Use the simple past tense to talk about actions that have already finished. It doesn't matter when in the past they happened or how long they happened for.
Take a look and compare the present tense verbs with simple past tense verbs in these two sentences.
Present:
I take my young brother to the park and buy him an ice-cream. We kick around a football, laugh and talk for hours.
What are the seven missing words in this short text about UK politics?
The people of Britain will step into _1_ booths on May 7 to choose their next government.
Opinion polls currently suggest no party will win an _2_ victory and another hung Parliament is likely. In this event current Prime Minister, David Cameron, would offer the Libral Democrat Party a repeat of the last five years in forming a _3_ government.
It's heating up (the weather is getting warmer) here in Malta.
Do you know that heat up is also used to describe a situation that is becoming intense, or angry: "The conversation started to heat up so I decided to leave."
Here are five other heat related expressions.
If you can take the heat you can take criticism and handle stressful situations.
"Don't worry, if the project fails and the boss gets angry, I'll take the heat for us."
I’d always been _1_ that to be successful, and I mean really successful, you have to work, work, work! You know the kind of thing, be up early, go to bed late and _2_ on only 4 hours sleep a night. We're told that CEO's like Twitter's Jack Dorsey or Pepsi's Indra Nooyi _3_ get any.
An article I read recently on the BBC is making me think that long hours might not be _4_.
Use not enough and too when something is inadequate.
When the amount of something is more than needed/wanted we can use too + adjective. It is only used in negative situations.
It's too cold in this room, close the door.
I'm too tired to play football tonight.
She said she was too old to go to nightclubs.
Take a look at these ten sentences, there is one mistake in each one. Can you find all of them? Write your correct sentences in the comments area.
When your face shows no emotion, especially when you are trying not to laugh, you keep a straight face.
Don't laugh, try and keep a straight face or she will know you are joking.
His new hairstyle is so funny I found it hard to keep a straight face.
When you lose face you feel you have lost the respect of others because of something you have done. When feel embarrassed when you lose face.
A prefix is placed before a base word to modify its meaning.
Examples of prefixes include:
return, reply, return
unkind, untrue, uncertain
misunderstand, misprint, mistrust
Pre is a prefix which means before, prior to, early and in front of.
Synonyms are words that are similar or have a related meaning to another word. For example, small and little have the same meanings. Beautiful and gorgeous are also synonyms.
Can you match the words on the left to their synonyms on the right?
In English some words have silent letters. This means that how a word is pronounced and how it is spelt is different. We write the silent letter when we spell the word, but it is not heard when we speak.
Here are some examples. The orange letter in each word is silent.
Silent B
The lift is broken, we'll have to climb the stairs.
A baby sheep is called a lamb.
Silent C