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.

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.