grammar worksheet

Simple Present Vs. Present Progressive – Grammar Worksheet

Posted by on Sep 16, 2014 0 Comments

Students learn the simple present and present progressive verb tenses early on in their English language studies. The problem is that most textbooks don’t present these tenses together! It’s easy enough to remember the conjugation of one tense and practice it over and over. It’s quite another when both tenses appear in the same context—that’s when students really have to understand the differences in order to use the correct tense. Our Spotlight lesson this week, Pako – Simple Present / Present Progressive Reading, uses both tenses in the story so that students can see them compared and contrasted.

We’ve got many resources to help your learners figure out the differences between these tenses. Go over our free, printable grammar chart on the simple present vs. present progressive with your students, then print out the worksheet below and see how they do. If they are still confused, try some of our other resources at the end of this post!

Download the grammar worksheet PDF (more…)

Teaching the Present Perfect

Posted by on Aug 26, 2014 0 Comments

The present perfect is a very common verb tense in English, but it can be confusing for students to learn because it has two main uses that are quite different from one another. Adding to the challenge is the present perfect’s similarity to the simple past and the present perfect progressive. In my experience, most textbooks teach the two main uses separately, and some students never realize that this verb tense can do two different things.

Also, most textbooks don’t include an exercise that combines the present perfect and the simple past. It’s easy enough to produce have + past participle over and over in a written or spoken exercise—the real challenge lies in recognizing the difference between the present perfect and the simple past and being able to produce the correct tense.

Below is a grammar explanation that highlights the two main uses of the present perfect. The simple past and present perfect progressive are also discussed, and a worksheet comparing the present perfect and simple past is available on page 3 of the handout. We hope this handout helps your students understand and use this common tense! (more…)