Activities

Irregular Past Simple Crazy Dictation

Last updated on 13 October, 2023

This is a downloadable ESL crazy dictation activity to practise irregular verbs in past simple.

Here’s some more info about the activity:

Aim	To practise irregular past simple tense. To develop listening and pronunciation skills.
Activity	Students complete a story by dictating sentences across the classroom.
Organisation	Pair work
Preparation	Make enough copies of the activity for the number of pairs in your class.
What do I do?	Put students into pairs, facing each other across the room. Hand out the activity. Give A to one student in each pair, and B to the other. Students dictate their half of the story to their partner across the room, until both have completed it. The first pair to finish (accurately) and answer the question is the winner.

A
Last summer Mark and Jane went on holiday together. It was very hot so they spent most of their time on the beach.
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One day at lunchtime Mark bought two drinks and a hamburger. He paid 20 euros. The next day, Jane went to the same cafe.
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B
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Jane learned how to windsurf and Mark lay in the sun reading. On the beach, there was a small cafe that sold drinks, ice cream and hamburgers.
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She bought three drinks and two hamburgers and paid 35 euros. The following day, Mark bought a drink and a hamburger…
How much did he pay?