We’ll talk about the past in our upcoming class at the end of September on Urban Living (see previous post). To prepare for this, you might want to brush up on (refresh your memory on) the present perfect and past simple from another previous blog post, as well as the past continuous and past perfect which are here. All of these forms are from the Level 5 class, and were practiced again in Level 6. If this isn’t enough info, feel free to search for more by using search terms such as ‘(grammar target) esl (quiz / exercise / game)’ so you will find resources directed at English language learners, rather than graduate students of English discussing sophisticated topics in grammar. Find something good? Please post it as a comment!

What is the past continuous?
It’s also known as the ‘past progressive’

Easy dialog(ue) exercise and another one

The past perfect illustrated with cartoons What is the past perfect? It’s the past before the past; when you want to express a past action that is two steps in the past. ‘Huh?’ Think of yesterday as Past #1, and the day before yesterday as Past #2: the past before the past. You’d use the past perfect to express Past #2. It’s easy to remember in fact if you look at the formation of the simple past, which is marked once in the past:
‘I go’ (marked in the present) versus ‘I went’ (marked for the past) versus ‘I had gone’ (marked *twice* in the past: the auxilliary verb of ‘had’ is in the past, and one uses the part participle as marker #2)

Practice forming the past perfect with What a Night: Police Incidents ESL Quiz

Here’s a list of useful sites, most with online games or quizzes. They’re not listed in any order of preference, pick and choose for yourself.

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/pperf.htm

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present-perfect-continuous_quiz.htm

http://a4esl.org/q/f/z/zz29bms.htm (click Start to begin the Flash player game)

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html (games at the bottom)

http://esl.about.com/library/grammar/blpresperfect.htm

Here’s one game and another, as well as some additional grammar information on the prepositions for, during, while.