This speaking activity gives students the chance to practise irregular past tense verbs and form past simple questions in a fun and interactive way. It encourages fluency and repetition, helping learners internalise question structures and irregular verb forms.
It works well as a fluency practice activity for past simple. It’s particularly useful for helping students remember irregular past forms through repetition and peer interaction.
Activity Overview
- Level: Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
- Target language: Irregular past simple verbs and question forms
- Time: 10–15 minutes
- Group size: Whole class
What you need
- One copy of the questionnaire per student (download here)
How to use the activity
- Give each student a copy of the questionnaire.
- Have students read through the list and think about what question they need to ask for each item. For example: “Did you eat an apple yesterday?”
- Students mingle and ask each other the questions. If someone answers “yes,” the student writes their name in the box next to the item.
- Encourage students to give full answers and ask follow-up questions. For example: “What kind of cake did you make?” or “Who did you talk to on the phone?”
- The aim is to find at least one name for each box on the worksheet.
Example prompts
- Spoke on the phone yesterday
- Ate an apple yesterday
- Went to see a football match last year
- Had a party last month
- Drank a cup of coffee yesterday
- Got up before 7am yesterday
- Wrote an email yesterday
- Made a cake last month
- Read a newspaper yesterday
Related links
- Past simple guide – Learn how to form and use past simple.
- Irregular verbs – A list of some of the more common irregular verbs.
