Search results for 'tag:Verbs tag:Simple past' matching tags 'Verbs' and 'Simple past'

Re: unexpected visitor

Avangi — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:35:55 GMT

New2grammar
Why answer and instinct are assigned different tenses?
Avangi
My natural answer ~~was~~would have been no (OR My instinct was to say no,)

This one's a stinker. You could argue that "My natural answer" and "My instinct" amount to the same thing.

My position is that although your instinct may be called a continuing condition, on this particular occasion it "spoke" to you only once, in response to the girl's question, and it told you (simple past) to say "no." Your instinct actually completed the action of telling you to say no, even though you didn't respond. This may sound stupid, but it's the way I'm looking at it. Simple past.

The analysis of the other option is more contextual. I'm dividing "natural answer" into two parts: the instinct/natural part, and the action/answer part. Your instinct may well have spoken to you, but since we're describing the event as "natural answer" we can't say in this case that the action took place. That is, I consider "natural answer" a physical act. You may disagree, and say that the natural answer was floating around in your head, or mouth, even though you didn't speak it. I know it sounds like BS, because there was no action anyway. "Was" is a verb of being. But I maintain that the instinct was, and the natural answer was not. The natural answer would have been, if you spoke it.

Now you know why it took me so long to get around to answering this. - A.

Re: Simple Past Lesson Plan

Mister Micawber — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:22:11 GMT

.
Oh, I can always find something else (but I may have messed up your formatted columns):

Lesson Plan

Preparation

Level : Elementary

Lesson Length: 45 minutes

Objective: To be able to use the Past Simple question forms and short answers.

Target Language: did + subject + base form of verb ( Did your mother call you? )

Question word + did + subject + base form of verb ( What did you do last night? )

Short answers:

Yes + subject + did ( Did it rain? Yes, it did.)

No + subject + didn't ( Did Helen come to the party? No, she didn't. )

Assumed knowledge: Past Simple (regular / irregular verbs, negative form)

Anticipated problems:

Students may use a past form of the main verb to make the question instead of using the base form. E.g. Did you went?

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past Simple.(This is not true for the verb 'be' and sometimes the verb 'have'.)
Point out the verb tense in the question form. Did + subject + base form of the verb
Drill individually and chorally.
Practice making questions. Monitoring for errors and having students unscramble sentences

can also help to work on sentence structure problems.

Preparation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past, using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences. Four pictures of people doing things.

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warmer : Timed Scattergories (*spelling? I don't know this word) with pre-chosen* themes (food, things you do on the weekend, etc) Review homework from last class	TS ST	5 mins
2	Introduction : Have two students stand up for a moment to set the scene; elicit their names. Then they can sit down. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with)	TS SS	1 min
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer gist questions about it to check their understanding.	S ST	3 min
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST	1 min
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + subject + base Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the main verb in questions, but always the base (or dictionary) form	TS	5 min
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST	2 min
7	Elicit: Draw students' attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + subject + did -- Yes, I did. No + subject + didn't -- No, I didn't.	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question-and-answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action on the board : - go to the restaurant / movies / market / bank / etc.) Â» Sandrine: Â« Did you go to the restaurant? Â« Didier: Â« Yes, I did. Â» etc.	ST SS	2 min 5 min
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners' answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure, so it is important to correct any errors by referring to the structures on the board.	PW	5 min
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example, show a picture of two friends having a conversation; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? -- Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture examples as prompts.	TS SS TS	1 min 2 min
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS	1 min
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they themselves did on the weekend. They ask each other questions and give short answers.	PW	5 min
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. For example, use questions and answers in which the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back into the correct order.	S	5 min
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affirmative statements into questions and short answers)

Re: When the teacher (had) arrived, they stopped talking.

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:05:24 GMT

This is the use of the past perfect. You use the past perfect when you have two events that happened in the past and you want to put them together in one sentence. The event that happened firts is spoken in past perfect which means you have to use the auxilary "had + verb in past participle" and the event that happened second is spoken in simple past. The most common connectors are: before, after, when and by the time. The first thing that you have to decide is in which order the events happened. There are many ways to write the sentence that depends on what connector you are using.
e.g. This happended first: all the passangers got out of the plane.
This happened after: the plane exploded.

All the passangers had gotten out of the plane when / before / by the time the plane exploded. or
Before / by the time / when the plane explded, all the passangers had already gotten out of the plane. (already is only for emphasis) or
The plane exploded after the passengers had gotten out of the plane.

Using the past perfect simple (had + verb in past participle)
means that the event that happened first stopped before or long before the second one started.

Using the past perfect continuous or progressive (had + been + verb in gerund ing) means that the first event stopped at the same time the second started.
e.g. I had been driving my new car for only 3 months when my brother crashed it.

I hope this info is helpful.

Re: Simple Past Lesson Plan

mzl14000 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:57:02 GMT

Hello again,
Here is a cleaned-up version of my lesson plan. I'm an insecure wreck, therefore I dare ask for another look at my work...
Thanks again for the earlier help.
MZL

Lesson Plan
Preparation

Level : Elementary

Lesson Length: 45 minutes

Objective: To be able to use the Past Simple question forms and short answers.

Target Language: did + subject + base form of verb ( Did your mother call you? )

Question word + did + subject + base form of verb

( What did you do last night? )

Short answers:

Yes + subject + did ( Did it rain? Yes, it did.)

No + subject + didn't ( Did Helen come to the party? )

Assumed Knowledge: Past Simple ( regular / irregular verbs ,negative form )

Anticipated Problems:

Students may use a past form of the verb to make the question instead

of using the Simple form. E.g. Did you went?

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past Simple.
Point out the verb tense in the question form. Did + subject + base form of the verb
Drill individually and chorally.
Practice making questions. Monitoring for errors and having them put scrambled sentences

in order can also help to work on sentence structure problems.

Preparation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences. Four pictures of people doing things.

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warmer : Timed Scatergories with pre-picked themes (food, things you do on the weekend...) Review homework from last class	TS ST	5 mins
2	Introduction : Have two students stand up for a moment to set the scene; elicit their names. Then they can sit down. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with)	TS SS	1 min
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer gist questions on it to check their understanding.	S ST	3 min
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST	1 min
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + Subject + base Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the verb in questions, but always the base ( or dictionary ) form	TS	5 min
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST	2 min
7	Elicit : Draw students attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + Subject + did Yes, I did. No + Subject + didn't No, I didn't.	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question-and-answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action on the board : - go to the restaurant - go to the movies ) Â» - go to the market - go to the bank Sandrine: Â« Did you go to the restaurant? Â« Didier: Â« Yes, I did. Â» etc.	ST SS	2 min 5 min
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners' answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure so it is important to correct any errors by referring to the structures on the board.	PW	5 min
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use Dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example show a picture of two friends having a conversation ; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture examples as prompts.	TS SS TS	1 min 2 min
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS	1 min
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they did on the weekend. They ask each other questions and give short answers.	PW	5 min
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. I could use questions and answers where the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back in the correct order.	S	5 min
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affirmative statements into questions and short answers)	S	2 min

Re: Simple Past Lesson Plan

Mister Micawber — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:18:55 GMT

.
Overall, it should work fine, MZL. A few corrections and fewer comments:

Objective: To be able to use the Past Simple question forms and short answers.

Target Language: did + subject + base (or 'dictionary') form of verb ( Did your mother call you? ) -- It is best to save the term 'infinitive' for that function.

Question word + did + subject + base form of verb ( What did you do last night? )

Anticipated Problems: Students may use statements without using the auxiliary verb.

E.g. You went out yesterday? -- This is a common question form in current English. It cannot be considered incorrect.

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past Simple.
Point out the verb tense in the question form. Did + subject + base form of the verb

Preparation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warm up : Timed Scatergories with pre-picked themes (food, things you do on the weekend...) Review homework from last class	TS ST
2	Introduction : Using a picture of two young women, elicit from students their names. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with) -- *This picture is a useless prop. Visual prompts, if used, should be rich in potential material.* *Have 2 students stand up for a moment to set the scene; then they can sit down.*	TS ST
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer specific gist questions on it to check their understanding.-- *There is no such thing as a 'specific gist' question. The two terms are antonymic. Questions are either for gist (a general impression) or for specific response.*	S ST
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + Subject + base Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the verb in questions, but always the base (or dictionary) form.	TS
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST
7	Elicit : Draw students attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + Subject + did Yes I did No + Subject + didn't No I didn't	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question-and-answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action the board : - go to the restaurant - go to the movies ) Â»	ST SS
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners' answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure, so it is important to correct any errors by referring to the structures on the board.	PW
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use Dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example, show a picture of two friends having a conversation; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture examples as prompts.	TS SS TS
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS SS
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they did on the weekend. They ask each other questions and give short answers.	PW
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. I could use questions and answers where the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back in the correct order.	S
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affirmative statements into questions and short answers)	S

Simple Past Lesson Plan

mzl14000 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:40:33 GMT

Would anybody be kind enough to tell me what they think of this lesson plan I've made for my TEFL module ? Any suggestions ??
Thanks so much .

MZL

Lesson Plan
Preparation

Level : Elementary

Lesson Length: 45 minutes

Objective: To be able to use the Past simple question forms and shot answers.

Target Language: did + subject + infinitive form of verb ( Did your mother call you? )

Question word + subect + did + subject + infinitive form of verb

( What did you do last night? )

Short answers:

Yes + subject + did ( Did it rain? Yes, it did.)

No + subject + didn't ( Did Helen come to the party? )

Assumed Knowledge: Past simple ( regular / irregular verbs ,negative form )

Anticipated Problems: Students may use statements without using the auxiliary verb.

E.g. You went out yesterday? Instead of, ( Did you go out yesterday? )

Students may use a past form of the verb to make the question instead

of using the Simple form. E.g. Did you went?

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past simple.
Point out the verb tense in the quuestion form. Did + subject + infinitive of the verb
Drill individually and chorally.
Practice making questions. Monitoring for errors and having them put scrambled sentences

in order can also help to work on sentence structure problems.

Preperation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warmer : Timed Scatergories with pre-picked themes (food, things you do on the weekend...) Review homework from last class	TS ST
2	Introduction : Using a picture of two young women, elicit from students their names. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with)	TS ST
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer specific gist questions on it to check their understanding.	S ST
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + Subject + Infinitive Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the verb in questions, but always the infinitive.	TS
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST
7	Elicit : Draw students attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + Subject + did Yes I did No + Subject + didn't No I didn't	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question and answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action the board : - go to the resaurant - go to the movies ) Â»	ST SS
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure so it is important to correct any errors by refering to the structures on the board.	PW
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use Dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example show a picture of two friends having a conversation ; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture expamples as prompts.	TS SS TS
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS SS
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they did on the weekend. They ask each other questions ans give short answers.	PW
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. I could use questions and answers where the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back in the correct order.	S
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affermative statements into questions and short answers)	S

Re: correct usage of were and was

CalifJim — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:08:46 GMT

I don't find imagine if to be a very usual combination of words. It strikes me as ungrammatical. It's imagine that ..., so I don't think your questions about if really fit here. I would say Imagine that a unicorn was found today. And none of the rules about verb forms after if really apply.

Other combinations:

If a unicorn were found today, I would certainly be surprised. (The causality of the antecedent-consequent relationship exists here.)

If a unicorn was found today, it certainly escaped my notice. (Not a true antecedent-consequent relationship.)

were goes with would.

was goes with a simple past.

Re: Please, help me with my questions

Grammar Geek — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:17:55 GMT

Hi Thammy,

1) Please, is the underlined order below, correct?

"It's a beautiful, big and great museum"

These three make an awkward combination. I think "great" is probably the problem. It's a big, beautiful museum. It's a terrific, big, beautiful museum. (Don't say "great big" because that sounds like it's very big insetadn of both big and great.)

2) - Is it also correct to write/say "coastal cities" for those that are spotted near the coast ?
You can certainly say "coastal cities" but I don't think you want to say "spotted." Do you mean "located" or "sited"?

3) What is the correct verb tense for this sentence:

" I have stayed for four weeks in 2007 and made new friends there."

(or)

"I stayed for four weeks in 2007 and made new friends there."

Generally when you refer to a specific time in the past ("in 2007") you use simple past.

3b. (In both sentences I believe it's better to omit the preposition "for" to avoid 'cacophony', isn't it?)

The first "for" may be glided over. I stayed fuhfour. I wouldn't omit it outright.

Re: Need help over here.

Mr Wordy — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:08:00 GMT

1. Well, "had" is the past tense of the verb "have", but I think you're asking specifically about its use as an auxiliary to form the past perfect tense of other verbs:

I played -- simple past tense

I have played -- present perfect tense

I had played -- past perfect (or pluperfect) tense

So, even though "have" on its own is present tense, it forms a past tense with other verbs. If you do a Google search for these tense names then you will find tons of information on their uses. See, for example, http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfect.html (this page describes the past perfect; all the other tenses are linked down the left hand side).

"I have played football yesterday" isn't right. "have played football" has the general sense of "played football on one or more unspecified occasions in the past", and it doesn't go with "yesterday", which is a specific occasion. Instead you would say "I played football yesterday".

2. "Never" can be used with a variety of different tenses, depending on when the thing in question wasn't/isn't done or didn't/doesn't happen. A couple of examples:

You never told me that you loved me -- means that you didn't tell me in the past, but you might tell me now (or in the future).

You never tell me that you love me -- means that you didn't tell me in the past and you don't tell me now. In other words, the absence of telling continues up to and including the present.

It's not possible to use the present tense with "never before", so "I never do that before" is wrong. It should be "I never did that before" (or "I have never done that before").

Ticket-office

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:35:52 GMT

Please, what do I say:

- A film that is a hit of ticket-office =

- Is it correct to write : seismal/seismic shock ( ? )

In: "Security lies in the weaponry each country has" , does the infinitive of the underlined verb is To lie ? And how about its simple past and past participle forms?

Is there a specific word to refer to someone who forecasts/foresees what is going to happen in the world such as natural catastrophes, calamites, wars, etc...?

Thank you so much,
Anon.