Talking about Habits in English Basic English Grammar

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looks good hi everybody and welcome back

to our weekly

live stream my name is alicia and in

this week’s lesson we are going to look

at

how to explain your habits i’m going to

focus

on three grammar points you can use to

talk about your habits

and just the regular things you do every

week or every year the regular parts of

your schedule

we’re going to look at how to talk about

these topics

in the present so things you do now and

we’re going to look at how to express

these things

in the past so our focused grammar

points will be

simple present tense used to and would

we have three things to talk about today

so i hope you send lots and lots

of your example sentences and your

questions in the chat

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let’s go to today’s lesson topic if you

missed it where’s my mouse

if you missed it today’s lesson is about

how to explain your habits how to

explain your habits so what does that

mean

so uh before we start i want to cover

again

what does habit mean habit we often talk

about

bad habits the negative things we do

like maybe biting our nails

or i don’t know eating too much junk

food those kinds of things

today’s lesson is going to be about your

regular

activities how do we talk about the

regular things

like the every week or the everyday

activities that we do how do we do that

in past tense and in present tense so

that’s our topic for today let’s take a

look at today’s

lesson boards if you want to take a

picture of today’s

lesson boards you can do so now or later

so

here are our three topics for today

we’re going to begin with simple present

tense

uh then actually oh sorry we’re gonna

talk about used to

in part two actually sorry my bad and

then we’re gonna do wood in the last

part of the section sorry i had to put

them out of order when i took this

picture

but this is the topic for today let’s

get started

okay let’s begin with simple present

tense

also don’t forget if you haven’t already

make sure to hit the like button because

it helps other people find the lesson

so let’s begin uh i will check you

facebook

it’s very warm right here sometimes my

phone gets too hot in the sun

okay let’s start with simple present

tense simple present tense

so we can use of course simple present

tense

to talk about our schedules and the

everyday things we do

and it’s one of the grammar points for

today

because we use simple present tense

statements with expressions

of frequency what does that mean i’ll

explain in a moment

with expressions of frequency to express

habits or regular actions so we use this

grammar point to talk about something we

do

every day every week every year and so

on

we use this grammar plus

an expression of frequency so here are

some examples

for example every day every week

every month every hour you kind of get

the idea yeah

every year every summer and so on every

season

whatever some other examples are

things like these all the time all the

time is a casual way to say

very often i do that all the time is

saying

i do that very often in a more casual

way

or sometimes of course never as well

we can do something zero percent of the

time

so we express our current

actions with this when we want to talk

about something

that is true now we can do that with

this grammar point

let’s look at some examples here i have

in blue

the blue underline is the verb the red

underline

is the expression of frequency

so while i look at uh

these examples your your your your

homework for the your livestream

homework if you’re watching live or

later

is to describe a regular action in your

life so try to use this grammar

to send a comment in the live chat yeah

i’ll try to check live

okay let’s look at some examples so for

example

i go to the gym every

day i go to the gym every day so

here’s my verb in simple present tense

because my subject is i

so not i went to the gym every day

that’s past tense

i go to the gym every day

this sentence is also correct i go to

the gym

it’s we don’t know how often but i go to

the gym

every day so every day is my frequency

expression okay all right

next one he visits his family every

christmas he visits his family every

christmas

one point lots of people forget this s

right here not he visit he visit is

incorrect

he visits his family every christmas

here’s my frequency

expression yeah okay good

um some examples are coming in

uh the good ones i never give up i go to

school every weekday good i usually go

to my uncle’s house every summer nice

examples everybody

cesar cesar says i visit my best friend

every year

good uh nuen says i change i

change not changes we use that s for he

she in its subjects i change uh

diapers for my baby every ad every

hour every hour okay great good examples

then another one we go hiking

all the time so here’s that all the time

frequency expression we go hiking

all the time instead of saying very

often

this is more natural at least in

american english if i say

we go hiking very often it sounds a

little

too polite for everyday conversation

so typically we use all the time

all the time okay here’s a negative

you never eat junk food you never eat

junk food you’re so healthy you never

eat junk food

okay and one more she sometimes

cooks at home she sometimes cooks at

home

all right so this is the most basic way

to talk about a regular action something

that we do

now uh with some kind of

frequency every week every day every

hour yeah

many good examples are coming in i watch

your videos every day

say many people fantastic that’s great

i’m happy to hear that

uh shireen says i play with my daughter

every night

very nice nice example sentence um

javier i go to the park at morning i go

to the park

in the morning in the morning we use at

for night yeah

i go to the park in the morning okay um

i dive into youtube all the time nice

nice good

nice examples okay jonathan what means

hiking

uh oh when you ask this question what

does hiking mean what does hiking mean

uh hiking means going for a walk

in the mountains like a challenging walk

in the mountains

okay all right nice good examples

so that is part one how to express

your regular activities with simple

present tense so

let’s take one short break to think

about that

and then we’ll go to part two we’re

going to go to the past for part

two so if you missed it if you want to

pick up

some vocabulary practice sheets

you could take a look at these there are

many different topics pets and so on

and on the back here let’s look at this

one the supermarket one

there are vocabulary words you can use

here yes

but on the back you’ll find some

expressions depending on the

one you choose and some discussion

points too so things you can say uh

throughout

these activities and there are some new

pdfs you can download

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whole conversations to practice so you

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check that out okay so let’s go to part

two also if you haven’t please make sure

to like this video yeah so other people

can find the lesson actually i’m going

to share the video now here we go share

okay i didn’t do that yet but um

done okay so let’s go to part

two let’s talk about how to use used to

we’re going to use this to express our

past

habits so i’m going to many of you

probably are going to say what’s the

difference between used to

and would we’re going to talk about

would in part

three for today’s lesson so let’s look

at used to

use to use do so we use

used to to express actions

or conditions that were true

in the past but that are not true

now this is a key point true in the past

but that are not true now so you we

wouldn’t

use we don’t use used to to talk about

an activity

that we did in the past and we do now we

don’t use it in this way

the change is a key point at this

grammar

okay so how do we make an expression how

do we make a phrase with used to

we use subject plus used to plus our

base

verb so it’s like the infinitive form

this two

plus your base word yeah you do used to

and in speech

it sounds like used to like this d

sound sounds very short i used to i used

to

we connect this d and t together you stu

used to

okay but uh when you’re writing

typically we use this

d so how do we use used to

again we need to express a change for

example

i used to see my friends every day

at school i used to see my friends every

day

at school okay so the feeling with this

sentence

is i used to see my friends every day at

school

but now i do not see my friends

every day at school this

used to communicates all of that we

don’t have to include

but now i don’t so if it’s helpful

you can imagine all of these sentences

end with but now

i don’t like this

so imagine all of these sentences

finish with but now i don’t but

because we use used to we don’t need to

include this part here

just i used to see my friends every day

at school

okay claude rivage on facebook has a

good example

i used to be in good shape but not

nowadays

yeah many people can relate to that i

think for sure

great example okay send me your examples

so this is your homework question here

describe something in your life that was

true in the past

but that is not true now okay

let’s go to some more examples we used

sorry i we we used to visit my

grandparents house

every holiday we used to visit my

grandparents house

every holiday but now we don’t

so this is showing the change now we do

not do that

we used to visit we used to visit

okay good uh sergio you say i used to

watch your

on facebook sergio hernandez you said i

used to watch your videos

so again that means you do not watch my

videos anymore if you use this grammar

point

and you say i used to watch your videos

it means you do not watch

my videos now but you are watching my

video now

so how is that true okay so we use this

to talk about something that is

not true now okay maybe you could say i

used to watch your videos

every day now i watch uh my favorite

video

every week maybe that’s good for you

okay

uh russia one of our members on youtube

hello i used to go to the cinema yeah

before the pandemic i used to go to the

cinema nice example

okay good good good uh cynthia ruiz says

i used to play video games

games with my brother good good good sal

says i used to hug my boyfriend yeah

xiang says i used to study english every

day good examples everyone

okay uh oh good question mr dawn on

youtube says do we use didn’t for the

negative

yes we can use didn’t it’s not

so common to make a negative sentence

with this grammar point

for example i didn’t used to see my

friends every day at school

you can use that typically we talk

we want to compare something we actually

did in the past but yes if you want to

express something you did not do

in the past but that you now do

it it’s not so common but yes you can

use

didn’t here you can use didn’t here okay

let’s go to another example my brother

used to hate bananas

my brother used to hate bananas so this

pattern is really useful to talk about

changes in your food and drink

preferences something you

hated to eat when you were a little kid

like this is a great grammar point to

describe that

okay you can use this to talk about your

habits

your bad habits and your good habits as

well like some

people many people i used to work out

every day i used to work out all the

time

oh david says uh david weiland says i

used to drink alcohol but now i don’t

yeah so this is a great example

of how we can use these

alicia do you speak spanish i i used to

speak spanish

that’s true i took spanish lessons i

took spanish classes in high school

so i used to speak a little spanish but

now

not so much okay one more example my

roommate and i used to be

good friends oh so this sentence because

we use

used to there’s some drama here right my

roommate and i

used to be good friends oh so what

happened

remember it’s like saying but now we’re

not

so you can use used to

to show some change in your condition or

in this case

your relationship my roommate and i used

to be

good friends but now we’re not oh

what happened that we use used to to

show changes and to talk about our past

habits okay uh kirito says they’re used

to lazy

if you want to use an adjective uh i

used to be

lazy don’t forget b you still you need a

verb

in that sentence i used to be lazy or i

used to be

sad whatever i used to be adjective

okay uh deca says how do i use supposed

to

it’s a different grammar point from

today i think i have a video about it on

the channel

were you supposed to to talk about uh

the responsibilities

we have someone else’s responsibilities

of us

it’s a bit different from today’s

grammar point okay

all right nice example sentences

everybody uh

i’ll go on let’s go on to the last

grammar point so

great job with used to used to so the

key

is there’s some change in your uh in

your behavior some change in your

condition you want to talk about so

let’s take one more quick break and then

we’ll go to the last point we’re going

to talk

about wood if you are just joining live

or

in case you want to see the lesson title

again

today’s topic is your habits we’re

explaining

habits with simple present part one used

to

and would okay so let’s take one more

quick break

i will remind you if you’re just joining

uh there’s free stuff you can download

from the link below the video

if you’re watching on youtube above the

video if you’re watching

on facebook i showed you a couple of

these earlier

ah here’s a good one maybe hotels

we’re not looking so much at spending

time in hotels but if you want to

practice

some conversations you can find key

questions and answers

on the back of this so pick a topic that

is interesting for you

shoppers perhaps if you need some new

clothes for the season

this will help you but you can choose

whatever you like

and download them so check out the link

below the video or above the video

youtube below the video facebook above

the video to get those

all right um let’s go to the last part

if you want to take a screenshot

take it now a picture take a picture of

today’s lesson boards here

so part one was simple present tense

part two sorry i was used to now we’re

going to talk about

part three would how do we use would

what is the difference

between used to and wood let’s find out

okay so wood

let’s take a look uh okay so we use

wood in this grammar wood has other uses

i’m not going to talk about

all the uses of wood today in this

lesson

i want to focus on this use of wood to

talk about

past habits yeah so we use wood

to describe repeated past

actions repeated past actions usually

from a very long time ago so we use

wood to talk about something we did when

we were like

a little kid or maybe in school or

in university something like that we

don’t really use

wood to talk about something from last

month

or like last week we want to

kind of make the feeling of uh like a

long

or maybe like a distant memory that’s

the feeling with

wood we use this to describe

those kind of memory uh like important

memories

okay then we also use this with a time

period

so we need to express some point in time

some time period

that this memory happened okay so let’s

look at some examples of this

and for those of you in the chat you can

your homework is to describe

a repeated action from your past with

wood

so how do we do this a basic pattern

is we begin with the past time period

so when i was a little kid or when i was

in university

or when i was in school whatever we have

a past

time period our subject would

and our verb so what does this look like

okay for example when i was

a little kid i would play with my

friends

every day when i was a little kid

i would play with my friends every day

so here’s my past time period when i was

a little kid when i was a little kid

so this gives we understand the

like the memory time period of the

memory here

okay then i would play with my friends

every day so using wood here

shows it was a habit a repeated action

of some kind

you might think why not just say when i

was a little kid

i played with my friends every day can i

say that yes you can

100 when i was a little kid i played

with my friends every day

that sentence sounds like a simple fact

yeah

that sentence is like basic information

this was an activity i did however if

you use

wood when i was a little kid i would

play with my friends

every day this sounds like a memory

of a repeated activity it sounds more

like something you want to

remember like a special memory about

your past

okay uh good good good

yes many people are saying wood can be

used for this wood can be used for that

yes you are all correct

you can use wood for many other things

today’s focus is one

use of wood okay all right uh

oh diana i just saw diane on facebook

when i was a child i would spend time

in video games every day to make it more

natural when i was a child i would spend

time

playing video games every day

yeah good job good job okay cynthia says

when i was very young

i would go to the beach with my aunt

every summer very nice

very nice so this has the feeling of a

memory like a happy memory

yeah a la rattum says when i was a kid i

would fight with my brother yeah

it’s a good one yeah very common memory

from a long time ago

so you get the feeling it’s from it’s

like a childhood memory or a school time

memory something like that okay

um karim says when i was a little kid i

would build castles made of sand yeah

you can say

sand castle as well sand castle to make

it shorter nice

okay guillermo says when i was younger i

used to be

when i was younger i was in good shape

because i would work out every day

okay so maybe you don’t need used to in

that sentence when i was younger

i was in good shape because i would work

out every day

okay you don’t have to say used to for

that past situation

yeah okay um good let’s look at another

example when we were in college we would

go to parties

every weekend so this is something

a memory you share with someone else

when we

so maybe a partner or a good friend of

yours or your roommate

when we were in college we would go to

parties

every weekend yeah so a college or a

school memory

all right uh and then one more when he

lived

far away from his parents he would call

to say hello

weekly when he lived far away from his

parents

he would call to say hello weekly

so you can use this to talk about those

nice memories or sometimes like fighting

with your brother you can use it to talk

about those kinds of memories too

oh wow lots of questions and examples

are coming in on facebook hey

um let’s see gul nora says when i was a

child i would cook with mom every day

very nice

very nice example uh how many days you

teach every week

this live stream is once a week always

at this time but of course we have many

videos

on youtube and on facebook so check them

out the english class 101

youtube channel is very easy to search

we have many videos there

grammar lots of lessons that i’ve done

and some others

too so please have a look anna lucia

says when i was 15

i would work in a fishing factory every

day great

okay um when i was a teenager i would

swim with friends every sunday great

example oh you have such nice memories

these these are really nice memories i

liked it

okay um let’s see

minelle says i would eat oily foods when

i was young

okay maybe it’s hard to eat those things

now nice examples great examples

okay nice one so some people

just really quickly there are many

comments some people are using

will here you can’t use will

in this grammar you have to use would to

talk about your memories so

we don’t we cannot change will and would

or swap the two in this grammar okay

um

let’s see uh there’s some questions i’m

not sure it would

possible is this phrase used for i’m not

sure what it would

possible means can you give me an

example example sentence

all right so oh there’s a good negative

nice example of a negative catherine

uh zulueta i hope i said your name right

on facebook says when i was in

university

i wouldn’t go out with my friends good

example so you can use this

to talk about something you regularly

did not

do as a kind of memory i wouldn’t go out

with them like i wasn’t comfortable or

i didn’t like to go to parties or

whatever okay great examples everyone

all right yeah someone is sending lots

of emojis on facebook can you stop that

please

be polite to your fellow classmates all

right

so um daniel says can i use

will to talk about habits in the present

no you cannot we use will to talk about

our future tense

to talk about our future plans that we

decide

during the conversation if you missed

part one how to talk about your habits

in present please use

simple present tense we talked about

this in part one of today’s lesson so

you can watch

this lesson it is being recorded uh so

when i finish

you can watch it back uh okay i have to

say goodbye oh my gosh i’m late

so i have to say goodbye there uh for

today but fantastic example sentences

and great questions everybody that was

fantastic

i have to finish there but if you want

to take a picture of today’s lesson

boards here you go

boom we talked about simple present

tense talking about your current

habits your regular actions now we

talked about used to

things that were true in the past but

that are not true now

and would talking about past memories

and past

habits uh pretty good so now you can

talk all about your habits and the

things you did now or things you do now

and things you did when you were younger

all right

but i have to go so next week’s lesson

here’s next week’s lesson information

next week i’ll be back of course uh the

date

wednesday march 17th or march 18th

depending on your time zone

10 pm eastern standard time that is new

york city time you can google

your time or you can set a notification

on youtube or on facebook

if you follow me on instagram i always

share a link

to the live stream and a reminder about

the topic so you can follow me there to

make sure you always get the information

check my stories each week

next week’s topic will be how to share

your schedule with simple present tense

so if you had questions about grammar

point number one

today we’re going to talk about this and

more and some very common errors that i

see in learners with this

grammar point so please join me again

next week to practice using

simple present tense to talk about your

schedule explaining your schedule

this is really good uh in business

professional

study situations super super good uh to

practice

okay all right so i will say goodbye

there thank you all very much

for joining today’s lesson thanks for

your awesome questions

and your awesome example sentences and i

will see you again

next week have a great day uh thanks oh

thanks also very much for liking and

sharing the video we had many people

joining us that’s super cool

so i’ll say goodbye there enjoy the rest

of your week

and i will see you again next time