Past simple vs. Past continuous

Future Simple

• We use WILL + infitive to talk about something that we think, believe or know will happen in the future: "We won´t be late".
• We can also use WILL when we suddenly decide to do something:

A: I´m leaving.
B: I´ll come with you.

Exercise 1:
Exercise 2:
Exercise 3:
Exercise 4:
Exercise 5:
Exercise 6:
Exercise 7:

Definite and Indefinite articles.

"Hay un DVD con esta revista. Quiero ver el DVD ".
"DVDs son caros. ¿Dónde están los DVDs? "

• Utilizamos un / una con un nombre singular, cuando hablamos de una cosa, pero no es claro que lo que queremos decir:

"Hay un DVD con esta revista ". (No está claro qué DVD que quiero decir.)

• Utilizamos el con un sustantivo en singular o en plural, cuando está claro que cosa o cosas que queremos decir: "Quiero ver el DVD ". (Sabemos que DVD.)
• No utilizamos un / una con nombres en plural: "Él tiene un problema. " "Tiene problemas".

Ejercicio 1:
Ejercicio 2:
Ejercicio 3:
Ejercicio 4:
Ejercicio 5:

Presentación de mi PLE.

En esta entrada a mi blog quiero presentar a mi PLE "Personal Learning Environment" que en castellano sería "Entorno de Aprendizaje Personal".

Aquí en los primeros diez botones incluí blogs que explican, enseñan y te acercan a novedades que tengan que ver como enseñar hoy a través de las Tics y como mi área es la enseñanza del Inglés agregué blogs que sean específicos de dicha actividad.

Luego en los siguientes once botones sumé usuarios de TWITTER que alimentan mi entorno debido a que son personas o espacios que tratan acerca de las Tics y sus usos como herramientas en la práctica de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Los siguientes cinco botones son hashtags en Twitter que también están relacionados con lo mencionado anteriormente.

Finalmente, en las últimas siete botoneras muestro mis etiquetas en DELICIOUS y contactos específicos para mi entorno.

Me parece de gran ayuda y utilidad este PLE para tener todo " a mano" con respecto a todas las noticias de educación, las Tics y la enseñanza de la lengua extranjera (Inglés) ya que tenemos todo en un solo lugar sin necesidad de estar buscando acerca de estos temas por toda la Web. Esto me permite leer cada día lo que necesito o me interesa.

La dirección de mi PLE es la siguiente:

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/dedondeaprendo

Immediate Future tense

• We use be going to + infinitive to talk about things we have decided to do or not to do in the future: 

           I´m going to stay at home tomorrow.

• We often use these time expressions when we talk about the future: tonight, tomorrow, next week / year / month, in January, in the summer, on Monday, this week / weekend / month: Are you going to watch the match tonight?

Affirmative:
I´m going to watch.
She / He / It is going to watch.
You / We / They are going to watch.

Negative:
I´m not going to watch.
She / He / It isn´t going to watch.
You / We / They aren´t going to watch.

Questions:
Am I going to watch?
Is she / he / it going to watch?
Are you / we / they going to watch?


Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3

Past Perfect tense

"Sarah went to a party last week. Paul went to the party too, but they didn´t see each other. Paul left the party at 10:30 and Sarah arrived at 11:00. So: When Sarah arrived at the party, Paul wasn´t there. He had gone home".

Had gone is the past perfect.

The past perfect simple is had + past participle (gone / seen / finished etc.)

Sometimes we talk about something that happened in the past:

• Sarah arrived at the party.

This is the starting point of the story. Then, if we want to talk about things that happened before this time, we use the past perfect (had.....):

• When Sarah arrived at the party, Paul had already gone home.

Affirmative:

I / You / We / They / He / She / It had gone.

Negative:

I / You / We / They / He / She / It hadn´t gone.

Question:

Had I / you / we / they / he / she / it gone?

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Past Continuous

We use the past continuous to talk about:

• an action that was in progress at a time in the past. The action started before that time and continued after that time: I was watching TV at six.
• two actions that were in progress at the same time in the past: I was talking to Luke while Kate was making dinner.

We use while with the two verbs. Notice when we use a comma (,):
I was talking to Luke while Kate was making dinner.
While Kate was making dinner, I was talking to Luke.

Affirmative:
I / She / He / It was playing.
You / We / They were playing.

Negative:
I / She / He / It wasn´t playing.
You / We / They weren´t playing.

Question:
Was I / she / he / it playing?
Were you / we / they playing?

Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5

Simple Past tense

• We use the past simple to talk about actions and situations that started and finished in the past.
• To form the past simple of REGULAR verbs, we add -ed to the verb. Be careful of the spelling changes:

walk - walked       arrive - arrived       stop - stopped       try - tried

• Some verbs do not form the past simple with -ed. They are IRREGULAR:

go - went       buy - bought        meet - met

• We often use these time expresions with the past simple: yesterday, last night/ week / weekend / month / year, two hours / days / weeks / months / years ago, in 2002 / April.
• We can also use when + subject + verb in the simple past:

I met him when I was in London.       When I was five, we moved to Brighton.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

Exercise 6

Exercise 7

Simple Past tense

And.... you can have fun with videos such as "French learning English" or others. You may enjoy them after you watch this video.

I´d like to introduce you to .... Miss Grammar!!!!!

Present Perfect

• We use the Present Perfect to talk about an action that happened in the past and has a result in the present: I´ve forgotten his name. (I can´t remember it now.) She hasn´t washed the car. (It isn´t clean now.)
• We often use already, yet and just.
• Already means "before now": I´ve already told her.
• Yet means "up to now". We use it in negative sentences and questions: I haven´t asked Sam yet. Have you asked Sam yet?
• Just means "a very short time ago": I´ve just spoken to her.
• Already and just come after have/has. Yet comes at the end of the sentence or question.
• We can use the present perfect to talk about experiences in our lives up to now: I´ve never been to India. I´ve worked in a hotel.
• We often use never and ever when we talk about experiences in our lives. We use never in statements and ever in questions: I´ve never been to India. Have you ever been to India?
• We can use the present perfect to talk about something that started in the past and continuous in the present: I´ve known Jack for six months. (I met him six months ago and I know him now.)
• We often use for and since: we use for to say how long something has continued: I´ve been here for a week.; we use since to say when something began: He´s been a student here since September. (He became a student in September and he is a student now.)

FORM:  Have / Has + a verb in the Past Participle

Affirmative:

I/You/We/They have been to Europe.

She/He/It has been to Europe.

Negative:
I/You/We/They haven´t been to the USA.

She/He/It hasn´t been to the USA.

Question:

Have I/you/we/they been to the USA?

Has she/he/it been to the USA?

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

Exercise 6

Present Continuous

We use the Present Continuous to talk about something that is happening now, at exactly this moment. We often use it with time words and phrases like now, right now, at present, at the moment, Listen!! or Look!!: She is working at the moment.

Affirmative:
I am working.
She/He/It is working.
You/We/They are working.

Negative:
I´m not working.
She/He/It isn´t working.
You/We/They aren´t working.

Question:
Am I working?
Is she/he/it working?
Are you/we/they working?

Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3

Past Simple of "be".

• We use the past simple of be to talk about the past.
• We often use these time expressions with the past simple: yesterday, last night/week/month/year, two hours/days/weeks/months/years ago, in January, in 2007:

 "They weren´t at the café yesterday."   "He wasn´t at home last night."

Affirmative:

I / She / He / It was

You / We / They were

Negative:

I / She / He / It wasn´t (was not)

You / We / They weren´t (were not)

Questions:

Was I/she/he/it?

Were you/we/they?

Short answers:

Yes, I/she/he/it was.                                            Yes, you/we/they were.

No, I/she/he/it wasn´t.                                         No, you/we/they weren´t.

You will be able to practise this tense later in another entry.

Present Simple (DO / DOES)

We use the present simple:

• to talk about something that is always or usually true: I live here.  Children ask a lot of questions.
• to talk about habitual actions: She often phones me.  They play football every day.
• in affirmative sentences, we add -s or -es in the third person singular (he, she, it): I live / He lives / We watch / She watches / They fly / It flies
• in negative sentences we use: I / You / We / They don´t live in Mexico.  He / She / It doesn´t live in Uruguay.
• in questions we use: Do you / I / we / they live in Mexico?  Does he / she / it live in Uruguay?

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

Definite and Indefinite articles.

We use a / an with a singular noun when we talk about something for the first time . We use the with a singular or plural noun when we talk about something for the second time:

• There´s a shirt here and a sweater. The sweater´s Rob´s and the shirt´s mine.
• Here are my shirts and sweaters. The shirts are clean but the sweaters are dirty.

We use a /an when we talk about a thing but we do not say which thing it is:

• She works in a shop in London.

We use the when it is clear which thing we mean because there is only one:

• I live near the post office.

We use a / an when we:

- talk about a person´s job: Jenny´s a teacher.

- describe something or someone with the verb be: That´s a good book.

We use the with:

- musical instrumets: Rob plays the piano.

- the names of cinemas, theatres, museums and hotels:

the Picturehouse, the Globe Theatre, the British Museum, the Hilton Hotel

We do not use a / an / the with:

- sports and games: We sometimes play football.

- school subjects: I like Biology.

- meals: When´s dinner?

- the names of streets: Baker Street

- the names of countries, cities and towns: Japan, Rome, Cambridge 

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

For more information about "Indefinite articles" watch the video below.

Indefinite articles

 Indefinite articles.

Have / Has got

We use have got:

• to talk about possession: I´ve got a computer. They haven´t got a car.
• to describe somebody: She´s got blue eyes. Has he got dark hair?
• to talk about illnesses: I´ve got a headache. Have you got a cold?

Affirmative: I/you/we/they ´ve got (have got) ////// he/she/it ´s got (has got)

Negative: I/you/we/they haven´t got (have not got) ////// he/she/it hasn´t got (has not got)

Question: Have I/you/we/they got? ////// Has he/she/it got?

Short answers: Yes, I/you/we/they have. ////// Yes, he/she/it has.

                       No, I/you/we/they haven´t. ////// No, he/she/it hasn´t.

Exercise 1

Present Simple (am, is, are)

We use be:

• to say who somebody is or what something is: I´m Sam. That´s my ticket.
• to describe something or somebody: Your shoes are nice. He is tall.
• to say where somebody is from: He is American. We are from Brazil.
• to talk about people´s jobs: She is a teacher. My father is a doctor.
• to talk about somebody´s age: I´m nineteen. Sally is twenty one.
• to say how we feel: We are tired. He is angry.
• to say where somebody or something is: She is at home. Your bag is on the chair.
• to talk about somebody´s health: I´m fine. Kate is ill.

Affirmative
I´m (am)
he/she/it ´s (is)
you/we/they´re (are)

Negative
I´m not (am not)
he/she/it isn´t (is not)
you/we/they aren´t (are not)

Question
Am I?
Is he/she/it?
Are you/we/they?

Short answers
Yes, I am.                   Yes, he/she/it is.                                 Yes, you/we/they are.
No, I´m not.                No, he/she/it isn´t.                              No, you/we/they aren´t.


Exercise 1: