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 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

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

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