Grammar Slammer: How to Explain the Hard Stuff and Impress Difficult and Demanding Students (ETX Classroom Guides Book 3) by English Teacher X

Author:English Teacher X [Teacher X, English]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-11-16T05:00:00+00:00

PAST PERFECT

Here’s a real bitch. You can at least comfort yourself that it usually only occurs at fairly high levels, and only with rather specific usages. But if you can explain this shit clearly, you can probably explain anything clearly.

You: I regret to inform you that there are other perfect tenses we must master.

Students: (Weary sigh)

You: Keep a stiff pecker my little cheese-pies. Today we’re going to study the PAST PERFECT.

Board:

When she got home at 7:00 pm, her pussywhipped husband cooked dinner.

When she got home at 7:00 pm, her pussywhipped husband was cooking dinner.

When she got home at 7:00 pm, her pussywhipped husband had cooked dinner.

You: All right. Start your engines. What tense is the first one?

Students: Past tense.

You: When did he START cooking dinner?

Students: After she got home. At 7:00. Or slightly after.

You: When did he FINISH cooking dinner?

Students: Well, sometime after he started. We don’t know exactly.

You: Righty tighty! Now, what tense is the second?

Student: Past continuous.

Dorky Student: Past progressive!

You: Past continuous. When did he START cooking dinner?

Students: Before she got home. Before seven.

You: When did he FINISH cooking dinner?

Students: Sometime after seven. AFTER she got home.

You: Right, the action was IN PROGRESS, NOT FINISHED at 7:00. Now, the last one! Whatcha think about THAT?

Students: That must be the dreaded PAST PERFECT.

You: Yeah. And when did he start cooking dinner?

Students: Before she got home?

You: And when did he finish cooking dinner?

Students: ALSO before she got home.

You: That’s the idea. Something that finished BEFORE something else in the past. Usually used in combination with other past simple sentences.

Board:

(Now, a timeline that looks like this is your eventual goal; complete it as you explain each step. Got that, stupid?)

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