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Grade 5 English Language Arts — Tense in stories and in reports

Choose the tense a piece of writing needs — the past for a story or a report, the present for instructions and general facts, and the past perfect for what happened earlier still.

Name: ________________________

  1. 1.A radio commentator is describing a match as it happens. Which sentence fits?

    • a) Sharma passes the ball to Khan.
    • b) Sharma had passed the ball to Khan.
    • c) Sharma passed the ball to Khan.
    • d) Sharma will pass the ball to Khan.

  2. 2.Match each kind of writing to the tense it usually uses.

    • A folk tale
    • A recipe
    • Describing what is happening around you at this moment
    • A statement of a scientific fact
    • An account of what happened before the story began
    • Simple past
    • Past perfect
    • Present continuous
    • Present imperative
    • Present simple

  3. 3.Which sentence states a general fact rather than a single event that happened once?

    • a) The ice in the bucket melted by noon.
    • b) Ice melts in the sun.
    • c) The ice was melting when we arrived.
    • d) The ice had melted before we arrived.

  4. 4.Rewrite this as a story would tell it, in the past tense: "She opens the letter." Write the whole sentence.

  5. 5.Write one word: A story about events that are over and done with is normally written in the ____ tense.

  6. 6.Sort each sentence by whether it belongs in a story about last summer or in a guide to looking after a puppy.

    Groups: The story · The guide

    • We reached the river just before sunset.
    • A puppy sleeps for most of the day.
    • Feed the puppy twice a day.
    • The boat rocked and everybody laughed.
    • Nobody had thought to bring an umbrella.
    • Keep a bowl of clean water within its reach.

  7. 7.Put the steps of turning a page of notes into a finished story in the right order.

    • First, decide which tense the whole piece needs — a story takes the past.
    • Last, read the piece back and check that no verb has slipped into the present.
    • Next, put every main event into the simple past.
    • Then use the past perfect for anything that had happened earlier still.

  8. 8.Which sentence describes how something works, rather than something that happened once?

    • a) The pump had stopped working by then.
    • b) The pump pushes air down the tube and into the tire.
    • c) The pump was repaired on Tuesday.
    • d) The pump filled the tank in ten minutes.

Answer key — Grade 5 English Language Arts — Tense in stories and in reports

  1. 1. a) Sharma passes the ball to Khan.
  2. 2. A folk tale → Simple past; A recipe → Present imperative; Describing what is happening around you at this moment → Present continuous; A statement of a scientific fact → Present simple; An account of what happened before the story began → Past perfect
  3. 3. b) Ice melts in the sun.
  4. 4. She opened the letter.
  5. 5. past
  6. 6. We reached the river just before sunset. → The story; Feed the puppy twice a day. → The guide; The boat rocked and everybody laughed. → The story; Keep a bowl of clean water within its reach. → The guide; Nobody had thought to bring an umbrella. → The story; A puppy sleeps for most of the day. → The guide
  7. 7. 1. First, decide which tense the whole piece needs — a story takes the past. 2. Next, put every main event into the simple past. 3. Then use the past perfect for anything that had happened earlier still. 4. Last, read the piece back and check that no verb has slipped into the present.
  8. 8. b) The pump pushes air down the tube and into the tire.