Verbs and Tenses: Action Words Through Time
Grade 2 · English · Study Guide
Discover what verbs do and how tense tells us when something happens.
A verb is an action word — it tells you what someone or something does. 'Run,' 'jump,' 'eat,' 'think,' and 'laugh' are all verbs. Every sentence needs a verb. Without one, you just have a bunch of nouns sitting there doing nothing!
Verbs also have tenses, which tell us WHEN something happens. Present tense means it is happening right now: 'She runs.' Past tense means it already happened: 'She ran.' Future tense means it has not happened yet: 'She will run.' Learning tense helps you tell stories clearly so your reader knows exactly when things happened.
To make most verbs past tense, you add -ed. So 'jump' becomes 'jumped,' and 'walk' becomes 'walked.' But some verbs are tricky — they change completely! These are called irregular verbs. 'Run' becomes 'ran,' 'eat' becomes 'ate,' and 'go' becomes 'went.'
For future tense, you almost always add 'will' in front of the verb — 'will jump,' 'will eat,' 'will go.' That part is easy! The hardest part is memorizing those sneaky irregular past tense verbs.
| Verb | Present | Past | Future |
|---|---|---|---|
| jump | jump/jumps | jumped | will jump |
| eat | eat/eats | ate | will eat |
| run | run/runs | ran | will run |
| go | go/goes | went | will go |
| play | play/plays | played | will play |
Key terms
- verb
- A word that shows action or tells what someone or something does
- present tense
- Shows something happening right now
- past tense
- Shows something that already happened
- future tense
- Shows something that has not happened yet
- irregular verb
- A verb that does NOT add -ed in the past tense — it changes to a different word
Flashcards
- verb
- An action word (run, eat, laugh, think)
- present tense
- Happening now: She jumps. He eats.
- past tense
- Already happened: She jumped. He ate.
- future tense
- Will happen later: She will jump. He will eat.
- irregular verb
- Changes completely in past tense — run→ran, go→went, eat→ate
- regular verb
- Adds -ed in past tense — walk→walked, jump→jumped
Practice questions
Which word is a verb?
- fast
- jump
- blue
- house
Show answer
Answer: jump
'Jump' is an action word — it tells you what someone does. That makes it a verb.
The past tense of 'walk' is ___.
Show answer
Answer: walked
'Walk' is a regular verb, so you add -ed to make it past tense: walked.
You use 'will' to show future tense.
Show answer
Answer: True
Future tense uses 'will' + the verb: will run, will eat, will play.
What is the past tense of 'run'?
- runned
- runs
- ran
- running
Show answer
Answer: ran
'Run' is an irregular verb — its past tense is 'ran,' not 'runned.'
Every sentence must have a verb.
Show answer
Answer: True
Every complete sentence needs a verb. Without a verb, nothing is happening!
Fun facts
- The verb 'to be' is the most irregular verb in English — it becomes am, is, are, was, were, and will be!
- Ancient English had over 100 irregular verbs. We still use about 70 of them today!
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