You may also need to give clues for some of the harder ones and you can also make it a group or class exercise and have students work together. Give examples on the board like – CHmadeINA (made in China), IN VADERS (space invaders), and (I love you) by drawing an eye, a heart, and the letter U. It is best to introduce the concept before handing out the rebus puzzles. Initially, students may find them quite hard but once they get the idea of them they find them much easier. They get students thinking laterally and provide enjoyable mental exercise. Hello Kirk, I think my confusion stemmed from the explanation on the use of the simple past, which is "an action began and ended at some point in time in the past".These rebus puzzles are a stimulating activity for higher-level ESL learners. Therefore, if specifying the beginning, end or length of the time period is important, one must use an adverbial or some other phrase to specify the time being spoken about. As you rightly point out, the time referred to can be very short - nanoseconds - or very long - millenia or even aeons. The only thing the past simple in itself makes clear is that the speaker regards the time as a past time. I'd say the answer to your third question is related to this. Perhaps someone would say this when they thought the meaning was clear, but if you wanted to be precise about the time period involved, this sentence would be one to avoid due to its ambiguity. I think most native speakers would interpret this to mean that you began watching the movie at 8, but the sentence itself is a bit odd, since most movies last for some time. The sentence you ask about in your second question is ambiguous. Your understanding in the first paragraph is correct. Since one of the main use of the simple past tense is to indicate that an action began and ended at some point in time in the past, and "time" can refer to both a brief moment or a long duration, is it right to say that this "point in time" can refer to a brief moment (such as a few seconds), or longer duration implied by words such as "yesterday" - which can refer to any duration of time within yesterday, or long durations like "for two years"?Īppreciate your advise regarding the above three questions. Is my understanding of this correct right?īut if I say "yesterday, at 8 o'clock, I watched a movie", does this mean that my action of watching started and finished at 8 o'clock yesterday, or simple that I started watching at 8 o'clock yesterday? If I say "I watched a movie yesterday", this being in the simple past tense, the meaning is clear in that I started watching and finished watching the movie at some point in time in the past (that is "yesterday" - specifically, this means any duration of time within yesterday). It's a very personal kind of thing, after all, and so I can't say for sure what someone else might be thinking. The fact that I'm saying it to them suggests I'm missing them, which means they aren't present.īut I'm not saying it's impossible to say 'You are my best friend ever' in a situation like this. If I were standing before a friend's grave and speaking to them, I'd probably say 'You were my best friend ever' although me speaking to them now means they are still alive for me in one sense, the fact that I'm remembering our time together also makes it clear they are gone. In such cases, we're often making statements about their legacies or contributions more than we are about them as people with ordinary lives that they are living at the moment. It is possible to use the present simple to speak about general truths, which can include making statements about people who have passed away. But he takes no notice … Present tense 3 MultipleChoice_MTYyMzY= Present tense 4 GapFillTyping_MTYyMzk= In one book, he gets suspended and they tell him to stop working on this case. Rebus lives in Edinburgh and he 's a brilliant detective, but he 's always getting into trouble. He writes about this detective called Rebus. when we are summarising something we have read, heard or seen:.Obviously he 's been drinking, because he 's moving from side to side … Well, it 's a lovely day and I 'm just walking down the street when I see this funny guy walking towards me. We can use present forms to talk about the past: Present tense 1 MultipleChoice_MTYyMzQ= Present tense 2 GapFillTyping_MTYyMzU= You will be tired out after you have been working all night. I'll come home as soon as I have finished work. He is meeting Peter in town this afternoon. The next train leaves this evening at 17.00. He has been working there for three months now. He has worked there for three months now. There are four present tense forms: Present simple The present tense is used to talk about the present and to talk about the future. There are two tenses in English: past and present.
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