Mastering the Past Simple

Mastering the Past Simple

Learning Objective

At the end of the lesson, you will be able to correctly identify and use the Past Simple tense in English sentences, including important exceptions.

Introduce the lesson objective and explain why it is important to understand how to use the Past Simple tense.

What do you already know about using the Past Simple tense in English?

What is the Past Simple?

The Past Simple is a tense used to describe completed actions in the past. It is often used with time expressions like 'yesterday' or 'last week'.

Define the Past Simple tense and give examples of common time expressions used with it.

How to Form the Past Simple

To form the Past Simple, you usually add '-ed' to the end of regular verbs. However, irregular verbs have their own unique past tense forms that must be memorized.

Explain the basic formation of the Past Simple tense and give examples of regular and irregular verbs.

Regular Verbs

Regular verbs follow the '-ed' rule for forming the Past Simple tense. For example, 'walk' becomes 'walked'.

Provide a list of regular verbs and have students practice changing them to the Past Simple tense.

Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs have unique past tense forms that do not follow the '-ed' rule. For example, 'go' becomes 'went'.

Provide a list of irregular verbs and have students practice changing them to the Past Simple tense.

Exceptions

There are some important exceptions to the '-ed' rule. For example, verbs ending in '-y' after a consonant change the 'y' to 'i' before adding '-ed'.

Explain common exceptions to the '-ed' rule and have students practice changing verbs to the Past Simple tense using these exceptions.

Practice Exercise

Read the following sentences and identify the verb in Past Simple tense: 'She ate breakfast at 7am.' 'They went to the beach last weekend.' 'I played soccer with my friends yesterday.'

Have students work independently or in pairs to identify the verb in Past Simple tense in each sentence.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You now know how to use the Past Simple tense in English sentences. Keep practicing and you will master it in no time!

Review the key points of the lesson and encourage students to keep practicing the Past Simple tense in their writing and speaking.

Write down 3 things you learned in this lesson.

Have students enter three things they learned in this lesson. With this they can indicate their own learning efficiency of this lesson.

Write down 2 things you want to know more about.

Here, students enter two things they would like to know more about. This not only increases involvement, but also gives them more ownership.

Ask 1 question about something you haven't quite understood yet.

The students indicate here (in question form) with which part of the material they still have difficulty. For the teacher, this not only provides insight into the extent to which the students understand/master the material, but also a good starting point for the next lesson.