How can I teach my students the past perfect tense, without mentioning the rule or the fact that I'm teaching them past perfect?
I mean through easy examples, how could I do that, and get them involved, and also any ideas for a nice activity?
Thank you...
My students are learning english as a second language, so I've got to keep it simple
:)
2007-02-09 22:46:50 · 4 answers · asked by Dr Aziz 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
My way is to draw a timeline with dots for past, present and perfect. Excuse the ASCII art, especially if yahoo screws it up:
- - - - - - - - - - @ - - - - - - - - - - @ - - - - - - - - - - @ - - - - - - - - - ->
. . . . . . . . past . . . . . . . present . . . . . . . future . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . - - - - - - - -| . . . . . - - - - - - - - >
. . . . . . past perfect . . . . . present continuous
I show present continuous as a short arrow that passes through the present to show the action started in the past and has continued into the future.
I show past perfect as another arrow, but in the past. It shows that the action ended in the past (hence the pipe symbol, "|"). It could show when it started in the past, but that's not critical to the point.
> When you lose the past, the future makes no sense
> Living in the present tense
- Geddy Lee, "The Present Tense" (2000)
.
2007-02-09 23:02:27 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Past Perfect in English is built conjugating the auxiliary verb to be or to have in present tense, followed by the past participle of the verb that defines the main idea.
e.g.
To eat:
I have eaten, you have eaten, he has eaten...
To go:
I am gone, you are gone, he is gone....
In other languages like German is exactly the same:
Essen:
Ich habe gegessen, du hast gegessen, er hat gegessen...
Gehen:
Ich bin gegangen, du bist gegangen, er ist gegangen...
Somewhat different and much easier is in Spanish, for in this language you always use only the verb haber
e.g. Comer:
Yo he comido, tu has comido, el ha comido...
Ir:
Yo he ido, tu has ido, el ha ido....
2007-02-10 07:12:03 · answer #2 · answered by QQ dri lu 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
That's a tough one, just wonder around the web until you find a web site that you canrelate too.
http://www.english-the-easy-way.com/Past_Tense/Past_Perfect_Tense.htm
2007-02-10 07:01:12 · answer #3 · answered by pecksun8 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ask your student to do some homework and tell them donot dring it to class and ask them one by one have you done your home work they must say yes i have done but it is not here at the moment ( if you punish them a litte symbolically it is better )
at the end ask them tomarrow bring home works when they came ask them to repeat this sentence
master i had done my home work but you didnot care and punished me
2007-02-10 07:16:40 · answer #4 · answered by mohammad g 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋