Questions in the present simple tense

English teachers looking to teach question formation in the present simple tense will find a variety of helpful activities here. These resources include a speaking activity called 444 Grammar Questions, a board game, an instructional video, and several interactive online exercises. All these activities are free to use in your English lessons and are designed to engage students in practicing present simple questions effectively.

444 Grammar Questions – speaking activity

I love this activity and often use it at the start of my lessons. It’s simple to set up, easy to run, and encourages students to speak a lot.

Preparation:
Print the document and cut along the table lines. You’ll need one table for each student pair.

Instructions:

1. Give each pair a table and have them split it along the center line. One student holds the questions, and the other holds the answers. They shouldn’t show their papers to each other.
2. The student with the questions reads a question aloud, and their partner selects the correct answer from their sheet. The student with the questions checks the answer (the correct answer is provided behind each question). They repeat this process for all questions.

Phase 2:
Next, the student with the answers puts their card face down. The student with the questions then asks the questions again, but this time, the partner answers with their own ideas.

Phase 3:
The student holding the questions now passes their card to their partner, who then answers all the questions.

Finally, students swap their cards with another pair and work with the new set. You can continue the activity until students have practiced all 28 questions or choose to finish earlier.

Present simple questions – Board game

All students love games. They feel that they are not learning and at the same time they learn a lot.

Setup:

Print the game board (preferably one for a group of three or four students) in color. Print one answer key for each group too. Each group needs the game board, the key, tokens and a die.

The key:

How to play

Hand out dice and tokens. Each student places their token at the start of the board (. They roll the dice and move their token accordingly. Wherever they land, they must make a correct question using the image on the board and the words given. The other players check the answer using the key. If the question is incorrect, the player must return to their previous spot. The first student to reach the finish wins.

To make the game more interesting, you can add one more rule. Once the student make the question, he/she can ask it one of the other players. If the player is not able to answer it with 3 or more words, they move back by one square.

To avoid students completing the game too quickly, you can add the following rule:

• If the dice shows 1-3, the player moves forward 1 space.
• If it shows 4-5, they move 2 spaces.
• If it shows 6, they move 3 spaces.

This slows down the game and encourages more speaking practice.

Present simple questions – video

The following video is a simple drilling exercise. Students watch the video and hear a sentence. Their task is to take the sentence and turn it into a question.

Questions in the present simple tense – online activities

Down here you can find several online exercises to practice forming questions in the present simple tense online:

Present simple questions – dictation

Present simple questions – dictation

Present simple all forms

Present simple all forms 2

Thank God for leading me.