1. Present and Past Tense What is tense? In grammar, tense means time. If the sentence is occurring in the present, the action is happening right now. If the sentence occurred in the past, it already happened.

2. Present Tense The present tense refers to an action which is happening right now. Add an s when the subject is singular, except for when the pronoun is I or you. Plural Subjects, I, and youSingular subjects The llamas go to the theater.The llama goes to the theater. I jump off the pier.Mrs. Dunlap jumps off the pier. They eat pizza with pineapple.She eats pizza with pineapple. Spiders spin their webs.The spider spins its web. You look tired and grumpy.Grumpy Cat looks tired and grumpy.

3. Present Tense Exceptions If the verb ends with s, x, z, ch, or sh, add es when the subject is singular. Singular subjectPlural Subject, I, and you The pink shirt clashes with my lime green pants. The cheetah print socks clash with the shoes. My left ear buzzes constantly.The bees buzz. My cat misses his food dish when I put it away for the day. The llamas miss summer break now that school has begun. When a verb ends with a consonant and a y, change the y to I and add es for the singular form. Singular subjectPlural Subject, I, and you The spy pries the box open.Sometimes spies pry on citizens. The student complies with the teacher’s request. The students comply with the teacher’s request.

4. Past Tense Past tense shows actions which has already happened. To form the past tense, we add –ed to the verb. Present tensePast tense jumpjumped yellyelled laughlaughed When a one syllable verb ends with a vowel followed by a single consonant, double the consonant before adding the –ed. Present tensePast tense slipslipped hophopped laplapped

5. Past Tense Continued When a verb ends with e, drop the e and add ed. Present tense verbPast tense verb sparklesparkled shaveshaved jinglejingled When the verb ends with y, change the y to i and add ed. Present tense verbPast tense verb partypartied tallytallied supplysupplied