Simple Past

In  lesson 1.2 we saw simple past. Here you have a summary of what I explained in class.

There are two kinds of verbs: REGULAR and IRREGULAR verbs. To get the past form of the first group, just add -ED to the infinitive; e.g. to work --- worked;  to play --- played
You have some rules for the spelling of this form:

• when the verb ends in -E you only add -D; e.g.: move --- moved . Logically you cannot write moveed because the pronunciation should be /mu:vi:d/
• when the verb ends in CONSONANT+VOWEL+CONSONANT and the vowel is stressed you must double the last consonant of the infinitive like in these examples: fit --- fitted; prefer --- preferred but only if it's stressed, if not you leave it: open --- opened   listen --- listened (you don't double the consonant)
• when the verb ends in CONSONANT+Y you change that Y for -IED like copy --- copied; but not in verbs like play --- played

Another problem we have with the REGULAR verbs is the way of pronouncing the ending -ED:

• /d/ : vowels and most consonants (voiced consonats, that is, with vibration); e.g. lived, played, opened, preferred
• /t/ : with voiceless consonants, and the most common ones are /k/, /p/ and /∫/; e.g. worked, stopped or finished
• /ɪd/ : when the last sound is /d/ or /t/ you add an extra syllable; e.g. end  ---  ended /'endɪd/ ; fit ---fitted

You can see this video to practise the pronunciation; click here

The IRREGULAR verbs are those which have different forms in past and/or past participle and they are presented in a long list you must learn by heart (de memoria), usually in alphabetical order like in this video but I recommend studying them in different ways:

1. Choose a letter and try to say as many verbs as possible; e.g. H --- hurt-hurt-hurt; hit-hit-hit, hide-hid-hidden, have-had-had, hear-heard-heard and so on. It's funnier if you work with someone else!
2. Learn them according to the pattern: A-A-A (cut-cut-cut), A-B-B (buy-bought-bought), A-B-C (write-wrote-written) and A-B-A (come-came-come). You can watch this video to help you: click here
3. By meaning like senses (hear-heard-heard; see-saw-seen; smell-smelt-smelt...), money (buy-bought-bought, sell-sold-sold, spend-spent-spent...), learning (learn-learnt-learnt, teach-taught-taught, , write-wrote-written...), speaking (speak-spoke-spoken, say-said-said, tell-told-told, understand-understood-understood...), everyday activities (do-did-done, cut-cut-cut, put-put-put, sleep-slept-slept, eat-ate-eaten...) Notice that most of these typical actions are irregular verbs while more "modern" ones are regular, especially those which come from Latin: copy, phone, film, register, etc.
4. Try to recognise similar spellings and pronunciation: -ought /ɔ:t/ (bring-brought-bought, buy-bought-bought, seek-sought-sought, think-thought-thought...); - /i:/- /e/ - /e/ (read-read-read, feel-felt-felt, meet-met-met, leave-left-left...); /əʊ/-/u:/-/əʊn/( grow-grew-grown, blow-blew-blown, fly-flew-flown...) or /əʊ/ - /ən/ in the last form (write-wrote-written, drive-drove-driven, ride-rode-ridden... and also notice other similarities in the present and past form. This is a video about this topic but in a different way.

You also have some pages to find a list of irregular verbs:

http://www.englishpage.com/irregularverbs/irregularverbs.html : with the meaning but not the pronunciation

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/irregular-verbs/ : this includes the 3rd person in singular in present

http://www.saberingles.com.ar/lists/irregular-verbs.html : with the translation into Spanish but without pronunciation.

Both regular and irregular verbs use the auxiliary DID for questions and negative form; e.g. Did you go to work last Saturday?  No, I didn't. Notice that the reference of time is very important, using words such as:

• Last ________
• When I was a child _____
• In _____ (past dates)
• Yesterday _________
• __________ ago

To finish with, you should practise with these verbs to get familiar with them. Here you have some exercises to practise:

• exercise 1 : a page with many exercises
• exercise 2 : divided in different levels of difficulty
• exercise 3 : with different games to practise
• exercise 4: the traditional form of studying the list
• exercise 5: a video with the 50 most used irregular verbs
• exercise 6: 5 more exercises about irregular verbs oriented to ESO students

NOTE: there is also a previous post in this blog I published in May 2009 about past tenses and the pronunciation:

If you are interested in practising the ending of regular past tense have a look at this chart and them do this exercise. It's quite interesting. When you have it clearer, try to do this practice with pronunciation. It's slow but you can practise with it. To finish with, you have a listening comprehension; it's a bit difficult but the questions aren't difficult. Have a look but don't worry if you can't do it perfectly.

And after so much grammar, let's sing a song by Adele. First do this exercise of filling the gaps and then go to this link Set Fire to the Rain. 

I don't know it you've noticed it but I love Adele.

Revision of Present and Past Simple

We're going to revise this tense but keep in mind that it's not the same as the Spanish simple present: this tense is connected to routines, habits or frequent actions. That's the reason why we normally use frequency adverbs with this tense. There are also verbs that are normally used in present simple such as need, think, feel, want, like, have and so on. Let's see some examples:

• I come to English class twice a week and I usually use public transport.
• I think I need a new notebook. This doesn't have enough pages so I want to buy a new one today.
• I like watching TV at night when I have time and I don't feel too tired.

If you want to practise with this tense go to these links:

• grammar explanation: click here or here.
• exercise 1 - exercise 2 - exercise 3   exercise 4

To finish with, have a look and sing this funny song. The singers use past simple a lot so we are going to try to see which is the present tense of each verb. To listen to the song click here: I don't care, I love it 

Use of PLAY, DO or GO + DO-DOES-DID

In this first lesson we are speaking about what you do in your free time. We have here the exercise we did in class; click HERE.
If you want more practice, go to these exercises:

• exercise 1  exercise 2  exercise 3

We also worked with questions and the use of  AUXILIARY and we've seen DO-DOES-DID. We did this exercise to practise; click HERE. If you want to do more exercises you can go HERE or HERE. Once you've finished with grammar, let's go with music. "Eternal Flame" is a good example of how to make questions; click HERE. For further practice with questions you can use these exercises:

• exercise 1     exercise 2      exercise 3     exercise 4    exercise 5

I hope you find this helpful. See you in class.

Less versus Few and Comparative

It's frequent to misuse less and fewer, especially in a comparative sentence. Have a look these two sentences and decide which is wrong:

• In this course there are less students in class
• In this course there are fewer students

When you use plural (countable nouns) the right form is FEW and FEWER and you use LITTLE and LESS for singular (uncountable nouns) or to modify an adjective.

You can go to these links where you can find a really good explanation and some exercises at the end of the page to practise with. Click here or here
If you need further practice, do these exercises:  exercise 1 - exercise 2

Past simple versus past continuous

These two verbs are very similar to the ones in present but they are more connected, especially when you use when or while. The only thing you should keep in mind is that there are 2 simple past forms in Spanish but only one in English so in some context you use both past continuous or past simple. Have a look at these examples and the possible translation:

• While she was having a coffee she saw the car crash  ( Mientras se tomaba un café...)
• She had a coffee with Peter  ( Se tomó un café...)
• She had coffee with Peter every week (Se tomaba un café con Pedro todas las semanas)

Here you have a couple of links with an explanation and an exercises at the end. Click here or here

If you want to practise some more here you have more exercises:

• exercise 1      exercise 2

Present Simple versus Present Continuous

To start with I usually called present simple as habitual present because it shows better when we use this tense. It's referred to habits, routines, general truth or similar statements, while present continuous is referred to a particular moment of an action or something that happens in a particular time or period of time.
Have a look these examples:
   What do you do?  ---  I'm a teacher; I teach English at school
   What are you doing this week? -_- I'm explaining present tenses to my students
In many occasions, habitual present is used with frequency adverbs such as usually, often, hardly ever, sometimes, etc.
If you want to practise with these tenses you can do these exercises:

• exercise 1: a good explanation about both tenses with exercises at the end
• exercise 2: another longer explanation but it's useful for the examples and it includes many special cases such as have, think, want, etc. Very few exercises but interesting.
• exercise 3: short simple explanation and some exercises to practise
• exercise 4: a filling the blanks exercise
• exercise 5: a very complete page with grammar and exercises at the end.

See you in class!