Mastering the Past Tenses

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 2

Mastering the Past Tenses

Final practise

Learning Objective

At the end of the lesson you will be able to recognize and apply the differences between past continuous, past perfect and past simple.

Introduce the learning objective and explain the importance of mastering these tenses.

What do you already know about past tenses?

Past Simple

The past simple is used to describe a completed action in the past. It's formed by adding -ed to the verb or using the second form of the verb.

Provide examples of past simple verbs and ask the students to identify them in a sentence.

Past Continuous

The past continuous is used to describe an action that was in progress at a specific time in the past. It's formed by using 'was/were' + 'verb'-ing.

Provide examples of past continuous verbs and ask the students to identify them in a sentence.

Past Perfect

The past perfect is used to describe an action that was completed before another past action. It's formed by using 'had' + past participle of the verb.

Provide examples of past perfect verbs and ask the students to identify them in a sentence.

Usage of Past Tenses

Use past simple for completed actions in the past, past continuous for actions in progress in the past, and past perfect for actions completed before another past action.

Explain the usage of each past tense and provide examples for each.

Recognizing Past Tenses

• John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.
  
• I had finished the work.
  
• You were working yesterday.
  

Give the students sentences with different past tenses to identify and discuss the reasons behind their choices.

By the time we arrived at the cinema, the movie __________. (start)

Sarah ___________ the house when I called her. (clean)

I ___________ my breakfast at 7 am yesterday. (eat)

Irregular Verbs in Past Tenses

Some verbs have irregular past tense forms, and these must be memorized. Examples include 'go-went', 'eat-ate', and 'see-saw'.

Explain the concept of irregular verbs and provide examples of common verbs with irregular past tenses.

Signal words

Past Simple: yesterday, last week/month/year, ago, in 1990, once, twice, three times, etc.

Past Continuous: while, when, as, at (time), during

Past Perfect: already, yet, just, before, after, by the time, until

Interactive Activity

https://test-english.com/grammar-points/b1/past-simple-past-continuous-past-perfect/

Provide an interactive activity where the students can practice using the correct past tenses.

Write down 1 thing 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.