A selection of English ESL past simple tense printables

Fill in the gaps activity to practise past simple. There is a mystery that the students need to solve. What happened to Mrs. Thomas and why did she disappear suddenly.

The Mystery Of The Missing Mrs. Thomas - Past Simple

It's a Reading comprehension activity about Justin Biever with activities in past simple 

Justin Bieber Biography

In this worksheet you'll find a paragrapgh (related to Harry Potter's story) to complete with the right form of the verbs in the simple past tense (regular and irregular forms) and a reading comprehension activity.

Harry Potter Meets the Past Tense

reading comprehension to practise past simple. A reading comprehension exercise. Read the passage and answer the questions - possibly with matching. A reading for intermediates.

Reading Comprehension - Past Simple Practice

This worksheet is to practice the past tense of regular verbs in all the forms - affirmative, negative and interrogative. It is a rather easy worksheet for early learners.

Past Simple Of Regular Verbs - All Forms

Let's face it, the seemingly endless list of irregular verbs in the past simple never excites students and they basically just have to learn them so...make it fun and play bingo! This is a fun way to practice or revise some common verbs in the past simple. You call out the infinitive and your students have to say the past simple form of the verb and find it on their bingo cards. If you haven't played bingo with your class before, model how to "call bingo" first and then let your students take turns. Put the call cards in something creative to add to the fun! (I use a velvet drawstring bag.) Past simple bingo works well with both adults and older kids/teens.

This upload includes call cards for 18 common irregular verbs (take, see, go, say, get, eat, have, feel, write, buy, come, think, do, be, make, give, wear, drink) plus 8 different bingo cards in both colour and b&w. Print, cut out, laminate and enjoy! (I'll also be posting Past Simple Bingo 2 which uses 18 different verbs).

My students also like this past simple ball game: use a small soft ball (stress balls are perfect!), say an infinitive and then throw the ball randomly - but gently! - to a student. The student then has to say the past simple form of the verb before throwing the ball back to you. Set time limits if there's a lot of hesitating to keep the momentim going and see how quickly you can pass the ball around the class.

Past Simple Bingo - Irregular Verbs

A simple worksheet to practise the past simple of regular verbs. This is a low level intermediate quiz for students to practice the correct formation of the past simple.

Past Simple Regular Verbs - Use Given Verb

This worksheet helps students revise the past simple of both regular and irregular verbs. They complete the text with the past simple of the verbs, form sentences from scrambled words, and write suitable questions about the text. 

The Titanic Disaster - Past Simple - Reading Comprehension

Read the comic strip about Garfield carefully and answer the questions based on the information presented in the text. Pay attention to the characters, actions, and events in the story.
 


 The comic strip is written mainly in the Past Simple Tense.

Comic strip - Past Simple

Here is a simple story I  imagined on the theme of Halloween , students read and put the verbs betweeb brackets in the past or present simple. Then you can ask them some  to imagine one of their own

Scary Halloween Story - Present & Past Simple

Romeo and Juliet 

This worksheet helps students revise the past simple form of some of the most common irregular verbs. They look at the pictures and fill in the gaps with the verbs.

Past Simple Quiz - Fill In The Correct Form

Past simple tense

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

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how to interpret what was said in English

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how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

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how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

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Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

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3,086 Past simple tense English ESL worksheets pdf & doc