How to Describe a Past Experience in English
oh rolling i think hi everybody and
welcome back to our weekly
live stream my name is alicia and in
this week’s lesson we are going to talk
about
how to talk about past experiences
with simple past tense i’m going to
focus
on using adjectives with simple past
tense
to respond to questions about your past
activities i’m going to do a short
introduction today
to simple past tense uh and then after
that sorry if there’s an ad
after that i’m going to do uh some focus
on uh using b with adjectives in past
tense and then giving you a couple of
questions some really common questions
uh that are used in past
tense uh that you should be prepared to
answer so
that will be our lesson focus for the
day as you join please make sure to hit
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today’s lesson that would be super super
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today’s lessons
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today’s lesson as i said is about how to
describe
past experiences so just a second
uh we’re going to look at how to use
simple past tense to begin today’s
lesson okay i got it now i will show you
this is what we’re going to do today so
how to describe simple past ex or how to
describe
experiences in simple past tense really
so we’re going to talk
about basic review simple past tense
second
how to use b with adjectives and finally
some expressions some common question
and response patterns you can use
in simple past tense so let’s begin
can you do a class about some phrases in
english that’s my job
so check out our youtube channel english
class 101 on
youtube that is literally my job so
please check out some of the videos that
are up there
okay let’s get started so let’s go
to first part our first part for today
is our review
of simple past tense simple past
tense what is it quickly quick review
simple past tense we use simple past
tense it’s very dark
we use simple past tense to describe
an action that started and ended
in the past started and ended in the
past
on a timeline past is here present is
the star
and future is here imagine your actions
started
and ended in the past okay
so it’s completely finished it’s done
then we can use simple past tense
for repeated past actions for example
with every day or every year and so on
so the action repeated every week or
every day every year
in the past we can also use simple past
tense
to do that today we are going to focus
on this one describing an action that
started and ended in the past
in particular we’re going to focus on
our feelings
about something that happened in the
past okay
all right so let’s go how do we make
a basic past tense sentence a basic past
tense sentence
i have here positive and negative
how do we make this it’s super super
easy
for a simple uh positive
sentence or a simple positive expression
we use subject like i
it he or she plus
a past tense verb or past tense verb
past tense verb
phrase today i’m not going to talk about
how to make past
tense verbs you can check our past tense
a simple past tense video on
the youtube channel to get more
information so
simple past tense verb here note to make
a
negative we use subject
plus did not plus the base verb
no change to the verb in the negative
form subject
did not verb for example
i ate dinner
simple past tense i subject
eight past tense verb and dinner so my
object here what did i eat
i ate dinner i ate dinner okay
second he watched a movie he
watched a movie yeah subject is he
past tense verb watched in this case
what did he watch
a movie he watched a movie okay
negative examples we
didn’t go to school so we
is the subject did not here i reduced
to didn’t didn’t we didn’t go
so no change to my verb so we didn’t
went
to school as incorrect nope totally
incorrect
we didn’t go to school location
okay last one last example sentence
they didn’t call us back
they didn’t call us back again
i reduced did not in this sentence here
they didn’t call so to call someone back
means to return someone’s phone call
okay now i want to
quickly note this question so many
people
ask this question so let’s refresh
simple past or present perfect which one
should i use
sometimes both sometimes both are
correct
uh i taught a let’s see last week i
taught a lesson about uh present perfect
there are many lessons about present
perfect
on the channel and on the facebook page
check them out
but this is an example of a case where
both
simple past and present perfect are 100
correct however the nuance
changes what’s the deal let’s compare
they didn’t call us back here’s my
simple past tense sentence
versus they haven’t called us back
okay 100 percent correct both what’s the
difference
here in blue they didn’t call us back
sounds like there’s no chance they will
call
they haven’t called us back still a
chance
they will call so remember simple past
tense this pattern
here we use for actions that started
and ended in the past this is true even
for the negative they didn’t call us
back it’s like
the chance is finished or the chance is
gone it’s done
that situation is finished with simple
past
with present perfect however there’s
still a chance
up until now they have not called us
back
maybe there’s still a little time
okay good your example sentences are
coming in i’m going to check in the chat
now
jiren says i bought a new nike hat
yesterday congrats that sounds cool
uh conway g says i didn’t want to leave
her but i had to
and i did wow that’s a very dramatic
example
nice one okay uh an
g angie marie hi says i ate vegetables
yesterday i ate vegetables yesterday
karina says we didn’t travel to thailand
this year
i was thinking about thailand recently i
want some sun yeah
okay other examples facebook send me
your examples everyone’s saying hi
youtube you’re crushing it with the
examples
miguel says i didn’t work today because
of the snow good
nice example sentence oh a present
perfect one from fadi says i haven’t
taken a shower yet
okay good good good nice example
sentences everyone
okay uh i don’t see your examples yet
facebook good luck do your best okay
so this is our uh beginning for today
simple past
tense what is it how do we use it so we
are going to use this pattern right here
with the verb to be to talk about our
feelings or
our impressions of a past situation
so let’s go to part two for today all
right
so that was part one if you missed it
i will take one more quick break and
then we’ll go to part two
uh in part one in part one sorry earlier
i talked about these pdf
cheat sheets uh i showed you a couple of
them earlier
let’s see i’ll show you this one this
one seems good for today talking online
back here there are some expressions you
can use
for conversation related things and i
showed you this earlier as well this pdf
uh the page if you check
the link below the video if you’re
watching on youtube
or above the video if you’re watching on
facebook you will find
this page right here some of you ask
about how to get these you need your
name and an email address right here
to create an account and if you have
trouble you
download here scroll down here to find
the steps you use one two three four
to check it out so i know it’s all in
english because we have people from all
over the world coming
but uh i think it’s easy to understand
so please have a look and find them if
you have been interested
in getting those downloaded okay good
let’s go to um the next part
part two part two using b also a
reminder if you haven’t please make sure
to like this video and share this video
so other learners can find today’s
lesson that would be super cool
okie dokie let’s go so here we are
part two using be with adjectives
in past tense using adjectives with b
in past tense so when do we need this
we use this probably every day so at the
end of the day
to talk about your day to talk about
your experiences
at the end of something how do we do
that let’s practice
okay so to do this we have again our
subject
then remember i said we use a past tense
verb right
in our in our basic simple past tense
sentence structure
here with the verb be we’re going to use
was or were i was
you were he was and so on so
this is still the same our verb then
we use our adjective so remember an
adjective
is a word that describes a noun
so it gives us more information about a
person
about a place or a thing for example
beautiful
or expensive or hot these are adjectives
to make it negative we simply use not
before the adjective so let’s practice
the weather was great today
the weather was great today my subject
is the weather
here’s my past tense verb the weather
was great
today here is my adjective great you can
say of course the weather
is great today if you’re talking in the
afternoon for example the weather
is great now the weather was great
it’s finished the day is finished
another one
we were tired
this morning we were tired this morning
subject is we plus were my past tense
verb past tense be
tired is my adjective when
this morning so we were tired this
morning you can send me your example
sentences in the chat
i will try to uh yeah remote control
desk can you look out for
people don’t send so many messages in
the chat please so everyone can
participate
okay my screen is very fuzzy okay let’s
go to the next example sentence then
next one is uh the morning news
was not good the morning news was
not good here is my subject the morning
news the morning news so it
was negative not good
not good you can say the morning news
was bad also
100 correct the morning news was back
one more from me she was not happy
in the meeting she was not happy in the
meeting
so this is a very important grammar
point
uh to like express your feelings and to
express
other people’s feelings i’m coming to
look for your example sentences now
selma says the meeting was important
very nice okay
uh khan maldi our projects uh our
projects was wrapped up by three people
including
myself our project was wrapped up
two peas in wrapped yeah wrapped up by
two people
ossia says i was asleep this morning
very good uh
okay um jose says on facebook i was so
tired before my shower
good eric says yesterday i didn’t eat
dinner
no the no article you wrote i didn’t eat
the dinner no
the i didn’t eat dinner a la ratam she
was gorgeous
in the party uh no in there used at
she was gorgeous at the party okay uh
bob adel salam sorry if i said that
wrong i was perfectly worked hard at the
office
no perfectly there i uh i worked hard
at the office last week make that a
simple past
tense uh statement yeah so we use
this pattern to express a feeling right
we’re expressing an opinion
it was great i was tired
uh not good not happy these are like
feelings and emotions and opinions about
something
okay all right let’s go uh
next so verb of course using a verb is
one hundred percent correct another verb
other than b uh so just remember where
you this is the
the practice here so i want to talk
about
one point so many learners have
questions with that’s
this ed or ing ending adjectives which
one
should i use for example excited
exciting which one should i use this is
a very common question
so let’s talk about it here’s a rule you
can use
are you talking about your feeling
so your feeling or someone else’s
feeling
someone else’s feeling use the ed ending
are you talking about an object a
situation
behavior something outside a person’s
feeling
use ing the ing form let’s look at some
examples because sometimes you send me
uh sentences is this correct is this
correct so
let’s look first let’s compare
annoyed and this one annoyed
and annoying so
these two words very similar obviously
annoyed means and i feel unhappy
so if you don’t know the word annoyed it
means
when i say i feel annoyed it means
something
is making me unhappy something
repetitive a loud sound
outside or a computer problem
continues to happen i feel annoyed
so this sentence i am annoyed is correct
that is 100 correct okay
i feel annoyed this sentence
is also correct i am annoying
annoying annoying this word means
i cause other people
to feel annoyed so i
may be like i make a lot of loud sounds
all day
i i cause people to feel unhappy
all day like maybe i make loud sounds on
my computer
or i don’t know maybe i listen to music
really loud
anyway i’m annoying this sentence is
100 correct but it has a very different
meaning
from i am annoyed this is negative about
my feelings here i’m annoyed i’m unhappy
now
i’m annoying that means i cause other
people
to feel unhappy so please be careful
this sentence also correct he is annoyed
he is annoyed so that means now his
feeling
his personal feeling again he is annoyed
is good
so is he is annoying so annoying
describes someone’s condition or
describes someone’s behavior
noid describes your feeling
that sound is annoying also correct
so something outside causes me to feel
this unhappiness
okay this one is not correct that sound
is annoyed
not correct at all doesn’t make any
sense okay
uh all right i was annoyed because of my
work says fadi good job
carlos says it’s okay it’s clear i’m i’m
really maybe i’m really annoying to my
siblings yeah great example sentence
it’s fun to be annoying to your siblings
someone says i’m tired of you oh good
example
okay good uh all right so let’s go on
then let’s compare this to another one
the kind of the next level one exciting
why is this one so much more challenging
we have
excite as a verb that’s the problem
i see sometimes excited and exciting
to think about here so again this ed
ending i am excited i am excited about
something
right or i am exciting
i marked this with the question mark i
am exciting
the reason for this question mark is
because sometimes
it’s correct sometimes this pattern is
correct
why if you say i am exciting like
i am an exciting person it means you
cause other people to feel
excited yeah so if you say i am exciting
so it’s like it’s like a big i guess
confident
statement about yourself so this is
sometimes correct
probably though you want to say i am
excited you are happy about something
that’s going to happen in the future
okay
hayat has a good example on facebook i
am excited
to watch your video good example i’m
excited to watch the video
okay here’s a common error i am excite
i am excited totally incorrect nonsense
makes no sense you cannot use this just
take it out of your brain no i am excite
is not correct
we see this pattern only in jokes
only in jokes okay all right
ooh new member hello carlos welcome on
youtube
okay here he is excited
correct again he is exciting maybe
correct so he is excited he wants to do
something in the future something fun
uh he is exciting means he causes me to
feel excitement okay so
maybe correct depends on what you want
to communicate
here that movie is exciting correct
causes excitement that movie is excited
does not nope can’t use it completely
incorrect
don’t use that that movie
makes me excited correct
so i hope you see the theme you’re
feeling
ed ending adjective object situation or
behavior
ing so hopefully this helps you
avoid mistakes in the future last
point here this sentence that movie
excited me
is 100 correct but please be careful
this excited is not an adjective this is
the past tense verb
form of excite this is 100
correct but excited is a verb here
okay so it depends on how you use the
word
in the sentence so that’s a quick guide
to ed
lots of people are writing i’m excited
to something something ing
i’m excited to eating i’m excited to
watching no ing
at the end of your expression i’m
excited to
watch i’m excited to eat i’m excited to
go okay no ing at the end of that
some people are now writing i’m exciting
too no
no today’s point for many of you is
right here
i am excited here i’ll put it i’ll put
it on the board yeah
i am excited to
verb today’s point i am
excited to verb
verb this pattern right here i am
excited to
infinitive okay not i am exciting
or i am excited to watching
i am excited to infinitive okay
good all right good i am excited to
sleep
says ryan very nice always always
okay don’t flood the chat please we have
many chat flutters today remote control
desk what’s the deal all right let’s uh
go to
part three time is going quickly
so let’s go part three today
uh i want to focus on two very common
question patterns so a question you
should know how to ask
and how to respond these are very common
maybe you don’t hear them clearly in
speech because we say them very fast
let’s look how was noun phrase
how was noun phrase for example
how was school how was work
how was your trip how was
your day i’ll say it again at native
speed
we don’t say how was noun phrase
we reduce how and was they become
short together how was school how was
work how was your trip
how was your day they become very very
short
this note this same pattern we used
earlier
how was so we’re using past tense here
how do you respond to a question like
this
maybe your teacher has asked you in
classes how was your weekend
right okay so how was this thing
it was adjective
it was adjective this it
is this noun how was your day how was
your trip
it was adjective so
it was good it was good
it was boring it was boring
it was easy it was
smooth so no trouble like on a business
trip it was smooth
this is smooth okay i guess okay it was
smooth
so note these uh
sounds will reduce we make these shorter
in speech
yeah so not it was good he was good
or he was boring so this t
becomes super soft like gone it was it’s
what it sounds like it was
it was easy it was smooth okay
so you can ask about any noun phrase
with this pattern oh how was your dinner
how was your trip how was your day and
so on
how was your vacation okay oh uh sana
wrote house
apostrophe s quick note about uh
for writing purposes this
how oh my gosh okay i hope you can see
this
so this right here this house
apostrophe s this means how is how is
here we’re using past tense how was
how was when you’re writing make sure to
write how
was for past tense you can’t use
house apostrophe s for past tense
okay quick note when you’re speaking
don’t worry about it it sounds like
it sounds the same how was your work how
was how was your day
okay so use that one
um oh no my iphone got too hot sitting
in the sun
sorry okay all right sorry facebook i’ll
come back to you in a second
so how did noun phrase go
this is the second part i want to
practice today how did noun phrase go
just like this how did school go
how did work go we use this
pattern to ask about someone’s activity
with this pattern we tend to use it for
like study or professional situations
for example how did your test
go how did your test go
or how did the meeting go how
did the meeting go how did the
presentation go
how did the presentation go or how did
the discussion
go so yes go
is here but we’re not talking about
travel
it means how was this thing
how was this thing at native speed this
sounds like
how did your test go how’d the meeting
go how’d the presentation go
how’d the discussion go so maybe you can
hear me now
how did that how did
in speech gets reduced
so it sounds like this how how’d your
test go
how’d the meeting go how’d the
presentation go you can use this
spelling
in like text messages to your friends or
your classmates or your family members
um don’t use this informal communication
though yeah
to respond use the past tense of
go here yeah how’d it go
it went and when we respond to this
question
usually we use a a word like
we don’t use an adjective like beautiful
or expensive
we choose a word from good to bad yeah
somewhere in there
either it was really good or terrible
horrible
super bad for example it went awfully
awfully awfully means very bad it went
badly
it went okay it went good
it went great or you can remove it
went it went you could say perfectly
or as planned it went as planned
that means i had a schedule or i had a
plan
and this thing my noun phrase was
perfect it was according to my plan
okay uh all right
examples oh my phone has cooled down
sorry facebook i lost you there for a
second
my phone didn’t like the sun okay so
this is how we use these two expressions
so you should know how to ask
these questions yeah they’re important
all right some of you are saying how did
your work go good
okay uh how was your english class it
was amazing
excellent examples okay good good good
all right uh very nice how did your
business appointments go says jermaine
good good good how is your english
teacher good
all right how did your live stream go
great excellent
eric says apostrophe d could be
would yes yes that is 100
correct i’m not going to talk about it
today i’ve talked about it in many other
lessons
but this question is about this reduced
d sound we use uh in this case
this d comes after you know i
or he or she like your subject uh your
pronoun
so i’d she’d
in those cases it means would so
you may hear some cases where in speech
this is reduced like how would you like
to blah blah blah how would you like to
do something
you might hear it in those cases too so
yeah it’s a different grammar point i’m
not going to cover today but
yes you can also use that d sound
to refer to wood okay
cue all right we’ve got a finish there
for today oh my gosh
uh it is late as always so we’ll finish
up there for today
uh someone says can you repeat one more
time i just joined now
this is being recorded as always please
review the video
on facebook or youtube once it’s
finished i will
show you today’s lesson boards if you
want to take a screenshot this is from
before the lesson though so the extra
notes are not here but
use your brain okay how to describe past
experiences this is what we talked about
today great work everybody
you are all fantastic great job thanks
for your questions
and your awesome example sentences as
always next week i’ll be back
of course next lesson is the following
february 24th can you believe it this
month oh this year already
just poof february 24th 10 p.m
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every week next week i’m going to talk
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as you study new vocabulary words how to
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okay i have to say goodbye for now so i
will see you
next time thanks everybody for joining
me have a great day
have a great week and i will see you
again soon