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Let’s look now at some of the common mistakes people make in their writing.
VERBS: Using the tenses
Verbs change their form to show us when things will happen. They tell us whether we
are talking about the present, the past or the future. Present, past and future are
the TENSES.

Take care not to mix up tenses in your writing. Check for this when you proofread
your work. So, for example, if you are writing about the past, make sure you stay in
the past tense.

Present tense – this tells us about what is happening now.
Most verbs follow the rule that an ‘s’ is added to the verb when it is used with
he, she or it. For example, let’s look at the verb ‘to play’.

I play. You play. He plays. She plays It plays. We play. They play.
We can also make the present tense by joining the verb ‘to be’ with a verb

ending in ‘ing’.
I am playing. You are playing. It is playing. They are playing.

Future tense – this tells us about what is going to happening in the future. This
tense is formed by linking with ‘will’ or ‘shall’.
I will play. You shall play. She will play. We will play. They shall play.

We can also make the future tense by adding ‘will be’ or ‘shall be’.
I will be playing. You will be playing. He shall be playing.

We shall be playing. They will be playing.

Past tense – this tells us about what happened in the past. Most verbs
(REGULAR VERBS) just add ‘ed’.
I played. You played. She played. We played. They played.

Here are some other ways to make the past tense:
I was playing. You were playing. We were playing.
We have listened. She has finished.

Most verbs obey the rule of just adding ‘ed’ for the past tense (REGULAR
VERBS). However, for some verbs the word changes in other ways or may even
stay the same for the past tense. These are called IRREGULAR VERBS.

For example, the past tense of ‘I eat’ is not ‘I eated’ – it is ‘I ate’.
Here are some more examples:

I am/ I was he is/ he was you are/ you were I have/ I had
he goes/ he went they see/ they saw you buy/ you bought I shut/ I shut

Can you think of some more IRREGULAR VERBS?

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