Your six sentences
Swap your six for and since sentences with a partner. Underline every participle in theirs. Circle any you are not sure about.
Nine verbs. Match each to the pattern its past and participle follow.
Small words, fixed positions
Read these and watch where the small word sits.
I have just finished the report.
I have already sent it.
I have not finished it yet.
I still have not finished it.
Have you finished it yet?
I have never worked this late.
Have you ever worked this late?
Four questions about where those small words go and what they mean.
1. Where do just, already, never and ever sit?
2. Where does yet sit, and where does it appear?
3. I have not finished yet and I still have not finished — what is the difference?
4. I have already sent it. What does already add?
Participles, and the words that live inside the tense
The three groups of irregular participle
| Group | Verbs | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| All three the same | cut · put · let · cost · hit · shut · hurt · set · read | Nothing — you already know them |
| Past = participle | buy/bought · bring/brought · teach/taught · think/thought · catch/caught · find/found · leave/left · lose/lost · make/made · meet/met · pay/paid · say/said · sell/sold · tell/told · win/won · keep/kept · sleep/slept · feel/felt · hear/heard · hold/held · understand/understood | Nothing extra — if you know the past, you know the participle |
| All three different | be/was/been · go/went/gone · see/saw/seen · do/did/done · take/took/taken · give/gave/given · write/wrote/written · speak/spoke/spoken · break/broke/broken · drive/drove/driven · eat/ate/eaten · know/knew/known · begin/began/begun · drink/drank/drunk · choose/chose/chosen · forget/forgot/forgotten · grow/grew/grown · wear/wore/worn | This is the list. About twenty verbs, and you use most of them daily |
Where the effort actually goes. Two of the three groups are free. Only the third costs anything, and almost every verb in it is one you already say twenty times a day.
Learn them in threes, out loud, as a rhythm: write, wrote, written · speak, spoke, spoken · break, broke, broken. The pattern repeats — three of those four are the same shape.
One or two words per gap. All present perfect, and most of the participles are irregular.
I three of her books and I never a bad one. She the same publisher since 1998. I her speak once, in Coimbra, and I about it ever since. I her a letter last year and she never replied.
The small words, and where each one goes
| Word | Position | Means |
|---|---|---|
ever | Between have and the participle, in questions | Have you ever been…? — at any point in your life |
never | Between have and the participle | I have never been… — not once, ever |
just | Between have and the participle | I have just finished — a few minutes ago |
already | Between have and the participle | I have already sent it — sooner than you expected |
yet | At the end. Negatives and questions only | Have you finished yet? · I haven’t finished yet. |
still | Before have not | I still haven’t finished — and it is taking too long |
Six lines of an exchange, out of order. Put them into the order that makes a conversation.
- I still have not had the email about any of this.
- I have just sent it, actually.
- Check your spam. I have sent you four.
- Have you finished the report yet?
- They came through on Friday. I have already put them in.
- Really? I have not even seen the figures.
Form under pressure
Eight sentences. Errors of participle, of auxiliary, or of where a small word sits.
1. I have wrote to them twice.
2. She have been here since Tuesday.
3. Have you ever saw the northern lights?
4. I have yet not finished.
5. He has already the tickets bought.
6. We have not never been to Greece.
7. I have took the wrong train again.
8. Still I have not heard from her.
One to three words per gap. Each of ever, never, just, already, yet, still is used once.
— been to the new place on Rua Nova? — I got back from it, actually. It is good. — I tried it. I keep meaning to. — Marta been three times and she only heard about it last week. — Has she booked for Friday ? — She decided. She never decides anything before Thursday.
Find someone who has
Task card · Speaking · Whole class · 6 minutes
Stand up. You are looking for one different person for each item on your list, and you may not ask the same person twice.
Eight questions, eight different people, every question correctly formed.
- Find someone who has never eaten something everybody else has.
- Find someone who has just started something new.
- Find someone who has already finished this week’s work.
- Find someone who has lived in the same place for more than ten years.
- Find someone who has been to a country you have not.
- Find someone who has not seen a famous film yet.
- Find someone who has still not done something they promised to do.
- Find someone who has broken a bone.
Two rules. Every question begins Have you… and every answer is a full sentence, not a nod. Write the person’s name and their exact words.
From the room
Four sentences collected during the task. Fix each.
1. Have you ever broke a bone?
2. I have not seen it yet, no.
3. She has live there for twelve years.
4. I have already ate, thanks.
Twenty verbs
Three questions.
1. Which group of irregular verbs actually costs you memory?
2. Where does yet go?
3. I still haven’t heard from her adds what to I haven’t heard from her yet?
Before next lesson. Write ten sentences about your life. Five must contain a finished time — a year, a date, when I was… Five must not.
Do not choose the tenses. Just write the sentences naturally. Next lesson is about the choice, and it is the most important lesson of the unit.