Although the passive voice may sound something from another world, especially when it is not in your mother tongue, the truth is that it is not as hard as it looks.

Tot i que la passiva soni a marcianades, especialment quan no és en la teva llengua materna, la veritat és que no és tan difícil com sembla.

This is the structure for the passive voice in the present simple:

SUBJECT + {AM/IS/ARE} + PAST PARTICIPLE (-ed, or 3rd column) + BY …

Si no recordeu quan es fa servir ‘am’, ‘is’ o ‘are’, feu aquests exercicis.

1. Exercise
2. Exercise
3. Exercise
4. Exercise
5. Exercise
6. Exercise
7. Exercise
8. Exercise
9. Exercise
10. Exercise

And this is the structure for the passive voice in the past simple:

SUBJECT + {WAS/WERE} + PAST PARTICIPLE (-ed, or 3rd column) + BY …

Remember that WAS goes with ‘I’, ‘he, ‘she’, ‘it’.

Recorda que WAS va amb  ‘I’, ‘he, ‘she’, ‘it’.

According to the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999) the list of the top 10 verbs of the English language is:

• Number 10.Want (voler). Just a normal, regular verb.
• Number 9.Take (agafar). The first irregular verb in the list!
• Number 8. Come (venir). Irregular!
• Number 7. Make (fer). Irregular too!
• Number 6. See (veure). Erm… irregular again? Yes!!
• Number 5. Think (pensar). Irregular, yes!
• Number 4.  Know (conèixer) Yet another irregular verb.
• Number 3. …
• Number 2. …
• Number 1. …

Can you guess these three verbs? Send me your comments and see if you win this little competition. Oh, one clue: it’s not ‘to be’ nor ‘to have’ and they are all irregular verbs!

Past simple or present perfect? That’s a difficult situation in some sentences. In the introduction to unit 7 I gave you a list of words that can immdediately tell you if you need a past simple or a present perfect. They are the following:

However, as you learn more and more English, you might find examples of sentences that contradict this rule. Don’t worry. Languages are complex and full of exceptions.

Practice what you know with these activities:

• Present perfect or past simple 1 (there are some exceptions, don’t worry)
• 52 sentences!! (some exceptions, but the majority are easy to answer).

3rd ESO grade students are invited to post links to exercises that can help you practice ‘will’ or the first conditional.

You can start searching on the following addresses:

• www.englisch-hilfen.de
• www.ego4u.com
• www.englishpages.com

Try this little game where you have a text but you can’t see the words. Click on the first word to listen to the short story and then write the words that you hear. It’s a very simple game, but it’s hard to understand absolutely everything. Will you take up the challenge?

Excellent for listening practice!!! If you want more, try here.

• Complete this exercise, and it means that you have a very basic level.
• Try this one for basic-intermediate level.
• If you finish this one, your level is intermediate.
• This exercise here is for more advanced students who can distinguish between ‘will’ and ‘be going to’.

So … what level are you?

… the present perfect will be easy-peasy! The exercise takes less than 5 minutes and garantees, if completed correctly, that you are the master of the present perfect.

HERE!!

You don’t know when to use ‘have’ or ‘has’?

Don’t worry, this exercise will let you practise .

If you want more exercises on the present perfect, just follow this link. There are 234 of them!!!

Follow this link for lots of exercises. The exam will contain exercises from these pages, so…

Past simple – Past continuous

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All the information you need is here.

1. Which two national teams played the final match of the Copa América in July?
2. On December 27th, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. In which country?
3. Which famous videogame made $170 million in its first 24 hours?
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5. When did Mr Tony Blair resign as Primer Minister of the UK?

When you find the answer, please type it here.

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