I ate something strange yesterday.
A finished event at a finished past time.
Signals: yesterday, last week, in 2020, two days ago.
Question: Did you eat it?
Negative: I didn't eat it.
TEFFY KIDS ↗ ENGLISH CLUB
B1–B2 · V2 + V3 · FOOD & STORIES
PAST.
PARTICIPLE.
PERSONAL.
Discover the past behind your food. Crack irregular verbs. Tell stories nobody expected.
eat → ate → eaten 🍕
40 questions ↗
sweep → swept → swept 🧹
ONE VERB. THREE FORMS.
Use V2 for a finished past event. Use V3 after have, has or had.
I have eaten insects once.
Experience up to now, or a past event with a result now.
Signals: ever, never, already, yet, so far.
Question: Have you ever eaten insects?
Negative: I haven't eaten them.
I had eaten before my friends arrived.
An event that happened before another past event.
First: I ate. Later: my friends arrived.
Question: Had you eaten?
When did you last sweep your room?
After did, use V1: sweep, not swept.
✓ I swept it on Sunday.
✓ I have never swept it. A robot does it!
✓ When was the last time you swept your room?
Experience → details:
“Have you ever broken something expensive?”
“Yes, I have. I broke my dad’s glasses last summer.”
“Have you ever broken something expensive?”
“Yes, I have. I broke my dad’s glasses last summer.”
WHO REALLY INVENTED YOUR LUNCH?
Four food histories. A few famous legends. Read the stories, notice V2 and V3, and separate evidence from a good tale.
01 / JAPAN · SUSHI 🍣 The rice people threw away
Long before sushi became a restaurant favourite, people in parts of Asia kept fish in fermented rice. The technique made the fish last longer. In early versions, people ate the fish but threw the rice away. The rice was a tool, rather than the main part of dinner.
By the time modern sushi appeared, older preservation methods had already spread across different regions. In Japan, cooks gradually found quicker ways to prepare the dish and began using vinegar in the rice. In nineteenth-century Edo, now Tokyo, hand-shaped nigiri became a popular quick meal.
This history was more complicated than one clever person inventing raw fish on rice. The dish grew out of practical needs and changed over time.
Word help
fermented: changed by microorganisms; preservation: keeping food safe for longer; gradually: slowly, over time.
Historical background:
National Geographic.
Adapted learning text.
02 / ITALY · PIZZA 🍕 A royal story with a question mark
In Naples, pizza was an affordable food for people who had little money or time. Sellers sold flatbreads with simple toppings, and customers ate them without the ceremony of a formal meal. Long before pizza became an international star, other cultures had also made flatbreads.
A famous story said that, in 1889, a pizza maker gave Queen Margherita a pizza with tomato, mozzarella and basil. Its colours matched the Italian flag. However, the royal story was disputed, and similar toppings had existed before that visit.
Italian migrants later took their food traditions abroad. Pizza grew into a global favourite. A memorable royal tale gave it extra glamour, but its wider history belonged to ordinary people too.
Word help
affordable: not too expensive; disputed: questioned or challenged; migrants: people who moved to another country.
Historical background:
HISTORY.
Adapted learning text.
03 / MEXICO · TACOS 🌮 Did the name come from a mine?
The taco’s story did not begin with a fast-food chain. Mexican food traditions had included tortillas long before modern taco restaurants appeared. People put different fillings inside them and ate them as convenient meals.
Food historian Jeffrey Pilcher put forward an interesting theory about the name. In Mexican silver mines, the word “taco” referred to small paper packets containing gunpowder. Workers put them into holes in the rock. The resemblance between a wrapped packet and a filled tortilla led to a possible explanation. It was a theory, rather than a proven birth certificate.
Later, migration brought Mexican food traditions to new communities. Different versions grew in popularity. No single restaurant held the whole story of the taco.
Word help
mine: a place where people extract minerals; gunpowder: an explosive powder; resemblance: similarity in appearance.
Historical background:
Smithsonian Magazine.
Adapted learning text.
04 / BRITAIN · SANDWICHES 🥪 The man who lent lunch his name
Long before the name “sandwich” became common, people in different places had eaten bread with fillings. John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, therefore did not invent the basic idea. His title gave the food its famous English name.
According to a popular story, the Earl spent so much time gambling that he did not want to leave the table. He asked for meat between slices of bread so that he could keep playing. The story became famous, although its exact details were uncertain.
By the time the name spread, earlier food traditions had already shown how useful bread and fillings could be together. The Earl got a lasting place in food history, but he was not the first person who thought of a portable lunch.
Word help
Earl: a British noble title; gambling: playing games for money; portable: easy to carry.
Historical background:
HISTORY.
Adapted learning text.
Read between the bites
Choose the best answer based on the texts.
Discuss: Which story surprised you most?
What had people done before the “famous inventor” appeared?
Why did simple food become internationally popular?
THE VERB LAB.
Write only the missing verb form. The verb in brackets is V1. Look at the time expressions and the auxiliaries.
These are practice sentences, including imaginary situations.
Historical details are in the reading section.
YOUR LIFE. THE WEIRD EDITION.
Answer honestly — or invent a believable story. Use the target verb in Past Simple or Present Perfect. Your partner must ask one follow-up question.
Partner challenge: Tell two true details and one invented detail.
Your partner guesses the invented one.
Grammar challenge: Start with “I have…” or “I have never…”, then add one sentence with a finished past time.
Grammar challenge: Start with “I have…” or “I have never…”, then add one sentence with a finished past time.
Your story notes
Optional notes stay here while this page remains open. Open answers for models; personal stories are not marked automatically.
LETTERS IN A PANIC.
Unscramble the letters to complete each sentence. Use every letter. Decide whether you need V2 or V3.
MEET THE LESS OBVIOUS VERBS.
Match each verb to its meaning. Choose a definition below each card. All the verbs are irregular.
THE IRREGULAR COLLECTION.
Search by a verb, a form or an English meaning. Some verbs have more than one accepted form.
| V1 | V2 | V3 | Meaning |
|---|
No verbs found. Try another spelling.
Watch out: lie → lay → lain means “be in a flat position”.
Lie → lied → lied means “say something untrue” and is regular.
Read: V1 sounds like “reed”; V2 and V3 sound like “red”.
Get: “gotten” is common in American English; British English usually uses “got” as V3.
Read: V1 sounds like “reed”; V2 and V3 sound like “red”.
Get: “gotten” is common in American English; British English usually uses “got” as V3.