EnglishGrade 7ages 12–13
↔️ Now versus then
In Hebrew the shift from present to past is loud — the verb itself sounds clearly different. In English it can be one quiet letter, or a whole different word, and that quiet change is easy to miss or misplace.
Try this lesson freeNo card needed. The first lesson is free.
Download on the App StoreWhat your child learns
- now / today: I walk, she sits, I am here.
- then / yesterday: I walked, she sat, I was here.
- Don't mix: Yesterday I walk. Now I walked.
- In Hebrew the verb changes loudly. In English the change is sometimes one quiet letter, and sometimes a different word altogether.
The mistake most kids make here
Using the same verb form for now and yesterday.
Try one question
Now. Which is right?
Now
- I walked
- I walk
- I was walk
Answer
I walk — That's it. I walk — the bare form is the present.
How Maya teaches it
Your child tells Maya what they did in class. She teaches this topic at her desk, asks questions with tappable answers, and when the answer is wrong she explains why that answer was tempting instead of saying “try again”. She remembers what did not land and comes back to it.
Your child has it when they can: Say the same idea twice: now, then yesterday.
How to help at home
"Now" or "today" takes the present: I walk, she sits, I am here. "Then" or "yesterday" takes the past: I walked, she sat, I was here. The two shouldn't mix within one sentence.
Have your child say the same idea twice, back to back — once about now, once about yesterday — so they hear the change happen in real time, rather than picking a form cold.
If they say "yesterday I walk" or "now I walked," ask: "is that happening right now, or did it already happen?" Let the timing decide which form is right, rather than correcting the word directly.
A good sign of mastery: they switch cleanly between the two forms when the time word changes, without the present and past bleeding into the same sentence.
Questions parents ask
- Why is this harder than just learning -ed?
- In Hebrew, the shift from present to past is a loud, clear change in the verb. In English, it can be a single quiet letter (walk → walked) or an entirely different word (sit → sat), which is easy to miss or apply inconsistently.
- What's a simple way to practice?
- Ask your child to describe the same action twice — what they're doing now, and what they did yesterday — and listen for whether the verb shifts correctly both times.
- Does every verb change the same way?
- No — some add -ed (walk → walked), others change entirely (sit → sat, am → was), which is part of why this needs practice rather than one single rule.
- How does Maya teach this differently from a worksheet?
- Maya has the child say the same sentence twice, once for now and once for yesterday, so the shift is heard and produced, not just picked from a list.
No card needed. The first lesson is free.
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