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Grammar - Tenses
Objectives
To understand the difference between present perfect and simple past tenses.
Resources
Lined paper
Today's Lesson
Spelling
Review spelling words to prepare for your test at the end of the week. Use Spelling Frame Spelling Tiles and Segment Silhouette to learn this week's words.
Main Activity
Eat or drink something as you start the lesson, e.g. take a sip from a cup of tea. Say: That is a nice cup of tea! Then finish the drink. Say: That was a nice cup of tea! Ask: What is the difference between the two sentences? Write the two sentences down. Ask your student to show you the verbs: is / was (from the verb to be). Explain that the difference is that the first sentences was in the present tense; the second sentence was in the past tense. The two tenses are essential for writers and speakers to say whensomething is or has happened. When we write and speak, we can change the tenses.
Repeat the above scenario and discussion as necessary, to consolidate. Ask your student to act out a short action and rehearse past and present sentences.
When ready, move on to explaining that there are two very specific types of tense that we speak and write in. Look at these two sentences as examples:
Sentence one: I saw the movie.
Sentence two: I have seen the movie.
Ask: When might the person in the first sentence have seen the movie? When did the person in the second sentence see the movie? How are they different? When would we say sentence one, and when would we say sentence two?
Sentence one uses the simple past tense. Sentence two uses the present perfect tense.
“I saw the movie” and “I have seen the movie” both refer to an action that was finished in the past. But there is one important difference: “I saw the movie” suggests that you saw the movie at a specific time in the past. “I have seen the movie” suggests that you saw the movie at an unknown time in the past.
Use the simple past to talk about a finished action that happened at a specific time. For example, “I played football with my friends last night.” The adverb “last night” is not required, but it does help clarify that the event happened at a specific time.
That’s the easy part. Now let’s talk about the present perfect. You form the present perfect by using “have” or “has” followed by the past participle form of the verb. For example, “I have eaten my dinner.” This sentence emphasises the present effect of a past event – eating dinner. The exact time of eating is not important.
Now watch the following video which will consolidate the learning from the lesson so far.
Access the Past Tense resource and ask your student to work through the task.