Rules For Past Simple Tense

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! The simple past tense is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. It indicates an action which is completed at a definite time in the past.   The simple past tense is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. It indicates an action which is completed at a definite time in the past. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This is a fun ESL printable writing activity worksheet for learners of English to practice the past simple tense with both regular and irregular verbs.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Here's a fun past simple Wh questions ESL game to help you teach your students how to make questions in the past simple tense.   To play the game, divide the students into pairs (A and B) and give each student a corresponding part of the worksheet and each pair two dice. Student B begins by rolling the dice and adding up the numbers rolled. Student A then formulates the past simple question that corresponds to the number on their worksheet. For example, if Student B rolls a two, Student A asks question two on their worksheet, i.e. 'What did you wear yesterday?' If Student B answers correctly, Student A crosses off the question. If Student B makes a grammatical mistake or is unable to answer appropriately in the form...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This worksheet is great for practicing the past continuous tense. Students need to use a verb in the simple past and a verb in the past continuous.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Here's a fun English ESL worksheet to practice the past simple tense for ESL students.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Here is a collection of dialog cards to practice the correct usage of the past simple tense.   Cut out the dialog cards and hand them out to your students, who form answers using the past simple tense.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This is a fun worksheet to complete a summer holiday store with past simple tense.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

  In this video, we provide you with a useful overview of the various past tenses. We focus here especially on the differences between the past simple and past continuous. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Great unit for introduction to the intricacies of teaching English as a foreign language. As someone that has no prior experience, I already feel much, much more comfortable being at the front of a...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This is a great ESL board game to practice using the present perfect and past simple tenses in English.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

  The usage of the past simple tense as explained in this video is when you talk about completed actions at a definite time in the past. For example: I completed my TEFL course last year. When did you complete your TEFL course? ITTT's online TEFL courses cover tenses such as the past simple discussed in this video as well as other grammar points such as modal verbs, conditionals, reported speech etc. making sure that you as prepared as you can be before stepping into your first classroom. Once you have completed a TEFL course and are considering your options for teaching jobs it is worth considering becoming an online English teacher. As technology becomes increasingly more available around the world the demand for English lessons given solely over the internet is growing and working...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Emphasize the most critical concepts continuously. Reiterate these concepts in lectures and assignments throughout the course. Include questions relating to these critical subjects on every exam, thus rewarding students for learning, retaining, and, hopefully, applying this knowledge in a variety of contexts. 1. Use visual aid 2. Organize in-class activities 3. Show that the content is related 4. Show the importance of the vocabulary 5. Praise 6. Challenge Are you ready to teach English to ESL students? Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Maurine M. S. Provide students with a "visual aid" when possible to explain abstract concepts. A significant proportion of today's students are visual learners. For these...  [Read more]

  This video is part of our series on the past tenses in English. We start off the series with the past simple tense. In this video, we focus on the usages of the past simple tense, which mostly include completed actions at a definite time in the past. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This Unit was as challenging as I expected it to be. I however learnt a lot of grammar points that I didn't...  [Read more]

  This video is part of our series on the past tenses in English. We start off the series with the past simple tense. In this video, we focus on useful teaching ideas for this tense. A great idea to practice this tense is a picture story. Here, the teacher provides the students with various photos or images and the students are asked to piece them together to make a story in the past. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Register now & get certified to teach...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Here is a fun worksheet to practice recognizing the different tenses in English with your young students. Students simply have to color by past, present or future tense.     Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

  This video explores the structure and usage of the past simple tense. The different structures of this tense are: Positive: Add --ed or --d to the base form of the verb She worked last night. Negative: Add did not or didn't before the base form of the verb He didn't teach yesterday. Question: Add did plus the subject before the base form of the verb Did she drive yesterday? The past simple tense is used to talk about completed actions in the past. For example: I watched television last night. In order to be a confident and successful English language teacher in the classroom, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the various English language tenses such as the one shown above. The best way to achieve this understanding is to complete a high-quality TEFL course as offered...  [Read more]

  This video is part of our series on the past tenses in English. We start off the series with the past simple tense. This tense is used to express completed actions in the past. In this video, we focus on the structure of the past simple. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! In this unit we look at different ways of evaluating students levels and progress, as well as some of the common external exams...  [Read more]

  This video is part of our series on the past tenses in English. We start off the series with the past simple tense. In this video, we show you how to execute a mill drill activity for this tense. Here, the teacher provides the students with a survey or questionnaire with statements in the past simple tense. The students then go around the classroom and ask other students about their past experiences. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Register now & get...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This is a fun board game for teaching or revising the past simple tense. Students advance on the board with dice, when they land on a square they are asked to make a sentence using the picture clue and the verb provided.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Here is a fun crossword puzzle for your EFL students to practice the past simple irregular verbs. Have fun!     Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This board game is a great speaking practice on some past simple irregular verbs.   Students take turns asking and answering questions about actions which happened in the past. They can practice some prepositions of time as well for more advanced students.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Here's a useful worksheet with exercises to practice the present, past and future tenses.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Having a variety of interesting and fun activities to draw on is an important part of keepingyour lessons fresh and your students engaged in learning, especially when it comes to teaching grammar points. In this graphic we look at 10 different activities for the past simple. The aim of these activities is to provide high student talking time using the target language. They should also encourage the students to produce the language themselves with varying amounts of creativity. Matching Pairs’ is a great activity for recognising irregular past simple verb forms. The activity helps students remember the different forms and encourages them to produce their own sentences. The ‘Diary’ activity encourages students to use the past simple with...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This is a fun activity to practice the simple past. Students look at the images and talk about what Harry did on holiday.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Past perfect tense indicates the finished or completed actions of the past. For example, I had taken eaten two pieces of cake before my friend finally showed up.   Past perfect tense indicates the finished or completed actions of the past. For example, I had taken eaten two pieces of cake before my friend finally showed up.     Subject + had + Past participle (v3) To make the positive sentences, we use the following structure: Subject + had + Past participle (V3) Examples of positive sentences We add ‘not’ after auxiliary verb to make the sentence negative. Subject + had + not + Past participle (V3) Examples of negative sentences. To make the question, ‘had’ come at the start of the sentence and...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This is a fun activity to practice the simple past. Students look at the images and talk about what Daisy did last Saturday. You can also have them figure out where Daisy forgot her umbrella.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

  The two most common usages for the present simple tense are habits and routines, as well as general facts and truths. Our example of routine would be 'I teach every Monday.' We've used our subject 'I', our base form 'teach' and 'every Monday' speaking about the routine that I have. We also have our general facts 'The sun rises in the east.' Here, 'the sun' would follow under the pronoun 'it' so we've had to conjugate our verb per our pattern and finish our sentence. We could also talk about general truths such as likes or dislikes. 'I like football,' or 'He likes football.' Of course, there are other usages but these are the two most common. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses...  [Read more]

  Now we'll have a look at the teaching ideas for the future simple tense. As we said earlier, the future simple tense can be used for threats or promises or, in this case, for predictions. Here, we'll have a pair of students working together. One has a prompt to say something and the other will begin it with a certain comment and then make a sentence using the future simple tense. Here, 'I'm taking my driving test tomorrow' 'Good luck. You'll pass for sure'. 'I lost at tennis again.' 'Cheer up. You'll do better next time,' so on and so forth. Of course, having a bit of feedback at the end. Some additional ideas for the future simple tense include things like horoscopes. Here you'll divide your class up into groups, provide them with zodiac sign, they'll create a horoscope for that...  [Read more]

  We'll begin our examination of all the tenses by first looking at the present tense. There are four present tenses and we'll begin with the present simple tense. It's the most common tense in the English language as it talks about things in general, general facts, routines, habits. Those are usages that we'll look at in a little while but first let's focus on the form of the tense. Here, we've got our subjects 'I', 'you', 'we', 'they' and the base form of the verb followed by the rest of our sentence. Here for the 'he', 'she' and 'it' subjects, we have to conjugate our verb and in this case we've added an '-es' for 'teaches' followed by the rest of our sentence. With subjects 'I', 'you', 'we' and 'they' the pattern stays the same throughout we use the base form of the verb....  [Read more]

  A first example of a teaching idea for the present simple tense will be a classic activity called 'Find someone who'. Here, we will be trying to find someone who has a general truth such as the ability to play a musical instrument or the fact that they have a brother and a sister. This results in students going around the room asking questions in the present simple tense, such as 'Do you play a musical instrument?' 'Are you a teacher?' 'Do you have a brother and a sister?' The answers resulting will also be in the present simple tense. They will be generally 'Yes I do,' or 'No I don't.' The students will go around trying to find somebody who fits the general truth and when they do, they will write their name in the appropriate space. The students will mill around the room for...  [Read more]

  First and most common we added simply an '-s' for verbs like 'work', 'play'. This is what we typically see within our language. However, when we have verbs with spelling patterns such as ending in '-ch', '-sh', '-z', '-s' and our shorter verbs 'do' and 'go', we have to add our '-es'. Then for verbs the end in a consonant and 'y' we drop our 'y' and add our '-ies'. Finally, we have our irregular verbs 'be' and 'have'. For subject 'I', we use 'am', for the subject 'he', 'she' and 'it', we use 'is', whereas with 'you', 'we', 'they', we use 'are'. Finally, we have 'have', which stays as 'have' for these subjects: 'I', 'you', 'we', 'they' but for 'he', 'she' and 'it', we change 'have' to 'has'. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL...  [Read more]