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Hi, everybody!
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My name is Alisha, today we're gonna be talking
about simple past tense.
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We're gonna talk about how to make simple
past tense statements in English.
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So let's get started!
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Okay, so first, let's talk about when we should
use the simple past tense.
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Simple past tense statements for today are
for actions that started and ended in the
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past, so these are things that both started
or began and ended in the past, both of those
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must be true to use simple past tense.
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The second point for today is these are actions
which happened at a specific point in time,
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so a specific point in time can be yesterday,
it can be an hour ago, it can be last year,
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it can be when you were a kid, all of these
are a specific point in time, but the key
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is that we know when the action happened.
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So specific point in time is point two for
this grammar point.
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Third, we can use simple past tense for repeated
actions in the past.
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So things you did every week or every month,
or every year, every summer, every hour, if
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you like, but one point about this, make sure
to include a frequency indicator if you want
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to talk about an action that repeated in the
past.
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Frequency indicator, for example, I just mentioned
a few, every week, every month, every year.
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So frequency, meaning how often, an indicator
shows how often you did that.
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So you can use repeated actions with past
tense to show, let's see, something you did
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a lot in the past, for example.
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So to give you a visual, the past is down
here, now is this point here, and future is
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up here.
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When we use the simple past tense it's an
action that started and ended in the past
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somewhere before now, that's one.
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It's at a specific point in time, so this
action and this action, we know when they
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happened, it could be this morning, it could
be yesterday, for example, but we know when
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these actions happen.
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Third, we can use for repeated action, so
maybe these actions repeat, but we know when
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the repetition happened, we know when we repeated
these actions, so it's okay to use simple
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past tense to describe those.
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Okay, so now we know when we should use simple
past tense, we know why we should use simple
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past tense, but how do we make simple past
tense statements?
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So, when you want to use the simple past tense
to explain an action that happened in the
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past, you need to conjugate your verb, you
need to change your verb.
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So that means when you're using a regular
verb, you do verb + ed.
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So verb + ed is the basic form for simple
past tense verbs, but keep in mind this is
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only for regular verbs, not all verbs are
regular verbs.
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So, for example, some common ones are talk,
which becomes talked; start which become started;
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and enjoy which becomes enjoyed.
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Please be careful, however, you'll notice
that the past tense form of verbs has a few
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different pronunciations, so, for example,
start becomes started, it has an ID sound
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it's not an ED sound, but an ID sound.
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You might hear a word like walked, also, which
has a sort of T sound about it; walk becomes
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walked; started becomes started; an ID sound.
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And then there's also a sound like in breathed,
a very soft D sound.
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So there are three past tense verb sounds
to listen for, an ID sound, started; a soft
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D sound like breathed; and then a more hard
T sound like walked.
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So pay attention to that when you're trying
to make these past tense verb conjugations.
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Ok, but some verbs are irregular verbs.
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Irregular verbs do not have a simple rule
for understanding past tense conjugation.
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How to change them in past tense, there's
no rule for these, you simply have to practice,
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you have to remember them, read them, listen
to them until you can remember the correct
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conjugation, the correct way to change these
verbs into the past tense.
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So, for example, some common ones are eat,
which becomes ate; speak becomes spoke; and
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make becomes made.
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If you see a verb somewhere that seems a little
odd, or you're not sure what the present tense
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form would be, you can check a dictionary
and try to remember it from there.
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So, now we've talked about simple past tense,
irregular and regular verbs, let's try to
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use them to make some sentences.
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I've prepared a few example sentences, so
let's take a look.
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Okay, first sentence, He ______ a towel and
sunglasses to the beach.
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So the verb here is bring, I want to use the
verb "bring."
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Bring, however, is an irregular verb, so I
can't use the ED rule for regular verbs; the
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correct conjugation is brought.
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He brought a towel and sunglasses to the beach.
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This is the correct conjugation here, so bring
is an irregular verb.
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Okay, let's go to the next sentence.
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They ______ to the gym every day last week.
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So here, I'm showing you a repeated action,
here I'm using every day, this is a frequency
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indicator, how often did I do that action;
and last week shows the specific point in
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time.
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So I'm using both of these two points, in
addition to a simple past, the basic simple
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past structure here.
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So the verb that we want to use here is "go,"
but go is an irregular verb so we can't use
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go-ed, for example.
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Go changes to went in the past tense, so went
is the correct answer for this sentence here.
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Okay, let's try the next one.
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I ______ to tell my boss about my schedule.
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So the verb I want to use here is "forget."
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Forget is a very useful word, I think, to
remember.
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But again, forget is not a regular verb, forget
is an irregular verb, so we cannot use the
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ED form.
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Forget in the past tense becomes forgot.
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Ok, so, I forgot to tell my boss about my
schedule is the correct sentence here.
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Alright!
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Let's go to something a little bit different,
here's a negative sentence.
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I don't think they _______ a reservation at
the restaurant.
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Ok, so here I'm using a phrase, I want to
use the phrase "make a reservation," to make
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a reservation.
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So the verb here is "make," this was one of
my example verbs for the irregular form.
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So make becomes made.
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I don't think they made a reservation at the
restaurant is the correct verb form to use
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here.
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All right, the next sentence, we ______ junk
food almost every day last month.
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So here, again, I have every day, but I have
almost here, so almost every day, not every
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day but close to every day.
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And then last month, last month is my specific
point in time in this case.
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So here we have junk food, that means that
the verb we want to use is probably eat, and
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we learned that eat is an irregular verb,
there's no rule for conjugating this, we just
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know that eat becomes ate.
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We ate junk food almost every day last month.
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Great.
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Okay.
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So next sentence has two spaces for verbs,
actually.
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Okay, so the next sentence that I've prepared
I included because a lot of my students asked
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about how to report information.
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When you want to report information, share
something that you heard from a friend, a
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past tense action, you need to conjugate the
reporting verb, for example, say becomes said,
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or hear becomes heard.
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You need to conjugate this verb and you need
to conjugate the information that you heard.
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So there are two past-tense conjugations that
should happen when you report information.
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Let's take a look.
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So here we have She _____ she _____ a great
time at the party.
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So, here, she ____ a great time at the party,
so we used the expression "to have a great
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time."
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To have a great time, again, have is an irregular
verb so we conjugate it to had.
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She had a great time at the party.
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Okay, but then to report your speech, so someone
gave you information, past tense, give becomes
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gave you information, so the verb for giving
information, a neutral way to pass information
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is "say."
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So to conjugate say into the past tense, it's
an irregular verb, so we use said.
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Say becomes said, so she said she had a great
time at the party.
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Okay.
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Please be careful of your pronunciation with
the word said, a lot of people I've heard
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use say-d.
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Say-d is not correct, so please use said.
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It sounds like SED, the pronunciation, but
it's said, SAID is the spelling.
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Say becomes said.
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She said she had a great time at the party.
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Ok, so last one.
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Okay, so the last example sentence for today
includes spaces for a few different verbs.
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I included this because I wanted to show you
that you can use a lot of different information
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in one sentence, just by connecting your past
tense verbs together.
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So let's take a look.
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Okay.
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Yesterday I _____ late, _____ shopping, and
_____ to my mother.
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Okay, so the verbs I want to use for this
sentence are sleep, "go," and "speak."
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These are all irregular verbs, there are no
regular verbs in this sentence.
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So sleep in past tense becomes slept; go in
past tense becomes went; and speak in past
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tense becomes spoke.
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So here, in one sentence, I have explained
three things about my day yesterday.
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Yesterday I slept late, I went shopping, and
I spoke to my mother.
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So you can explain a lot of things with past
tense and a few connecting words, in this
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case, I've just used "and" to connect the
last two things in this sentence.
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So please keep this in mind when you're sharing
information about your past events.
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So today we talked about the simple past tense,
and we talked about how to conjugate both
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regular and irregular verbs.
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It might seem a little bit difficult to understand
which verbs are regular and which verbs are
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irregular, but with some practice it will
become easier.
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you have any questions or comments, please
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