Hey there, English learners! 🌟
Ready to improve your grammar while enjoying some great music? 🎸🎵
In this activity, you’ll listen to a popular song, practice the simple past tense, and boost your listening skills. 📝👂
Let’s make learning English fun and interactive! Click below to start your musical journey! 🎧✨
There are several ways to talk about past habits in English:
| Tense | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple past | Talk about a single action that happened in the past. | I went to the park yesterday. She played tennis last week. |
| Adverb of frequency + simple past | Talk about a past habit or state that is no longer true. It implies a repeated action in the past. | When I was a child, I often played in the park. He always drank coffee in the morning |
| Used to | Talk about a past habit or state that is no longer true. It implies a repeated action. | I used to smoke, but I quit. I used to be very shy. |
| Would | Talk about repeated actions in the past. It implies a habitual or repeated action. | When I was a child, I would play with my toys every day. |
| Simple past | Talk about a past state that is no longer true. | I was very shy when I was a child. They were very active when they were younger. I lived on a farm when I was a child. |
🎲 Students take turns rolling the dice and moving their piece on the board.
🛑 When a student lands on a square, they answer the question using the correct tense.
🗣️ Example: “I used to go to the country side on holiday.”
👂 The other players listen and decide if the answer is right or wrong.
✅ If the answer is right, the student stays on that square.
❌ If the answer is wrong, they go back to their previous square.
🏆 The first student to reach the finish square wins the game!
💪 To make the game more challenging answer your questions with other alternatives such as would or usually + simple past
How was your life when you were growing up? Write a short paragraph.
The simple past and past continuous are both verb tenses used to describe actions or events that occurred in the past. Here’s a table that explains the differences between the two tenses and provides examples of each:
| Verb Tense | Grammar Pattern | Explanation | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Past | [Base Form + –ed / Irregular Verb Past Form] | Used to describe a completed action or event in the past. | She studied for three hours yesterday. He played soccer with his friends last weekend. They traveled to Europe last summer. I cooked dinner for my family last night. |
| Past Continuous | [Past form of “be” (was/were) + Present Participle (-ing)] | Used to describe an ongoing action or event that was happening at a specific time in the past. | She was studying for three hours yesterday. He was playing soccer with his friends when it started to rain. They were traveling to Europe when they heard about the hurricane. I was cooking dinner when my friend called me. |
It’s important to note that the simple past is formed by adding –ed to regular verbs, or using the second form (Verb II) of irregular verbs.
| Base form | Simple Past |
|---|---|
| be | was/were |
| begin | began |
| break | broke |
| bring | brought |
| build | built |
| buy | bought |
| choose | chose |
| come | came |
| do | did |
| draw | drew |
| drink | drank |
| drive | drove |
| eat | ate |
| fall | fell |
| feel | felt |
| find | found |
| fly | flew |
| forget | forgot |
| get | got |
| give | gave |
| go | went |
| have | had |
| hear | heard |
| hit | hit |
| hold | held |
| keep | kept |
| know | knew |
| leave | left |
| lose | lost |
| make | made |
| meet | met |
| pay | paid |
| put | put |
| read | read |
| run | ran |
| say | said |
| see | saw |
| sell | sold |
| send | sent |
| sing | sang |
| sit | sat |
| sleep | slept |
| speak | spoke |
| spend | spent |
| stand | stood |
| swim | swam |
| take | took |
| teach | taught |
| tell | told |
| think | thought |
| understand | understood |
| wake | woke |
| wear | wore |
| win | won |
| write | wrote |
The past continuous is formed by using the verb “to be” in the past tense (was/were) and adding the present participle (-ing) of the main verb.
Here’s a table with the spelling rules of the present participle (-ing verbs):
| Rule | Example |
|---|---|
| Add -ing to most verbs | talk → talking |
| If the verb ends in -e, drop the e and add -ing | dance → dancing |
| If the verb ends in -ie, change -ie to -y and add -ing | lie → lying |
| If the verb ends in a single consonant after a single vowel, double the consonant and add -ing | run → running |
| If the verb ends in -c, change -c to -ck and add -ing | picnic → picnicking |
| If the verb ends in a vowel followed by -l, double the -l and add -ing | travel → travelling |
| If the verb ends in -w, -x, or -z, add -ing without any changes | chew → chewing |
Let’s talk about verb be and verb go
You already know that:
| Base form | simple past | past participle |
| be | was/ were | been |
| go | went | gone |
Now, let’s say that you want to talk about your trips. If you want to talk about your trips and the places that you have visited in the past you can’t use verb go in the present perfect form.
| simple present | 1. I usually go to Paris in the summer. ✔️ |
| simple past | 2. I went to Paris last year. ✔️ |
| present perfect | 3. I have gone to Paris many times. ❌ I have been to Paris many times ✔️ |
Why?
Because…
| been to | completed visits (round trip) |
| gone to | one-way trip |
In the video below I explain how to use been to and gone to correctly
Practice timeNow it’s your turn.
Complete the following sentences with been or gone:
We use “I was” or “If I was” when we talk about real things that actually happened in the past.
The conjugation for the verb be in the past form is
| I | was |
| You | were |
| He/ She/ It | was |
| We | were |
| They | were |
Examples:
We use the phrase “If I were” when we want to talk about unreal or hypothetical situations (second conditional). We also use it when we are wishing for something. It’s called the subjunctive mood.
The conjugation of verb be in the subjunctive mood is
| I | were |
| You | were |
| He/ She/ It | were |
| We | were |
| They | were |
NOTE: with he, she and it we can use was (instead of were) in informal speaking. Example: If she was here, she’d know what to do
Video in Spanish
Video in English