How to Tell a Story in English with Simple past and past perfect

all right we’re rolling hi everybody

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 tell

stories

with simple past and past perfect tenses

we are going to practice using these

tenses together

so uh i think this will be a good one

for building your writing skills in

particular

in this week’s lesson i’m going to focus

on using simple past tense first that

will be part one

for today then we’ll go to past perfect

tense and then finally in part three

we’re going to look at how to put them

together

uh to make a short story even just about

your everyday life so

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today’s lesson boards today’s lesson

boards look like this

you can take a screenshot now or later

boom okay so

first we’re going to look at how to tell

a story with simple past

tense review yeah then we’ll look at

using

past perfect tense and the difference

between these two what’s the deal

finally we’re going to look at a sample

story

and one quick tip that lots of people

ask me about that seems to cause

confusion

so let’s begin okay great facebook

everybody’s good everybody’s good okay

let’s get to simple past tense

how do we use simple past tense first

and then we’ll talk about the

differences between this and

past perfect so let us begin

simple past tense first in blue when do

we use simple past tense

we use simple past tense for actions

that started and ended in the past

so imagine on a timeline past

present that’s now and the future our

actions started

and ended in the past it’s complete it’s

finished

with simple past tense there is a

specific time

period or a specific point in time so

the action this happened yesterday or

last week or last summer something like

that

or it could have been maybe over the

last week

something something that you did at a

specific point in time

okay we can also use this to talk about

repeated past actions with

everyday or every week or every year

for example like i went to the gym every

day

last week or i ate vegetarian

every day last month so we can talk

about repeated

past actions with this grammar point

so let’s look at some examples basic

examples

and you you’re if you are watching live

or you just want some practice

you can send what did you do last

weekend send a comment a past tense

simple past

tense sentence to answer this question

what did you do

last weekend so some examples

i went to the office yesterday simple

past

tense completed action when did it

happen

yesterday i went to the office yesterday

or we had coffee last week

we had coffee last week so

again past tense verb when did it happen

last week okay next one

she helped me study she helped me study

in this sentence we don’t have like a

specific point in time

but in speech or in writing

we often understand this from the

context

so maybe she helped me study for a

situation

okay one more they planned

a trip they planned a trip

finally last one then i’ll talk about

some other points

negative remember negative also so an

action that did not happen

in the past an action that did not

happen in the past

he didn’t leave the house he didn’t

leave the house okay couple of points

one these verbs helped

and planned are regular verbs

that means to make the past tense form

we include ed at the end of the verb

yeah little review

help becomes helped plan becomes planned

these are irregular go becomes went

and have becomes had okay

so key point we use this for actions

that started

and ended in the past okay some of your

examples are coming so i’m going to try

to read

lots of them ah facebook facebook sorry

facebook

there’s an ad in my way that’s very

irritating okay youtube i’ll come to you

first

uh judy says i went to meet a friend

last week perfect nice one

megami says i went grocery shopping last

sunday perfect great job

ah conwell i bumped into an old friend

last weekend and we had a great chat

very nice

miguel says i got a new job last week oh

is that true congratulations that’s cool

gustavo i worked the whole day ah your

spelling holds

that means hold like to hold this board

whole

w-h-o-l-e i worked the whole

day okay oh facebook i can see you now

rosalina says i went to the clinic

last saturday good okay jacqueline

says i visited new york last year

perfect very nice

okay um someone’s talking about using

showing the forms of this verb i’m not

going to talk a lot about the details of

how to make this tense today because i

have many videos

that already do that if you want some

more information about

how to make simple past tense you can

check the videos on our channel

the english class 101 youtube channel

i’ll put a link

after the um after this lesson i will

put links to how to make

this grammar uh so you can check it out

for some review

i hope that helps you adv says i saw

your video or so i saw your video last

week good yay

says i went for a walk yesterday good

oh my gosh there are so many uh melissa

says i went to my boyfriend’s house good

um okay everybody nice job super super

good job with

simple past tense great you crush it

very nice

a plus okay so this is how we use simple

past

tense basic basic grammar right

so we’ll take a short break and then

we’ll look at past

perfect tense and the differences

between past perfect and simple past

tense

and how to use them together because

this confuses some people i think

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phrases

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about time and planning related

expression so check this one out you can

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uh great so let’s go to part two past

perfect tense now what is the deal

with past perfect tense also if you

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also share if you like too all right uh

if you want to see today’s lesson boards

again here they are okay so

we talked about simple past tense now

let’s go to

past perfect tense what is the

difference here that is a very common

question

so let’s talk about it okay

past perfect tense what is this

grammar point so that’s perfect tense

past perfect tense actually is pretty

simple

when you think about it we use past

perfect

for a past action that happened

before a different past action

or condition so

visually let’s look at an image here’s a

timeline again yeah

here’s the present here’s now here’s the

future

we don’t want to think about that today

past

okay past perfect is used before

another past action so when you make a

sentence using simple past

tense like we just practiced like i went

to the office yesterday

and in the same sentence or in the same

situation

you want to describe another action that

happened

before that or another condition

you use past perfect tense to do that

this i think in speech we’re a little

more flexible about it like

it’s we can understand from context but

when you’re

writing this this can be very very

important

because you need to show the sequence of

events

when you’re writing and you can’t

communicate and clarify

uh with the person you’re listening or

the person listening to you

so we use this together with simple

past tense so what does this look like

what does this look like

there are many different ways that we

use this

in terms of showing

one action happened before another by

that i mean

a few different patterns so let’s look

at them

here’s a very basic one in these

sentences

i wrote the simple past verb in blue

and the past perfect point in red okay

so when i arrived the meeting

had started when i arrived the meeting

had started

so that means i arrived here

the meeting started here the meeting

started before i arrived

i used past perfect tense to describe

that

so in this sentence we don’t know how

long this time period is

but we just want to express this action

the meeting starting happened before

this action me arriving okay when i

arrived

the meeting had started you might say

when i arrived the meeting had already

started

okay

[Music]

some people are sending past tense

sentences okay good

is it live yes hello it is live what’s

up oh my gosh

facebook what’s the deal with your ads

so many okay

uh okay so you can send here’s your

homework chat

everyone in chat while i go through the

examples describe

two past connected actions using simple

past

and past perfect okay all right

so let’s go to another example here’s a

negative one

i hadn’t eaten lunch yet

so i was hungry i hadn’t eaten lunch yet

so i was hungry so this is a negative

yeah

this action did not happen so the action

is eating lunch

i had not eaten this is the reduced form

i had not eaten lunch

yet expectation so

i was hungry past tense i was hungry

yeah i hadn’t eaten lunch yet so i was

hungry

ooh my girl lead every run i hope i said

your name right on youtube said the

traffic was bad

because a car had broken down on the

road very nice very nice example

sentence

okay uh andrew says when i saw him he

had already left

good job very nice kanwaji said i

submitted our project on time because

i had already prepared it very nice okay

john on facebook says when i departed

the ship had gone away

great abdul maybe when i arrived when i

arrived the plane had taken

off and then it’s perfect okay lakmir

says when i arrived

my class had started great very nice

examples everyone

okay on to the next one this one this

type of

uh sentence i think sometimes is

confusing

because of this part right here by the

time so let’s look at it

first let’s read by the time i graduated

from university i had written three

research papers so once more by the time

i graduated from university

i had written three research papers

so here’s my past tense verb graduated

this one’s here

i had written three research papers

so that happened before graduation right

we understand that but this part right

here

sometimes confuses i think this

by the time by the time why not when

you can say when actually it’s correct

to say when

when i graduated from university i had

written

three research papers so why buy the

time here what is that telling us

that means up until this point

up until this point i had done

this yeah so it’s like saying

uh it gives more of a continuing

feeling so like maybe maybe in the

future

i’m going to write more or maybe after

graduation

i wrote more research papers so you can

use

when or by the time but this

by the time i did something shows

like kind of a deadline for that action

yeah okay all right

other example sentences uh nasr says

when i got to the cinema the film

had started very nice example okay

uh andre says i was thirsty because i

hadn’t drank

anything i hadn’t or i hadn’t drunk

anything sorry i hadn’t drunk anything

okay uh all right

other examples all right i don’t see

other examples so

think about this you can send some more

for part three and i will try to check

in real time uh all right

good okay it’s a bit longer right this

one you have to think a little bit

right two actions in the same uh

same sentence right but this again this

is a super important grammar point when

you’re writing you need to make it clear

which action was first and which action

was second

if you can’t you need to learn this

grammar point it’s very important but

if this is difficult for you a way to

get around it

you can use short sentences past 10

sentences

and say after that next and so on

but if you want to be a good writer a

professional sounding person

please learn to use past perfect tense

okay good then let’s go to part

three what time is it okay yeah we need

to go to part three so

in part three now i’m going to put these

together

and show you how simple past tense and

past perfect tense are used in speech or

in writing it’s going to be very very

basic

but i mean everyday stories are

important to be able

to tell all right let’s go

so part three let’s go to oh yes sorry

check the link below the video if you

want to find

vocabulary and phrase pdfs to check out

i’ll show you again later too

but i want to get to part three it’s

important so

first quick tip quick tips

uh this right here causes

confusion with past perfect

when you use have in past perfect

the result is had had i had had

something something i had had or i’d had

and people say is that right there are

two hands next to each other that seems

wrong it’s correct it’s totally correct

i know it seems crazy

so i had had too much

to drink so my roommate drove us

home i had had too much to drink so my

roommate drove us home here’s my past

tense so i had had is correct

so please note that so many people ask

that question

is hat hat correct yes okay

let’s look now at a sample story this is

a very boring story

it’s actually my story from yesterday

this is a very boring story

but it’s an example of what we can do

to explain our day with these two

grammar points

so again i have in blue underline

simple past tense and in red underline

[Music]

past perfect so let’s look at this story

how do we use these together

first yesterday i went to the office

i needed to pick up a package and make

some new videos before the shoot

i had had some time to review

the content we finished

everything on time okay

so very basic story very boring story

at native speed here’s how i would say

this yesterday i went to the office i

needed to pick up a package and make

some new videos

before the shoot i’d had some time to

review the content we finished

everything on time

so that’s how i might express this in

speech to someone that i know

maybe a little bit faster even yeah

someone writes ha ha ha

ha sounds weird i know right so what’s

going on

this is a past tense sentence yesterday

i went to the office

completed action i needed to pick up a

package

and make some new videos completed

action

so needed here note that this part is

not past tense i needed to picked up

not correct i’m using this have to need

to grammar here so only this verb is in

past

tense okay i needed to pick up a package

and make some new videos then here

before the

shoot i had had some time to review the

content so what’s the deal here

before the shoot so the shoot means

the time at which i’m making videos

before the shoot i had some time to

review the content

so i’m talking about something that

happened before

another action yeah before the shoot i’d

had some time to review the content

then past tense we finished everything

on time

simple past tense so this is how we use

these two grammar points together

it’s very common to use lots of simple

past and then

one like past perfect expression here

and there

to show the sequence to show the

relationship between the two

past actions okay so if you want some

homework

you can try making a sample story about

your day maybe yesterday

a boring story is okay all right

um mushtaq says i had had finished nope

you don’t need had had finished you need

had had only if you use have plus

past perfect so i didn’t talk about how

to make

past perfect in this lesson i don’t have

time to talk about all of these grammar

points

but to make past perfect we use

had plus the past participle form of a

verb

yeah past participle form

okay this is how to make the basic

past perfect uh structure

i had past participle so had

had is only used when this verb

the past participle form of the verb is

have yeah

so i had finished is correct i had

you know eaten so don’t use had had

finished or had had started

okay others today we have homework

you always have homework there is always

homework for these classes it’s just up

to you

to do it do you have instagram yes i

always say this it’s in the link below

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check youtube you can find the link

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find me at arisha in tokyo okay

um all right it’s very bright i can’t

see what time it is what time is it

okay all right i have a couple more

minutes so i have time to read your

example sentences

uh i’m looking for your um

your two actions in one sentence

examples

uh all right i’m looking for you i’m

looking for you

i had had a headache so i went to sleep

early

i needed to get up early to receive my

lessons i hadn’t finished my schedule

yet maybe i hadn’t

i hadn’t finished my my tasks yet i

hadn’t finished my

we schedule we don’t finish a schedule

generally we would say i hadn’t

maybe finished my tasks or my to-do list

i’m not quite sure

kadega but otherwise very close very

close thanks for that example sentence

okay lots of you are sending uh some

simple past

sentences that’s good uh he called his

friend as he walked

down the street says sergey good okay um

oh koala has a good one on youtube i was

late

to the meeting to the meeting i was late

to the meeting because

the trains tires had broken oh

okay very nice one all right good

examples so this is maybe a good

a good one for many of you to practice

and also when you’re reading i suggest

pay attention when you’re reading uh to

notice

when past perfect is used together with

simple past tense yeah

okay uh also i’ll put some links after

this live stream ends i’ll put some

links in the youtube description

so you can check uh the videos i have

about making simple past tense

and past perfect tense so i hope that

helps you so check the uh the youtube

description

for that for your homework help okay i

have to finish up there so

awesome job oh i will show you today’s

lesson boards again thanks for all of

your awesome example sentences

if you want to take a picture here you

go so we talked about

simple past tense when do we use it past

perfect tense

when we use it and how to put them

together

to tell a story so some very simple

examples

but like i said i think it’s a good idea

to pay attention

when you’re reading so that you get an

idea of how to use

these naturally okay so i’ll say goodbye

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okay cool so let’s finish there

next week i’ll be back of course next

week

next week next lesson will be march 10th

oh my gosh we’re halfway through march

it’s just crazy okay so next week march

10th

10 pm eastern standard time uh if you

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next week i’m going to talk about how to

talk about

habits past and present so habits by

habits i mean

repeated actions so focus grammar points

will be

used to and would primarily okay

so please join me again next week to

talk about past

and present habits always good to know

all right i will say goodbye there so

thanks very much for joining me again

this week that was super fun thanks for

your great examples

i hope you enjoy your homework and if

you have any questions

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great day have a great weekend and i

will see you

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