English Lessons - Intermediate - 4 of 5

Hi. So I've decided that we're going to

look at grammer structure, and I think

that it's one of the most important grammar structures, in my opinion.

Because, it's something we always do, we tell people

about what we did in the past, we tell them stories

about what happened or what we did

last year or yesterday.

So I'm going to take the PAST TENSE.

Now there are three main past tenses,

although there are others that we use

to emphasis the past.

But I want to look at the three forms,

the past simple, the past continuous

and the past perfect.

So let's take the past simple first.

So what is the past simple?

Well the past simple is

what we use to talk about actions

that are completed in the past.

So for example, this morning;

I woke up, I got up, I had my breakfast,

I had a shower, I brushed my teeth,

I got dressed, I tied my shoelaces,

I left my apartment, I got into my car and

I drove here.

These are all actions in the past

that are completed, they're finished.

They're also habitual actions,

things I do every day but in the past.

What tense do we use for habitual actions every day?

Yeah, it is the present simple.

So if we think about the present simple

for habitual actions every day we

can also use the past simple for

habitual actions in the past.

So when I lived in Barcelona,

I went to the beach every day.

I don't go to the beach every day now,

but in the past whene I lived there,

that's something I did every day.

So let's take a sentence

„I brushed my teeth“.

So, brushed is the verb

and what's this word (I)?

It's called the subject, so you

think of the form, using a subject.

So if we think of how we want to form

the past simple.

We're going to take our subject which could be

I, you, he, she. It could be also an object

and we also take our verb in the past simple.

So one step into the past.

Now the problem with the past simple

is that some of the verbs are irregular.

For example „brushed“ isn't irregular

so it's pretty easy.

We just add ED to changed the verb to brush,

which is the infinitive, into the past „brushed“.

But there are some irregular verbs and there is no

rule for these verbs, for example

Get/ Got in the past

Leave/ Left in the past

So these are something that you have

to sit down, study yourself and just learn them.

So I advise that you get a list of

all the past simple verbs

Irregular verbs and take 3 maybe 4 per day

depending on how you feel, learn them and

really try to use them.

So, either write them down in a story,

or in some sentences, or verbally use them speaking

and this is really the only way that you'll master your past simple irregural verbs.

So let's look at the spelling of our regural verbs.

They're a little bit easier.

So some verbs, the majority of the verbs like

for example, brush, or start,

this is the infinitiv to brush, to start

and how we want to change them into the past.

We're just going to add ED and then it's the past,

past simple.

There's also other verbs like live,

and because we have the E here,

we're just going to add D.

Now there's another verb,

ending in Y study.

We're going to take away the Y

and we're going to add IED.

Now one verb that I know that is

slightly against this rule is PLAY.

We just added ED for played.

So we're really using this form,

to talk about completed actions in the past.

Things that are finished and habitual past actions.

Things we did every day at a time in the past.

Ok, so we've looked at the past simple and now

I'd like to look at the PAST CONTINUOUS.

So the past simple was a complete

actions in the past, something

that's completed finished at the time

of speaking.

I'm telling about something that's over, that finished.

Similar with the past continuous, this action is over

but I'm not saying it was a short action, I'm saying

that it was a long action.

Something that was in progress at the

time that I'm telling you about.

Ok, so I'll give you an example

and it will hepl me to explain it a little bit more.

Ok, so I'm going to give you two actions.

Cause normally, well it's very common

for the past continuous to be

interrupted by past simple action.

So we're telling you that something was happening in

the past and I was interrupted by something else.

So, my example;

I was cooking when the phone rang.

So, we've two actions „I was cooking“

and „the phone rang“.

The phone rang is a past simple action

it's completed, it's one single action

and we are using the irregural verb

ring, which in the past simple is rang.

I was cooking is the past continuous action.

So first let's look at he form.

So how do we form the past continuous?

Well this word similar to the past simple

what did we say we called this word?

That's right, it's the subject.

So we have the subject and we have the verb.

This verb is different to the past simple.

We have the verb plus ING.

Now we also have something extra,

in the past continuous which is

different to the past simple.

Yes, it's the verb TO BE.

Now what's very important about

this is that the verb to be is in the past form

if the verb to be was in the present form

we then have the present continuous.

So there's nothing about this structure

that tell us that it's the past or present

only the verb to be.

So if we forget the verb to be the

listener doesn't know what time we're talking about.

Is it now, is the action happening now?

Present continuous.

I am cooking or I am teaching.

I was cooking tells us that something

that was happening in the past.

So we're saying „I was at home,

I was cooking and the phone rang.“

I was interrupted by the phone.

The structure can stand alone

it doesn't have to be interrupted.

What were you doing at 3 o'clock yesterday?

Think about it; What were you doing at 3 o'clock yesterday?

It's probably an action that was in progress.

I was teaching.

I was teaching a class yesterday at 3 o'clock.

So it doesn't have to be interrupted but this

is a very common way of using the past continuous.