Time Expressions with the Present Simple

Time expressions with Present Simple speaking games and grammar presentation

 

Game A: Time expressions with Present Simple make me say yes game

Choose one of the cards and ask a yes/ no question with it such as “Do you feel sleepy on Mondays?” You keep that card and score one point if your partner says “Yes”.

 

Game B: Time expressions with Present Simple things in common game

Choose a card and try to make true statements about yourself that are true for someone else in your group. For example, if you say “I always eat sandwiches for lunch” and someone says “Me too!”, you can keep the “always” card and score one point. If you can combine two cards in one sentence that other people agree with like “I almost always brush my teeth in the morning”, you can get two points. If they have the opposite reaction (e.g. “Really? I never do” or “Not me, I do three times a day”), you don’t score a point and play passes to the next person, but you can try again with the same card later if you like. The person who has the most cards at the end of the game wins.

 

Time expressions with Present Simple grammar presentation

After you finish the game, put all the cards together and divide them into ones which are answers to “How often…?” and ones which are answers to “When…?”

Divide the “How often…?” cards into two groups and put each group into order by meaning, with the most often top. Then divide the “When…?” cards into ones that take the preposition “on…”, ones which take the preposition “in…”, and ones which take the preposition “at…”

Check all those things as a class or with an un-cut-up copy of the worksheet, then discuss what kinds of words go with each of the prepositions.

Which preposition goes with each of these?

dates                                                            days                                                              months

parts of the day                             seasons                                                       times

 

What do the different things that go with the same preposition have in common?

Why do days and dates have the same preposition? And why are seasons and months the same? Why do those two groups take different prepositions from each other? How are they different from each other?

 

Game C: Time expressions with Present Simple answer me game

Choose one of the cards and try to get an answer from your partner including that word or those words, e.g. asking “How often do you ride an elephant?” to get the answer “Never”. 

 

Game D: General statements with time expressions and Present Simple

Try to make statements starting with “Most people in my country…” and both a frequency expression and another time expression that your partner agrees with such as “Most people in my country usually take a bath in the evening”.

Cards to cut up/ Suggested answers

Answers to “How often…?”	Answers to “When…?”
adverbs of frequency	in…
always/ all the time	the morning
almost always	the evening
usually/ generally	(the) spring
often	(the) summer
sometimes	(the) autumn (= fall)
occasionally	February
rarely/ seldom	July
very rarely/ hardly ever	August
almost never	on…
never	Valentine’s Day
other frequency expressions	New Year’s Eve
twice a day	Friday(s)

three times a week	Saturday(s)
twice a week	Sunday(s)
once a week	Monday morning(s)
three times a month	Sunday afternoon(s)
once every two weeks	Christmas Day
once a month	at…
once every three months	midday
three times a year	seven o’clock
once every two or three years	six thirty