Past Simple or Present Perfect?
A or An?
The indefinite article a / an is quite tricky; it is easy to say that we place ‘an’ in front of a word that starts with a vowel, like an apple, an electric kettle, an Italian, an option, but when it comes to the vowel u, it is not always clear what to do. The ‘silent h’ also poses problems. Try this exercise and then look at the answers, with an explanation. Hopefully it will make everything clear.
Good luck!
Some or Any?
Tag Questions in the Present Simple
Make sure you read this reference sheet before you try this exercise!
Exercise My School Day
Exercise Good or Well?
Exercise Subject Substitutes (Present Continuous)
We use a large range of Subjects when we communicate. (We can say, ‘My dad’s friend’s dog is fetching his ball.’ My dad’s friend’s dog is a substitute for He/She/It … He/She/It is fetching.
This exercise shows which basic Subject (I, you, he, she, it, we or they) is the option for a more ‘complicated’ Subject. We need to understand this, in order to choose the correct part of the Verb to go with the Subject.
We use the Present Continuous when we are talking about:
- what we are doing now (I am phoning my friend at the moment.)
- an specific (agreed) action in the future (I am phoning my friend this afternoon.)


Exercise Past Perfect
e.g. I went back to school, because I had forgotten to hand in my book.
You paid me cash this morning, but your parents had already transferred the money.
He worked more hours, because he had booked some concert tickets, and needed extra money.

