past simple, learning new words & online resources
Today I present to you what I’d describe as a tool box of information about the past simple AND along with that I’m sharing some of my own useful tips for learning new language, whether it’s irregular verbs or generally expanding and enriching your English vocabulary. To help you on this wondrous journey of discovery I’ve even put together a big list of online resources. Lastly, but by no means leastly, you are invited to become an Irregular Verb Spotter – Yes! Reach out to your geeky, nerdy side and start collecting verbs with my beautiful irregular verb spotter chart…
I realise this is all quite practical, but if you were looking forward to more creative activities or reading and speaking tasks, have no fear this will be the focus of next week’s blog which will look at Storytelling and the narrative tenses.
If you end up using any of these, I’d really love it if you could send me some feedback. You can post something in the comments section below or send a message. I spend many hours putting these resources together and I’m very happy to share them for free, but it makes all the difference when I hear back from people!
What’s in today’s bunch of free downloads:
To start off there’s a pretty comprehensive package of past simple explanations, summaries and exercises. The past simple form chart clearly lays out the form and uses of the past simple. The regular form is quite straightforward but can be tricky when it comes to getting the correct pronunciation of the -ed ending, so the past simple regular pronunciation summary explains the rules for this and includes exercises to practice. For irregular verbs there are some delightful gapfill exercises and then there’s the irregular verb spotter chart…
The idea of this chart really connects with the learning new vocabulary summary. Many of us associate learning new words with being given a list by our school teacher which we have to learn for a test and so it’s often a daunting and rather unpleasant thought. My summary document gives some suggestions of how to approach this kind of memorising as well as encouraging a more holistic approach to expanding your vocabulary, by using as many different sources of reading, writing, listening, watching and speaking as possible, which is where the irregular verb spotter chart comes into its own. Rather than be confronted by intimidating lists of words to learn, let the words come to you and enjoy the satisfying sensation of collecting them and appreciating them one by one!
For this purpose, and the general enhancement of your English learning, there is the online resources document. A really useful list of sites for practicing your English. From functional things like online dictionaries, interactive grammar activities (I’ve focused on past simple examples), to the more enjoyable things like free audio books, ebooks, videos, podcasts… it’s only scratching the surface, but hopefully for anyone who doesn’t know where to start it’ll give some pointers.
Previous Blog Posts
If you’ve enjoyed this post, or found it useful, why not check out my previous blogs with a whole range of free downloadable lessons:
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