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Hi, I’m Martin.
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Welcome to Oxford Online English!
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In this lesson, you can learn how to talk
about the past in English.
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Talking about the past includes many things.
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Do you want to talk about interesting experiences
you’ve had, tell a funny story, or talk
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about something you regret in the past?
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In this lesson, you’ll see the words, phrases
and structures you need to talk about the
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past in clear, fluent English.
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Let’s start by seeing how you can talk about
your experiences in the past.
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Have you ever been bungee jumping?
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No, I haven’t.
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I’ve been skydiving, though.
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What about you?
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Have you ever done any extreme sports like
that?
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Does windsurfing count?
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I’ve tried windsurfing, although that was
a long time ago.
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I think windsurfing definitely counts!
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I’ve seen people doing it and they were
going at crazy speeds.
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I’ve never done anything like that myself.
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Skydiving sounds very extreme to me.
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Where did you do it?
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It was in Spain.
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I did a tandem jump.
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It was fun, but I’m not sure I’d do it
again.
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You probably know already that English has
different past verb forms to talk about the
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past in different ways.
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However, you often need a present verb form
to talk about the past.
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You saw an example in the dialogue you just
heard.
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Use the present perfect to talk or ask about
experiences in the past, but only if you don’t
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say a time!
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For example:
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I’ve tried windsurfing.
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I’ve never been bungee jumping.
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Have you ever been skydiving?
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Of course, you can change these to talk about
different things, like this:
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I’ve read ‘The Idiot’.
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I’ve never drunk whisky.
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Have you ever grown your own vegetables?
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However, as soon as you mention a time, you
need to switch to a past tense.
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For example:
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I went windsurfing three years ago.
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I didn’t drink a lot last year.
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Did you eat a lot of sushi when you were in
Japan?
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For this reason, when you’re talking about
life experiences, you often start with the
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present perfect, and then switch to the past
tense when you mention a specific time.
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For example, someone might ask you, Have you
ever been to Australia?
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You might answer, Yes, I went there two years
ago, for my friend’s wedding.
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The question is present perfect, because it’s
asking about experiences without mentioning
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a time.
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The answer mentions a time—two years ago—and
so you need the past simple.
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Next, let’s see how you can talk about differences
between the past and the present.
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Wow!
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You used to have a beard?
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You look so different!
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Yeah!
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That was during my punk rock phase.
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Really?
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Did you use to be in a band or something?
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Yes, but it wasn’t anything big.
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There were a few of us who were all mates,
and we would play in pubs or small clubs.
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So, what were you?
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Singer?
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Guitar?
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Drummer!
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I used to play the drums.
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And now?
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You don’t play any more?
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No, I gave up.
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In English, there are past structures which
you can use to show a difference between the
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past and the present.
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Can you remember any of these from the dialogue?
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You can use used to to talk about something
which was true in the past, but isn’t true
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now.
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For example:
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He used to have a beard.
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--> He had a beard in the past, but he doesn’t
have one now.
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I used to live in Berlin.
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--> I lived in Berlin in the past, but I don’t
live there now.
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You can also use the negative form—didn’t
use to—to talk about things that weren’t
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true in the past, but are true now.
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For example:
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They didn’t use to get on so well.
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--> They didn’t get on well in the past,
but they do now.
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I didn’t use to wear glasses.
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--> I wear glasses now, but I didn’t in
the past.
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You can also make questions:
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Did you use to play a musical instrument?
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Didn’t he use to work here?
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You can also use would to talk about actions
or habits which you did in the past, but you
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don’t do now.
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For example:
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When we got home, Mum would make us beans
on toast and then we’d watch cartoons.
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There was this bakery near the office where
I would go every lunchtime to get a sandwich
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and chat to the other regulars.
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Finally, you can also use a present verb plus
any more.
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This has a similar meaning to used to.
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Let’s look:
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She doesn’t live here any more.
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--> She lived here in the past, but she doesn’t
live here now.
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I don’t have time to listen to music any
more.
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--> I had time in the past, but now I don’t.
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What about you?
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How is your life different now?
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Let’s practice: pause the video and make
three sentences about how your life is different
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to the past.
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Try to use all of the language from this section:
used to, would and any more.
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You can say your sentences out loud, or write
them down.
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Pause the video and do it now!
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In the next two sections, you’re going to
see useful language for telling a story.
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Oh!
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Have I told you what happened to us on our
trip?
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No!
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What happened?
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It’s a really crazy story.
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So, we were sitting on the bus, ready to leave…
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Where were you going?
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Sofia.
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Anyway, the weather was awful.
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It was raining so hard you couldn’t even
see out of the window, and…
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Who were you travelling with?
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With my wife.
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We were planning to visit some old friends
who…
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Where was the bus leaving from?
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From Athens.
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Look, can I tell my story, or not?
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Oh, sorry…
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When you tell a story, you need to set the
scene.
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What does ‘set the scene’ mean?
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It means you need to describe the background
of the story.
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What was happening at the start of the story?
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Who was there, and what were the people in
your story doing at the start?
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To give background to a story, you use the
past continuous.
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For example:
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We were sitting on the bus, ready to leave.
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It was raining so hard you couldn’t even
see out of the window.
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If you’re telling a story from your own
life, you’ll often start with one or two
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sentences in the past continuous to set the
scene.
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You might say:
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I was living in a small apartment at the time.
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I was driving home after work.
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This isn’t just useful when you’re telling
long stories; you can use this any time you’re
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giving a slightly longer answer about the
past, for example in a job interview or an
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IELTS exam.
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However, if you do want to tell a longer story,
there are some other things you’ll need
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to know.
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Did I tell you about my driving test?
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No, what happened?
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I passed!
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You know, I took it last week, and I hadn’t
taken any lessons.
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Not one!
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No way!
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But, you must have practiced at least?
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No!
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I had only driven a car twice in my life
How on earth did you pass?
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It was rush hour.
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We drove out of the test centre, and then
we sat in a traffic jam.
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All of the streets were totally stuck.
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I made three left turns, and finally we arrived
back at the test centre.
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I just drove around the block once!
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And that counts as a pass?
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Hey, I didn’t make any mistakes.
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So what happened next?
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Did you drive home?
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Well…
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What happened?
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I tried, and I had a very small accident.
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I mean, I don’t think it even counts as
an accident.
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Maybe you should take some driving lessons.
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Very funny.
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When you start a story, you usually say when
these things took place.
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You’ll say something like:
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Last week…
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This happened two years ago, in summer.
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So, yesterday, I was walking down the street…
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This time reference ‘fixes’ the time when
your story starts.
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What does this mean?
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Well, think about the story you heard in the
dialogue.
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The time reference was ‘last week’.
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During the story, I talked about things that
happened before the start of the story, even
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further in the past.
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I also talked about things that happened in
the story, meaning they happened after the
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start of the story.
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Do you know how to talk about these two different
ideas?
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Do you remember from the dialogue?
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To talk about things that happened before
the start of the story, use the past perfect:
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had done.
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For example:
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I hadn’t taken any driving lessons.
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I had only driven a car twice in my life.
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The story was about taking a driving test.
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You need to use the past perfect to talk about
things that had happened before the start
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of the story.
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Let’s see another example:
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When I was 25, I quit my job and decided to
train as a pilot.
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I had always wanted to learn to fly.
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Here, you have a time reference which ‘fixes’
the start of the story
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Then, you use the past perfect to talk about
things which happened before that time, further
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in the past.
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If you’re talking about the events of your
story, just use the past simple, like this:
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We drove out of the test centre.
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We sat in a traffic jam for ages.
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I had a small accident on the way home.
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Using these verb tenses, you can make it clear
when things happened in the past, and whether
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something happened before or after something
else.
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Do you have a funny story you’d like to
share?
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Let us know in the comments!
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Let’s look at one more topic.
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Do you speak any other languages?
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Not really.
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I used to speak Spanish, but I haven’t used
it for years.
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I wish I’d started learning other languages
when I was younger.
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It’s so much easier if you start earlier.
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Yeah, I know what you mean.
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If only I’d kept my Spanish going…
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Why don’t you pick it up again?
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It’d come back.
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Maybe…
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You know what, though?
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I wish I’d spent some time in Latin America
when I had the chance.
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I could have lived there for a year or two,
and my Spanish would have got really good.
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Well, you could still do it, right?
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In the dialogue, you saw three different forms
you can use to talk about regrets in the past.
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Do you remember them?
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First, you can use wish plus the past perfect
to talk about something you regret.
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For example:
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I wish I’d learned other languages when
I was younger.
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I wish I hadn’t said that.
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Remember that here you’re talking about
the opposite of what really happened.
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If you say I wish I hadn’t said that, you
did say something in reality, and now you
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regret it.
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You can also use if only plus the past perfect,
like this:
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If only I’d kept my Spanish going.
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If only I hadn’t wasted so much time.
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The meaning is very similar to wish: you did
something, or didn’t do something, in the
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past, and now you regret it.
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Finally, you can sometimes use could have
to express regrets in the past, often as part
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of a longer if-sentence.
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For example:
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I could have tried harder.
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If I hadn’t left things to the last minute,
I could have passed easily.
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Let’s do one more practice.
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Think of three regrets that you have.
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Make three sentences using the language from
this section.
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Try to use all three forms: wish, if only
and could have.
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Pause the video, and make your sentences now!
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You can say them aloud, or write them down.
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Done?
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Great!
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Now, you’ve learned many different ways
to talk about the past in English.
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Which English past form do you find the most
difficult to use?
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Let us know in the comments, and maybe you’ll
get some useful tips!
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Remember to check out our website to see more
free English lessons: Oxford Online English
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dot com.
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Thanks for watching!
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See you next time!
