Past Perfect ESL Games, Activities & Worksheets

ESL Past Perfect Game - Grammar: Writing Sentences from Prompts - Pair Work In this creative past perfect game, students write two explanations for each situation, one realistic and one imaginative, using the past perfect to show an earlier reason, then share and vote on their favourites. In pairs, students write two explanations for each situation on their worksheet, a realistic explanation (fact) and an imaginative explanation (fiction). Next, read the first situation to the class, i.e. 'I walked into class, but I didn't recognize anyone.' Pairs then take turns reading their 'Fact' explanations to the class using the past perfect, e.g. 'You had walked into the wrong class.' The class then votes for the most realistic explanation. The winning pair scores a point. The pairs then read out their 'Fiction' explanations, e.g. 'You had lost your memory.' Again, the class votes for the best one. This process continues with the second situation, and so on. The pair with the most points at the end of the game is the winner. show less

ESL Past Perfect and Past Simple Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Gap-fill, Unscrambling, Matching, Sentence Completion, Writing Sentences This free past perfect vs. past simple worksheet helps students practice using the past perfect with the past simple and common sequence words to show the order of past events. Students start by completing sentences with the past perfect or past simple form of the verbs in brackets. Next, students rewrite sentence parts in the correct order. Students then move on to match past perfect and past simple sentence halves together. After that, students complete past perfect and past simple sentence halves with their own ideas. Finally, students answer questions using sequence words. show less

ESL Past Perfect Game - Grammar and Speaking: Giving Explanations from Prompts - Group Work In this amusing past perfect game, students explain surprising situations by giving earlier reasons in the past perfect. In groups, students take turns picking up a situation card and reading it to the group, e.g. 'I slept in my car all night.' The other group members then each come up with a different explanation using the past perfect, e.g. 'I slept in my car all night because the car had broken down, and I was miles from home.' If the group agrees that each explanation is believable and it includes the past perfect (had or hadn't + past participle), the speaker scores one point. The next student then picks up a card, and so on. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Past Perfect Activity - Grammar: Sentence Completion, Matching - Pair Work In this useful past perfect activity, students complete cause-and-effect sentences using 'had' plus the past participle, then work in pairs to match sentence halves and explain reasons for past outcomes. To begin, students complete sentences in the past perfect using their own ideas. In pairs, students then compare their sentences by reading them to each other. Students then move on to a matching activity. Student A starts by reading the first sentence half to their partner, who listens and finds the other half of the sentence. When Student B thinks they have found a matching ending, they read it to their partner. When both students agree the two halves match, they mark the matching number or letter next to the sentence. This continues until all the sentence halves have been matched. Finally, students check how many sentences were the same as what they wrote in the first activity. show less

ESL Past Perfect Game - Grammar and Speaking: Matching, Asking Questions from Prompts, True or False, Guessing, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this fun past perfect game, students practice asking past perfect questions with 'by the time' and using follow-up questions to identify true and false answers. First, students match each activity with one of the pictures on the worksheet and write the activity under the picture. Students then put a cross next to some of the activities in each age category. Students can put any number of crosses. Next, in pairs, students take turns asking their partner a past perfect question with 'by the time' for each activity, e.g. 'Had you broken a bone by the time you were seven?' If their partner crossed out the activity, they lie about their experience. If they didn't put a cross, they tell the truth. The student then asks follow-up questions to help them decide if their partner is telling the truth or lying. The student then guesses whether their partner is lying or telling the truth, and the answer is revealed. For each correct guess, students score a point. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Past Perfect Game - Grammar: Matching, Gap-fill - Pair Work In this engaging past perfect game, students match past simple sentences with past perfect explanations with 'because' and complete missing verb forms. First, in pairs, students read each past simple sentence and discuss what had happened and how the sentence might be continued using the past perfect, e.g. 'Anna was very cold because she had forgotten to take her coat and scarf.' Students then take turns matching each past simple sentence with a past perfect explanation. If their partner agrees that the match is correct, the student completes the explanation with the verb in brackets in the past perfect, keeps the two cards and has another turn. If not, play passes to the other student. Afterwards, go through the correct answers with the class. Students score one point for each correctly matched and completed pair of cards. The student with the most points in each pair wins the game. show less

ESL Past Perfect Game - Grammar: Writing and Reading Sentences, Guessing, Matching - Pair Work In this free past perfect game, students write explanations for 'Why did you say...?' questions and then try to match a partner's explanations to questions. First, students write an explanation in the past perfect for each 'Why did you say...?' question on their worksheet, e.g. 'Why did you say 'I'm sorry' to your friend?' 'I had forgotten her birthday.' Next, in pairs, students take turns ticking one of their explanations at random and reading it to their partner, who has one chance to match the explanation to the correct 'Why did you say...?' question. If a student makes a correct match, they score one point. This continues until both students have read all 12 explanations. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Past Simple and Past Perfect Game - Grammar and Speaking: Matching, Reforming Sentences, Controlled Practice - Group Work In this enjoyable past simple and past perfect game, students play dominoes by matching clause halves and saying sentences with a past simple main clause + 'as soon as' + a past perfect clause. To begin, the first player pairs two clauses by placing one of their dominoes at either end of the domino on the table. The player then forms a sentence consisting of the first clause in the past simple followed by 'as soon as' and the second clause in the past perfect, e.g. 'It stopped raining as soon as I had opened my umbrella.' The other group members judge the player's sentence. If the sentence is meaningful and grammatically correct, the player leaves the domino where it is. If the sentence is wrong, the player picks up the domino and keeps it. The next player then tries to put down one of their dominoes at either end of the domino chain, and so on. The first player to get rid of all their dominoes wins the game. show less

ESL Past Perfect Board Game - Grammar and Speaking: Sentence Completion, Controlled and Freer Practice - Group Work In this rewarding past perfect board game, students create sentences by combining past perfect time clauses with past simple main clauses using after, when, before, and until. Players take turns rolling the dice and moving their counters along the board. When a player lands on a blank square, the student on their left picks up a card and reads out the past perfect time clause, e.g. '...after he had finished his run...' The player listens and completes the sentence with a relevant past simple main clause, e.g. 'After he had finished his run, he took a cold shower.' If a player lands on a square with a past simple main clause, e.g. 'They started laughing', they choose after, when, before, or until from the game board and create a past perfect time clause to complete the sentence, saying the full sentence aloud, e.g. 'When he had finished telling his story, they started laughing.' If the group agrees that the sentence is grammatically correct and logical, the player stays on the square. If not, they move their counter back two squares. The first player to reach the finish wins the game. show less

ESL Past Simple and Past Perfect Worksheet - Grammar and Writing Exercises: Matching, Email Writing In this productive past simple and past perfect worksheet, students write emails about a disastrous party, using the past simple for the problems and the past perfect with 'because' or 'as' to explain earlier causes. First, students read through a scenario about a disastrous party. Students then match problems at the party with explanations of why they happened. Next, students write an email about the party using the past simple to talk about the problems and the past perfect to explain why they happened, e.g. 'There weren't many guests because I had forgotten to send out the invitations.' After that, students write a reply to the email, detailing other unfortunate events, using the past simple to describe what happened and the past perfect to explain earlier causes. Finally, students read their completed emails to the class. show less

ESL Past Perfect Activity - Grammar and Writing: Chain Story Writing, Writing Sentences - Group Work In this imaginative past perfect activity, students co-write short chain stories in groups using the past simple for main events and the past perfect to show earlier actions and causes. First, each student takes a story card and completes the first sentence of the story in the past perfect tense. Students then pass their story cards to the person on their right, who reads the first sentence and continues the story by writing a second sentence in the past simple and/or past perfect. The student then passes the story to the person on their right, who writes the third sentence. The following student finishes the story with their fourth sentence. The activity is then repeated with another four cards. After that, students take turns reading the stories to the group and choosing the best one. Finally, each group reads out their best story to the class. show less