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
i hope you check it out uh while we wait
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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
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
okay so um if you missed it there’s
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phrases
on this sheet you can use this to boost
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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
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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
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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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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
uh check the links below the video on
youtube
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i hope will answer your questions
okay so thanks very much for liking and
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great day have a great weekend and i
will see you
again soon bye