STEPS FOR MAKING VERB TENSES EASIER

Many students are concerned about learning the tenses of the English language. They have likely heard horror stories about how difficult and confusing they are – about the irregular verbs and the many exceptions to the rules. It does sound terrifying if only the difficulties are discussed, without any method or organized ESL Curriculum for approaching the tenses in a step by step fashion is introduced. Perhaps if the teacher has an understanding of the similarities in the way that the tenses are constructed it will help the students.

Can we approach the tenses as if we were building a pyramid? ESL Curriculum and ESL Activities should all approach verb tenses this way.  Let’s start at the bottom with the foundation and work to the top – that wonderful point where verb tenses are automatic and the student speaks fluently.

Oral and written practice using each step before moving on to the next is vital. The students will need to have extensive practice in the whole class group, the small group, and individually as they write. Practice with ESL Activities and ESL Games will make the student’s responses automatic and prevent them from thinking about the grammar. No one can consider grammatical structure as they talk. Each step must be automatic before the students progress to the next.

Our pyramid might have these steps:

1) The Present Tense

Start with the verb “to be”.

Teach the conjugation of the verb “to be”

Questions:

Are they friendly? Is she happy?

Positive answers: They are friendly. She is happy.

Negative answers: They are not friendly. She is not happy.

Not is placed after the verb “to be”.

Contractions:

(The contraction is made with the verb “to be”)

Positive: She’s friendly. They’re friendly.

Negative: She’s not friendly They’re not friendly.

Practice many examples.

2) To Do

Explain that verbs other than “to be” – use “to do” for the negative.

Teach the conjugation of the verb “to do”.

Questions: Do they laugh? Does he walk? Do you answer?

Positive: They laugh. He walks. I answer. (No other verb is needed for the positive answer)

Negative: the verb “to do” is used with the main verb.

They do not laugh. He does not walk. I do not answer.

Not is placed after the verb “to do”.

Practice many examples.

3) Contractions

Positive: They laugh. He walks. I answer. (Same format as with “to be”)

Negative: They don’t laugh. He doesn’t walk. I don’t answer.

(The contraction is made with the verb “to do”)

Practice many examples.

4) The Past Tense

Teach the past tense of the verb “to do”

Questions: Did they laugh? Did he walk? Did you answer?

Regular verbs add “ed” to form the past tense.

Positive: They laughed. He walked. I answered. (Same format as the present tense using “to do”)

Negative: Not is placed after the verb “to do” before the root form of the main verb.

They did not laugh. He did not walk. I did not run.

Contractions:

Positive: They laughed. He walked. I answered. (Same format as the present tense using “to do”)

They didn’t laugh. He didn’t walk. I didn’t run.

Practice many examples.

5) The Past Tense Using “To Be” in the Question

The past tense is expressed using “to be”. (The format is the same as the present tense.)

Teach the past tense of the verb “to be”

Question: Were they friendly?

Positive answer: Yes, they were friendly.

Negative answer: No, they weren’t friendly.

Question: Was she happy?

Positive answer: Yes, she was happy.

Negative answer: No, she wasn’t happy.

Practice many examples.

English verbs are complicated but it helps the students if similar patterns are pointed out.

- positive answers follow the same pattern for present and past tenses when “to do” is used.

- “not” follows the verb “to be” or “to do” when forming the negative.

- regular past tense verbs are formed by adding “ed”.

- “to be” has the same question and answer format for the present tense and the past tense.

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