There is - There are

We use there is - there are to express existence of something.

Singular: There is

There is a car in the garage.

There isn´t a ball under the bed.

We also use there is with non-countable nouns:

There is milk in the fridge.

There isn´t sugar for my coffee.

Plural: There are

There are some buildings on that street.

There are twenty students in my class.

For / Since

1. The word for is used to show an amount of time.

• for three days
• for a few years
• for five months

2. The w0rd since is used to tell when an action started.

• since 1987
• since last wednesday
• since she started school

Present perfect

We use present perfect to express a completed action in the past. The time when the action took place is undefined.

Example:

I have been to Europe.

My sister has eaten lobster.

We also use present perfect to express an action that began in the past and still continues in the present.

Example:

You have studied English for 3 semesters.

I have been in my classroom for 3 hours.

Affirmative pattern

Subject + have/has + verb in past participle + complement

I have written a book

She has given a lecture.

They have seen an accident.

Negative pattern

Subject + haven´t/ hasn´t + verb in past participle + complement

You haven´t drunk wine.

He hasn´t bought a new car.

We haven´t won any competition.

Simple past tense II

The pronunciation is also important. We have 3 different forms to pronounce the regular verbs in past tense:

/t/ /d/ /id/

1. We pronounce like a /t/ sound when the verbs are preceded by a voiceless consonant, for example:

/p/ /k/ /f/ /s/

Examples: kiss - kissed

dance - danced

fix - fixed

watch - watched

walk - walked

2. We pronounce like a /d/ sound when the verbs are precede by a voiced consonant, for example:

/b/ /g/ /v/ /z/ /n/ /l/

Example: stay - stayed

clean - cleaned

observe - observed

3. We pronounce like an /id/ sound when the verbs are preceded by a /t/ or /d/ sound.

Example: want - wanted

need - needed

invite - invited

end - ended

Simple past tense

Verbs can be regular or irregular.

Irregular verbs can either change or keep the same spelling when they are conjugated in simple past tense.

Example: go - went
speak- spoke
think - thought
write - wrote
see -saw
put - put
read - read
cut -cut
beat - beat
hit - hit

Grammar Reference

Regular verbs are formed by adding "ed" at the end, for example:

work - worked
stay - stayed
want - wanted

There are some spelling rules to write regular verbs in past tense.

1. When the verbs finish in "e", we have to add only the "d".

Example: dance - danced smile - smiled like - liked

2. When the verbs finish in "consonant + y", we change the "y" for "i" and we add " ed".

Examples: study - studied spy - spied cry - cried

3. When the verbs finish in "vowel + y", we only add "ed".

Example: play - played stay- stayed destroy - destroyed