EAT BREAKFAST VS. HAVE BREAKFAST

Do we EAT BREAKFAST or do we HAVE BREAKFAST? I admit I've never given a second thought to the difference between those to expression and never pondered too much as to which one is correct. As the difficulty was drown to my attention let's have a look.

Both EAT BREAKFAST and HAVE BREAKFAST are correct and are practically interchangeable which basically means that you may use them in the same way and they will mean the same thing. 

I usually eat breakfast on my balcony. * I usually have breakfast on my balcony.

To go a step further, verbs EAT or DRINK and HAVE refer to the act of eating or drinking something.

We had a chocolate cake at the party last night. *We ate a chocolate cake at the party last night.

People with high blood pressure shouldn't drink any coffee. * People with high blood pressure shouldn't have any coffee. 

If you like to be more precise, it's worth noting that if your breakfast consists of a glass of orange juice or a mare cup of coffee and a cigarette, then you'd  opt for HAVE BREAKFAST since you're actually not eating anything.

I was in hurry so  I just drank a cup of coffee for breakfast. * I was in hurry so I just had a cup of coffee for breakfast. 

NOTE: Of course same rules apply to lunch and dinner or other meals.

talking about past with USED TO

USED TO is not the easiest English structure for the students to understand since is may be absent in their native language. I usually practice this structure talking about childhood memories or habits that changed over the years, and finish off with a discussion about civilisations development. Here is a simple activity the latter.

SPEAKING

Prepare some sentences comparing past and present, cut them into two parts and hand out whichever part you wish to the students. their task is to either start the sentence using USED TO or finish it with PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE (depending which part of the sentence you decide to hand out).

- People used to write letters to each other...

...but now they communicate by social media.  

- People used to count with abacuses...
...but now we have calculators and computers.
- Children used to go to work to earn money for the family...
...but now they go to school.
- We used to grow gardens for food...
...but now we buy fruit and vegetables in supermarkets. 
- People used to travel in horse carriages...
....but now we have cars and motorbikes.
- People used to keep food fresh under ground or in caves...
....but now we have fridges.
- People used to tell each other stories for fun...
...but now they watch TV and movies.
- Women used to wear long dresses...
...but now many women wear jeans.
- People used to tell the time with the sun...
...but now we use watches and clocks.

Next show the students a slidshow with pictures BEFORE and AFTER concerning different aspects of everyday life and ask them to form sentences with USED TO for the past and PRESENT SIMPLE for the present. Here is an example that you may find useful.