Verbs in KS1 and KS2 It is some time since we have talked about verbs, but with the new test papers in place we now know that verbs crop up in both the KS1 and KS2 papers. This makes it very important that children understand and use them correctly. At KS1 the requirement is that verbs are understood as ‘doing’ or ‘being’ words. It is also expected that children understand that suffixes can be added to verbs where no change is needed in the spelling of root words (e.g. helping, helped, helper). By the end of Year 2 children should be using the present and past tense consistently when writing. In Key Stage 1 children will begin to work with both regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs are verbs that form the past tense by adding ‘ed’ or ‘d’ at the end, such as ask – asked, help – helped and chase – chased. Irregular verbs are harder to get to grips with as there is a change in the spelling of the root word. e.g. know:  knew We have just published two new sets of worksheets on verbs. They both look at using the past tense, or simple past tense, as it is known. (The simple past tense is used to describe an action which finished at a time in the past.) Take a look at our Verbs in KS1 and KS2 worksheets