Past Tenses Quiz

This quiz can be used for a quick revision of the uses of different past tenses. The chart can be used for sentence analysis or to help students use the correct tense.

In the first case, the students have to analyse a sentence asking a series of "Yes or No" questions. For example, if your sentence is: "I had a dog when I was four years old", you have to answer the following questions:

• Did it happen in the past? - YES
• Do we know when of where it happened exactly? - YES
• Had it happened before another action in the past? - NO
• Was the action completed? - YES

The tense used in the sentence: PAST SIMPLE, we use it to talk about actions completed in a specific moment in the past.

Following the same steps, we can ask students to choose the correct tense. For example, "I ________ (be) to London three times".

• Did it happen in the past? - YES
• Do we know when of where it happened exactly? - NO
• Additional questions: Is it experience you have? - YES.

The tense used in the sentence: PRESENT PERFECT, we use it to talk about actions that happened in the past but we do not know exactly when. Also we use it to talk about experiences.