Mastering the Past Simple: Making Questions and Negations

Mastering the Past Simple & Making Questions and Negations

Learning Objective

At the end of the lesson, you will understand how and when to use the past simple tense. You will also be able to make questions and negations in the past simple.

Introduce the learning objective to the students and explain what they will be able to do by the end of the lesson.

What do you already know about the past simple tense and how to make questions and negations?

What is the Past Simple?

The past simple is a tense used to talk about completed actions or states in the past. 

It is formed by adding '-ed' to regular verbs or using irregular verb forms. 

Explain the concept of the past simple tense and provide examples of regular and irregular verbs.

Forming Questions or Negations in the Past Simple

To make questions in the past simple, we use the auxiliary verb 'did' followed by the subject and the base form of the verb.

Explain the structure of forming questions in the past simple and provide examples.

Practice: Forming Questions

Rewrite the following sentences as questions and as a negation in the past simple: 

 1. They played soccer yesterday. 

 2. She watched a movie last night.

Engage the students by giving them an opportunity to practice forming questions in the past simple. Instruct them to rewrite the given sentences as questions.

Practice: Making Negations

Rewrite the following sentences as negative sentences in the past simple: 

 1. I visited my grandparents. 

 2. We finished our homework.

Give the students another opportunity to practice making negative sentences in the past simple. Instruct them to rewrite the given sentences as negatives.

Common Time Expressions

The past simple is often used with time expressions such as 'yesterday', 'last week', 'two days ago', 'in 2010', etc.

Introduce common time expressions that are used with the past simple tense.

Summary

In this lesson, we learned how to use the past simple tense, make questions, and negations. Remember to use 'did' for questions and negations, and add '-ed' to regular verbs or use irregular verb forms.

Recap the main points of the lesson and emphasize the key concepts and structures learned.

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.