Welcome Back! How Were Your Holidays?(with Adjectives and the Simple Past Tense)

Hello and welcome back! I hope you had nice and restful holidays. Mine were peaceful and I managed to read a few books. It’s been a long time since I read really good literature, so it was a pleasurable experience.

I actually spent two weeks in a small village called Rynia, which is about 30 km from Warsaw, the capital city of Poland. This quaint place lies along the Zegrze Reservoir or Lake and you can swim, do water sports or take long healthy walks in the surrounding areas.

I used the remaining days of my holidays to clean and organise the house, which I enjoyed because I like working in an uncluttered space. I also found many ideas for this website, which will be useful for the year 2020-2021.

That’s all for me! So, how were your holidays?

Were they…….?

nice?
fantastic?
unusual?
boring?
productive?
exciting?
adventurous?
excellent?
weird?
sunny?
pricey?
okay?
fine?
restful?
long?
short?
great?
wonderful?
cool?

Sample Answers

My holidays were nice but unusual.
I had wonderful holidays.
They were simply amazing. The food was good and I did a lot of interesting activities.
My holidays? Don’t ask me that question. They were boring!
My holidays were both productive and exciting.
They were cool and I met great people.
I had a fantastic time.
Cool, what about yours?
My holidays were strange. I didn’t want to go anywhere because of the pandemic and I stayed at home.

You can also say:

I had an unusual holiday experience.
These holidays were uneventful.
I had such a blast during these weird holidays.
My holidays were exceptionally good. I just wished they were longer.
I thought these summer holidays were really long. I just wanted to go back to school/work.

Your Turn: Were your holidays okay, bad, stellar or just a nightmare? Make 5 sentences describing your experience using the Adjectives above or below. Be creative!

How Were Your Holidays_Adjectives for Describing Holidays_1_Final_Learn English With Africa_September 2020 — ©https://old.learnenglishwithafrica.com

Well done! Let’s move on to the next step. Can you guess what you are going to do now?

Take a piece of paper and answer the following questions concerning your recent vacation.

Tip: Write the question first with the number and then put the answer below the question. The sentences will sound more natural when you read them aloud after you have finished writing.

Let’s start.

WH- Questions: Give a full answer.

For example: Where did you go? I went to Italy.

Where did you go? I went to……………………
When did you decide to go there? I decided to go there……………………
Why did you go there? I went to……………………because…………………….
When did you leave? I left on………………….
With whom did you go? I went there with my…………………….
How did you reach your destination? I took a ………………………
How long did you stay there? I stayed there for…………………….
What did you do there? I visited………………….
What interesting monuments did you see there? I saw………………………
What food did you eat? I ate………………………

YES/No Questions: Give a short answer.

For example: 1) Did you go to South Africa? No, I didn’t. 2) Did you make new friends there? Yes, I did.

Did you go to France? Yes, I…………………../ No, I………………………
Did you go alone on holiday? Yes, I ………………../ No, I ……………………
Did you leave on a Saturday? Yes, I………………………/No, I……………………..
Did you travel by plane? Yes, I………………………../No, I…………………………..
Did you visit any monuments? Yes, I …………………./No, I…………………………
Did you see any interesting things? Yes, I……………………./No, I………………..
Did you do many activities? Yes, I………………………./No, I………………………..
Did you stay there long? Yes, I …………………………/No, I……………………………
Did you eat local food? Yes, I………………………/No, I………………………………….
Did you like your trip overall? Yes, I………………………No, I……………………….

Did you recognise the tense that you used? It’s the Simple Past Tense, of course!

Below is a chart that you can use to revise this tense. Observe each and every section of the chart and memorise the information. Don’t forget to use grammar in context. Practice makes perfect!

School Vocabulary, The Simple Past, Learn English With Africa, September 2018 (+ How Were Your Holidays?)

Final Task

Write 5 paragraphs in which you talk about your last summer holidays.

Paragraph 1: Talk about how your holidays were in general.

Paragraph 2: Answer the following questions: Where did you go? When did you go there? Why did you go there? How did you go there? Who went with you?/With whom did you go there? (You can choose the order you want as long as your sentences make sense. This tip applies to the other questions below too.)

Paragraph 3: Answer the following questions: What did you see there? What did you do? What did you eat? What did you drink?

Paragraph 4: How long did you stay and when did you leave? What is your general impression of the place you visited? How did you feel?

Paragraph 5 : What did you do after you came back from your holidays? Were you busy or not?

Sample Description

My summer holidays were long, exciting and adventurous. They started in July and ended in the sunny month of August, which was fine with me.

During the first month, I went to Paris in France. I travelled by plane with my best friend Anna. We chose this destination because it is very popular with tourists and there are many things we can do there. Our air tickets were also affordable and we managed to book cheap rooms in a hotel in the 18th arrondissement. We had always wanted to do this trip and we thought that this year was the right time to do it.

We mainly saw famous and remarkable structures such as the Eiffel Tower, of course, and la Défense. We also had a glimpse of Montmartre but we were unable to visit it because there were too many people there. We walked a lot and talked to local people to know more about their culture. A lovely lady introduced us to several delicacies such us ‘chouquettes’, ‘pains au chocolat’ and ‘pains au raisins’. They were very tasty! We ate these while drinking a nice creamy hot chocolate called ‘chocolat au lait’. That was fantastic.

We were quite sad to leave the incredible city of lights after two weeks because we enjoyed our stay there. Even with coronavirus, we did not feel that many things had changed. We were happy to practise our French and we saw many new things that were inspirational. We just avoided crowded places and took many walks. It was exciting to stroll along la Rive Gauche or la Rive Droite and many a time we came across museums into which we could go and admire world-class art. I loved the trip overall. It was great and memorable.

After we came back, I stayed at home and read a lot. I also studied French grammar online because I had a lot of motivation to really learn this language. However, I was not very busy because I also wanted to rest. Holidays are meant to be restful after all!

Tip: This is just an example of what you can write. Your text can be shorter or longer depending on your abilities. Try to give as much information as possible and enjoy yourself!

Final Words: Good luck with your English studies this year. If you work, bon courage as the French say or trzymaj się (take care) as Polish people say. Work hard and give it your all! Your efforts will pay off in the end.

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