Verb Tenses

Future Tense Verbs

Talking about things that have not happened yet.

Mastered by: The "going to" form by about 4 and "will" by about 5
Practice items: 99
Sections: 9

Play it

Each one opens full screen, already set to this skill.

The rule, explainedShow ↓

When something has not happened yet, put "will" in front of the verb. The verb itself does not change.

It will rain. She will be five. We will go tomorrow.

"Going to" works too: it is going to rain.

Tomorrow it will rain.
Next week she will be five.

Watch for: "I will went" - "will" and the past ending together. After "will", the verb stays plain.

What this skill is

English has two everyday ways to talk about the future: "will" ("I will go") and "going to" ("I am going to go"). Children get "gonna" first, usually by 3, because it shows up constantly in the speech around them. "Will" comes later and is more common in books and instructions than in casual talk, so some children need it taught directly.

What to expect

Future tense depends on being able to imagine something that does not exist yet, so it lags behind past and present for good cognitive reasons. Expect "I gonna" around 3, "I am going to" around 4, and comfortable use of "will" around 5. Contractions like "I'll" and "we'll" often arrive alongside "will" and can be hard to hear - check whether the child is actually producing them.

Try this at home

Build future talk into transitions, which happen dozens of times a day anyway. "After lunch we will go to the park. What will you do first?" Predicting what happens next in a familiar book is another easy, natural way to practice.

When to refer

No future forms at all by age 5, or reliance on present tense to describe future events after 5;6.

Print it

Future Tense Verbs worksheet99 items across 9 sections, with answer key · PDF

Put it into practice

Tap any item below to open it full screen, one at a time, so a child can answer without reading the answer first.

These activities are a starting point, not the practice itself. A structured task is a good way to introduce a form and to find out whether a child has it yet. What actually moves it into everyday speech is using it in the real world and in ordinary play — which means the four things below matter more than finishing the list.

Recast
Say their sentence back correctly, without asking them to repeat it. Child: “he goed.” You: “he went! Where did he go?”
Expand
Add one or two words to what they said and hand it back. Child: “big truck.” You: “a big red truck!”
Simplify what you ask
Cut a long instruction into single steps and say them in the order they happen, rather than repeating the long one louder.
Follow their lead
Use whatever they are already playing with. A form practiced on something they chose is the one that shows up again tomorrow.

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