Song activity to practice the simple past

Want to practice the Simple Past? Here is a fun activity:

 

Click on the links, listen to a part of each song and complete them with verbs in the past:

 

Someone Like You

Adele

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0

I ___________ that you're settled down
That you ______________ a girl and you're _____________ now
I ______________ that your dreams _____________ true
Guess she _________________ you things, I _____________ give to you

 

Because You Loved Me

Celine Dion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDcuRgk-JEI

For all those times you _________ by me.
For all the truth that you __________ me see.
For all the joy you ___________ to my life.
For all the wrong that you ___________ right.
For every dream you ___________ come true.
For all the love I ____________ in you I'll be forever thankful baby.
You're the one who ___________ me up.
Never let me fall.
You're the one who ___________ me through, through it all.

Till There Was You

The Beatles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Izz_MMbqk

There ________ bells on a hill
But I never ________ them ringing
No I never _________ them at all
'Til there _________ you
There ___________ birds in the sky
But I never _______ them winging
No I never _________ them at all
'Til there ________ you

 

Leave your answers, doubts or comments here!

 

Raise and Rise / Lay and Lie

Last week a student asked me the difference between Raise and Rise / Lay and Lie.
I prepared a worksheet for him and I decided to post it here because it might help other people too.

First, look at the pictures and the sentences. Try to discover their differences:

The horse raised its paws to see the sun rise

People rose from their chairs to applaud

He is lying down and laid the magazine on his lap

The pillow is laid on the bed


Do you already know the difference? So tell me, should we say:

 My pen was lying on the table or My pen was laying on the table???
Our dog never lies down when told to do so or Our dog never lays down when told to do so???

 Tom is so depressed that it will be hard to rise his spirits. or Tom is so depressed that it will be hard to raise his spirits??

The river rises each spring. or The river raises each spring???

 

Confused?? Let me give you the definitions:

·         Definition of to raise:  The verb raise means “to lift to a higher position.”

 Raise is transitive; it almost always has an object. Things are raised by something else.

To raise, raised, raised

 

·         Definition of to rise: The verb rise means “to go to a higher position.”

 Rise is intransitive; it never has an object. Things rise by themselves;

To rise, rose, risen

 

·      Definition of to lay: to put or place; it is transitive; it almost always has an object.

To lay (I lay the book on the table.),laid (Yesterday, I laid the book on the table.),laid (I have laid the book on the table)

To lay, laid, laid

 

·         Definition of to lie: to recline; it is intransitive; it never has an object

To lie (I lie on the bed), lay (Yesterday, I lay on the bed.),lain (I have lain on the bed for many hours)

To lie, lay, (this is the problem: the past of "lie" is "lay") lain

Leave your answers, comments or doubts down below. I'll be glad to check them and to answer your questions.

                                                          











Expression of the week- In French

Special Expression of the Week in French

Expression du jour: "Avoir la frite" !

Croyez-vous que ça veut dire que tu as mangé une seule frite à midi?


PAS DU TOUT!


Cette expression courante de la langue française signifie être en forme, se sentir plein d'énergie.
Elle peut s'utiliser également à la négation pour dire ne pas être en forme.


Ce sont en fait des triplés car on peut également employer les expressions "avoir la patate" ou "avoir la pêche" pour dire la même chose!


Beaucoup de blagues sont ainsi faites sur les Belges, réputés pour manger beaucoup de frites.


Alors vous vous sentez comment aujourd"hui? Vous avez la patate? Vous n'avez pas la frite?

 

This post was created by Caroline Joly, french teacher at www.skypeclassesluisa.com

Expression of the week - pick...up

Hello, hello! Sorry for taking so long to write here on the blog. I promise to post more this week to make up for the last one.
The expression of the week was chosen because many students of mine ask me: "how do you say...?"
And several times what they want to know is "pick...up"
This expression can be used in different situations:

1. A friend calls you:

friend: Hey, do you wanna go to the movies?
you: Sure! At what time?
friend: At 10:30pm. Is that alright?
you: Yes, but there is a little problem. My car is broken!
friend: Don't worry, I'll pick you up!
you:Thank you! See later!

It means that your friend will go to your house and will take you to the movies.

2. Your dog pooped (defecated) on the street, you are going to have to pick it up.

It means that you have to lift the dog's poop and put it in a bag. ( This is something that people usually forget to do)

 

3. After one year living in Argentina I finally picked up the pronunciation of the RR.

 

It means that I understood the pronunciation of the RR

 

There are other usages for this expression and you can check them out on this link:

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/pick-up