Past Simple Tense

yesterday

1 I played with my friends yesterday.

2 You watched TV last night.

3 He visited his grandparents last month.

She tidied her room on Saturday.

It was rainy 5 hours ago.

1 We were babies in 2005.

2 You went to Greece last year.

3 They made a cake yesterday morning.

Did you have breakfast?

I didn't have a sandwich.

Did they travel by train?

They didn't travel by train.

Were you in the park yesterday?

I wasn't in the park yesterday.

Present Tenses

What do you like doing in your free time? Do you like playing games/riding a bike/reading a book/watching films/going shopping/hanging out with friends/playing volleyball? What about your friend? Are you doing any of these?

 

e.g. I like watching films.

I'm not watching a film now.

My friend likes riding a bike. 

She isn't riding a bike now.

In English, there are two present tenses:

• present simple - for actions that that happen always, often, usually, sometimes, every day/month/year:

Tony lives in Sydney. (permanent state)

The sun rises in the east. (fact)

Emma tidies her desk after work. (habit)

• present continuous - for actions happening now, at the moment, today, tonight

Jane is helping her brother now. (present situation)

I am sitting and writing.

We are having a party tonight. (future arrangement)

Choose and fill in, present simple or continuous: 

1 At the moment Joanne ..... (stand) on the platform. She ..... (go) to work by train every morning.

2 Frank ..... (not work) in the shop now. He never ..... (work) on Sunday.

3 They often ..... (play) cards after dinner, but this evening they ..... (listen) to music.

4 Karen always ..... (get) home at 6.30. She ..... (have) dinner now.

5 Our cousins often ..... (spend) the weekend with us. They ..... (stay) with us this weekend.

Indirect Commands

What do teachers always say to their pupils? And do pupils always hear them and do what they're told?

Let's try to report the teacher's words:

'Open your books, please,' the teacher says/said. --> The teacher asks his pupils to open their books.

'Do your homework.' --> The teacher tells them to do their homework.

'Don't run in the corridors.' --> The teacher commands them not to run in the corridors.

'Don't copy.' --> The teacher orders them not to copy.

Reporting verbs are: tell (= reći), ask (= zamoliti), order (= narediti), command (= zapovedati), advise (= savetovati), suggest (= predložiti).

Now, try to report the doctor's words:

The doctor said, 'Stay in bed. Sleep. Drink a lot of water. Don't run or play. Don't go out,'

The doctor told me ...  

Report the following:
'Stop that noise!' --> He told us ...

'Leave me alone.' --> He told me ...
'Don't sit near me.' --> She told me ...
'Give me your keys.' --> He told me ...
'Don't move!' --> He told me ...

Crime

As a group, in your dictionaries, find the nouns derived from the crime words:

pickpocket, rob, mug, murder, shoplift, kidnap, vandalise, arson, burgle, smuggle.

 

Beware that sometimes the name of the crime is different from the name of the criminal!

Now, what's the name of the person who...

• breaks into homes and robs people,
• causes damage to buildings or property,
• attacks somebody in the street and takes their money,
• takes somebody away by force,
• steals from people's bags or pockets,
• steals money from a bank?

Word Formation

In English, we can make nouns out of verbs, adjectives out of nouns, or build new words just by adding suffixes, prefixes or other words to them. For example, words like friendship, friendly or friendliness are formed from the word 'friend', words like sunny, sunglasses or sunshine have the word 'sun' in their base form...

Now, try to form other words from the ones in brackets:

Mary's sent me an ..... . (INVITE)

It's such a ..... dress. (BEAUTY)

We're having a ..... . (DICTATE)

The ..... to Paris was excellent. (FLY)

That song's really ..... . (FAME)

Conditional Clauses

Take a look at these examples:

If you heat ice, it melts. (= Ako zagreješ led, on se topi.)

If you don't heat ice, it doesn't melt. (= Ako ne zagreješ led, on se ne topi.)

If it rains, I will stay at home. (= Ako pada kiša, ostaću kod kuće.)

If it doesn't rain, I will not/won't stay at home. (= Ako ne pada kiša, neću ostati kod kuće.)

If I had money, I would sail round the world. (= Kad bih imao/la novca, plovio/la bih oko sveta.)

As you can see, all these examples start with IF and talk about a situation/condition and its result. When this is the case, the conditional clause is separated from the main clause with a comma. 

The situation described in the above sentences is always true (Type Zero Conditional), sometimes possible (Type 1 Conditional) or unreal (Type 2 Conditional). That is why we use the present simple tense in the Zero Conditional, present simple and future with WILL in Type 1, and past simple and WOULD with infinitive in Type 2.

 

Past Tenses

Take a look at these examples:

The ship was sailing when it hit the iceberg.

I was walking across the street when the accident happened.

We were watching TV when the lights went out.

As you can see, two actions are described in each sentence and two different tenses are used. For the longer action that was interrupted the past continuous is used, while for the shorter one that interrupted the action in progress in the past - the past simple is used. 

Time markers used: while (= dok), as (= dok), when (= kad).

You already know that the past simple of regular verbs end in -ED and that irregular verbs must be learned by heart. You should also remember that the past continuous consists of the past form of TO BE (WAS with I, he, she, it; WERE with we, you, they) and the present participle/-ING form of the main verb. Some verbs only take the -ING ending (watching, going, playing, trying), others double the consonant (stopping, sitting, cutting, swimming, shopping) or drop the -e and add the -ING (coming, having, driving, making, moving). But, there are some irregular present participle forms as well (lie --> lying, die --> dying).

Here are a few more examples:

Mary was cooking while John was reading a book. (2 actions happening at the same time in the past; both in the past continuous)

As I was getting out of the bus I fell. (a longer action interrupted by a shorter action)