How to Tell a Story in English Explaining the Very Recent Past

we’re on great ty everybody welcome back

to our weekly live stream my name is

Alisha and today we are going to talk

about the very recent past the very

recent past so today’s lesson is going

to be very grammar focused I’m going to

review the simple past tense first to

begin then we’re going to talk about

using just a lot I’m going to explain

using just just about to and just with

progressive tense verbs so I’m also

going to explain this sort of diagram

I created this timeline so I hope that

you can find kind of some more specific

ways to explain your recent actions your

recent behaviors I’m also going to talk

quickly about making questions

especially simple past tense questions

and questions with just so we’ve just

started so we’re going to give a couple

minutes to our learners to join the live

stream we’ll begin the lesson in about

two minutes

so when you arrive please make sure to

send a message in the chat I see lots of

you are there already make sure to LIKE

the video too so other students can find

it hi everybody I see you on YouTube

Mohammed and Rhea and another Muhammad

and Henry K Rafael Danielson Daria

Nicolas Raimundo someone whose name in

Thai I can’t read sorry or non Wan hi

and yes we are broadcasting on Instagram

at the same time we have a

behind-the-scenes view so you can watch

both I guess if you like I’m on Facebook

yah and Saul and snappy I’m sorry I

don’t know hi everybody welcome welcome

we’re going to start soon quickly one I

guess one announcement point for today I

was so excited to see to see this video

on the channel so I wanted to mention it

this this was I tweeted about this but

we had a channel sort of challenge a

viewer participation challenge for the

first time ever where you guys everybody

out there you could send us a video or

an audio recording of yourself using

English and introducing yourself and

some of you guys thank you so much you

sent in videos and I saw that this week

and I was so moved that was really

really cool to see you and to hear from

you so if you sent that in thank you so

so much there’s going to be another

chance to do that soon so please you can

find this video on the channel now so

check that out if you’re interested and

you want to send us a video so thank you

so so much to the people who

participated in that that was awesome

that was really really cool okay so with

that said there’s other stuff to check

out on the channel too but we’re about

three minutes into the lesson so I think

I want to begin yes okay so as I said

before today we’re talking about the

very recent past no the very recent past

means I’m going to review a simple past

tense I’m going to talk about the word

just a lot today too so we’re going to

focus a lot on grammar paste and share

okay so let’s get started I’m going to

start today with simple past tense

points just to review so simple past

I’ve kind of put this on a diagram here

a reminder about the simple past tense

is that we use the simple past tense for

fart I’m crazy here in there oh so we

use simple past tense for an action that

started and finished in the past so on

this timeline on this timeline I have

past so past is down here I’ll move to

this side sorry past is down here then

there’s simple past this is kind of my

simple past point here is present so

present means now where we are at this

point in time this direction is the

future so a simple past statement is

something that started and finished in

the past so you can imagine maybe this

is the start point of my action the blue

dot is like the finish point of the

action this is what we use simple past

tense

communicate so it’s a complete the

action is finished it’s done so when we

make simple past tense statements we

have two patterns that we follow that’s

two patterns that we follow it depends

on the type of verb that you use though

so if you’re using a regular verb you’ll

use the verb plus an IDI ending

basically so for example I walked she

left

he worked these are all examples of

regular verbs in the simple past tense

so again we use just a plain verb form

and we add edy to the end to make a

simple past tense statement so for

example I wrote on the board is an

example of an irregular verb that’s the

second part here so an irregular

irregular means not regular this prefix

ear ear means not so that’s a little boy

ear regular not regular verbs so that

means that there’s no rule for these

verbs to make the simple past tense so

you have to memorize the past tense

forms of these verbs for example we ate

or they slept or I just said I wrote so

that’s a recent action that happens so

this is how we make simple past tense

so if you want to talk about your

actions very simply you can use simple

past tense to do that when you make

questions with simple past tense you’ll

change the structure of your sentence

you’ll change the way you make the

sentence a little bit I have two kind of

basic question patterns here the first

one is a I have a wh question by wh I

mean who what where when why how so

these information questions yeah so this

kind of question this is a very basic

question like what did you do for

example or like where did you go

so we’re asking for information from the

listener who did you meet you’ll notice

when you make a question though you

don’t need to change the verb if you’re

making a past tense question so here it

says present verb this means present

tense form of your verb don’t use the

simple past form of the verb yes it’s a

past tense question but the verb does

not change so what did you do

where did you eat and you can change

this part so I’m using you a lot that’s

a very common pattern where did you go

who did you see but you can change this

like what did he say

or where did she go for example so this

is a very simple question pattern that

you can use for simple past tense okay

another one that you can use is this did

this one starts with did for example did

he eat dinner already for example so

these kinds of questions are yes/no

questions the answer to this is like a

yes simple yes or a No so like I said

did he eat dinner or like did she see

that report for example so again when

you’re making the question we use the

present tense form of the verb we don’t

use the past tense form of the verb okay

so this is the quick review to the basic

simple past tense that I want to talk

about so again an important thing to

remember is that this is something that

just happened in the past like it’s it’s

like the most basic way to explain that

something is finished it happened so

this is often accompanied meaning we use

it together with something like

yesterday or last week or this morning

so there’s like a specific time that we

know about okay so with that I want to

in the next part of the lesson talk a

bit about some more specific words and

some more specific grammar points that

you can use to explain more specific

actions but for now let’s take a quick

break because that was a lot of talking

about grammar so a quick break I chose a

few things I want to share with you guys

during the break we have free stuff as

always but I was thinking about what

might be useful for you in talking about

your past actions so I know many of you

like to travel I know many of you like

eating as well not so many of you like

shopping but I chose a couple of things

I thought would be helpful to go along

with today’s lesson that I will show

over here hello so I chose these PDFs

that I thought might be nice to practice

these grammar points with um this is the

this is the hotel cheat sheet so I know

many of you travel or you study in other

countries so this is vocabulary and

questions you can use at your hotel but

you can change some of these to past

tense

like if you are talking it’s a little

blurry sorry if you’re talking to

someone in your organization you can

change these questions - past tense

questions so for example on this sheet

I’m sorry on this sheet it says like I’d

like to check in so we can use that same

expression check in and make it past

tense like I just checked in at my hotel

when you’re sharing with someone else so

I think these are some nice examples of

vocabulary and expressions that you can

use with today’s grammar point to

explain something you’ve completed very

recently so I’ll show you a couple more

later but I thought these might be good

to use with today’s information so check

these out these are free there’s others

too you can find these from the link

below the video on YouTube and above the

video on Facebook please check the

description for the video not at the

chat box

okay I’ll show you a couple of other

things later but for now let’s continue

to the next the next part of today’s

lesson if you’re just joining today’s

lesson

is about the very recent past this is

kind of a key the very recent past

so I started by explaining simple past

tense if you missed that no problem you

can watch this video later I want to go

on to talking about just and just about

to now so these two points right here

I’ve also placed these on this timeline

so I want to start with this part this

just plus your simple past tense verb so

we use just in a simple past tense verb

to talk about a very recent action

that’s that’s like it’s finished so for

example I just explained simple past

tense if you are watching you saw that I

just explained simple past tense this is

a very recent action it’s finished it’s

done I just explained here’s my past

tense verb that explained becomes

explained in simple past tense I just

explained simple past tense very recent

in your case you just saw a free PDF for

example so I showed you the PDF that was

a very recent action I can say you just

saw a free PDF here I’m using just plus

my simple past tense verb so what’s the

difference why is this important if I

remove just here it doesn’t have the

same feeling of something that’s very

recent yes these sentences are okay like

for example I explained simple past

tense or you saw a free PDF there’s no

communication problem there that’s a

great sentence but we don’t have the

feeling of something that happened

really recently there so to give that

like in a visual representation to see

that visually we can imagine if this

star is the present so this start is our

point now when we use simple past tense

it’s just something that happened before

like yesterday this morning this week

when we use just as I just did with a

simple past tense verb we understand it

happened very recently

so if it’s star is now this is something

that occurred it happened so I used a

check mark here

this means it’s finished it’s done very

recently so you can use just to give

that feeling so it communicates a lot

actually in a very very short period of

time so I just explained this to you

okay nice you guys are sending some good

sentences I just watched your live video

ah though that’s a good point a mere

soit is motive on YouTube sorry when you

when you use this when you use this

grammar point an important thing is that

the action is finished the action is

finished so right now if you’re watching

live we can’t use I just watched your

live video because it’s continuing now

right now you are watching progressive

tense so we can’t use it for something

that has not finished because this video

is continuing right now yeah so we have

to use it for an action that’s done it’s

finished it’s complete so I just saw a

PDF is great or I just liked the video

for example so these are things that are

finished you need to choose an action

that is done it’s complete so any other

ones I just ate a banana

thanks for sharing Raphael that’s good I

just got home great example on Facebook

I just finished my breakfast don’t

forget simple past tense past tense verb

there I just finished my breakfast uh I

just got up from my bed nice okay you

just expressed your satisfaction I did

indeed okay I just finished my homework

nice Marcelo great I just examined my

patient Oh interesting good okay I just

noticed excellent you guys got it you

guys have got it great good good good I

just started watching this live lesson

nice one who is that miss doll yeah I

just started watching this live lesson

perfect you guys have got it nice nice I

just joined your class so remember you

guys have the right idea don’t forget to

make your verb simple past tense I

talked about it here if it’s a regular

verb at

d if it’s an irregular verb you need to

remember the simple past tense form nice

one

okay so you guys have that really nicely

let’s move on to the second point for

this part then the second point very

similar sounding but there’s a key

difference here so I have here was or

were plus just about two plus a present

tense verb so here I use simple past for

this point we’re going to talk about

present the present tense verb here so

just about to do something means this

was a planned action this was a planned

action we intended to do that thing but

it did not happen this is something that

did not happen this one it did happen

this one did not happen so for example

she was just about to call you

she was just about to call to to call

you but it did not happen

so to imagine this visually I showed you

this this check mark here for just plus

a simple past tense verb this is for

something that did happen with this

grammar point just about to with your

present tense verb this is something

that did not happen in the very recent

past you had a plan to do it but you did

not maybe there was a problem you were

interrupted but you want to communicate

that you had a plan this is very useful

for like phone calls and emails and

things like that like I was just about

to email you I was just about to call

you

he was just about to leave we were just

about to eat dinner for example just

about to but it did not happen this is a

key difference here so any thoughts this

one’s a little bit more difficult

something you had a plan to do but did

not do so like I was just about to

what to drink some water or something

like that my coworker interrupted me

nice one I was just about to call a

friend of mine for dinner great that

sounds good I was just about to fall

down that’s a little bit weird because

if you fall down it’s probably an

accident yeah so I was just about to do

a planned action I was just about to do

something Marco on Facebook she was just

about to call you

good yeah that’s perfect that’s perfect

he was just about he was about to go to

the market but was interrupted by rain

okay nice idea I was just about to call

my boss yeah good I was just about to

eat some apples okay nice one I was just

about to go to the gym nice I was just

about to text you perfect yeah great

sentences you guys I was just about to

go to bed nice nice she was just about

to punish her son oh my gosh such drama

in the YouTube chat I was just about to

take a bath just about ah I was at one

point a couple of you in the chat don’t

forget this right here sorry I didn’t

talk a lot about this this was or worth

it so if your subject is I I was just

about to use was if your subject is like

Wii or you use worth you were just about

to go to bed you were just about to eat

dinner weren’t you so make sure this

part agrees with your subject I was he

was she was you were we were they were

another point to think about nice that

sounds great

I was just about to hang out with my

friends nicely done really great these

are nice I was just about to drink a

beer whoo that sounds good a little

early for us perhaps okay I was just

about to do my homework when I saw that

the video started streaming whoo this

can be sort of like homework right it’s

like studying surely okay um you were

just about to show your new cheat sheets

perhaps perhaps maybe you don’t know my

plan okay

I’m just teasing I was just about to go

to sleep but this lesson started great

great nice one it’s really nice job okay

sounds good I think you have it so don’t

forget yeah again don’t forget this

this verb point I was or you were don’t

forget you’re was or were you’re linking

verb there yeah okay great that sounds

good

so let’s take one more break and then

we’ll go to the last point for today’s

lesson so again I wanted to focus on

some things that I thought were useful

to use with this grammar point I talked

a little bit about like hotel related

vocabulary that you can use but I

thought another one that would be really

good with this grammar is just travel

related vocabulary so there are kind of

like some I’ll show you some big

sightseeing spots this is just an

example like for example if you want to

talk about sightseeing spots these are

some ones in the US you can talk about

those with just like if you’re visiting

the US and you want to describe going to

like Times Square in New York you can

say I just went to Times Square for

example or I just went to Disneyland for

example so you can pair this grammar

with like with locations and with verbs

that you know to kind of communicate a

little more specifically so travel is

another nice one I was thinking um food

is also a good one I’ll just I won’t

show it on that one but food is another

good one like I just ate this really

good lunch for example so these are a

couple of good ones to use with today’s

grammar but there are a lot of these so

please check the link in the description

below the video on YouTube and above the

video on Facebook to get this stuff for

free so please check this out it’s an

English class 101.com

okay fantastic Wow

look at all these people watching that’s

fantastic hi everybody so make sure to

hit the like button too so

learners can find the video we really

appreciate it yeah okay awesome

awesome so with that let’s continue to

the final grammar point for today we’ve

talked about the simple past tense and

making some questions with simple past

tense we also talked about just with a

simple past tense verb and just about -

with the present tense verb if you

missed it don’t worry this video is

being recorded you can check it later I

want to finish today with this point

this last point is using a different

form of the verb so we’re using just

again and as we talked about in the last

point I’m going to use was and word here

was just plus a progressive verb so

progressive a reminder progressive is

the I n G something something ing form

of the verb or maybe you know the

continuous form of the verb so when we

use this we’re talking about continuing

actions in the very recent past so an

example we were just watching that movie

we were just watching that movie or for

example I was just explaining a PDF or I

was just explaining just about - for

example so I can talk about an action

that was continuing in the very recent

past so again to kind of give a visual

of this again if this is our point

present the present is now our

conversation now if I want to talk about

something that was continuing in the

past so here these two are like single

actions they started or they finished

they’re done but when we use this

grammar point just plus the progressive

verb we’re talking about something that

was like continuing it was happening

over a period of time so this is one

that we can use to talk about like the

very recent past like a moment ago I

just talking about simple past tense but

depending on the conversation you might

hear people use it to talk about

something that happened yesterday but

it’s maybe if you haven’t seen that

person for a while it might seem like a

very recent event so some it doesn’t

always mean just a moment ago but you

can kind of understand from the

conversation that it’s just in general

about a very recent time period so let’s

think of some more examples so my

examples again where we were just

watching that movie so we were just

watching that movie could mean last

night it’s a very recent time period

within the context of the conversation

so we were just watching that movie I

was just talking about a PDF you were

just watching TV we were just eating

breakfast for example so very recent

activities okay

we were just calling you Sayid

okay that could be that could be it like

if you were trying to call someone and

you wanted to explain that cool that

could work that could work nice okay um

can I use verb to be plus about without

just I was ah like I was I was watching

a movie yes I think that’s your question

Josh Josh on YouTube can you use verb to

be with without just yes you can but the

feeling of something very recent will

disappear so if you want to communicate

something very recently happened just

it’s very useful for them so the

sentence is grammatically correct yes

nice ones I was just watching your video

also though just just keep in mind just

keep in mind this is for something again

that is finished it’s like it’s done so

again you’re watching the video now so

it’s not a complete it’s not finish

yeah so if for example if you’re

watching this video and someone

interrupts you like a family member

comes into the room you can explain oh I

was just watching a video because for

that moment you stop watching this video

and you talked to the family member so

we use this again it’s an action that

stopped so you’ll notice I’m not

continuing this past the present this is

something that finishes it can be a

pause yeah but you’ve finished that

thing so I was just watching that so

Josh your question I was about to go to

bed yes yes you can use that that’s

grammatically correct I was just talking

with G nice awesome

I was just talking about your online

English class really yeah okay I was

just studying an English text nice one

not ton each a nice one I was just

thinking about you perfect good I was

just cleaning my room nice ones okay I

was just I was just going to sleep and

then I heard your notification fantastic

fantastic thank you for joining us great

nice example sentences everyone I was

just eating my dinner great fantastic I

was reading a book okay um I was just

going to sleep fantastic okay lots of

great example sentences I think you’ve

got it so I think I make this to make

the differences between these four

points pretty clear so I hope that this

helps you but yes to answer that

question that I saw you don’t have to

use just in these cases if you remove

just you remove like that feeling of

something very recent happening so the

sentence is still grammatically correct

okay but that’s all that I have for

today I’m not going to talk too much

today I was just cooking my breakfast

great examples everybody thank you okay

so if you have any other questions

please send them in the chat and I will

check them later and I’ll try to answer

them in a video or in some form at some

in some case okay um so I’ll finish up

there for today’s topic about just in

the very recent past thank you so much

for all the great sentences and for your

questions that was awesome really

awesome we will be back as always at the

same time next week next week October

17th Wednesday October 17th 10 p.m.

Eastern Standard Time that is New York

City time if you don’t know your local

time you can google it or as many of you

said just get the notification so sign

up for the notification on Facebook or

on YouTube and you’ll get a little

announcement when we begin so please

join us next week we are going to talk

about how to talk about food so I’ve

talked about this in live streams a

couple of times before but I’m gonna I’m

gonna review a little bit and then talk

a little bit more about some new points

too so please join us to practice

talking about food and food-related

expressions next Wednesday Wednesday

evening perhaps or Thursday morning

depending on where you are in the world

but I’ll finish there for today so thank

you again for liking the video and for

sharing the video for sending all of

your awesome those are really awesome

example sentences don’t forget as I said

there is free stuff for you to check out

in the description below the video on

YouTube and above the video on Facebook

so there’s this some vocabulary points

you can practice with today’s grammar so

definitely check this out this is all in

English class 101.com

will finish there for today so thank you

so so much enjoy the rest of your day

enjoy the rest of your night to enjoy

your weekend and I will see you again

next week

bye bye

you