Here’s an activity you can use to practice the difference between the Past Simple and the Past Progressive. Remember: use the past simple if the action happened once in the past; use the past progressive if the action happened over a period of time in the past.
Past Simple and the Past Progressive
This activity is also available in PDF.
There are some nouns in English that are only plural. In other words, they don’t have a singular form. If they only have a plural form, the verb agrees with a plural.
If you want to use the singular form, here are some suggestions:
When deciding whether to use the past simple or the past progressive, consider this:
The past simple is used to describe an action that happened once and now it’s finished. The past progressive describes an ongoing action in the past that is now finished.
Read this dialogue and decide which verb tense fits the context better:
Past Simple vs. Past Progressive
This activity is also available in PDF.
Test yourself: Write a sentence that begins with a prepositional phrase. Don’t forget to punctuate correctly!
Example: In the morning, my alarm goes off at 6:00 am.
Here is an activity that might help you use prepositional phrases as transitional phrases:
Students learning English tend to use only will or going to to express the future, but did you know that the present progressive can also be used to express events in the near future?
The present progressive form of the verb (to be + ___-ing) stays the same; all you have to do is add context, and you’re finished! Until you get comfortable using the present progressive to express the future, you can become familiar with the form and meaning with this activity:
This activity is also available on a combined PDF document.
Test yourself: write a sentence with a two-word interjection. Don’t forget to punctuate correctly with interjections.
Example: No way! I didn’t say that!
Click here for an activity to practice punctuation with interjections (also in PDF).
In some languages, the adjectives agree with the noun that they modify. English is not one of those languages. In English, adjectives are never plural…with one exception. The exception is the word “sports” when it is used as an adjective.
You can support a sports team, use sports equipment, or have lunch at the sports bar. However, you can’t support a goods team, you can’t use heavies equipment, and you can’t eat lunch at a locals bar. Why? Because the words in italics are adjectives, and you know adjectives can’t be plural.
Click here for an activity to help you identify and correct plural adjective errors.
Test yourself: Write a sentence that contains at least one of every part of speech. The parts of speech are: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions, interjections, and prepositions.
Example: Hey! Are you on a comfortable chair or not?
These activities might help you identify the different parts of speech:
Deciding whether to use is or has when describing someone or something is very common issue for ESL students. If you don’t know whether to use is or has, follow this guideline to help you decide:
There is one more thing to pay attention to…
Here’s an easy-reference chart to help you:
| is | adjective | She is beautiful. |
| has | noun | He has talent. |
| has | noun + adjective | He has green eyes. |
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