Speak Method Pro

Practice verb tenses by concentrating on topics as you might discuss them at work or with colleagues. If there is difficulty with any tense, use these scenarios as prompts multiple times. For example, you can describe many different teammates or past projects or trips.

Simple Present

1. Describe your regular work: who you are and what you do.
2. Describe your daily routine. Include things you do every day, often, usually or sometimes. All these words indicate the simple present.
3. Casual: Describe your hobbies. Again, use the tense-indicator words above.

Present Continuous (also called Present Progressive)

1. Talk about trends in your field. What’s happening?
2. Choose another topic like the stock market or international politics. What’s happening?
3. Now use this tense to talk about the future. What are you doing later today?
4. When’s your next vacation or an event you plan to attend? What are you planning to do?

Simple Present Third Person — Adding -S to the Verb

1. Choose a teammate and describe how that person helps you or does not help you.
2. Choose a teammate and describe concerns you have about that person’s work in relation to yours. Or describe how the other person’s work contributes to yours.
3. Choose another team that your team sometimes works with and describe how that team works with yours. Also describe benefits or drawbacks to your collaboration.
4. Casual: imagine you are telling someone about someone you know. For example, you might describe your mother or father to someone before introducing them in person.

The Past Tense

1. Describe your past work experience.
2. Describe a project you worked on in the past. This is one that is completely finished so that you’ll use the past tense throughout.
3. Describe a work event or conference you attended.
4. Describe a presentation you gave or a time when you led others in a project or meeting.
5. Casual: describe an aspect of your childhood that’s interesting like a town you lived in or an interesting hobby you or your family had.
6. Casual: describe a trip you took.
7. Casual: describe an artistic or creative project you did.

The Past and the Present Tenses

1. Describe a project that changed. In the past, it was one way and now it’s another. Describe this change using both the past and present.
2. Describe your career growth: how you thought about things or performed when you first started and how you think/perform now.
3. Describe your company’s growth or changes: how it was in the past versus how it is now.
4. Describe a person you worked with in the past who moved or changed jobs. Describe how you knew them then and how/if you know them now.

Present Perfect Tense

1. Describe your work experience starting with the present perfect, moving into the past tense, and ending with the present perfect.
2. What are some things you’ve been doing at work lately?
3. Casual: what are some things you’ve been doing outside of work?
4. What are some of your work accomplishments?
5. What are some interesting aspects of your career field that you have never done? Do you want to do these in the future?
6. Describe a colleague using the present perfect, then moving into the past and finishing with the present perfect.

Past Perfect

1. Describe specific events that took place during a project. Use the past perfect to clarify how one past event happened before another. For example: Before we had finished half of the project, the other team submitted their results.
2. Describe an incident or complicated occurrence such as a car accident. For example: I had just parked my car when the other car hit me.
3. Describe a complicated procedure you went through, like getting a green card. For example: I thought I had finished everything, but then I found out I still had to submit documents.

Conditional Tense

1. If you could work on any project, what would that project be?
2. If you could improve your team’s performance, how would you do it?
3. Casual: if you could retire anywhere, what country would you choose and what would your retirement look like?
4. Casual: If you could have a very big family, would you want that? Why or why not?
5. Casual: If you could stop working now, what would you do with your time? Would you seek a way to make your life meaningful or would you focus on enjoying yourself or both?
6. List some things you really should do soon.
7. What are some things colleagues shouldn’t do, things that might disrupt team efficiency?

Future / Present Progressive (Continuous)

1. What are some things your team plans to do soon?
2. How are you going to proceed with our project?
3. What are some goals you’re planning to achieve this year?
4. What’s an upcoming event you’re planning to attend?
5. Casual: What’s an upcoming trip you’re gonna take?