Grammar Exercises

Past Simple / Present Perfect / Past Perfect

a) My mother ___________ (tell) me that my boyfriend Andrew ____________

(have) an accident and _________ (be) at the hospital.
b) When we ____________ (arrive) at my house and I _________ (open) the
door, other friends __________ (be) already inside. They __________________
(prepare) a surprise party.
c) This is the best film I __________________ (see) since last year.
d) When we ___________ (get) to the station, the train ________________
(already / leave) for London.
e) I ________________ (not / realise) it ________ (be) so late and thats why I
___________ (call) you.
f) Humanity ____________________ (destroy) the planet for centuries.
g) This afternoon my cousin ___________ (fall) off his bike because the road
___________________ (cut) and he _______________ ( not / know).
h) They ____________________ (never / taste) crab before they ______________
(go) to Hong Kong.
i) By the time I _____________ (get) there, the room _____________ (be) empty
and everyone ________________ (leave).
j) I _____________ (know) Sally ________________ (be) poor, but she
_________________ (become) richer during the last few years.
k) Helen _________________ (bring) a letter for you yesterday.
l) The painter Matisse _________________ (live) outside France for several
years.
m) I _______________ (feel) exhausted because I ____________________ (sleep)
the night before.
n) They ________________ (invite) the President to open the new hospital for
children.
o) The car ______________ (break) down this morning; I
___________________________ (completely / forget) to take it to the
mechanic last month.
p) The French Revolution _________________ (happen) in 1789.
q) There ______________ (be) lots of food in the house because I
_________________ (shop) that week.
r) We ___________________ (just / get) back from holiday; I _____________ (be)
so sad.
s) Paul Auster _______________ (write) some interesting books until now.
t) I ________________ (decide) to study Tourism at the university next year.

Complete the following text using the Past Simple or the Pas
Perfect:

A few years ago a woman _______________ (tell) the newspapers that she
_________________ (have) a vision of a fatal crash in which a train _______________
(be) involved. Two years later, a train ____________ (be) involved in a fatal crash,
in the same circumstances that she ___________________ (describe). An
observant, however, ___________________ (notice) earlier that the train colour
__________________ (change). But, in fact, someone _________________ (discover)
later that the Rail Company _____________________ (paint) the train a couple of
months before. So the vision ______________ (be) correct after all!