Facultad de Humanidades Inglés con Fines Generales y Académicos I

Escuela de Ciencias del Lenguaje Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras

Teacher: Ángela Echeverry Unit 2

Unit: 2: Key figures in the professional field

Lesson task: The scientific method and a short episode of its evolution
EGP: To talk about finished actions, facts, and habits in the past.
Grammar & Vocab: Simple past tense, irregular verbs, making questions, biographic information
Logical connectors: so, and, but

Activity 1.

1.1 Take the following Questionnaire

Weekend activities

KAHOOT: Answer the questionnaire. Then respond the questions below

1.2 Now, think about the following questions.

1. What do the questions have in common?

2. Did you see these verbs: be, study, play, stay, watch, exercise, go, work?
3. Were the verbs presented in the questions in the same form?
4. What was different about it?
5. Why do you think that is?

The Past Simple Tense

The Past Simple tense (or Simple Past) expresses an action in the past taking place once, never, several
times. It can also be used for actions taking place one after another or in the middle of another action.

Activity 2: REGULAR AND IRREGULAR VERBS

1. Identify both regular and irregular verbs

https://wordwall.net/es/resource/37611582

2. When is the simple past tense used?

 USE
The Past Simple is used:

1. To express a finished action in the past,

- I went to Liverpool last week,
- John left ten minutes ago.
- They attended a virtual concert yesterday.

2. To express actions which follow each other in a story.

Daniel walked into the room and stopped. He listened carefully. He heard a noise coming from
behind the curtain. He threw the curtain open and then he saw…

PAST SIMPLE AND TIME EXPRESSIONS

The following time expressions are common with the Past Simple.

in summer.
when I was a teenager.
yesterday morning.
I did it in 2011
four days ago.
last night.

Taken and adapted from Soars, Liz & John. New Headway English Course. Oxford University Press. 1996.

The Past Simple is used with time expressions (in blue) informing about when things exactly happened.
Subject Verb Place Time
I went to the supermarket yesterday.
You traveled abroad last year.
Mateo / He left out to exercise last week.
Sara, my cousin, / She stayed with us 4 months ago.
We watched a good movie on Sunday.
You studied in school between 2008 and 2019.
My parents / They got divorced In Cali when I was a child.
 FORM

Go to the following link to learn more about the Past Simple

https://www.mindomo.com/es/mindmap/4747e4cea0b4432db2e79bb12c09760e

Activity 3: SPEAKING - WRITING

Find someone who______in his/her last Question If affirmative_ NAME
vacation.
watched more than five movies/series
met people from school
traveled abroad
went to the beach
played more than three video games
uploaded photos to social media
ate junk food
spoke English
read books
slept more than ten hours per night
was at home most of the time
went to a concert, show or parade
 PRONUNCIATION OF “ED” ENDING

REGULAR VERBS: are those verbs that end in –ed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TPe_x80Pgs

Activity 1. Check the pronunciation of the –ED Ending.

REGULAR VERBS (-ED) Pronunciation

Base form Simple past /t / /d/ /id /

1. arrive arrived ARRIVED

2. work worked
3. visit visited
4. like
5. develop
6. stay
7. want
8. watch
9. love
10. listen

IRREGULAR VERBS: are those verbs that donot take the -ed ending for the Past Simple and Past Participle
forms. Some irregular verbs do not change; cut-cut-cut , while others change completely; draw-drew-drawn, etc.
Activity 2. Complete the following chart.

IRREGULAR VERBS
BASE FORM SIMPLE PAST
11. make
12. go
13. buy
14. send
15. write
16. feel
17. know
18. leave
19. tell
20. say

Activity 3
Complete the questions and answers in the table with did and didn’t.
A: ( ? ) (+)
What _____ you do on your last vacation? B: I -----------my sister in Leticia the largest city
in the Amazonas Department.
A: _ you have a good time? B: (-)
Well, ________ like the food.
A: _ you have a good journey? B: (+) / | (-)
____________________

Activity 4
Your niece has just come back from holiday. You ask her about it. Write yes / no questions or Wh- questions.
Example: ( where / go?) Where did YOU go?

5.1. (go / alone?) _______________________________

5.2. ( how long / stay there ?) _______________________________
5.3. (stay / at a hotel?) _______________________________

Activity 5
Read the following sentences. Put the verb in parentheses into the correct form, positive or negative.

Example: People made the candy by hand, so it was very expensive. (be)

6.1. The film “Fast and Furious 7” wasn’t very good. I ______________ it very much. (enjoy)
6.2. I was very tired, so I ________________ to bed early. (go)
6.3. Rachel wasn’t hungry, so she ________________ anything. (eat)

Taken and adapted from: Murphy, Raymond. English Grammar in Use. Second Edition. Cambridge University Press.
Activity 6

Activity 7
ABOUT YOU

What did you do yesterday? Write a paragraph about your weekend. Include 8 different activities.

Last weekend I…
Activity 8

Complete the email message. Use the information from the chart. Write the verb in the Simple Past.

SEE BUY GO FLY TAKE DRINK GET STAY

LISTEN TRAVEL EAT Not HAVE IS HAVE TRY

From: Diana

To: Pedro

Subject: My last holiday

Last summer I _______ to London and Paris with my parents, my sister and my grandmother. First, we __
________ to London by British Airways. In London we ________ _ at our friends’ home for one week.
We ________________ a lot of famous places in London. We _______________ a lot of photos. We went to Oxford
Street and to the Europe's largest bookshop, Waterstone's Piccadilly. We ______________ some books and
________________ coffee and _____________ some pastries. In the evenings we went to pubs. I _____ to music and
I ________Guinness. The next week we ________________ to Paris by “Eurostar” train. We traveled through the
Channel Tunnel. It’s the longest underwater tunnel in the world.

In Paris we stayed in a hotel near Disneyland. It ___________ my present for my mother’s birthday. We _
______________ a great time. Paris is an amazing city. We took a lot of photos and _ _______________ a lot of
souvenirs. We __________ any problems. It was a fantastic holiday.

Your friend,

Diana

SIMPLE PAST TENSE OF “BE”

❖ Last year she was 22, so she is 23 now.

❖ We were tired after the journey but we weren’t hungry.
❖ Those shoes are nice. Were they expensive?

Activity 9

Where are you now? …………………………………………………………....

Where were you yesterday? …………………………………………………………....
How old are you now? …………………………………………………………....
How old were you last year? …………………………………………………………....
How is the weather today? …………………………………………………………....
How was the weather yesterday? ………………………………………………………….

Activity 10

Read the following letter and fill in the blanks with the simple past form of the verb BE (was / were /wasn’t /
weren’t)

Hi Frank,

You asked me about my vacation. There ______________ good and bad. It ______________ a long trip. The airline
______________ terrible. Everything ______________ late , and the airplane ______________ filthy with food on
the floor and papers everywhere.

The weather ______________ very hot. The beach ______________ amazing! It really is white, and it’s very clean.
In fact, it ______________ spotless, and the water ______________ warm and blue. Our hotel ______________ huge,
but very nice. The food was excellent, but the traffic ______________ terrible.

At the end of our vacation, the beaches ______________ relaxing at all because they______________ very crowded
and noisy.

Love, Gloria

Activity 11
“ I had a bad weekend!”

Listen to the dialogue and try to complete this conversation.

Raúl: Hi, Nicole. ____________ you ____________ a good weekend?

Nicole: Yes, I did. But I feel tired today.
Raúl: Really? Why?
Nicole: Well, on Saturday I ____________ the house
and ____________ tennis. Then on Sunday I ____________ in the
country.
Raúl: And I bet you studied, too.
Nicole: Yeah. I studied on Sunday evening. What about you?
Raúl: Well, I ____________ ____________ the house and I didn't study.
I ____________ in bed and ____________ TV.
Nicole: That sounds like fun, but did you exercise?
Raúl: Sort of. I ____________ golf on my computer !!
 Read through the table and try to understand the connection between the usages.

Use Examples Explanation

1. completed • I bought a new car • These are short actions or events
past action yesterday. performed and completed in the past. The
• fact that both Columbus and Shakespeare
Columbus reached America are dead (in the certain past), calls for using
in 1492. the Past Simple, with or without stating the
• William time of the action.
Shakespeare wrote many
plays.

2. discontinued • As children, • These facts were true in the past but are not true now. The period
past fact we were quite messy. when these facts were true in is both finished and defined (childhood,
• The data showed an last month).
increase in sales last month.

3. finished past • Miguel lived in Bogotá for • Bogotá was her permanent place of residence for 5 years. This period
state 5 years. in his life is over. He does not live there now.
• He worked in PUJ Bogotá • He worked in PUJ Bogotá only during the years of his first marriage.
during his first marriage. When he got divorced, he stopped working there.
• At first, he believed that • Also for expressing beliefs and opinions in the past that are not true
his career was more now. He does not believe that anymore.
important than family life.

4. terminated past • Before the accident, • They did these actions regularly, as habits, only in the past. They do
habit he played tennis twice a not practice these habits anymore.
week.
• He drove the same car for
20 years.
5. sequence of past • I went out dancing until • Short actions that happened one right after the other, as in story-
activities very late, slept for 4 telling and reporting.
hours, woke up and took a
shower. On my way to
work, I met the guy from
yesterday’s party and…
6. habits in the • As children, our • Actions or habits repeated in the past that are no longer practiced.
past with mother used to read us
“used to” bedtime stories.
• I used to eat butter a lot,
but now I don’t touch it.
I didn't use to drink coffee,
though.

These are some links for additional exercises:

Video for pronunciation of REGULAR VERBS in the PAST (–ED)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_WYJClELoc

Interactive exercise for pronunciation of REGULAR VERBS in the PAST (–ED)

https://www.englishclub.com/esl-games/pronunciation/matching-ed-1.htm
https://test-english.com/grammar-points/a1/past-simple-regular-irregular/3/