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Missing Piece

English grammar game: verb tenses, articles and the passive

EnglishPrimary, Secondary, Sixth Form

An English game for the five structures that cause the most trouble: a sentence appears with a gap and you build the correct form by tapping the pieces in order. It is not picking one of four options: you have to assemble "has written" or "will be built" piece by piece, which is what an exam — and speaking — actually asks for. The clue that decides the answer is underlined in the sentence, and the rule appears when you check.

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English · Primary, Secondary, Sixth Form

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🧠 Pedagogical Benefits

Producing, not recognising

In a four-option test you can get it right by recognising the answer. Building it from pieces means knowing that the auxiliary carries the tense and the participle carries the meaning. That is the difference between understanding a sentence and being able to write one.

Learning to look for the clue

Every sentence underlines what decides the answer: "every day", "yesterday", "since 2010", "yet". With repetition the student stops guessing the tense and starts reading the sentence looking for the signal.

The article you do not write

"—" is a piece like any other, so using no article becomes a visible decision. It is the most repeated mistake for Spanish speakers ("I like the music"), and it is only fixed when the student has to choose the gap on purpose.

💡 Practical Example

"The sentence "She ___ here since 2010" appears with "since 2010" underlined, and the pieces has · have · lived · live · lives. The student builds "has lived" and reads the rule: since marks the starting point and takes present perfect, and with she the auxiliary is has."

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📝 The pieces on paper

Prefer to learn without screens? Try this analogue version:

1
Write six sentences from your book leaving a gap where the verb goes, and underline the word that gives the tense away.
2
On separate slips write the pieces: has, have, was, were, did, the base verb and the participle.
3
Build the gap with the slips and write next to it why that piece and not another.
4
The next day repeat only the ones you got wrong: that is where the learning is.

🎲 Similar activities you might enjoy

If you like Missing Piece, these activities work similar skills:

Hunt for markers while reading

In any English text underline every day, yesterday, since, for, already and yet, and check which tense goes with them. It confirms the rule with real material.

The same sentence in three tenses

Take one sentence and rewrite it in present simple, past simple and present perfect. Seeing what changes and what does not fixes the forms far better than studying each tense apart.

Passive in reverse

Take English newspaper headlines (they are often passive) and rewrite them in the active voice. You see what the passive is for: when it does not matter who did it.

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