A selection of English ESL past simple tense printables

Activities on Just give me a reason by Pink ft Nate Ruess

Song Pink

Gap filling exercise. Students must listen to the song and fill the gaps with the words they hear. They also have to put the verbs in past simple.

Last Christmas- Simple Past Exercise

The story then clock on the activty excellent for a test or as a warmer!

Reading Comprehension

To motivate the class here you have some flashcards about past simple.

Flashcard about past simple

Simple past, read the text and answer the questions, complete the text with the verbs in the simple past and write the words in the correct places about the climate changes.

Simple past

Card with sets of five questions each using different verbs in order for students to mingle and ask each other. Students should answer in complete sentences.

Simple past questions

This game is for beginner students to practice Past Simple Questions. Through repetition students will memorize the question structure better and will have more fun practicing it than by writing.

Start with a couple of questions on the whiteboard (Did you go to the gym? Did you eat lunch at 12? Did you write a letter?...) and elicit the basic question structure (Did + Subject + Verb + Object) (please note you don't tell the students the structure - they will manage to figure it our by themselves from the examples).

Then, erase some words in those questions to elicit the Wh- question words (Where did you go? When did you eat lunch? What did you write? Why...? How..?).

After that, look at this handout (the first page) and elicit the full questions on the left.

If you work with one or two students, they will ask you the questions and you'll only answer with the words in the tiles that are dark grey on the second page. As you do, the student must draw in the same tiles on their handouts.

Continue this with the rest of the questions, and then the students must tell you what picture they got.



If you're working with a group of students, first do the aforementioned and then give them some time to make up their own picture and proceed with their partner.



Since Word files here often get distorted, here's a link to a PDF file https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LD-lSns0B4N_JnoQhgoRtBxTlctMN2PM/view?usp=sharing (let me know if it doesn't work). 

Past Simple Questions game

this activity turned out to be effective when it came to get students to listen to a youtube synopsis of this Shakespearean tragedy while filling the gaps of its script

ROMEO AND JULIET

worksheet to practise after the holiday, what did they do on St. Valentine's day? they put the verbs in brackets in affirmative, negative or interrogative.

Past Simple St. Valentine's 

Different activities based on the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Very useful for children. Use of past simple.  Also good for describing, comparing and contrasting characters.

 Hope you like them!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Different listening exercises using a son (what goes around comes around)

Listening exercises using a song

Students have to read the restaurant review and do the true or false exercise and then answer the questions about their experiences. There is a full key included. This ESL worksheet will fit in with the theme of food and eating. Students will need to be able to recognise the passive voice.

Tripadvisor restaurant review - reading comprehensioin

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 express likelihood, probability in English

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how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

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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3,026 Past simple tense English ESL worksheets pdf & doc