Progressive Verb Tenses Worksheets for 4th Grade
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Skill: Choosing the past, present or future progressive form of a verb
Teaching tips and what to try next
Fits fourth graders who know the simple past, present and future and can spot helping verbs. Acting out an action, such as pretending to swim, while a partner narrates it in all three forms makes the pattern stick. Next, compare these with Perfect Verb Tenses, or review tricky past forms in Irregular Past Tense Verbs.
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About this worksheet
Progressive verbs show an action that is still going on at some point in time. The present progressive tells what is happening now (is reading), the past progressive tells what was happening at a time in the past (was reading), and the future progressive tells what will be happening later (will be reading). Fourth graders are expected to form and use all three. This fourth-grade grammar worksheet gives twelve sentences to practice them.
Each sentence has a time clue, such as right now, last night or next week. Three forms of the same verb are shown in parentheses: past, present and future progressive. Children use the clue to choose the right form and write it on the line. There are four sentences for each tense, and they are mixed so children need to read every clue. Each verb ends in -ing and is joined with a helping verb: was or were, am, is or are, or will be. The answer key lists every answer.
How to use it: before starting, ask your child to underline the time clue in each sentence. Then ask, "Is this happening now, before or later?" Watch for the helping verb in the past, which must match the subject: was for one person and were for more than one, or for you. A fun follow-up is to have your child describe what they were doing at breakfast, what they are doing now and what they will be doing after dinner.
For another set of tenses, try our Perfect Verb Tenses worksheet. For more grammar, try our Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases worksheet.