How can I teach my Brazilians students the difference between Simple Past and Present perfect easily?
476597
Sure - drink, drank, drunk - Use drunk for extra credit since it could be past or present.
74072
old use (with a) and modern use (without a)
742550
I don't think that there is an easy way to teach the subjunctive...it's always going to be difficult for English speakers, since we don't use the subjuntive often in English, and even then, many English speakers don't use it at all.\n\nIs this an introductory lesson?  It's more difficult to make it fun if it's introductory.\n\nWhy not use inductive reasoning?  Create a story that uses many examples of the subjunctive, including exceptions. Ask them to read the story, and go over any vocab they don't know.  Then have them underline any verbs and circle the subjects.  What do they notice?  How are the verbs conjugated?  What verb tenses do they not recognize?  Which ones are the subjunctive?  When is the subjunctive used?\n\nWork with them to create the grammar rules.\n\nGood luck!  Hope this helps!
439337
I am what you call a 'grammar type' person. I'm an English teacher in Argentina, so I tend to have a radar for mistakes. Anyway, I totally agree with you that the important thing is not the grammar but the message. If the message is clear, I will probably notice your mistakes (I cannot help that), but I will not bother to correct them, unless you were a student of mine :-), and we were in class.\n\nI think it works like this. Suppose you have to go from point A to point B, where you and I would meet. One way is the shortest between points A and B, and that's the one you'd ideally take. Now, suppose you took a different, much longer, and even dangerous way, but even so, you got to point B safe and sound. What should I do? Ask you to go back to A and come again taking the shortest way? No! If you are here, stay here. I'm glad you came.\n\nThe problem is if you take a third road that I know for a fact is not going to take you to point B. In that case, I'll advise you strongly against taking that road, not because it's the "wrong" road, but because it won't help you get to your destination. This compares to people whose grammar and spelling are so "bad" that it becomes nearly impossible to understand them. Only in that case, should they do something about it.\n\nBesides, I think there are two types of people as you put it, but not only as regards language. There are people who have a musical ear, and others don't, and cannot sing a song properly. Or there are people who enjoy reading, or can appreciate paintings, or can "see" something in a sculpture, and others who cannot. Well, while some people have a special ability for that, others have a special ability for grammar and spelling.
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The past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past.\n\nIn English, there are two distinct types of past tense:\n\n   1. Present perfect (see perfect tense)\n   2. Preterite (or simple past)\n\nEach of these may also be found in the progressive (continuous) aspect.\n\n-----------------------------\n\nThe English continuous\n\n\nFormation\n\nThe continuous aspect is expressed with a regularly conjugated form of to be, together with the present participle of the main verb. For example, in the sentence "I was going to the store," the verb phrase was going is in the past continuous tense - that is, in the continuous aspect and the past tense.\n\nThe continuous aspect can be applied with any mood, voice, and tense, and in combination or not with the perfect aspect, although for obvious semantic reasons, some combinations are less common than others. Some examples of the continuous aspect include:\n\n    * We had been talking for hours. (indicative mood, active voice, past tense, perfect continuous aspect)\n    * If you're not going to be working on it the whole time, … (indicative mood, active voice, present tense, continuous aspect)\n    * … then I recommend you at least be working on it when the teacher gets back. (present subjunctive mood, active voice, continuous aspect)\n    * I wish I were being given more interesting tasks. (past subjunctive mood, passive voice, continuous aspect)\n\n[edit]\n\nUse\n\nThe continuous is generally used with actions that are actively on-going at the time in question, and does not focus on the larger time-scale. For example, the sentence "John was playing tennis when Jane called him" indicates what John was in the middle of doing when Jane called him, but does not indicate for how long John played, nor how often he plays; for that, the simple past would be used: "John played tennis three hours every day for several years."\n\nThe perfect continuous (have been doing), as a special case, implies that the action being described was interrupted at the time in question, and does not clarify whether the action resumed. For example, "John had been playing tennis when Jane called him" suggests that Jane's calling him interrupted his tennis-playing (whereas in the former example, it was possible that he simply ignored her call), and leaves open the possibility that what she told him required such urgent action that he forfeited his match and left.\n\nIn the present tense, the continuous aspect can be used to describe actions that have not begun yet; and in any tense, a similar effect can be achieved with the auxiliary "go" in its continuous aspect. An example of the former is "I'm taking three classes next semester"; of the latter, "I was going to do it if I had time, and then I didn't have time." In this use, this construction has a temporal (tense-like) quality in additional to its usual aspectual one.\n[edit]\n\nThe continuous in other languages\n\nWhile, as noted above, the term continuous is originally specific to English grammar, it can be extended to other languages that have similar constructions.\n[edit]\n\nFrench\n\nFrench does not have a continuous aspect per se; events that English would describe using its continuous aspect, French would describe using a neutral aspect. That being said, French can express a continuous sense using the periphrastic construction être en train de ("to be in the middle of"); for example, English's "we were eating" might be expressed in French either as nous étions en train de manger, or as simply nous mangions.\n[edit]\n\nJèrriais\n\nJèrriais constructs the continuous with verb êt' (be) + à (preposition) + infinitive. For example, j'têmes à mangi translates as we were eating.\n[edit]\n\nSpanish\n\nIn Spanish, the continuous is constructed much as in English, using a regularly conjugated form of the verb
511831
That is a correct present perfect progressive passive sentence construction, except you would need to keep the "on", not put it in parenthesis. However, it is a very awkward sentence. Passive voice is best avoided unless you have no choice because you don't know the agent of the verb, or because you are trying to make a point. Passive voice becomes even more convoluted in the progressive (continuous) tenses. There are other ways of expressing the same thing. \n\nThe point is, though, you did construct a proper sentence.\n \nPresent perfect = have/has + past participle of the next verb. \nProgressive/continuous = form of "be" + present (-ing) participle of the next verb. \nPassive voice = form of "be" + past participle of the next verb. \nPut that together and you get Have + past participle of be/been + present participle of be/being + past participle of cheat/cheated. (Present perfect progressive passive voice)\n\nHave been being cheated.
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try this:\n\nhttp://www.propilven.com/sitio_ingles/pro_proceso.asp
493595
Um.. the tenses are kinda of.. i think if you sed \nJuntos cocinamos la cena, vamos de compras y al cine.. that might b better..
747214
make clear or understandable\n\nto explain , clarify , elaborate on , simplify .
210127
try making up a rhyme or story (a short one) that uses all the prepositions.  Pick your nouns, so that it will be obvious whether they take accusative or dative.\n\nMemorize it.  At first you may look and feel like a child counting on your fingers as you mentally recite the poem until you get to the preposition you need.  But, with time, practice, and work - you will stop needing to use your mnemonic device.\n\nMy high school German teacher had us simply memorize the basic ones in two groups - accusative and dative.  We'd then chant them during class peridodically.  It's been ages - and I still remember:\n\ndurch, fuer, gegen, ohne, um\naus, ausser, bei, mit, nach, zeit, vom, zu\n\nViel Gluck!
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Go buy a copy of "500 Latin Verbs Fully Conjugated in all the Tenses".  I'm too lazy to walk all the way downstairs and to the other end of the house to get my copy or else I'd tell you.\n\nEDIT:  OK, I'm awake now, lol.  Since "go" is an intransitive verb, there is NO SUCH THING as a passive form of it.  LOLOLOLOL
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I think just some basic stories.  Many children's books are entirely in the simple present tense.  Try baby books or easy readers.  Hilight the verbs and demonstrate in class.  Have you heard of Total Physical Response Storytelling?  It's a fantastic way to teach languages.\n\nDon't listen to the jerks who answered this question.  I am a teacher and know where you're coming from.  I can't believe some people act like such idiots!  Hey, tarotpete, check your example sentence.  You need to remove the "a" for it to make sense!  LMAO!   Nice!  And bo_hic_a, if you think teachers are overpaid, why don't you try it?  We'll see if you last five minutes in front of a classroom full of teenagers!\n\nGood luck!
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Everything/All=Todo\nTry to make= intente hacer\nAgainst=Contra\nIt Happens=Sucede\nHelp to make better choices=ayude a hacer opciones mejores\n\nThe babelfish site is usually correct.  Sometimes it does not give correct "tense" (ie preterite, past, perfecto etc)\nI took 9 years of Spanish and my roommate was from Venezuala (she spoke Spanish to her family and we had conversations while I was taking Spanish in college)  I don't know alot, but I believe the above are correct.
1085425
If you are talking about Spanish, which is the language in which I learned these terms, the imperfect tense is used to describe something that happened in the past with no specifically stated time. For example, the sentence "When I was a young child, I went to the mall," when translated into Spanish would require you to conjugate the verbs "be" and "go" (used as "was" and "went" in English) to the imperfect tense.\n\nThe preterite tense is used to describe something that occurred in the past at a specific time. For example, the sentence "I went to the mall last Wednesday" when translated into Spanish would require you to conjugate the verb "go" (used as "went" in English) to the preterite tense.\n\nHope this helps.
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Write in commplete sentences and use correct grammar. \n\n\nI can't even decipher whether you are referring to the sound they produce, the sound they hear or the sound they respond to. Once we get to that stage we can worry about whether you mean, range or optima.\n\nThey don't teach grammar in school for fun you know. It really is esssential if you want to be understood.
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I don't really understand your question.  Do you mean from past tense to present or from a simple sentence to a complex one or what?  Please add details.
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the first one was in past tense and the other one is in past progressive tense\nthe meaning is the same. the difference is how the sentence was constructed