Present perfect or past simple?

Objective & content

This grammar sheet teaches the choice between the present perfect (Have you ever played at a festival? We've just won a competition.) and the past simple (We played at a festival last summer. When did you start?), using the time words to decide: ever, never, just, already and yet on one side, yesterday, last summer, two years ago and When...? on the other. Pupils read Dexter's interview with Kofiwaa, a young drummer, for the school magazine, find the missing words and read the rule, given in a box. By the end, they can talk about experiences and say when things happened.

Pedagogical guide

Page 1 is the interview, with a picture of Dexter and of Kofiwaa: she is fourteen and plays the drums in a band; she started when she was eight, her band has played about thirty gigs, they played at a festival near Manchester last summer, they haven't recorded an album yet, and they've just won a competition. Pupils find six missing words in sentences from the interview. Then they read the rule, given in a box in short lines: the present perfect for life up to now or a very short time ago, with no time given, and its words; the past simple for a finished time, with its words; and a pair of sentences that shows the difference (NOT: I have met a famous drummer last summer.). Page 2 has eight sentences where pupils tick the right form by looking at the time words, seven verbs in brackets to write in the present perfect or the past simple, four questions to write with Have or Has ... ever...? or When did...?, and four questions about the interview to answer with short answers. Page 3 is Rhiannon's running blog: she ran her first race in Cardiff last Saturday, her friend Abena has never lost a race at their club, and she has never been to London. Pupils circle the right form in ten brackets, answer five questions about the blog, then answer Rhiannon with two sentences about a sport or a hobby. Every exercise opens with a worked example, except the last one, which gives sentence starters.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Ask a few pupils "Have you ever played in a band? When did you start?" and write the questions on the board.
2. (10 min) Read the interview aloud; pupils find the missing words.
3. (5 min) Read the rule in the box with the class; pupils find a time word for each tense in the interview.
4. (15 min) Page 2: the right form, the verbs in brackets, the questions, then the short answers.
5. (10 min) Page 3: the blog, the questions about it, then the two sentences for Rhiannon.
6. (5 min) Check with the answer key on pages 4 and 5.

Adaptations

[S] Pupils read the interview aloud in pairs, one as Dexter and one as Kofiwaa, before the tasks.

[A] Pupils write a short blog post of their own about a hobby, with two time words for each tense.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of pages 1 to 3 per pupil. Pages 4 and 5 are the answer key and teacher notes: keep them. Pupils need the past simple of regular and irregular verbs, the present perfect with ever, never, just, already and yet, and the words for music, sport and hobbies. To take it further, pupils interview a classmate about a hobby with two Have you ever...? questions, each followed by a When did you...? question.