Past Simple Tense – Regular Verbs: The Story of Alice & Josh (English ESL Video)

Synopsis of English / ESL Video

Teach students the past simple tense – regular verbs using this cute, but unfortunate love story of Alice and Josh. (Beginner / Starter Level)

Title of English / ESL Video

The Story of Alice and Josh

Target English Grammar

Past Simple Tense – Regular Verbs (Also known as the Simple Past).

Student Proficiency Level

Beginner / starter level grammar

Suggested Courses

General English

Instructions

– Play the video in class after delivering a warm-up activity first.
– Pause the video whenever the narrator asks students a question to give students time to answer. For example, after elicitations and concept checking questions (CCQs).

Summary of English Grammar: Past Simple Tense – Regular Verbs

Approximate chronological order:

Story

– Starts: 0:24
– Ends: 1:48

Rules and Explanation:

– Starts: 1:49
– Ends: 4:36

Grammar Explanation – How do we change regular verbs into the simple past?

Elicitation:
*Pause the video after the question to give students time to answer.
Josh asked Alice to dinner.
What is the base verb of asked? (ask)
For most regular verbs we add +ed at the end of the base verb to change it into the simple past.

– Alice liked shopping.
What is the base verb of liked? (like)
For verbs ending with an -e we add +d.

– Josh married someone else.
For verbs ending with a consonant and +y we remove the -y and add +ied.

– They stayed at a romantic hotel.
For verbs ending with a vowel and +y we don’t remove the y. We just add +ed.

– Alice and Josh travelled to Italy.
For verbs ending with consonant, vowel and consonant we double the last consonant and add +ed.
In American English travelled is spelled with one l. So American English doesn’t always follow his rule.

These verbs are what we call regular verbs. They follow a rule to change into the simple past.

*** English / ESL Video: No Music Version ***

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