Thursday, October 20, 2016

Simple Past

For the verb, "to be," use was or were.

was for 1                                                                           I was                      we were
were for 2+                                                           =          you were                you were
always were for you                                                        he,she,it was            they were

Practice was vs. were

Another explanation and quiz from grammarbank.com

J.J. English' Overview with examples:




Most verbs add -ed to show that they are past.
They happened one time and it finished.








English Page Explanation



Real English -- What did you do yesterday?



I really like this next video except for two tiny points. I think we often put two verbs together in continuous and perfect tenses.  In those cases, however, one of the verbs is always a form of be or have.  

Also, when there are two syllables or more, we only double the final consonant before the ed if that syllable is stressed. For visit, we stress vis, so we don't double visited. Both the British and American versions of traveled are correct because British people stress the vel more than Americans do. Students shouldn't have to memorize long lists of which verbs double the final consonant before the ed.













Ventures Online goes with our textbook, but I can't give you direct links to the exercises on past tense.
 Note where to go before you click on the link.

Ventures Online  -- Go to Level 1 (red) Unit 8 -- Lessons B -- Verb "to be"
                             Go to Level 1 (red) Unit 9-- Lessons B and C  Past Tense
                             Go to Level 1 (red) Unit 10--Lessons B Past tense 
                             Go to Level 2 (blue)  Unit 3 Lessons B and C Past Tense
                             Go to Level 2 (blue) Unit 6 Lessons B and C Past Tense
                             Go to Level 2 (blue) Unit 8 Lessons B


The ELF chants are easy, but at a good speed to practice listening and speaking.

ELF Past Chant 1

ELF Past Chant 2

ELF Past Chant 3

Since this next video -- with tons of clear examples of past tense -- is long, you may want to start at minute 1:50.  I really want my students to make similar videos.





Pronouncing the -ed at the end of past tense forms



Just a song with some past tense verbs -- "Summer Nights" from Grease













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