Madrid Teacher series: Victoria's last weekend

This week's lesson in our Madrid Teacher series is devoted to Básico 2 and Intermediate 1 students. Victoria tells us about her last weekend.

The three-minute video clip is a good opportunity to revise the past simple in English.

First of all, watch the video through to get the general idea of Victoria's last weekend.
Now let's watch the video again but this time let's pay attention to the different verbs Victoria uses to refer to her routine at the weekend. We are just going to focus on the verbs in the past simple, both regular and irregular ones.
To make the activity a bit easier, we are going to divide Victoria's weekend in five different parts:
Friday evening
Saturday morning
Saturday after lunch
Saturday evening
Sunday

Watch the segment corresponding to each of the parts above and note down the verbs in the past simple Victoria uses. Yes this is a kind of dictation. Careful! Victoria is a fast talker. You may have to stop the video to be able to note down the verbs.

You can check your answers by reading the transcript below, where the the verbs in the past simple are highlighted.

What about you? What did you do at the weekend? Was it a typical weekend for you?



Hi, I’m Victoria Fontana from MadridTeacher.com and this is a video to help you learn English. Today we’re going to be talking about the past tense and studying a little bit about how to pronounce the past tense and I’m going to tell you about what I did last weekend to do this. Please pay careful attention to the pronunciation of the past tense and especially to the irregulars.
So, last weekend was a typical weekend for me. Friday evenings I have three classes, beginner, intermediate and advanced, and we had a fun class this past weekend, my students are fantastic so, no problem. And, after class a friend of me called me to go to have a drink near my house and I met with two friends, with Cristina and Guada. Cristina had gone to Berlin the weekend before so she came with some souvenirs for us and usually when I get together with my friends we talk about typical things, girl things and talk about boys basically. And Friday evening I came home pretty early because I was tired and on Saturday I had more classes.
So, Saturday morning I woke up. The first thing I always do when I wake up is eat breakfast and also feed my cats because they need to eat too and then I got ready, took my shower and prepared my class for… at ten o’clock I have class, and my first student came, we had a wonderful class, my second student came and after that was about lunch time so I decided to meet up with some other friends for lunch.
And after lunch on Saturday I had to run some errands, and, I did… I went to the Corte Inglés, I went to get some things for my cats, I have two new kittens and on Saturday afternoon I kind of just rested for a while.
Saturday evening I was invited to dinner at a friend of mine named Mark and Pepas, they had just had a new baby and they bought a new house so they decided they wanted us to come and see their new house. They live outside of Madrid so I had to take a train to Pozuelo and it was a nice evening, we had a normal, typical dinner, fantastic food because both of them are excellent cooks. I came home pretty early on Saturday because two nights out is pretty rough for someone my age.
On Sunday morning I woke up and very late, at around 12 o’clock which is my only day to sleep in. So, I woke up and had breakfast of course, typical and fed the cats and I decided that I would just relax on Sunday, and watch a movie, take it easy, make myself a nice lunch and basically that was pretty much my whole weekend and Sunday evening I just prepared for the next day and back to work on Monday. Thanks. Hope to see you again soon at Madridteacher.com

Irregular verb wheel

Irregular verb wheel is one of the latest additions to the online MacMillan Dictionary.

It is an addictive online game where students of all levels but especially those in the lower ones, Básico 1 and Básico 2, may put their grasp of irregular verbs to the test.

You have to answer five different questions about each verb with a time limit of two minutes.

The only drawback of the game is that there are no audio files, so students who want to work on the pronunciation of irregular verbs, which are often mispronounced, will have to type in the irregular verb in the search box of the online MacMillan Dictionary or use the great online pronunciation dictionary howjsay, which we dealt with on this entry of the blog.

Irregular verbs online game

Lower level students (Básico 1 and Básico 2) will enjoy this online game I found through The English You Need blog.

Playing the game is very easy. There are two sentences. One in the present simple, the other in the past simple. Drag and drop the letters to spell the past simple form of the verb.

Irregular verbs game

This is an online grammar game that I have found out through Patricia Pérez, from The English You Need blog.

It is good reading practice and good grammar revision of the irregular verbs in English with varying degrees of difficulty, but it is specially suitable for lower level students, Básico 1 and Básico (elementary).

You can play on your own or two people can play together, with what we can add a nice touch of competition to the game. We can also select the difficulty, ranging from easiest (100) to most difficult (500). The verbs are separated in groups, according to the first letter of the infinitive.

Present perfect vs past simple glogster

A few days ago Daniela Tomatis from The Machine Goes on blog published a glogster (interactive poster) to explain the differences of usage between present perfect and past simple, while providing some activitities for students to practise this grammar point.

On Daniela's glogster you will find two video explanations (one in Italian, the other one in English), two interactive activities, two games, and two 'post-its' on irregular verbs, which include pronunciation work.

All in all, this glogster is an entertaining and useful tool for students to come to grips with the differences between the present perfect and past simple.

Thank you, Daniela.

Routine in the past

Now that the school year is coming to an end it is the right moment to revise some of the key grammar points that we have been studying throughout the course.

Regular and irregular verbs pose a great deal of difficulty for lower level students (Básico 1 and Básico 2), that is the reason why the activity Routine in the Past, from the blog The English you Need, is more than interesting.

By clicking on the image below you will be redirected to Patricia Perez's activity, which is divided into two parts: You have to put the pictures in the right order and complete the verbs in the text in the right form.

If you want to revise how to pronounce irregular verbs, check this blog entry.

If you wish to revise how to pronounce regular verbs, check this blog entry.

You can extend the activity by talking or writing about what you did yesterday or last weekend, using some of the verbs in this activity and paying careful attention to the pronunciation.

Key:

woke, looked, was, was, jumped, ran, took, had, was, got, put, cleaned, brushed, went, made, had, left, took, wanted, dropped, broke, picked, threw, went, put, went, closed, saw, waited, gave, looked, saw, was, was, needed

Verbs in space

A verb is a word that shows action. A verb tells what the subject of a sentence is doing.

This information seems too obvious, doesn't it? You may be right, but at the same time you may change your mind after playing Verbs in Space. It might not be that easy to spot the verbs in the sentences.

Give it a go and enjoy.

Self-study activity:
Have your notebook at hand and note down the verbs the meaning of which you don't know. When you finish playing, look up the meaning of some of the verbs so that you can learn them.

H/T to DDeubel.

Game to practise irregular verbs

From Many Things comes this game to practise irregular verbs in English. It has a fast pace and it's good revision. Don't forget, though, to make a note of the verbs whose pronunciation you are not sure of, and check it out with the English Pronunciation Dictionary on the left-hand side of this blog.

How to talk about the past

How to talk about the past seems like the perfect place to learn and revise everything which has to do with the past simple: grammar, pronunciation, activities, revision activities, written practice, regular and irregular verbs. I don't think you can include a more comprehensive practice in a single presentation. The place is a must for all language students!

I learnt about this site through The English you Need blog.

Irregular verbs again!

The Spanish educational system gives too much importance to the printed letter. Consequently, when we learn a foreign language we sometimes show a tendency to simplify pronunciation issues and, if in doubt, we pronounce new words as we would do in Spanish.

It is always a good idea to make sure what the right pronunciation of a new word is.

Talking of pronunciation, when learning irregular verbs we are more than happy if we can remember the spelling of the verbs, but we neglect their pronunciation, which can lead to serious communication problems. This video can help us learn how to pronounce irregular verbs in English.

You can also check this entry to revise the pronunciation of irregular verbs.

What did you do yesterday?

Watch the video where a number of people answer the question "What did you do yesterday?".

Self-study activity: Watch the video through (without stopping) for the first time, so that you can have an idea what the people talk about.

Watch the video for a second time (or as often as necessary) and pause after each speaker, so that you can note down the different activities the people did yesterday or in the morning. You only have to write the verbs the speakers use (example: cooked, slept, worked).

When you have compiled a list of the speakers' actions, read the verbs aloud so that you can contrast your pronunciation of the verbs with that of the speakers on the video.

Finally answer these questions:
What do you do yesterday?
What did you do in the morning?



You can check your answers here.

Irregular verbs

Self-study activity: Practise the pronunciation of the English irregular verbs with this presentation prepared by the teacher Luis Ignacio Pérez Navarro:
Irregular verbs -Part one e
Irregular verbs -Part two