21-5-21 past tenses + instructions

• Engels
• Beroepsopleiding

Today's lesson

Today you will learn how to talk about something that happened in the past. You will also learn how to tell your students what you were doing when you hurt your knee!

Also, we will look at the instructions which you wrote for your exercise videos. 

You will learn when to use a / an / the / your

You will learn when to use breathe / breath

You will improve your instructions

The past tense

When we want to talk about the past, we need to know if the verb is regular or irregular. (A list of the irregular verbs can be found on a further slide).

The next step is deciding if something happened at a certain point in the past or during a longer period. This determines if we use the past simple or past continuous. 

Regular verbs - past simple

When something happened at a certain point of time we use the past simple. Usually we will need to mention the point of time, so we will use a word like: last week, at 3pm, in May 2014..

In these cases we simply add ED to the verb:

We walked 5km on Sunday (To walk = walk+ED)

I started my own company in 2014 (To start = start+ED)

I watched an interesting Ted Talk last night 

Regular verbs - past continuous

When something happened over a longer period of time in the past we use the past continuous. 

In this case we use the following construction: was / were + verb+ing

I was teaching 5 days a week when the Lockdown started.

You were running when I saw you yesterday.

It was raining when I arrived this morning.

When we got married we were living in Spain.

They were working for the marketing department.

Over to you - practise time

Talk about something that you did recently, using some of the following verbs:

When using the spinner in the previous slide you will have noticed that some verbs sound funny if you just add ED when using the past simple. These are the irregular verbs (eg read, eat, buy, swim). These don't add -ed, but have their own spelling (and simply need to be learned by heart - if you don't know them). The following slide has a list of common irregular verbs.

There you will see that we should say:

I ate dinner (not I eated dinner).

He read a book (not He readed a book). (pronounciation: sounds like red)

We swam in the sea (not we swimmed in the sea)

Some notes for instructions - breathing

Exhale - Breathe out (slowly) (through your mouth / nose)

Inhale - take a deep breath in (through your nose) - breathe in slowly (through your nose)

As you breathe in, feel your belly rise

(Don't) hold your breath

Pronounciation of breathe / breath:

Breathe: ee sound (like meet). 

Breath: e sound (like pen)

When to use breathe / breath: Use breathe when it is the verb in the sentence - in other words, when you are describing the action someone must do.

When the breath is a result of an action - use breath. In other words, there will be another verb (eg take, hold) in the sentence. 

Some notes for instructions 

Using articles: a / an / the

Use a / an / the / your before pelvis / head / neck etc in instructions

eg Place the ball behind your pelvis

Keep your knees bent

When to use what:

the: when you refer to a specific thing (eg "you can find the opening times of my studio on the website" "I am looking for the instruction manual of my reformer" ).

With instructions you can often use "your" when referring to a specific thing (eg "Place your hands... Lift up your..... )

a / an: when you refer to a general thing (eg "I am looking for a book about anatomy).

Some notes on instructions - commands

Start instruction sentences with a verb, eg place / raise / hold / take / stay / inhale (through) 

General rule:

verb + the/ your + the rest of the instruction.

Examples:

place your hands behind your head

Inhale through your nose

Keep the distance between the pelvis and the ball....

Recap: What did you learn today?

1. There are regular and irregular verbs.

2. When talking about something that happened at a specific time in the past you must think of Ed Sheeran (regular verbs). 

3. The irregular verbs follow their own rules and must be learned by heart. 

4. When you want to explain what you were doing when you hurt your knee, you must use was / were + verb + ing (regular and irregular verbs).

5. You learned when to use a / the / your.

6. You learned synonyms for inhale and exhale.

7. You learned when to use breathe and breath.

8. You improved your instructions!

Homework:

Check the instructions which you wrote for the following:

Do you always start commands with a verb?

Have you always used a/ the / your before pelvis / head / ball etc?

If you are not familiar with the irregular verbs - you will need to learn them (start with the first and second row - verb +past simple eg to read - read, to swim - swam).