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English. Tips&Tricks. Ch. 16. About Verb Tenses.

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Here's the translation:

At the earliest stage, children should see the tense table so that they don't get bogged down in studying, for example, Present Continuous, but see the entire tense formation system from above. A child should get a sense of the necessity of these 12 tenses, of absolute logic. The English didn't invent them to complicate our language learning process, but to make it easier to express thoughts and understand each other.

First, let's show that there are only three tenses: Past, Present, Future, and vertically - just aspects. Let's compare all this with three objects (pen, pencil, marker) and their four colors (red, blue, green, yellow). At the intersection, you will get a red pencil or a blue pen. To understand the tense table, the main thing is to realize the vertical, that is, the aspects: Simple, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect Continuous, and the horizontal is just a shift to the left (back to the past) and to the right (to the future). To grasp the very nature, the essence of Continuous and Perfect, you need to present them correctly and beautifully. For example, for Continuous, start by describing someone (much better yourself or the student than a person in a picture) and, listing your virtues (appearance, character), move on to age, state, and imperceptibly to the actions that the described person performs.

A few words about myself: I am a teacher. I’m 48 years old. I’m pretty, yes, I’m quite pretty. I think, maybe, I’m a bit fat. No, I don’t think so. I’m slim enough. What am I doing now? I’m smiling, I’m talking to you, I’m not sitting, I’m…

And the more natural and funnier this description is, the better. Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself, for example, by sucking in your stomach, calling yourself quite slim, and looking in the mirror, very attractive, and if not young, then certainly not old! If you managed to make the children believe that you are thinking about yourself, and not practicing the verb to be in the first person, then the essence of the phrase "I am speaking" will be understood absolutely correctly and will not need an explanation in Russian. When shifting to the left and right, this sentence automatically turns into "I was speaking, I will be speaking." Later, in the same live contexts, we will talk about other cases of using Present Continuous.

To present Perfect, you can use... an apple core or a banana peel.

This is an apple,... this is an eaten apple. Yes, this apple is eaten.

Then list the fruits I have.

What time is it? It’s 3.20.

What time did our lesson start?

At 3.00. So we have been speaking for 20 minutes.

We have been speaking since 3.00.

This scheme, however, can be seen in any textbook, but it is presented as a rule (about an action that started... and continues...) with detailed commentary in Russian.


Ch. 15. Grammar at a Glance.

Ch. 17. Testing Verb Tenses Through the Game of 'Strict Mother'.

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