OK, now I’m free to start work on some new themes for you!
One I want to do is a past tense verbs song.
I’ve got some really cool ideas built up but I want to know which verbs you teach first.
Do you teach the “….. ed” regular ones?
Or the irregular ones?
If you could write up your top 5 past tense verbs (or even sampleย sentences) you like to teach first (or which ones the kids like the best!) then I’ll get to work on some demos for you on the Beta Test / Top Secret Laboratory page!
(Remember the magic is in keeping the list cool but *small* )
Comments in the blog comments please!
As always, thank you for your help and support!
Richard
Earn More From Your Passion For Teaching English!
In Korea, the first lesson taught after summer vacation is ‘How was your vacation?’
How was your vacation?
It was great!
What did you do?
Did you…?
I went to the beach
I visited my grandparents
I studied
I played video games (popular answer)
I watched t.v
่ฏใฃใ๏ผๆฅใใผใผใผใผใผใผ๏ผ
If naturally no other one pops up I usually teach irregulars first; my top five list:
(you like 5 recently, don’t you?!
went
ate
drank
forgot (this one usually pops up naturally very early age)
and then I’m not sure about the sequence
saw, lost and found
Yes, Yes, Yes,
I love Margit’s list. It leaves a lot of room for storytelling!
mine are
went
ate
saw
had
played
I teach first:
-went
-ate
-did
-played
-studied
Great idea, I really need this!
I usually go with the regulars +
– went
– was/were
– said (very useful in story-telling!)
– had
– saw, ate, found
My verbs are:
went
played
visited
drank
ate
watched
hi man
i think it is better to start with iregular verbs
go went
do did
read read
keep kept
have has had
eat ate
write wrote
My verbs are:
had
was/ were
went
saw
said
ate
+ some regular ones such as jumped, opened, played …..
mine would be
had (as this can be used instead of ate and drank)
went (as people tend to go to lots of places, and can replace visited)
played (kids tend to play lots of games. speaking of which, the books usually speak of video games, insn’t that an old fashioned expression, shouldn’t they be computer games (that’s what i call them anyway)
did, didn’t, did, didn’t, did to, didn’t did, did did
watched (yep they watch a lot of TV, not many bird watchers though)
My list would be:
was/were
went
had
played
watched
I would like to teach the past tense as following words
1. Be Verbs (were/was)
2. came/went
3. know/knew
4. eat/ate
5. sleep/slept (Taiwanese students really like to take this as their primary answers for questions like “What did you do last Saturday?”
My first 4 verbs (present and past)I really concentrate on in the beginning are:
have/had
like/liked
need/needed
want/wanted
The ones I taught in elementary school were:
listened
watched
played
read
studied
Hello Richard, finally nice weather today! Hope you are doing well.
OK the verbs:
to eat
to drink
to play
to do (sports)
to watch
My words are
– regular: played, watched, listened, studied, stayed
– irregular : sang, swam, went, came, slept
And
What about
go ~ing / play (sport or musical instrument)??
– irregular : go/went (fishing, skiing, shopping, swimming ~~)
– regular : play/played (soccer, tennis, baseball ~~~)
was
were
went
had
played
ran
did
was/were
studied
went
watched
ran
ate
had
payed
walked
After was/were I teach
“What did you do yesterday?”-I PLAYED football.
“Was it good? -Yes, it was great!
“What did you do yesterday?”-I WATCHED TV.
“Was it good?-Yes, it was OK.
“What did you do yesterday?”-I USED a computer.
“Was it cool?- Yes, it was great!
“What did you do yesterday?”-I VISITED my grandmother.
“Was she happy?-Yes, she was happy.
“What did you do yesterday?”-I CLEANED my room.
“Was it good?”- No, it was horrible!
Here are my favorite ones:
IRREGULAR
go – went
do – did
say – said
eat – ate
see – saw
REGULAR
play – played
listen – listened
watch – watched
want – wanted
like- liked
Hello Richard,
Did
Had
Went
Was/were
Ate
Played
Walked
Watched
Great idea! Tks a lot
regular: danced, clapped, jumped, walked, watched
irregular: was/were, sang, ran, ate, went
Went
Had
Was
Ate
Rode
I teach verbs like:
Be,come,go,like,eat, drink and them sit, jump, move….. I try to teach at the begining every day verbs.
These are the verbs that are most ueful (in my opinion)
was/ were
went
had
did
liked
hope that’s useful! x
was, were – went – (ed) – saw – took – came – bought, for older kids
for the yungest – I wached TV, I cooked spagetty, I listened to the radio, I walked slowly, I stoped, I claped my hands, I stomped my feet, I opened my eyes, I closed my eyes, I laughed, I cryed, I smiled, I was happy, you were saad,
GOOD LUCK – I KNOW IT WILL BE JUST GREAT
I think some good verbs are:
REGULAR: because you can use them to tell stories or what you have done in your holidays
play
visit
invent
discover
study
IRREGULAR:
was / were
had
did
come
was/were
had
went
saw
wrote
did
maybe a song in the past with questions and answers would be a good idea, for example (something like that) Did you see an elephant? Yes, I saw it. Did you go… Yes, I went…and so on…
However, we all are sure you will come up with something very suprising and exciting again!
Hi Richard,
Did you get an email I sent you about this?
1. past simple verb to be
2. past simple regular
3. past simple irregular
4. past continuous
5. present perfect
6. past perfect.
A storyline would help association for the past simple and after each tense you could contrast with the present. e.g. I drank coke yesterday but today I’m drinking milk.
There are infinite possibilities.
What about vocab? Are we limiting the words to stimulate learning the structures first and widen vocab later? Alternatively we could introduce very few words(about five) each time and build up,however this would mean a progressive course which yours really isn’t.
My lists are:
– Regular verbs: walk, play, watch, listen,stop
– Irregular verbs: go, have, eat, drink, sleep
I think you should write TWO SONGS: ONE FOR REGULAR VERBS AND THE OTHER FOR IRREGULAR ONES
Hi Richard!
My top five list:
be/was/were
go/went
do/did
have/had
play/played
Thank you for your wonderful ideas!
I always start with regular verbs after was, were
My list would be:
regular: played, stayed, visited, travelled, wanted
irregular: went, wrote, had, left, ate, broke
Go went gone Hiphopsoftware pack, it’s an escellent rap song to learn past verbs. My pupils love this pack and the learn a lot grammar with it easily and having fun because they love rap.
They learn the verbs they usualy need in their speach, regulars and irregulars:
played, went, got up, had a shower//lunch// dinner//read, was/were born, ate, drunk, visited, listened,did homework, cooked, made a cake…
thank you very much for helping us so much.
Please buy the hiphop software, pupils love it and learn by heart easily.
I teach the the irregular past tense..
What did you do on the weekend?
The answers to this question bring out these past verbs..before we start styudying past verbs
Ate, went, saw, had, bought,was, did
What did you eat?
What did you see?
Where did you go?
The ones I choose are: saw, went, wrote, ate, slept
Richard,
I always teach was/were and regular verbs first.
1-was/were
2-play, want, watch, call, live.
3-write, go, have, take, buy.
saludos desde Argentina,
Sabrina
This comes up during class…”finished”. After a game, an activity or a song sometimes the kids say “finish” with no “ed” and it sounds like they are trying to tell me they’re from Finland!
Hi Richard,
I haven’t started yet teaching past tense form to my elementary students. But for the adults I usually got started with iregular verbs: here are my top five
go- went
do- did
eat- ate
have- had
give -gave
Thank you
These are the ones that come up most often-
went
ate
drank
had
got
they tend to pick up ‘did’ quite easily as they just copy my model questions and substitute for ‘do’.
Richard–sorry this is late but here it goes! I don’t actually teach a huge amount of verbs (sad, I know!). But the one’s I do in past tense are: went to, ate, studied, played. I teach a bunch in present tense (drink, sing, skate, play, go, jump, kiss, etc). Good luck on the new stuff!!
I agree with Nena and the verbs she chose;same as me!
Both regular and irregular would be great if you could manage it.
Thanks.
I think the verbs should be ones they will use the most in frequency.
Was, were
had
went
did
could
I think they should be ones we use in the classroom
What did you do yesterday in English?
I read a book.
I wrote a sentence.
I listened to a song
I sang the song.
I talked to my classmate.
I went home!
And what did Baby Monkey do?
(repeat with he as a subject) reinforcing the idea that he/she/it don’t change in past simple.
๐
Wow 42 comments – thank you!
And the winners are………
34 went
23 played
22 had
22 ate
18 was
15 watched
14 did
8 saw
I’m just wondering how you teach the difference between “watched” and “saw”?
Also “did” & “was” seem a little out of pattern.
So just in case the next four runners up were …
studied
drank
wrote
visited
Thank you everyone and hopefully I’ll have some very funky demos for you soon!
In elementary, I wouldn’t teach the difference between saw and watch
Just use an example
I watched TV
I saw an elephant
For the higher levels, I usually say that look is something you do consciously, watch is something that changes as you look at it, and see is something you may or may not do consciously .
Thank you to everyone for this amazing list! The lesson is now live! http://genkienglish.net/whatdidyoudo.htm