As a teacher, what do you do when you give an incorrect answer

I just started teaching and I realized while I was giving a lesson to a lady, I told her her answer was incorrect, and shortly after I realized I was wrong. It was a question on present perfect. How can I tell her that I was wrong and still not make her think I don't know what I am talkinga about. The question was:

Have you been to Scotland? Yes, I ..........last year.
a) was
b) was being
c) have gone
d) went
I told her it was c but it was actually d. How can I cover this embarassing error?

Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. I've found the best way to correct them is to explain that it's been a long time since we studied grammar in school. Let your student know that you were thinking about the answer you gave them and wanted to make sure that you were correct, so you double-checked the rule and found you had made an error. You only have her best interest at heart, so wanted to correct the mistake. Come up with a few other examples too, to really make sure she understands the concept.

In the future, if a student asks you something that you're not certain about, tell her you'll check and get back to her. You can also say what you think the answer is, but tell her you will double-check. In my experience, most people understand that English is difficult and that as native speakers we have not studied a tonne of grammar.

thanks a lot for your advice!

Just another question, Under what circumstance (if there is one) would the above choice (c) - "I have gone last year", be correct? I mean I would like to clarify it it a waym that it would be correct if.....

I hope this question is clear. :)

(c) could not be correct in any circumstances.

You have a clear fixed time reference point in the sentence in the form of "last year" so past simple is the only tense that works in the context of your original question: "Have you been to Scotland? Yes, I ......... last year."

Present perfect would work if there was no fixed time reference in your question, for example:

"Have you been to Scotland? Yes I've ..........."

In which case, answers like:

"Yes, I've been to Scotland"

or

"Yes, I've been to Scotland three times"

Are quite acceptable.

I hope that answers your question.


As for your own mistakes in a classroom, don't dwell on them. Just like your student's mistakes, spend only as much time as you need to make the correction and explain why the correction was needed and then move on.