Year 2 English · Key Stage 1 · Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation – English Appendix 2

Year 2 past and present tense: a guide for parents

In Year 2, children learn that verbs change their form to show when something happens. They choose between past tense and present tense and stick to it all the way through a piece of writing. They also meet the progressive form, which shows an action that is still going on, as in “she is drumming” or “he was shouting”. They are expected to use the words verb and tense when they talk about this.

Past and present tense, explained

A verb is a word that tells you what someone or something does, or what is happening: run, laugh, think, is. Tense is the way a verb changes to show time. In Year 2, children work with just two: the present tense (the dog barks, the dog is barking) and the past tense (the dog barked, the dog was barking). Your child will be expected to say “verb” and “tense” and to point to an example of each.

The most important Year 2 skill is consistency. A story told in the past tense should stay in the past tense from the first sentence to the last. Young writers often slide between the two without noticing: “We went to the beach and then we see a crab.” Teachers encourage children to read their work aloud, because the slip usually sounds wrong even when it looks fine. A useful question is “Is this happening now, or has it already happened?” Some writing belongs in the present tense, such as a fact sheet about animals (“Owls hunt at night”) or a description of a picture, and the same rule applies: pick one and keep to it.

The progressive form shows an action that is in progress. It is made from a short helping verb plus a verb ending in -ing. In the present tense the helper is am, is or are (she is drumming, they are playing). In the past tense it is was or were (he was shouting, we were laughing). For this topic, the grammar words Year 2 children are expected to know are verb and tense. Some teachers use the word “progressive” too, but the idea matters more than the label: it is “something that is or was going on for a while”. Compare “he shouted” with “he was shouting”: the second one makes you picture the noise going on.

Many of the most common verbs don’t follow the usual -ed pattern in the past tense. Walk becomes walked, but run becomes ran, see becomes saw, go becomes went and is becomes was. Children find these irregular verbs by listening, reading and being gently corrected, rather than by learning a rule. A child who writes “runned” or “goed” is using a real pattern on a verb that doesn’t follow it, which is actually a sign of understanding. Teachers mostly look for this in everyday writing: whether your child keeps to one tense, and picks the right helper, without needing a reminder.

Words your child will hear

Verb: A word for an action or a state of being, such as jump, think or is.
Tense: The form of a verb that shows when something happens.
Present tense: Shows something happening now or happening regularly: the dog barks, the dog is barking.
Past tense: Shows something that has already happened: the dog barked, the dog was barking.
Progressive form: A verb with -ing and a helper (am, is, are, was, were) that shows an action in progress: she is drumming.
Irregular verb: A verb whose past tense doesn’t end in -ed, such as run and ran, or see and saw.
Consistent: Keeping to the same tense through a piece of writing, rather than switching without a reason.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Year 2 says:

Pupils should be taught correct choice and consistent use of present tense and past tense throughout writing
Pupils should be taught use of the progressive form of verbs in the present and past tense to mark actions in progress
Pupils should be taught to recognise and use the grammatical terminology: verb, tense (past, present)

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: fixing the tense

Yesterday, Sam walks to the park. He is kicking a ball when he sees a dog. The dog runs to him. Rewrite the passage so that it is all in the past tense.

Look for a clue about time. The word “Yesterday” tells us that everything has already happened, so every verb must be in the past tense.
Underline the verbs: walks, is kicking, sees, runs. Notice that “is kicking” is the progressive form, because the kicking was going on when the dog arrived.
Change the ordinary verbs. Walks becomes walked, which follows the usual -ed pattern. Sees becomes saw and runs becomes ran, because these are irregular verbs and don’t take -ed.
Change the progressive verb by swapping the helper and keeping the -ing: “is kicking” becomes “was kicking”. The verb stays progressive because the action is still in progress at that moment in the story.
Read the passage aloud to check that nothing sounds wrong. If any verb still sounds like it belongs to now, go back and look at that sentence again.

Yesterday, Sam walked to the park. He was kicking a ball when he saw a dog. The dog ran to him.

Common mistakes and how to help

Switching tense in the middle of a story: “I went to the shop and I buy some sweets”

Children tell stories out loud in a mix of tenses and the spoken mix carries onto the page. They are thinking about what happens next rather than checking each verb.

What helps: Ask them to read it aloud and listen for the odd verb. Then ask “Has this already happened?” and fix the verbs one at a time.

Leaving out the helping verb: “She drumming” or “He shouting”

Some children hear the -ing part as the whole of the verb, because the little word before it is so quick and quiet in speech.

What helps: Say the whole thing slowly with the helper stressed, “she IS drumming”. Ask “is what?” until the child hears that the little word is needed.

Adding -ed to every past tense verb, such as “runned”, “goed” or “seed”

The -ed pattern is true for most verbs, so children apply it everywhere. It is a sign they have understood the rule and haven’t yet learned the exceptions.

What helps: Praise the thinking, then give the right word and use it in a sentence. Collect irregular verbs as pairs on a list: go and went, see and saw, run and ran.

Using the wrong helper, such as “we was playing” or “they is laughing”

In some regional speech, was and is are used with every subject, so the written form can feel wrong to the child.

What helps: There is no need to correct how your family talks. Explain that writing uses standard English, and show the written pairs side by side: I am, you are, she is, we are, they are, and I was, you were, she was, we were.

How to help at home

Time-travel storytelling. Take turns telling a story about your day. First tell it in the past (“I woke up, I made toast”) then retell it in the present (“I wake up, I make toast”). Swapping them out loud trains the ear for tense.
What are you doing now? Ask your child to describe what each person in the room is doing, using the progressive: “Dad is chopping, Mum is reading.” Later, ask them what everyone was doing ten minutes ago, which gives you the past progressive: “Dad was washing up.”
Spot the odd one out. Say a short story where one verb is in the wrong tense and see if your child can spot it. Children enjoy catching a grown-up out, and it is exactly the skill needed to proofread their own work.
Irregular verb pairs. Keep a running list of irregular past tense verbs on the fridge. Add a new pair when one comes up in a book you are sharing, such as swim and swam, or eat and ate.

Builds on

Leads on to

Year 3: Prefixes, a or an, and word families
Year 3: Time, place and cause
Year 3: Paragraphs, headings and the present perfect
Year 3: Speech marks and direct speech

More on vocabulary, grammar and punctuation – English Appendix 2

Year 2: Sentence types, noun phrases and joining
Year 2: Commas in lists and apostrophes
Year 2: Suffixes: nouns, adjectives and adverbs

Everything in Year 2 English

Updated 20 October 2026.