7.3.- Past perfect and past perfect vs past simple

Exercise 3 on page 56

🦁 Past Simple vs. Past Perfect

👩‍🌾 A Day in the Life of a Zookeeper (B1 level)

 

🔹 1. Past Simple

We use the Past Simple to talk about:

• Completed actions in the past
• Events in sequence

🧩 Structure:
Subject + verb (past form)
(Regular verbs: -ed, Irregular verbs: second column)

🦓 Examples (Zookeeper Maria):

• Maria woke up at 6 a.m.
• She fed the lions at 7:00.
• Then, she cleaned the elephant area.

⏱️ These actions happened one after another!

 

🔹 2. Past Perfect

We use the Past Perfect to show:

• An action that happened before another past action

🧩 Structure:
Subject + had + past participle

🦒 Examples (Zookeeper Maria):

• Maria had prepared the food before she fed the animals.
• She had locked the cages before she left the zoo.

📍 One action happened earlier than the other.

 

🔄 3. Compare the Two (Zookeeper Example):

Past Simple	Past Perfect
She cleaned the cages.	She had cleaned the cages before the inspector arrived.
Maria fed the giraffes.	Maria had fed the giraffes when the school group came.
She checked the bird enclosure.	She had checked the bird enclosure before 8 a.m.

 

🧪 4. Practice Time – What did the zookeeper do?

Fill in the blanks with the correct form (Past Simple or Past Perfect):

1. Maria (arrive) ______ at the zoo at 6:30.
2. She (already / feed) ______ the monkeys when the vet came.
3. The elephants (go) ______ outside after she (open) ______ the gate.
4. She (not finish) ______ checking the cages before lunch.
5. A lion (escape) ______ because someone (not lock) ______ the door!

✅ Answers:

1. arrived
2. had already fed
3. went / had opened
4. didn’t finish
5. escaped / hadn’t locked

 

🎯 5. Summary (Zookeeper Style)

Tense	Use	Example
Past Simple	Action in the past	She fed the lions.
Past Perfect	Action before another past action	She had fed the lions before the visitors arrived.

 

Collaborative online exercise

https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simpas-pasper/exercises?ex04

Past perfect vs past simple online exercise

https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/past_perfect_simple_past.htm

🦁 Plenary Speaking Activity: What Had Happened at the Zoo?

Level: B1
Grammar Focus: Past Perfect vs Past Simple
Time: 10–15 minutes
Group Type: Pairs or small groups

 

🎯 Objective:

To consolidate students' understanding of when and how to use the past perfect and past simple by speaking about a fictional zoo visit.

 

🗂️ Instructions:

1. Set the Context (1 minute)
   Tell students:

"You’ve just come back from a tour to the zoo. Some things happened before you arrived, and others happened during your visit. You’ll now create a story using past perfect and past simple."

 

2. Prompt Cards – Group Storytelling (7–10 minutes)
   Give each pair or group the following prompts. They take turns continuing the story aloud, building on each other’s sentences using the correct tenses.

🐾 Prompts:

• The zoo opened at 9 a.m.
• We arrived at 10 a.m.
• The elephants had already...
• Before we got there, a monkey had...
• After we saw the penguins, we...
• We had never seen a/an ______ before.
• Just after we had eaten lunch, we...
• The zookeeper explained that the lion had...
• By the time we left, we...