Tag: grammar

Categories
Grammar Verb Tenses

Present Continuous

Present Continuous

Form

The present continuous (or present progressive) verb tense is made up of a subject, the auxiliary verb (or helping verb) be , and the present participle (~ing form) of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

SubjectAuxiliary Verb~ing form
Iamthinking
he/she/itiswalking
you/we/theyarerunning

To make the sentence negative, add a not after the auxiliary verb.

To make a yes/no question, put the auxiliary verb before before the subject. Add a question mark.

To make a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Remember to add a question mark.

Function

There are three ways to use the present continuous:

  • Actions that are happening right now.
  • Actions that happen over a longer time that includes now (but maybe night right now).
  • Actions that are planned for the future.

For more information about the present continuous, as well as some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Video Script
Hello! This lesson is about the present continuous. Sometimes people talk about this verb tense as the present progressive. It doesn’t matter, it’s the same verb tense. When I was learning grammar, I learned in present continuous, so that’s what I’m going to call it. We’re going to look at a couple things here. First, we’re going to look at the form, which is how to make it. Then we’re going to look at the function, which is how to use it, and then, at the end, I have a little quiz that I’d like you to try. So, let’s get started. We’ll start first of all with positive sentences, sometimes also called affirmative sentences. So, as you can see, we have the subject and then we have an auxiliary verb, a helping verb, and it’s the verb “be” and it’s different for each person, so I am, he, she, or it is, you, we, they are, and then we have the present participle. Most people just call it the ing form or the ING form. So making the present continuous for a positive sentence isn’t that complicated. Let’s look at negative sentences now. All we do, is we slide the verb over, and we add “not.” Not very complicated. Okay, now we’re going to take a look at contractions. Yes, we love contractions in English, don’t we? That’s what they look like, and here if you notice, it’s the subject and the auxiliary verb joining together, okay? So I’m, he’s, she’s, you’re, we’re, and they’re, okay? Not too complicated when we look at it that way, but look at this. When we use contractions with a negative sentence, we have to be careful. What’s here is okay; I’m not listening, you’re not reading, so, so far, so good, but there’s actually a different choice, a different way of making contractions. So I’ll go back to my basic form here, and then … instead of joining the auxiliary verb with a subject, I’m going to join it with the negative marker. I’m going to join it with “not.” So, look at this. We’ll start from the bottom. You, we, they aren’t, so I’ve joined the verb with the not. I get aren’t. He, she, it isn’t, and then I… I hope you have noticed this by now. For I, it doesn’t work, okay? So for I, we can’t join the auxilary verb and the negation. “Amen’t” is not right. We would have to say I’m not. I’m not walking. Okay, let’s move on. Here are some things to be careful of with contractions. So, I am is I’m; no, there’s no problem, so far, so good. He, she, is. He’s and she’s, now you have to be careful with the pronunciation. This E has to be clear: he’s. Because if you mispronounce it, it’s going to sound like his, which, unfortunately, is a different word, which makes it very confusing. Next, you, we, they are. You’re, we’re and they’re. You have to be careful with all of these. This first one… it would sound kind of close enough; people would understand, but when you’re writing, you can’t write this. And this, by the way, is a mistake that, believe it or not, a lot of native speakers make. So if you’re ever reading something on the internet and you see “your,” Y-O-U-R, and you think to yourself that doesn’t look right, you’re probably right; its prob… we’re not really proud of this, but it’s true; it’s probably a native speaker who just doesn’t care. Alright, next one: we’re. If you forget the apostrophe, you’re going to end up with this: “were,” which, again, is something different; it’s a it’s a verb – to be in the past simple. And then this one: “They’re” is spelled this way: T-H-E-Y-‘-R-E not these other two ways and again, the people who are most likely to make those mistakes are not Language Learners. The people who are most likely to make those mistakes are actually native speakers, so just because somebody’s a native speaker doesn’t mean they get this right. Sorry about that; sometimes we don’t set a very good example. Okay, let’s take a look at yes/no questions. So, here we are again, with our basic form: Subject, the “be” auxiliary verb and then the present participle. So for yes/no questions, all I need to do is make those backwards. Now, I should – I didn’t, but I should have made these letters capital because they are now at the beginning of the sentence. One more type of question and that’s WH questions and for here, I leave this as I have it for the yes/no questions, and all I do is I put the WH question word at the beginning. So, Where is she walking from? Who are they talking to? Okay? So, something to be careful of and that is this: we do not usually use the present continuous for verbs such as like, love, what, understand, seem and remember. These are stative verbs because they describe how something is, not what something is doing. The present continuous is used for action verbs which describe what people animals or things do. Now, I just said be careful here; I’m going to say be careful again because an old grammar book would tell you this is always the rule. The truth is that language is always changing and people like to be creative with language. You will these days hear people say things like: How’s your new job? Oh, I’m loving it! And you will hear people use these with the continuous aspect. So “want”. I don’t know… I’m thinking yeah yeah I’m wanting pizza for supper. According to traditional grammar that’s wrong, but again, language is always changing. Here’s the problem: Because you’re not a native speaker, if you do it, people will probably think that you just made a mistake. If you were writing something, especially in school, then follow the old rule: do not put these do not put these verbs in the continuous aspect. Now, switching to the function of the present continuous. There are three common uses. First of all, for actions that are happening right now. So, let’s look at some specific examples. I’m watching TV. She’s typing the report. We’re eating breakfast. When are these things happening? Yeah, they’re happening right now, okay? Hey, do you want to go outside? No, I’m watching TV. Where’s Susan? she can’t talk to you right now she’s typing the report. Are you ready to go for work? I’m eating breakfast right now. I’m doing it right now. So, that’s one way to use it. This is going to be a little bit confusing. Actions that happen over a longer time that include now. So basically, what we have to do is ask ourselves, can we understand that the word “now” can have different meanings?And if the answer is “yes” then we’ll be fine. So, “now” can mean right now, at this very moment, or it can mean over a longer time. Let’s look at some examples, okay? All right, so we’ve stretched our idea of “now.” Let’s look at some examples. I’m reading a good book. Well, I’m not reading it right now. I read – I started last week, I read a little bit every night. I’ll probably continue till about the middle of next week, and then the book will be over, I’ll be finished the book. But I can say I’m reading a good book. I might say I’m reading a good book this week. Next, He’s learning a new skill. Well he might be studying it right now or he be practicing and learning and going to lessons; he’s maybe been doing that for a few weeks or a few months. It’s something he’s doing over the longer “now” not the immediate “now.” And finally, We’re enjoying the summer. Well, the summer doesn’t happen on one day; it happens over a longer period. Right now, we are enjoying it. Okay? So we have to be a little bit flexible with our idea of the word “now.” And, we can also use the present continuous, believe it or not to talk about actions that are planned for the future. Again, let’s take a look at some examples: How are you getting to London next week? I’m taking the train.They’re leaving next week. We’re walking to work. So all of these are actually talking about things that can happen in the future. Now, this one and this one could also talk about something that’s happening right now. What are you doing? (on the phone) I’m taking the train, I’ll be there in 10 minutes. Okay? What are you doing? Well, we’re walking to work. Okay, so I could use the the first one and the third one for what I’m doing right now. Clearly, though, this, this middle one is only about the future, okay? So very often we have to use context to understand exactly what we’re talking about. Let’s look at some sentences in the present continuous and I want you to tell me if they’re correct or not, and then why. So, here are the sentences. Take a few moments to look at them, and then…so pause the video, and I’ll come back in a few moments and I’ll… we’ll go through them, and I’ll tell you if they’re right or they’re wrong. Okay, so how do you think you did? Let’s take a look. Here’s the answers. So we can see that some of them are correct; most of them are not. Let’s go through them one by one. I’m reading that book. Obviously, this means over a longer time that includes now. Number two: We’re walk to the store. No, we’re walking to the store. Number three: He has eating hot dogs. We’ve used the wrong auxiliary verb there. He is eating hot dogs. Number four is correct: They’re travelling in France. Number five: I am walk to the store. What have I forgotten? Yeah, I am walking to the store. Number six: We thinking of an answer. I have forgotten the auxiliary verb there. We are thinking of an answer. Number seven: They are having nice clothes. No. They have nice clothes. Number eight: My friend is having a cold. It doesn’t work. We… it’s not something that we do, it’s just the way something is. My friend has a cold. Number eight: He is bouncing the ball. [This is a] perfect example of a present continuous sentence. And number nine: They are talking? Guuhhh! I hear students say this all the time. Remember, we have to change the order of these two, okay? Not they are talking; Are they talking? So, thank you very much for watching. If you’d like some more practice, take a look below. I’ve prepared some activities and practice for you. That’s all for today. Thanks very much!
Categories
Grammar Verb Tenses

Past Perfect Continuous

Past Perfect Continuous

Form

The past perfect continuous (or past perfect progressive) verb tense is made up of a subject, the auxiliary verb (or helping verb) be , and the present participle (~ing form) of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

Subjecthadbeen~ing form
I/you/he/she /it/we/theyhadbeenthinking

To make the sentence negative, add a not after had.

To ask a yes/no question, put had before before the subject. Add a question mark at the end of the sentence.

To ask a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Remember to add a question mark.

Function

Here is how to use the past perfect continuous:

  • To tell how long something had been true at a certain time in the past.
  • To tell about an action in the past that:
    • had just ended (at a certain time in the past).
    • the result of that action was probably easy to see.

For more information about the past perfect continuous, as well as some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Video Script
Hello! Today I’m going to talk about the past perfect continuous. Now some people call it the past perfect progressive; it doesn’t matter, it’s the same verb tense, but when I was learning, I learned past perfect continuous, so that’s what I’m going to call it. We’ll start by looking at the form, which is how to make it, and then we will look at the function, which is how to use it. So, let’s get… ooh I almost forgot: at the end, I’ve got a quiz for you to see if you’ve learned what we’ve been talking about. All right, let’s get started. So, positive sentences. I, he, she, it, you, we, they, had been and then the present participle – the ing form. So this gets a little bit complicated because we’ve got to add both a “had” and a “been.” A note about this, too: depending on where you are, and depending on kind of the accent of your region, this might sound a lot more like “bin” instead of been. Now, they mean been, but they might say bin. I noticed that the people where I live say that, including me sometimes, so if I say bin, I mean been. Okay, let’s take a look. So this is pretty straightforward; positive sentences, or affirmative sentences, as some people say, which again, doesn’t make any difference; it’s the same thing, there is something we can do to change this a little bit. We can put the subject and the had together in a contraction, so instead of I had we’ve got I’d or he’d or she’d etc. okay? Okay, so now, we’re going to take a look at negative sentences. We’ll put everything back and we’ll just add a not between the had and the been. Now here again, we can use a contraction: she hadn’t been walking, you hadn’t been baking, okay? All right, so moving right along… Yes/no sentences. All we do here is we change the order of the had and the subject. Now this is the beginning of a sentence, so really this should be a capital H at this point, but it’s just you and me so you’ll forgive me, I hope. Had she been drinking water? Had you been reading a book? Okay? So yes/no questions. Now for WH questions, we leave things where they are and we just add the WH question word at the beginning of the sentence. So, why had you been singing? Who had you been seeing? Okay? All right let’s move on now to the function of the past perfect continuous. The past perfect continuous is used to tell how long something had been true at a certain time in the past. So again, how long something had been true at a certain time in the past. So let’s bring up our timeline. So there is a time in the past, and the past perfect continuous tells us what was happening before that… what happened after that, we don’t know. Let’s look at some examples. I have been watching TV – and what we’re focusing on here is this, okay? I had been watching TV for two hours when you came home. Now, did I continue watching TV after that, or was that the end? Did I do something else? We don’t know. This verb tense gives us no information on that. All we are thinking about is what had been happening, and how long it has been happening until this happened. So I had been watching TV for two hours when you came home. Okay, so we’re focusing on this, on how long something had been happening when it was interrupted. Let’s look at another example. By the time we met, I’d been living in London for a year. So by the time we met – so watch this arrow – look at that! By the time we met, I had been living in London for a year. Next example: By June the roof, had been leaking for three months. So by June, by the time June came, the roof had already been leaking for three months. The past perfect continuous is used to tell about an action in the past that had just ended at a certain time in the past, and the result of that action was probably easy to see. So look again, some examples will make this clearer for us, so we’ll look at some. So here’s my timeline and here’s something that had been happening, and this is the certain time in the past. Now remember that we’re looking back from now, okay? So the time that we’re thinking about, the time in the past that we’re thinking about, is back here. Okay, so, let’s take a look at some examples that’ll make this a little bit clearer. He was tired because he had been running, okay? So at this time, he was tired. Why? Because he had been running before that. He was tired because he had been running. Next example: We were excited because we had been planning our wedding. So, last Tuesday – we’ll say that this is last Tuesday, okay? – last Tuesday, when you saw us, we were excited. Why? Because we had been planning our wedding. One more example: They had been painting their house, so they were dirty. So, before we saw them, this is what they had been doing. They had been painting their house, and then when we saw them, they were dirty. Okay, let’s look at some sentences, and you tell me if these are correct or not. More importantly, you tell me why. So here are the sentences. Shut off the video for a moment, take a look at the sentences and then turn the video back on. Okay here are the answers. So how did you do? Let’s take a look. They had been walked for 20 minutes. Nope, that’s the wrong form they had been walking for 20 minutes. Number two: She was tired because she ran. No, she was tired because she had been running. Number three: He had been drove for less than 30 minutes when he got lost. Again, it’s a problem with the verb form: he had been driving for 30 minutes when he got lost. Number four is correct: They have been waiting since that time, since five o’clock. Number five: She was being smoking in the garage. Well, she smelled like smoke smoke. Why? Because she had been smoking in the garage up until the time she came into the house, but the effect was still there we can still smell the smoke. Number six: Your car hasn’t worked well. No, your car hasn’t been working well. You know, your car hasn’t been working well for the past two or three weeks. I think you should take it to the mechanic. Number seven: Grace were eating when I called her. No. Grace – if we’re going to use the past perfect – Grace had been eating when I called her. I could say Grace was eating when I called her, but that’s a different verb tense; that’s not what we’re looking at here. Number eight: I had been not expecting her. Well we’ve got the right parts, but we don’t have them in the right order. I had not been expecting her, so we have to move that and that and that to put them in the correct order, as it is over here. Okay, so how did you do? If you’d like some more practice, look below. I’ve prepared some more exercises and activities for you. That’s all for today. Have a good day!

Categories
Grammar Verb Tenses

Past Perfect

Past Perfect

Form

The past perfect verb tense is made up of a subject, the auxiliary verb (or helping verb) had, and the past participle of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

SubjectAuxiliary VerbPast Participle
I/you/we/they/ he/she/ithadwalked

To make the sentence negative, add a not between the had and the main verb.

To make a yes/no question, put had before before the subject and add a question mark to the end of the sentence.

To make a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Don’t forget to add a question mark at the end.

Function

The past perfect is used:

  • to tell about an action that happened in the past before another action, which is also in the past.

For more information and some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Video Script
Hello! This lesson is about the past perfect. Before we even get started, I’m going to begin with a warning: learners often overuse this tense. Now, you should understand it, and you should be able to use it, but I have found that a lot of my students, once they have learned it, they use it much more than they should. We don’t use the past perfect very often – only in certain specific situations. I have a theory as to why my students like to use this, is that English is hard, and grammar is hard, and if something is complicated, then it must be right. I’m not sure because I can’t get into their heads, but I think at a certain level a lot of my students think of the past perfect that way: it’s difficult, so it must be right. Okay, I I admire your work ethic, that’s great, but no and again, we don’t use the past perfect very often; this should not be the first verb tense that you study at all. Anyway, let’s get started. We’re going to start with the form, which is how to make the past perfect, and then we are going to look at the function, which is how to use it. At the end of this video, I have a little quiz for you. Okay let’s get started. We’ll start with positive sentences. So the good news is that this really – despite what I said a minute ago – this really isn’t that complicated. We put the subject, we put the auxiliary verb had, and then we put the past participle. So I had wanted, you had taken, she had thought. Not complicated at all to make it. We can make it a little bit more complicated by making it simpler. We can put those words together and we have contractions. I’d for I had, she’d for she had, etc. You can do this as long as the writing that you’re doing at the time isn’t formal. Okay let’s continue with negative sentences. So we’ll go back to where we were and we will just add a not. I had not wanted she had not taken, etc. And again, we can use a contraction: you hadn’t thought, they hadn’t worn. For yes/no questions, we go back to where we were at the beginning. I had wanted, and we just invert, or reverse, the auxilary and the subject. Now this is the beginning of the sentence, so really I should have our – whoops – so really I should have a capital H here but you get the point. For WH questions, all I need to do is to just slide that whole thing over and add a question word. So it really isn’t that complicated. to use the past perfect. It feels a little bit fancy, maybe because we’ve got the the extra auxiliary, but it really isn’t that complicated. Here is where people have trouble, though, which is with the function – how to use the past perfect. So again, the past perfect is not… the past perfect is not better than other past verb tenses, okay? It doesn’t show that you’ve learned English any better. You have to use it in the right way and the past perfect is not for actions that happened a long time ago. Many of my students have told me that their teachers told them that we use the past perfect for things that happened a long time ago. That can be true, but that’s not a good way to think of it because we can also use them [it] for things that have happened quite recently. It depends how we are thinking of the situation, and how we are telling the story, not when the story happened. So, the past perfect is used to tell about an action that happened in the past – and this is the key – before another action which is also in the past. Okay I’m going to put this on a timeline to make it a little bit easier for us to talk about. So we see here my timeline. I’ve got past on the left, future on the right, and then I’ve got now, which isn’t in the middle because we’re talking about the past in this video. Here I have two past actions. I’m going add one more feature to this timeline before we get started, which is days of the week. I think days of the week is just a nice easy way to to explain this because we’re all very familiar with them. Just to be clear, this Monday and Wednesday and Friday are all from the same week. I’m not playing tricks, they’re not from different weeks. All right, let’s take a look. Normally we would tell a story like this from the beginning to the end. Normally we would say, for example, I bought a cake on Monday then I ate it on Wednesday. Now, this is today; this is now, this is Friday, okay? So Wednesday’s in the past and Monday is also in the past so two things in the past, but you notice that I’m telling the story this way through time. I bought it on Monday and I ate it on Wednesday. I’m starting at the furthest time in the past and I’m coming closer towards now, but what happens if I want to do this? If I want to tell the story the other way? Let’s take a look here. I ate a cake on Wednesday. So far, that’s essentially the same: I ate a cake on Wednesday. But now, what do I do to get to here? What do I do to get to Monday? This is where we use the past perfect… that I had bought on Monday. I think you can agree with me Monday is not a long long time ago in the past. It was only a few days ago, okay? So it doesn’t matter how long ago it was in the past; it just matters how we’re telling the story. I had bought it on Monday. Let’s look at some more examples: On Wednesday – now remember today is Friday – today is Friday’s so we’re going back in time. On Wednesday, she sold – so I’m using the past simple – the bread that she had baked – I’m going further in the past – had baked on Monday. It was Wednesday. My bike had – so it’s Friday as I’m speaking – I’m talking about something that happened on Wednesday, so the time and focus is now Wednesday, so from Wednesday, my bike had been broken since Monday. From Wednesday, my bike had been broken since Monday. So by, Wednesday my bike being broken was already in the past. So we have seen that the past perfect is used to tell about an action that happened in the past before another action which is also in the past. But be careful – the first action can be long.Tthe key is to think about what happened before what else happened. So again, we’ll go back to our timeline. Here we’ve got two past actions. Now, this… these X’s suggest that these are things that happened on one day, so for example: she baked the bread, she sold the bread. Those are quite short actions, but I can also think of it this way: instead of being a short, one day action, I can think of it being a much longer action, as well. That’s what this slide is about. Before I visited Germany – okay, so this is now, okay? Visiting Germany is already in the past, okay, but before that, I had studied for a long time. Before I visited Germany I had studied German for three years. Bob’s retirement was very fancy and expensive. Obviously the retirement party is over because we’re using the past simple. He had worked at that company for almost 20 years. So again, this is a longer time, this 20 years; it’s not a short thing. Before that, he had studied at University for seven years, before that… So you can see here what the past perfect does is it allows us to tell the story backwards, okay? All right, let’s take a look at the little quiz that I have for you. So I’m going to put up some questions, and I want you to decide which action in the sentences came first and which came second. Okay, here are the sentences, so take a look, turn the video off, and figure out which action happened before which other action. I’ll come back in a moment and I’ll give you the answers. Okay, so, let’s take a look. I’m going to put up a table here that has the answers. So we can see in each sentence which action happened first and which happened second. So we’ll go through a few of them. They had already seen that movie when we asked them to come with us. So first they had seen the movie and then we asked them to come with us. Okay so they saw it first and then we asked them. Number 2: She boiled the carrots she had chopped. Well yeah, this one’s a little bit easier maybe to see because it’s logical: you chop the carrots and then you boil them. Number 3: He had already told her by the time I met her. So I met her and I told her, but before I met her and I told her, he had already told her. So he told her first, and then I met her and then I told her, okay? All right, so I hope you get the idea. So if you’d like some more practice, look below this video. There’s some more exercises for you to do to make sure that you really have the past perfect. And again, remember, the most important thing isn’t how to make it; it’s when you should use it, and don’t use it if you shouldn’t. Okay, thank you very much; have a good day!

Categories
Grammar Verb Tenses

Past Continuous

Past Continuous

Form

The past continuous verb tense is made up of a subject, the auxiliary verb (or helping verb) had, and the past participle of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

SubjectAuxiliary Verb–ing Form
I/he/she/itwaswalking
you/we/theywerereading

To make the sentence negative, add a not between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

To make a yes/no question, put the auxiliary verb at the beginning of the sentence (before before the subject) and add a question mark to the end of the sentence.

To make a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Don’t forget to add a question mark at the end.

Function

The past continuous is used:

  • to tell about actions that were in progress when they were interrupted by another action.
  • when two actions were happening at the same time.
  • when an action was happening at a specific time in the past.

For more information and some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Video Script
Hello! Today I’m going to tell you about the past continuous. Some people call this the past progressive. When I was learning grammar we called it the past continuous, so that’s what I’m going to call it. It’s the same thing. All right, we’re going to talk first about the form, which is how to make the past continuous, then we’re going to talk about the function, which is how to use it, and at the end of the video, I have a little quiz I’d like you to try. Let’s get started. First of all. the form: how to make the past continuous. So for positive sentences, or sometimes we say affirmative sentences, we have the subject, we have an auxiliary verb, and then we have the present participle, which most people just call the ing form or the I-N-G form. Notice how the subjects are grouped: I and he and she and it, even though I didn’t write it, use “was” as their auxiliary verb you and we and they use “were” as their auxiliary verb. The present participle or the I-N-G form is the form of the verb that comes at the end, so what makes the difference is the auxiliary verb that we use, whether we use was or were instead of am or is or are, okay? So this is where we make this verb be the past continuous instead of the present continuous. So for negative sentences, all we do is we add a “not” Now that’s quite simple. There’s something that we often do after that that makes it a little bit more complicated, which is that we put was and were together with “not” and so we end up with these contractions, wasn’t and weren’t instead of wh… was not and we’re not. Okay so continuing from there, we’re going to take a look at yes/no questions. So we go back to where we were, and then all we do is we switch the position of the auxiliary verb and the subject. Now, this is the beginning of a sentence, so really there should be a capital W and this should be a capital W as well, but you get the idea. Was I singing? Were you laughing? Okay so yes/no questions – we call these yes/no questions of course because the answer will be yes or no. One other type of question and that is WH questions and there we stay with how we have a sentence for our yes/no questions. We then just add our question word, okay, we just add that to the front. Nothing else changes. So, what was I thinking? Why were you running? Let’s take a look now at the function; how to use the past continuous. We use the past continuous in a couple of different ways. The first way we’re going to look at is that actions that were in progress when they were interrupted by another action. So something was happening and then something else happened to stop that. So take a look at our timeline here. Something was happening and then something else happened that interrupted it. Now what happened after that? Did the action continue? We don’t know; it doesn’t matter, okay? That’s not the information we’re trying to communicate, okay? So what we’re talking about is: this was happening and then this happened and interrupted it. What happens out here? We don’t know, we don’t care; it doesn’t matter for the past continuous. It also doesn’t matter when that was. Was it last year? Was it this morning? It doesn’t matter; we can use the past continuous for any time where these conditions are met, where something has happened and then something else interrupted it. So let’s take a look here. I was watching TV when the phone rang. So the phone [that] rang interrupted what I was doing. They were talking – sorry, they weren’t talking, they were walking; they might have been talking as well, but this just says they were walking. They were walking when they smelled smoke. The smelling of smoke interrupted their walking. She was talking when they heard a noise. Okay? So, again hearing a noise interrupted the talking. We also use the past continuous when two actions were happening at the same time. So here again is our timeline. Here’s one action, here is another action. Now watch this: it doesn’t matter which one started first, it doesn’t matter which one ends first, it doesn’t matter how much they overlap or when they overlap, but when they overlap is when we can use the past continuous. So you can see here just inside this green line when both things are happening and then just inside this red line, okay, both actions are happening at the same time. That’s when we can use the past continuous. We often use “while” in these sentences: While I was cooking dinner, she was reading a book. Who started first? Who ended first? It doesn’t matter; we don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. Tthe point is for some of the time, we were doing both of those things at the same time. While John was sleeping, his sister was working hard. Again, who started first? Who finished first? It doesn’t matter. While we were talking, they were riding their bikes. So for at least part of the time that we were doing this they were doing that. Finally, While he was playing soccer, she was flying a kite. Again, both of these things were happening at the same time and again. I’d just like to point out we very often use “while” in this type of sentence, and see that in all those examples. We can also switch the order of the clauses. I’ll just go back here: While I was cooking dinner, she was reading a book. She was reading a book while I was cooking dinner. While John was sleeping, his sister was working hard. His sister was working hard while John was sleeping. While we were walking, they were riding their bikes. They were riding their bikes while we were walking. While he was playing soccer, she was flying a kite. She was flying a kite while he was playing soccer. Now you may or may not have noticed that the commas all disappeared. That’s not a mistake; that’s very much on purpose. The clause that starts with “while” is a dependent clause, and when the dependent clause comes second, or it comes later in the sentence, we do not use a comma. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, but you would like to know what I’m talking about, check out my videos on clauses and sentences – two different videos. We also use the past continuous when an action was happening at a specific time in the past. So earlier, we were looking at it this way, where an action was happening and then something interrupted it. okay? That’s not what we’re looking at here. What we’re looking at here is at this time, this thing was happening, so we’re kind of looking at it backwards. An example hopefully we’ll make this clearer. I was travelling in June. The forest fire was burning in August. In 2006, I was living in Taiwan. So in all these examples, I’m saying at this time, this thing was happening, okay? And, at two o’clock, he was walking home. So at a specific time, something else was going on so and actually was happening at a specific time in the past. So here’s our quiz: Correct or not. and why? I’m going to put up ten questions, or ten sentences. I would like you to look at them and to decide, in the context of looking at the past continuous, if these sentences are correct or not, and if they’re not correct, what is wrong? What do we need to do to fix them? Okay, here they are. Pause the video and then I will give you the answers. Okay let’s take a look. So first of all, here’s the answers. So some of them are correct, some of them are incorrect.Tthe ones that are incorrect, we’ll take a look at now. I watched TV when the phone was ringing. Well, that’s not progressive is it? It’s not continuous. I was watching the TV when the phone rang, okay? So this is the longer action – was watching TV – was interrupted by this verb in the present [past] simple: the phone rang. We were liking the movie. We don’t use like in the continuous, okay? We were liking the movie? No, it just doesn’t work. We liked the movie; we can’t use it in the continuous. It’s, it’s… this, in theory, this sentence is correct, except for the fact that this verb doesn’t work in the continuous. Oops! There we go. He drank water when he choked nnno. He was drinking water when he choked. So the choking interrupted the drinking of the water. It was snowing at five o’clock. So at five o’clock, what was happening? It was snowing. Number five: They are walking to the store. Well, there’s nothing wrong with this, except for the fact that we have used a present verb, okay? So they were, because this is the past continuous that we want, not the present continuous. Number six: My friends were eating and drinking. No problem. Number seven: Grace were eating when I called her. That’s a problem with the verb here. Grace was eating when I called her. Number eight and number nine are both correct. Number ten: They was enjoying the picnic. Again, a problem with the auxiliary verb here. They were enjoying the picnic. So how did you do? If you’d like some more practice, I’ve prepared some more exercises, so just look below this video and you’ll be able to get to those. Okay, thank you very much! Have a good day!
Categories
Grammar Verb Tenses

Past Simple

Past Simple

Form

The past simple (simple past) verb tense is made up of a subject and the past form of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

SubjectPast Form
I/you/he/she/it/we/theywalked

To make the sentence negative, add did not between the subject and the verb and remove the ed from the main verb.

To make a yes/no question, put did at the beginning of the sentence (before before the subject) and change the form of the main verb to the base form (e.g. in the table above, walked becomes walk. We do this because the did is what shows that this sentence is in the past. ESL learners often forget to change the verb, so be careful!

To make a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Add a question mark at the end.

Function

The past simple is used:

  • to tell about actions that were in progress when they were interrupted by another action.
  • when two actions were happening at the same time.
  • when an action was happening at a specific time in the past.

For more information and some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Video Script

Hello! This video is about the past simple. Some people call it the simple past, mostly in North America, but when I learned it, I learned past simple, so that’s what I’m going to call it. It doesn’t matter; it’s the same thing. First we’re going to take a look at the form, which is how to make the past simple, and then we’re going to look at the function, which is how to use it. We’re going to spend a lot of time talking about the form, but actually, the function – how to use the past simple – is what matters more. At the end of this video, I have a quiz for you, so make sure you stick around for that. Let’s get started. All right, let’s start by looking at the form of the past simple. Now we’re going to start by looking at regular verbs. Well most verbs simply take an ED, but that’s not the only choice; sometimes there’s just a D and sometimes there’s an I-E-D. So we’ll take a look at some examples for each of these possibilities. So when the word ends in an E we don’t add an E-D, we just need to add a D, so bake becomes baked, smile becomes smiled, free – which might look a little bit different because there’s two E’s – doesn’t matter, we just add a D. When words end with Y, we have to change things a little bit. The Y becomes an I and then we add E-D, so try becomes tried, cry becomes cried, and bury – or bury – becomes buried or buried. You can say that word both ways. Most people have one way they like to say it, and they will tell you that anything else is wrong. No, it’s not; there are two perfectly acceptable ways to say that word. Anyway, let’s keep moving. So, what about everything else? Well, easy we just add E-D. Laugh becomes laughed, fill becomes filled, boil becomes boiled. Easy, right? Not so fast. There’s actually a few other things to think about. When there’s a short vowel and then a consonant, we have to double the final consonant, so tap we see T-A-P, that A is a short A – a – and then there’s a P, so we have to double the P. So. tapped. If we don’t double the P, if we just add E-D, then it becomes “taped” so that’s why we have to do it. Beg becomes begged, rub becomes rubbed. Okay, so are we finished now? No, remember these are only the regular verbs. Let’s take a look at some irregular verbs. There are a few categories of irregular verbs and once you know the categories, it doesn’t seem so complicated; there’s less to remember. So the easiest one is there simply no change, so beat becomes beat. We beat to the drum every Wednesday. That’s the present simple. He beat the drum last Wednesday. That’s the past simple. Change the middle vowel. Become changes to became, begin changes to began, and choose changes to chose. This is one that a lot of people learning English have trouble with, so if the verb you are trying to change – I’m sorry – if the verb that you are using is this type of irregular, remember to change the vowel, and again, it’s in the middle of the word, This last one that we looked at here, this choose and chose, this is something that even native speakers have trouble with, which I don’t understand – it’s not that complicated! Anyway, let’s keep going. Sometimes it’s just completely different. So am, is, our becomes was or were and have or has becomes had. Okay, let’s look at some positive sentences. So positive sentences, or affirmative sentences, we make like this. We have the subject: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, and then we put the verb in the past. So baked, filled, cried. Negative sentences… we do something to the verb, so the verb changes and what was here – that E-D – it moves, and it goes over here to this auxiliary verb. So baked, when we have a negative, is did not bake, and of course also don’t forget to put the negation marker, the “not” okay? All right and one other thing that we can do here, is we can make a contraction, so did not gets put together into one word: didn’t. One thing that people sometimes have trouble with is where to put the apostrophe and it goes between the N and the T. You can think of it as the O changing to an apostrophe; sometimes people put that in the wrong spot. So now for yes/no questions. We add “did” now I probably – well, not probably – I definitely should have put this as a capital D because it’s the beginning of the sentence, but it’s just you and me, so we understand what I meant. So did you bake did she cry etc etc. WH questions: it’s the same thing, except we add the question word to the beginning. So, where did you fill? What did you bake? Okay? So that’s the form; we will now look at the function, which is how to use the past simple. We use the past simple for events that happened, and that are completed – that finished – in the past, so if I’m going to make a diagram like this, this is where things happen in the past simple: before now, okay? So we see over here is past, so before now, and they’re over. I’ll just move that out of the way. Take a look at some examples. I opened my birthday presents. We arrived. They ate the eggs. Now in none of these sentences do I say when it is. What people will understand that these actions are completely over. Now to make it a little bit clearer, I can add a second part here. I opened my birthday presents this morning. This morning is now over. We arrived last night. Last night is obviously over. They ate the eggs yesterday. Yesterday is also obviously over. So again, we use the past simple for actions that are in the past and that finished in the past. I will bring this back and we’ll take a look here. We also use the past simple – this is important – to tell stories in this direction. In other words, that are going forward through time. There is a way in English to go backwards through time, but that is not with the past simple, and we’ll see that later. Okay, I have some questions I would like you to look at, and I want you to tell me if these sentences are correct or not, and then I want you to tell me why. Just before I bring the questions up, I want to remind you that we are looking at these sentences in the context of the past simple, so please remember that. Okay, take a look at these, pause the video, and decide if these are correct or incorrect, and if they are incorrect, why? What needs to change? Okay, pause the video now. Okay, let’s go through the answers. So if we look down the left side, you can see that some are correct, some are not correct, and then number three is a little bit confusing, but we’ll talk about that. So let’s start first of all number one: She walk in the forest sometimes. Again, we are looking at this in the context of the past simple, so in the past simple, She walk? No, she walked. Number two: We liked to eat a lot… and we still do – I do anyway! That’s correct, so we can leave that. Number three. This might be a little bit confusing, because it’s marked both correct and incorrect. So, it is correct. Maybe it would be better to say it’s not wrong – He did drink water – I can say that in English, and I haven’t talked about that until now. You may have heard something like that. It is correct. I can say He did drink water, but I would not normally say that. I would normally say drink is an irregular verb – changes the vowel in the middle – I would normally say he drank water. Well, when do I say he did drink water? I could say he did drink water when I want to emphasize the fact that it happened. So I would say, He did drink water! So we could say, for example, you know: Oh! He’s too dehydrated; he just needs to to drink some water. He did drink water! He’s not dehydrated; he’s sick! Okay? So it’s not wrong, but it’s also not the best answer, unless you have a specific reason for making your sentence look like that. Jean is taller than Frank. Well, it’s a good sentence, but not in the past simple, and this is one of the things that people do: they mean the past, but they write in the present, so don’t do that! Jean was taller than Frank. Tom and Jim walked to school together. No problem. My brothers don’t like football. Again, this is like number four; it’s a correct sentence: My brothers don’t like football – but it’s in the wrong tense. We want these sentences to be in the past simple, not the present simple. Number seven is the wrong verb form. They had fun. Number eight is the wrong verb altogether. Those hamburgers are – I’m sorry those hamburgers were good. All right, what about number nine? Well, I’ve learned from number three, so I know that this is okay. It might not be the best way, but I know that it’s okay. No, it’s not, because this is also here, so now I have two different pieces of grammar here, two different signs, that this is in the past simple, and I can’t do that. One or the other, okay. Both? No. So, learned would be the normal way of writing that. Did learn, okay, but only if you have a special reason. And number 10: The book was interesting. That was correct. Okay, so how did you do? If you’d like some more practice, take a look below the video. I’ve prepared some other exercises for you. That’s all for today. Thank you very much!