregular?

Practice: future tense

Change each sentence to the future using will.

1. I visit my grandmother. → Tomorrow I ___.
2. Kofi plays football. → Next Saturday Kofi ___.
3. We eat fufu. → On Sunday we ___.
4. The teacher gives us homework. → Next week the teacher ___.
5. Ama reads a book. → Tonight Ama ___.

Now change these to the negative future using won't.

6. It rains.
7. I forget my bag.
8. The shop opens on Sunday.

Practice: mixed tenses

Read each sentence. Write past, present or future.

1. We will go to the beach next week.
2. Ama sweeps the classroom every morning.
3. Kofi bought a new pencil yesterday.
4. The trotro stops at every junction.
5. My uncle came from Tamale last night.
6. I am going to learn to swim.
7. The children are playing outside now.
8. We were sleeping when the lights went off.

Now write one sentence of your own for each tense. Use a time word in each.

Write about three days

Write three short paragraphs.

Yesterday: Write four sentences about what you did yesterday. Use the past tense. Try to use two irregular verbs.

Today: Write four sentences about what you do every day. Use the present tense. Remember the -s for he, she, it.

Tomorrow: Write four sentences about what you will do tomorrow. Use will or going to.

Underline every verb. Then swap with a friend and check each other's tenses.

Words to remember

• Verb: a doing or being word.
• Tense: the form of the verb that shows when.
• Present tense: now, or every day. walks, eats
• Past tense: already happened. walked, ate
• Future tense: not yet happened. will walk, will eat
• Regular verb: adds -ed in the past. cook → cooked
• Irregular verb: changes in its own way. go → went
• Time word: a word like yesterday, today, tomorrow that shows the tense.
• Continuous: happening for a while. is eating, was eating

Try this: Cover the meanings. Can you explain each word to a friend?

Check yourself

Tick each one you can do.

• I know what a verb is.
• I can tell past, present and future apart.
• I can use time words like yesterday, today and tomorrow.
• I add -s to the verb for he, she and it.
• I add -ed to regular verbs in the past.
• I know at least ten irregular past forms.
• I use will + verb for the future.
• I use did not + plain verb for the past negative.
• I keep the same tense through a story.
• I can ask questions with do, does, did and will.

Go back to any page you need to. Practise reading aloud; it helps you hear which tense sounds right.

Learn more

• BBC Bitesize: Grammar (KS2 English) — short guides and quizzes on verbs, tenses and sentence building
• Khan Academy: The verb — free video lessons on verbs and the past, present and future tenses
• BBC Bitesize: Grammar (KS1 English) — simpler practice on verbs and tenses if you want to start from the beginning

Watch more

Think about it

1. Why do you think some verbs are irregular? Why do we not just add -ed to all of them?
2. How does your home language show the difference between yesterday and tomorrow?
3. Why is it confusing when a story keeps changing tense?
4. Tell a friend about your day so far using only the past tense. Then tell them your plans using only the future.
5. Which irregular verbs do you find hardest to remember? How could you practise them?