A selection of English ESL songs in past simple printables

This worksheet reinforces the differences between "used to," "would" and the simple past.  Students listen to the Coldplay song "Viva la Vida" and then decide whether the things mentioned in the lyrics are past habits, past states or past one-off actions based on which of the three methods of describing the past are used.  

Viva La Vida - Coldplay

An activity to help students practise the past simple passive voice.



Learners first must try select the correct verb for each gap and the change the verb from the base infinitive into the passive voice in the past simple.



Learners then practise their aural skills by listening to the audio from the songs (1-2 times): https://youtu.be/3302eSI-zJU



Finally, learners self correct their answers by watching the video above.



Depending on nationality and first language, special attention should be paid to the pronunciation of ‘ed’ past participles.

Past simple passive voice (in songs) - worksheet and video

Lyrics of four songs (so you or your students can choose the one you/they like better) in which students should detect the past simple form of some given verbs. Once they have the past form, they should define which verbs are regular (and say why) and which ones are irregular.

Pink, Adele, Rasputin & Gloria Gaynor Meet the Past Tense

Activities on irregular simple past verbs and verb tenses, used to, the present simple, the future. Afavorite song of most students. Fill in the blanks and complete the exercises.

Katy Perry - Roar - Song Based Exercises

A video worksheet

The objective of the worksheet is to revise Past Simple.

WHILE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES

1.	Students listen to the song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK06SgtXin0 ) and try to remember as many troubles as they can. Check their memory after listening (discuss only the troubles that students mention, some phrases may be difficult to understand).

2.	Distribute worksheets.

3.	Students listen to the song again and do exercise 1. 



POST-LISTENING ACTIVITIES

1.	Students read out the lyrics. The troubles that were not discussed earlier can be discussed now.

2.	Students identify the tenses in the song (Present Continuous and Past Simple, the worksheet focuses on Past Simple). Students say how to form positive sentences.

They find Past Simple from the lyrics and write the verb forms on the board into two columns (regular and irregular verb forms). 

Students make positive sentences using the verb forms on the board.

Regular verbs (spilled, climbed, snitched, filled).	

Irregular verbs (broke, hid, bought, put, tied, made, did, tore).

3.	Past Simple Negative. 

Students explain how to form negative sentences in Past Simple. They do exercise 2. Which sentences are from the song and which are not? 

4.	Past Simple Interrogative.

Students explain how to form questions in Past Simple.

Students make up questions (about this morning) using the verbs on the board. This can be done in pairs.

5.	Students do exercise 3. 

Afterward, they can listen to the song once more and sing along if they wish. 

Students brainstorm why the boy did all the mischief. They will come up with reasons or excuses.

6.	Students write a letter to Santa as if they were the boy from the song. They explain in the letter why they should get presents in spite of the troubles they have gotten into. 

NB! This can be done in groups or individually. Students may use the letter template copied behind the worksheet or they can write it in their notebooks.

7.	Students read out their letters.

Christmas Songs + Exercises - Nuttin' for Christmas Song

A cut and paste activity to go with Super Simple Song "If you´re happy".  Can also be used for slightly older students to draw face in instead of glueing.

If you´re happy

A worksheet for teenagers (I suppose mostly for girls)). 

Can be used while learning the Past Simple Tense.

Filling the gaps with irregular verbs (the infinite form is given in brackets)



Justin Timberlake – Cry Me A River- Song Gap Fill

this is a worksheet on irregular verbs. Students have to watch the video "the past simple tense in songs" and complete the lyrics with regular or irregular verbs and then , classify them.

Regular and Irregular Verbs in Songs

This worksheet deals with the use of past simple tense on the lyrics of the song Hymn for The Weekend featuring Beyoncé. Ss will listen to the audio and fill in the spaces the right past tense form of the verb while they sing along. This song can be shown after talking about festivities since the video depicts dances and people during the  Phagwa festival which is celebrated to mark the beginning of spring and Hindu mythology. In Suriname, Holi Phagwa is a festival of colour.

Coldplay - Hymn For The Weekend

A nice song from Taylor Swift. It´s featured on the soundtrack of the movie "Valentine´s Day", in which she starred. The worksheet has many different activities: fill gaps with past simple verbs, complete vowels, match lines, choose the right words, order lines, correct mistakes, find extra words, split in words and a post-listening exercise to identify various verbs in the lyrics. I hope you like it!

Song: Today was a fairytale - Taylor Swift

A song activity based on the famous song of Wham, covered by Taylor Swift. There are several exercises, during the listen there are gaps to fill in past tense, multiple choices, then after they have to find specific verb tenses in the lyrics, find the meaning of some words/expressions, and discuss a couple of expressions. I hope you like it! Happy holidays!!!

Song activity: Last Christmas

This is a great song by U2 to present or practice PRESENT PERFECT TENSE. It has different verbs, regular and irregular and on the worksheet you can also find some pictures to trigger speaking. There are also verbs in the past simple and present simple to make a contrast.

U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I Am Looking For - Song Gap Fill

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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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>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

15 Songs in past simple English ESL worksheets pdf & doc