How to Picture the Past

Art for art's sake is a beautiful notion. But grammar for the sake of grammar is strictly for the nerds. So which grammar is indispensable? In my book: word order and tenses.?And who are its rockstars? Verbs.

Word order is vital unless you want to sound like Master Yoda from Star Wars - or worse. It doesn't matter how basic or advanced your English is. Your word order is always a defining feature.?

Verbs are crucial because they're versatile and get to lead exciting lives of myriad possibilities. Other parts of speech lead uneventful lives at best. A noun may dress as a plural or have an encounter with a possessive. An adjective can turn into an adverb by connecting with?-ly. None of that is extremely exciting or complicated. Verbs, however, are rockstars.

Verbs are all-important. And since verbs are about the connection between action and time, this question is significant too:?where are you, and what time is it??

Answers are usually similar to?I'm in English class, and it's a quarter to twelve. But that's not what I'm after. I want students to understand where they are on the timelines I draw. Where are you??Here?and?now. There is no other place you can be - except imaginary.?

On any timeline, here and now is where you are. From that position, you communicate what happens in the world around you. You describe states and actions, and you point to the present, the past and the future. And you do so using verbs.

For beginners and intermediate students, talking about the present and the future is pretty straightforward. Beginners certainly don't need constructs indicating hypothetical situations in an imaginary future.?

But even the more intricate future forms don't take up any separate space on the timeline. Anything beyond the present is the future. The past, however, comes in three distinct flavours. And each has its proper section on the timeline.

Timelines are crucial because humans are 80%-visual beings. And nine out of ten students do better with concrete examples than with abstract ones. Timelines bring order to the universe of verb forms.?

The past is everything on the timeline before now - obviously. But find it hard to picture how the past comes in three distinct flavours. So a timeline that divides that past into three segments gives learners a much-needed mental image.

The typical order in which students will learn the tenses for speaking about past events is Past Simple, Present Perfect, and finally Past Perfect. The latter belongs at a more advanced level, so let's start with the Past Simple and the Present Perfect.

At this point, conventional grammar usually lists the types of situations that take either Present Perfect or Past tense. There are many possible situations, so students get confused and don't have a clue.

Let's give them some clues. Signal words like?yesterday, last week?or?long ago?all answer the question?when? And because the clue?when??asks for a specific moment in the past, it takes Past tense. That's easy enough.?

In addition to all the signal words for the Present Perfect, I introduced?anywhen?to indicate an undefined past moment. It creates a clear contrast:?when?vs?anywhen. At first, I honestly thought I'd invented a brand new word meaning?at any time.?

Just picture my surprise when I discovered that?anywhen?dates back centuries - as do its siblings?somewhen?and?nowhen. OK, so it's not my invention, but the fact that?anywhen?seems strange will at least make it stick in the minds of our students.

Of course, there's more than one way to teach tenses describing the past. But all benefit from timelines and signal words. And no matter how you coin it, your students always need to picture it.?

Next week I'll post about an effective shortcut to help students choose between Present Perfect and Past tense. Grammar should always help - not hinder.

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