Lesson 2: Unit 62 - Past Simple. Irregular Verbs.

About this lesson

In this lesson you will get to know the irregular verbs in the Past Simple – the simple past tense in English. You will learn how these verbs form a special past form that does not follow the standard rule with the ending -ed. Through a text about John Atanasoff – an American scientist of Bulgarian descent and the inventor of the computer – you will see the verbs in a real context. You will practise forming questions and negatives with did, and you will learn important past time expressions such as last week, two days ago and yesterday.

40 minutes

What you'll learn

• Recognise and use irregular verbs in the Past Simple
• Form questions and negatives with 'did' + infinitive
• Use time expressions such as 'last week', 'ago', 'yesterday'
• Understand a text about John Atanasoff in the past tense
• Get to know the vocabulary from the lesson text

Lesson vocabulary

• uprising His father was killed in the Bulgarian April 1876 Uprising.
• ottoman yoke His father was killed in the Uprising against the Ottoman yoke.
• improve John Atanasov had some ideas about improving an IBM tabulator.
• refuse The company refused to authorize his idea.
• authorize The company refused to authorize his idea.
• exhausting It took a series of exhausting court cases.
• court case It took 35 years and a series of exhausting court cases.
• succeed He succeeded in proving that he was the father of the intelligent machine.
• prove He succeeded in proving that he invented the machine.
• award John Atanasov was awarded the order of Cyril and Methodius.
• definition He gave the following definition of his brainchild.
• means The computer is but a means, a tool, and a useful instrument.
• manage The computer remains useful so long as people manage to use it well.
• copyright Atanasov didn't look for his copyright for 40 years.
• inventor They made the first film for the inventor of the century.

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In other languages: Български