Grammar ~21 min of the core left

Tell the story of a trip in order

After this lesson you can

I can tell a story of several events and say them in order.

Start the lesson Core 19–21 min · steps: 6 · optional: +2

Declared core time. Two of the core blocks carry no figure at all, so the real lesson is longer than this sum.

Grammar

5 min

The twenty most common verbs do not take -ed — they have their own past form. You cannot work it out from a rule; you learn it by heart. These verbs are called irregular verbs.

be → was/were go → went have → had do → did say → said
get → got make → made come → came see → saw know → knew
take → took give → gave find → found think → thought tell → told
leave → left feel → felt put → put bring → brought buy → bought

said is pronounced /sed/; bought and thought have a long /ɔː/ and a silent gh.

The order of events in a story rests on four words:

First, … the first event
Then, … the next event
After that, … the event after the one before
Finally, … the last event

They go at the start of the sentence, with a comma after them.

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Common learner errors

written for your language
1

-ed on an irregular verb

✗ goed

✗ taked

✗ buyed

✓ went

took, bought. Learners of every language make this mistake, and it goes away only with practice.

2

then between the verb and the words after it

✗ I went then home

✓ Then I went home

In German, Dutch, French, Spanish and many other languages a word like "then" can stand right after the verb (German Ich ging dann nach Hause, "I went then home"). It is close to the rule from lesson 7 (nothing goes between the verb and its object): went home stays together. (I then went home is also correct, but people write it, they do not say it.)

3

Mixing up said and told

say — to say something, tell — to say something to someone: He said that, He told me. ✗ He said me → ✓ He told me. In French (il m'a dit), Spanish (me dijo), Portuguese (ele me disse) and many other languages one verb does both jobs, and you add the person to it directly. In English only tell takes the person directly.

Pronunciation

3 min

In irregular verbs the vowel changes, and this is the main thing to hear:

see /siː/ → saw /sɔː/ know /nəʊ/ → knew /njuː/
take /teɪk/ → took /tʊk/ give /ɡɪv/ → gave /ɡeɪv/
buy /baɪ/ → bought /bɔːt/ think /θɪŋk/ → thought /θɔːt/

In bought and thought the letters gh are not pronounced at all — they are what is left of a very old sound.

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Text

3 min

Last summer I went to Italy. First, I took a plane to Rome. Then I found a small hotel next to the station. The hotel was old but clean. After that, I walked in the city every day. I saw a lot of old streets and I bought a book about Rome. Finally, I came home in August.

Reading aloud

Exercises

8–10 min

1. Gap fill.

  1. I (go) to Italy
  2. She (take) a taxi
  3. We (see) a film
  4. He (buy) a new car
  5. They (come) home late
Show the answers
went, took, saw, bought, came.

2. Error correction.

  1. I goed to the park.
  2. He said me the answer.
  3. I went then home.
Show the answers
I went to the park; He told me the answer; Then I went home. / I then went home. / I went home then.

3. Order of events.

Put them in order: Finally, First, Then, After that.

Show the answers
First → Then → After that → Finally.

4. Matching.

  1. go
  2. see
  3. buy
  4. think
  5. take
Show the answers
go — went; see — saw; buy — bought; think — thought; take — took.
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Summary

Covered

  • twenty irregular verbs
  • four words for the order of events
  • say against tell

Next — lesson 30: review of lessons 25–29.

End of the core

The lesson counts as done once the exercises are done. Everything after this is optional.

Lesson 30

optional

Vocabulary for your deck

12 words
  • went /went/ past of go (went home)
  • saw /sɔː/ past of see (saw a film)
  • took /tʊk/ past of take (took a taxi)
  • bought /bɔːt/ past of buy (bought a book)
  • thought /θɔːt/ past of think
  • told /təʊld/ past of tell (told me)
  • first /fɜːst/ at the start; number one in order
  • then /ðen/ after that
  • after that /ˈɑːftə ðæt/ next, when that is done
  • finally /ˈfaɪnəli/ at the end, after everything else
  • about /əˈbaʊt/ on the subject of (a book about Rome)
  • late /leɪt/ near the end of the day; after the usual time

Writing

Five sentences about a trip, with the words for the order of events.

Example

Last summer I went to Italy. First, I took a plane to Rome. Then I found a small hotel. After that, I walked in the city every day. Finally, I came home.

Checklist

The draft is saved on this device
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Practise this lesson in the other sections

Dictationbased on this lesson Write down what you hear. The check shows every word that differs, and how. Write the dictation Reading aloudbased on this lesson Read the lesson text aloud — speech recognition highlights the words it did not catch. Read the text aloud Reading and listeningA1–C1 Texts at every level with comprehension questions; the transcript opens after you answer. Try it

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