Usually or yesterday? Present simple and past simple in English for children (A2, ages 8–11)

Usually or yesterday: the question to ask first

Before answering, your child needs one decision: does this happen again and again, or did it happen once and finish? Habits take the present simple; finished events take the past simple. The time words in the question are the clue.

• Habit words: usually, often, every day, on Saturdays
• Finished-event words: yesterday, last weekend, last night, two days ago

Habits: does in the question, no -s after we

A habit question about “your family”, “he” or “she” uses does: “What does your family usually eat?” The answer often starts with we, so the verb has no -s: “We usually eat soup.” With “my family”, the -s comes back: “My family usually eats soup.” Usually goes before the main verb but after am, is or are: “Our kitchen is usually busy.”

Finished events: Did you…? plus one detail

A yes/no question about a finished event starts with did, and the verb stays in its base form: “Did you see the skeleton?”, not “Did you saw…?” The short answer repeats did and matches the person: “Yes, we did.” for a whole class, “Yes, I did.” for one child.

A bare “Yes.” ends the talk, so add one detail: what happened (“We played outside.”) or what it was like (“It was enormous!”).

On Saturdays or last weekend: questions about real life

Real weekends give the best practice. “On Saturdays”, with an -s, means every Saturday: a habit. “On Saturday” usually means one Saturday, past or coming. There is no on before last: “last weekend”, not “on last weekend”.

• “What do you usually do on Saturdays?” “I usually do jigsaw puzzles with my family.”
• “Did you see a film last weekend?” “Yes, I did. It was very funny.”
• “What did you do on Saturday?” “We went to the park.”

Café, concert and museum words to reuse

Ask your child to use each word twice, once as a habit and once as a finished event: “The waiter usually brings the menu.” “Yesterday the waiter brought our soup.”

• Café: waiter, waitress, customer, menu, uniform; a bottle of water, a cup of coffee, a glass of milk, a bowl of soup, a plate of salad
• Concert: concert, stage, audience, programme, cheer; instruments: drums, violin, recorder, trumpet
• Museum: museum, dinosaur, skeleton, model, robot; roar, scream, scary, alive, dead

Spelling review: one sound, different letters

One long vowel sound can have several spellings. Say each group aloud and ask which letters make the sound.

• long a: train, tray, cake
• long e: tree, leaves, key
• long i: light, cry, bike
• long o: boat, blow, bone
• long oo: room, blue, flute
• f: feet, scarf, flamingo; ph: phone, alphabet, nephew

Common mistakes and quick fixes

These are normal at A2. Repeat the sentence correctly and carry on.

• “Yesterday we eat soup.”: a finished event needs the past: “Yesterday we ate soup.”
• “We usually eats soup.”: no -s after we: “We usually eat soup.”
• “Did you saw the skeleton?”: after did, use the base form: “Did you see the skeleton?”
• “Yes, I saw.”: the short answer is “Yes, I did.”, or say what you saw: “Yes, I saw it.”

A case-file interview game at home

Write three cards: USUALLY, YESTERDAY and LAST WEEKEND. Your child picks one and asks you a matching question, such as “What do you usually eat for lunch?” or “Did you cook yesterday?” Give a short answer plus one detail, then swap roles. The rule: every “Yes” or “No” needs a detail.

Finish with a two-line “case file” in a notebook: “I usually play football on Saturdays. Last weekend I saw a film.”

What comes next

Next, your child can follow past events in a short story and notice how clues change a first guess. Later, both forms meet in one sentence: “We usually eat soup, but yesterday we had pizza.”