Exploring the Past: Learning About the Past Tense in English

Exploring the Past: Learning About the Past Tense in English

Learning Objective

At the end of the lesson, you will understand how to form the past tense in English, its usage, and be able to compare it with Dutch.

What do you already know about the past tense in English?

What is the Past Tense?

The past tense is used to indicate an action that has already happened. In English, it is formed by adding '-ed' to regular verbs or using irregular forms for irregular verbs.

Forming the Past Tense

Regular verbs: walk - walked, talk - talked. Irregular verbs: go - went, eat - ate.

Usage of Past Tense

We use the past tense to talk about completed actions or events that occurred in the past.

Comparing with Dutch

In Dutch, the past tense is formed in a similar way by adding '-te' or '-de' to regular verbs. Both languages have irregular verbs with unique past tense forms.

Practice Exercise

Provide sentences in English and ask students to rewrite them in the past tense. Then, compare the Dutch translation.

Review and Recap

Summarize the key points learned about the past tense in English and its comparison with Dutch.

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.