At School
Primary 3 · English
At School
Lesson 2 of 3
13 min
Let's begin
Ishimwe wakes up while the sky is still a little dark. He washes his face, drinks his tea, and starts the walk to school with his sister.
Every school day is a chain of small things, one after another, in the same order.
Today you will learn to tell that chain in English — your own school day, from the moment you wake up.
Listen to Ishimwe talking about himself:
Look at the verbs: wake, wash, eat, walk, read. Nothing is added to them. It is just I + the plain verb.
We use this when something happens again and again, every day. English calls it the present simple. It is the tense of habits — of the things your day is made of.
Now join those sentences into one story. The time words show the order:
First, I wake up at six o'clock. Then I wash my face and put on my uniform. After that, I walk to school with Keza. Finally, I sit down at my desk.
Read it once more and watch what each time word is doing:
First, After that and Finally usually take a comma after them. Then normally walks straight into the sentence with no comma.
Watch this very carefully. First Ishimwe talks about himself. Then you talk about Ishimwe:
I walk to school. → Ishimwe walks to school.
Did you see it? The verb grew a small s on its tail. That happens when we talk about he, she, or one other person by name.
But we, you and they keep the plain verb — no s at all:
We walk to school. You walk to school. They walk to school.
If the verb already ends in o, ch, sh, ss or x, one little s is too hard to say. Add -es instead:
And one busy little verb changes its whole shape:
Tip
He, she, it — the verb wears the s
Sing this line to yourself before you write:
I walk. You walk. She walks. We walk. They walk.
Only the one in the middle is wearing the s. Nobody else touches it.
Try each one first, then tap Show answer to check.
Uwase (walk) to school every morning.
Answer: Uwase walks to school every morning. We are talking about one other person, so the verb takes an s.
Gatete (go) to the market after school.
Answer: Gatete goes to the market after school. The verb go ends in o, so it takes -es.
Put these three sentences in the right order: Then I eat my lunch. / After that, I play football with my friends. / First, I greet my teacher.
Answer: First, I greet my teacher. Then I eat my lunch. After that, I play football with my friends. The time words tell you where each sentence belongs.
Find and fix the mistake: Mutesi have a red pen.
Answer: Mutesi has a red pen. With one other person, have changes to has.
Which one is correct — They reads in class. or They read in class.?
Answer: They read in class. The word they means more than one person, so the verb stays plain.
What you learned today
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