When Should You Use Past Simple Basic English Grammar Ask Alisha
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Hi, everybody.
Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series
where you ask me questions and I answer them,
maybe.
First question comes from Myfta.
Hi, again, Myfta.
“What is the difference between ‘fate’
and ‘destiny’ and when can I use them?”
Yeah, good question.
So, both “fate” and “destiny” refer
to an outcome in the future.
It’s kind of like a big outcome.
We use “fate” and “destiny” when talking
about like epic stories, really big stories
or like really kind of big life moments, for
example.
The difference in meaning, though, is that
“fate” often has a kind of a negative
feeling about it.
Like there’s a negative outcome, something
bad is going to be the outcome.
“Destiny,” however, sounds like something
really positive, something good or maybe like
you’re going to have a leadership role or
there’s something happy that’s going to happen
as an outcome.
“It’s your destiny to save the world.”
“He accepted his fate and sat in the dark
dungeon.”
“We’re going to be the leaders in our community.
It’s our destiny.”
“Her fate was decided the moment she stole
from the company.”
So, you can hear in these sentences, even
just the feeling of the sentence, it’s kind
of a negative situation or a negative idea
with “fate” and something kind of positive
or happy or optimistic with the word “destiny.”
So, that’s the difference between them.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the question.
Next question comes from Shokruk.
I’m very sorry, Shokruk.
“Hi.
Can you explain passive voice?”
Yes, I can.
Actually, I would recommend checking this
video where I talked about the difference
between active and passive voice.
I hope that this helps you.
This could be a nice introduction to this
grammar point.
So, please check this out.
It’s on the channel.
I’ll try to make sure a link goes in the description
of this video.
Thanks for the question.
Next question comes from Jitu.
Hi.
“How do you use words like ‘sit,’ ‘wear,’
‘stand,’ ‘live,’ ‘work,’ in simple
past and past continuous tense?
If they’re used in these tenses, what is the
difference in meaning?
Please explain.”
Okay, sure.
So, a quick grammar review.
We use simple past tense for actions that
started and finished in the past.
“I sat at my desk and worked today.”
“She stood next to me and watched me work.”
“I lived in that place for three years.”
Then we use the past continuous or the past
progressive tense to talk about actions that
were continuing in the past.
So, we use this when we want to talk about,
one, actions that were interrupted.
So, we’re doing something, doing something,
doing something, and then another action happens
and interrupts it.
Or, when we want to talk about what we were
doing at a specific point in time, a continuing
action we were doing at a specific point in
time.
So, we don’t want to explain it had finished,
we only want to explain that it was continuing
at that time.
“I was sitting at my desk working when the
phone rang.”
“She was standing next to me, watching me
work, when the manager came in.”
“I was living in that place in 2012.”
So, maybe you can see, we use simple past
tense for actions that started and finish,
just a simple action like a simple report
of that action.
We’ll use the past progressive or the past
continuous tense to talk about actions that
continue and then were stopped by another
action or to refer to something that was happening
at a specific point in time in the past, something
that was continuing like, “I was living
there,” or, “I was working at that company
that year,” for example.
So, I hope that that helps a little bit.
Thanks for the question.
Next question!
Next question comes from Pullum Abadi Nusantara.
Pullum, maybe?
Sorry.
“Hi, Alisha.
What is the difference between ‘goes wrong,’
‘went wrong,’ and ‘gone wrong?’”
Oh, the difference is the point in time.
These are just different points in time where
a mistake happens.
So, let’s make example sentences to see exactly
what the difference is.
“I hope nothing goes wrong with this project.”
“Uh-oh.
Something went wrong with the project.”
“Everything has gone wrong with the project.”
So, here, we see a future tense statement,
“I hope nothing goes wrong,” that’s a
future, a future request, a future wish, a
future hope.
“I hope nothing goes wrong.”
We see a past tense, “Uh-oh.
Something went wrong.”
So, a mistake happened and is finished.
And, “Everything has gone wrong,” it means
everything from the beginning of the project
until the present time, everything has been
mistaken, there’s been some problem with everything
that has continued until the present point
in time.
So, these are just different grammar points,
different points in time where a mistake happens.
I hope that helps answer your question.
Next question from Dulce Coromoto Putana Vandervelt.
Oh, wow.
I will say, Dulce.
“Hi, Alisha.
What’s the difference between ‘on the beach’
and ‘at the beach?’
Also, between ‘to lay’ and ‘to lie.’”
Thank you.
Okay, you have two big questions.
First, the difference between “on the beach”
and “at the beach.”
Sure.
So, “on the beach” is used to talk about
activities that happen on the surface of the
beach, things that are like about the surface,
like the sand itself, physically on the beach.
“I want to enjoy the Sun on the beach.”
“He found a shell on the beach.”
“At the beach,” however, is for activities
that happen there.
They aren’t on physically, like the surface
of the beach.
It’s just four things that happen in that
location.
“Let’s go swimming at the beach.”
“She said to meet at the beach.”
So, I hope that helps answer that question.
Let’s go on to your next question which is
more difficult.
“Lay” and “lie,” the difference between
these two.
Actually, native speakers confuse these all
the time.
So, if you make a mistake, don’t worry too
much about it.
The difference is “lay,” the verb, “lay,”
in present tense uses a direct object.
“Lie” does not use a direct object.
“Lay down your bag here.”
“Lie down on the sofa.”
But, this gets more complicated because the
past tense form of the verb, “lie” is
“lay.”
“He lay down on the sofa.”
“We lay down and went to sleep.”
The past tense of “lay,” however, is “laid.”
“We laid our bags on the table.”
“She laid her keys on the desk.”
So, the difference between these two is just
that one verb takes a direct object and one
verb does not.
In most cases, you’re not going to cause any
communication problems by making a mistake
with one of these.
Native speakers do it all the time.
But if you want to know the difference, that’s
what the difference is.
Hope that helps.
Next question comes from Imon.
Hi, again, Imon.
“What does ‘there’s still a lot of room
for improvement’ mean?”
Yeah, nice question.
It means improvement is still possible.
This is an expression that’s used to give
like criticism and encouragement.
So, the speaker is communicating to the listener.
Like, “I think you can do better,” something
better is possible.
“There’s room for improvement” means something
better than this is still possible.
So, “I think you can do better than this.”
Alright.
Those are all the questions that I want to
answer for this week.
Thank you, as always, for sending me your
great questions.
Remember, you can send them to me at EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha.
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Thanks very much for watching this episode
of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next week.
Bye-bye.
Such air traffic. Many plane.