Language and Grammar, continued

Use Verb Tense: Be and Have

  • 1 TRY OUT LANGUAGE

  • 2 LEARN GRAMMAR

  • 3 APPLY ON YOUR OWN

The tense of a verb tells when an action happens. The verbs be and have use special forms to tell about the present and the past.

Forms of Be

Present TensePast Tense
I amI was
you areyou were
he, she, or it ishe, she, or it was
we arewe were
they arethey were

Forms of Have

Present TensePast Tense
I haveI had
you haveyou had
he, she, or it hashe, she, or it had
we havewe had
they havethey had

Use the correct form of the verb.

EXAMPLESForms of be
Present:He is interested in folk tales.
Past:He was interested in folk tales.
Present:We are in eighth grade.
Past:We were in seventh grade.
EXAMPLESForms of have
Present:Our class has many students.
Past:Last year, our class had only a few students.
Present:The students have lots of stories to tell.
Past:Last year, we even had a folk tale festival.
The friends have a lot of stories to share.

The friends have a lot of stories to share.

Practice Together

Say each sentence. Then say it again and change the verb to the past tense.

  • 1. I am interested in folk tales.

  • 2. Ana and I are storytellers.

  • 3. We have a favorite story.

  • 4. It is a tale from Mexico.

Try It!

Say each sentence. Write the past tense of the underlined verb on a card. Then say the sentence and add the past tense verb.

  • 5. We have a folk tale performance.

  • 6. Ana has the best voice!

  • 7. I am good at different sounds.

  • 8. The show is a success.