Past Perfect ESL Games, Activities and Worksheets
In this creative past perfect game, students write realistic and imaginative explanations for situations. 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.
This free past perfect vs. past simple worksheet helps students learn and practice how to use the past perfect with the past simple and sequence words. 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.
In this amusing past perfect game, students give explanations for different situations using the past perfect tense. 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 for the situation 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.' For each believable explanation, students score one point. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins.
In this useful past perfect activity, students complete and match sentences in the past perfect tense. To begin, students complete sentences in the past perfect tense 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.
In this fun past perfect game, students ask questions to a partner about their experiences of growing up and guess whether the experiences are true or false. First, students match each activity with one of the pictures on the worksheet and write the activity under the picture. Students then put crosses through some of the activities in each category. Students can put any number of crosses. In pairs, students then play a true or false guessing game where they take turns asking questions to their partner about each activity using the past perfect, e.g. 'Had you broken a bone by the time you were seven?' If a student put a cross through the activity, they lie about their experience. If a student didn't put a cross, they tell the truth. Their partner then asks follow-up questions to help them decide if the student is telling the truth or lying. Their partner then guesses whether the student 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.
In this engaging past perfect game, students complete and match past simple sentences with past perfect explanations. First, in pairs, students read each past simple sentence and think about what had happened and how the sentence might be continued using the past perfect, e.g. 'Neil couldn't use his mobile phone because he had forgotten to charge the battery.' Next, students play a past perfect matching card game by taking turns matching each past simple sentence with an explanation. Each time a student matches two cards together, they complete the explanation with the verb in brackets in the past perfect and keep the two cards. 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.
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 tense 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 reading one of their explanations at random to their partner, who has one chance to match the explanation to the right Why did you say...? question. If a student makes a correct match, they score one point. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins.
In this enjoyable past simple and past perfect game, students play dominoes by making sentences with a past simple verb clause + as soon as followed by a past perfect verb 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.
In this rewarding past perfect board game, students practice completing sentences that use the past perfect with the adverbial time clauses: after, when, before and until. Players take turns rolling the dice and moving their counter along the board. When a player lands on a blank square, another student picks up a card and reads out the past perfect adverbial time clause, e.g. '...after he had finished his run...' The player listens to the past perfect adverbial time clause and tries to complete it with a relevant past simple independent clause, e.g. 'After he had finished his run, he took a cold shower.' If the player completes the sentence with a relevant past simple independent clause, they stay on the square. If not, they move their counter back two squares. If a player lands on a square with a past simple independent clause, e.g. 'They started laughing', they choose a subordinating conjunction from the game board to create a past perfect adverbial time clause that completes the sentence, e.g. 'When he had finished telling his story, they started laughing.' If a player is unable to form a correct sentence, they go back two squares. The first player to reach the finish wins the game.
In this productive past simple and past perfect worksheet, students write emails describing a series of events using the past simple and past perfect. First, students read through a scenario about a disastrous party. Students then match problems that happened at the party with explanations of what happened. Next, students write an email about the party using the past simple to talk about the problems and the past perfect to explain what happened. Afterwards, students use the past simple and past perfect to write a reply to the email, detailing the unfortunate events that happened to someone else. Finally, students read their completed emails to the class.
In this imaginative past perfect activity, students write short group stories in the past simple and past perfect. First, each student takes a card and completes the first sentence of the story in the past perfect tense. Students then pass their cards to the student on their right, who reads the first sentence and continues the story by writing a second sentence in the past simple and past perfect. The student then passes the story to the student 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 decide which one they like the best. Finally, each group reads out their best story to the class.
