Talking about Habits in English Basic English Grammar
rolling i think okay cool all right
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
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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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