Tense

The tense of a sentence tells us when the action in a sentence happened - in the past, present or future.

Past tense

The past tense tells us the action has already happened. For example:

• We talked in class.
• I walked to the park.
• The mouse snifffed a nut.

In a lot of cases (but not all) to turn a verb into the past tense we just need to add -ed to the end.

Present tense

The present tense tells us the action is happening now. For example:

• We talk in class.
• I walk to the park.
• The mouse sniffs a nut.

Sometimes a verb will need to end in -s to make it a present tense verb.

It is the verb in the sentence which tells us which tense the sentence is in.

Fronted adverbial of time

If we wanted to add even more detail about the tense of a sentence we can use a fronted adverbial of time. A fronted adverbial of time is a sentence starter which tells us when something happens.