Odd One Out: Present Perfect
Practice Present perfect with this odd one out activity. Five words appear in each box. Which one doesn’t fit?
How to use this activity?
Share the PDF or print a copy for your students and let the games begin! Here is a list of answers for you, just in case 😉
- last March – the other time expressions are periods of time whereas last March is a specific moment in the past.
- cooked – this is a regular verb, so we add -ed to create the past participle. The others are irregular.
- light – the others are past participles whereas light is an infinitive.
- before – the others are concrete times, therefore we only use them (correctly) with the past simple. We can use “before” in both the past simple and present perfect.
- yet – this is the only adjective on the card that can only be used with the negative form of the present perfect.
- It’s been yesterday since… – after “it’s been” we must always use a period of time.
- 10 years – all the other time expressions we can use after “since.”
- that movie – all the others can be preceded by “I’ve been.”
- one day – all the other time expressions can be used with the present perfect or present perfect progressive.
Reviews
Ian Kime
I have been teaching English abroad since receiving my CELTA certificate in Poland in 2018. I enjoy tracking my individual students’ development but love having lessons with big groups! Now that I teach online, I am accompanied by my sidekicks Olaf, Mała, Pirate and Bandit on a regular basis.
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allyhughes –
Thank you for this resource, but there is a problem with number 4. “For years” is not an option.
allyhughes –
Sorry, I mean “4 years” is not an option.
Ian Kime –
Thank you for letting us know. We have changed the answer code for card number 4 to “before” because we can use “before” with the present perfect “I’ve done that before” while the others cannot (correctly) be used with the present perfect.
Damien –
Good game. However, there’s a mistake in #7. It should either say “I was little” or “I was a little child(/boy/girl, etc.)”. “I was a little” does not make sense. “Little” is an adjective. You can’t put an article in front of it unless there’s a noun after it.
Ian Kime –
Thank you for noticing our mistake – the updated version has been uploaded and is now ready to download.
Ian