hey there Aubry how's it going today good to see you on video yes right check us out on YouTube
if you're not it's kind of fun to like see the faces and all of our crazy hand gestures and
expressions yeah it's true I have a question for you okay all right so Aubry when was the last time
you had your wires crossed oh man that's a fun idiom right um to have wires crust means there's
a misunderstanding you failed to understand something and this did happen to me just a
couple of days ago I got my wires crossed when a neighbor sent me a photo of one of her plants
and she said she was worried it wouldn't survive ah and I said it does look a little droopy good
luck she texted back does it look droopy oh no I just bought it I had misunderstood and
thought that she had owned it for some time and it was struggling oh no I really felt bad for
criticizing her new plant I was like oh I called her and I'm like I need to clarify I'm sorry it
was over text we didn't understand so we got our wires crossed a bit that's like if you go to a
dinner party and you're like oh these cookies are awful were these store-bought and someone next to
you had bought the cookies and they were their favorite yell meal to cook or bacon yes right
just misunderstandings it happens to all of us it happens to native speakers and to language
Learners right if you are feeling solidarity here which means you have this in common with us you
feel the same feeling it's everyone right this happens to all of us it happens to all of us and
what I thought was interesting about this little story you shared about your neighbor is that you
were really flipping between tenses here Aubry I mean did you feel that as you were moving between
different tenses yes we're not sticking with that same tense like our textbooks would have us think
right exactly right that's what we want to dive into today you can't just tell a story about the
past and tell the whole thing in past simple tense it just doesn't work that's not what natives do
we're jumping around from one tenth to another depending on what you mean and and the order
at which happened especially if you're talking about something and then something happened and
then I didn't realize that like that the order is just always all crazy it's true and I think
our listeners you guys know this because in your native language I'm sure you do this too but for
some reason when we learn a language we try to isolate these tenses at the at the intermediate
level so at your level guys intermediate to Advanced you want to already Embrace this fact you
know a great place to go is to listen to our group conversations right our conversations and coffee
program Aubrey is a great example of that because there are three or four voices talking and we're
always going back different tenses future past past Progressive past perfect every thing they're
all in there that's such a good point right and and this is a very key skill to to know which
tents to use and we we say this all the time on dollars English the more you take in English the
more it's just going to sound right to you which one you're going to need to use but it is also
really helpful to to sort of pick apart a story and say okay which tense did they use here and
why that's super helpful just to understand yeah I've had this thought recently I think I had this
thought when I was speaking to someone and I saw myself do this and I thought our listeners would
love to know this and to work on this I think this is one of those huge pieces if you guys can grasp
this for listening and speaking you can move to that near native 99 fluency level right Aubry yes
exactly right yes I love it so where should we go from here how are we going to you know share
this with our listeners yes awesome okay so I think what we should do is take that little
story I told okay and we're going to kind of pick apart the different sentences and and let you see
which tense I was using we're not going to dive in today on why why would we choose one over the
other because that guy's grammar is complicated and it's a big discussion for each tense why we
choose which one okay we are very soon going to dive a little more into past perfect which I used
some here yeah and so definitely follow make sure you don't miss that episode because this is a very
difficult tense and we're going to simplify it we're going to make it clear why we choose yes
perfect yeah I mean there's no way we can show you guys all these tenses today in this episode that's
why you want to hit follow on aller's English podcast so that you don't miss it we are going
to try to do more grammar stuff this fall for you guys but obviously we're going to make it fun as
we always do so you guys are going to have a good time learning these grammar tenses good stuff
Aubry all right where do we start let's break down the story because you you know it was a little
fast so let's break it down for our listeners and show us how we used these different tenses perfect
okay so so start the beginning I was saying I got my wires crossed last night so we're starting here
with the simple past and yes that's usually what we do and we're telling a story in the past it
usually starts in the simple past right right I'm wanting to set the scene I'm letting you know this
and it's often with one thing that happened in the past right I got my wires crossed last night yeah
and I just want to mention we have done episodes I think Aubrey you and I did a great episode on
how to set the stage for a story to make sure people are listening to you before you go into
that story right oh yeah with the hook right make it engaging oh don't miss that episode that was a
fun one yeah go back into the summer episodes guys and check out that episode uh so that you you know
don't go into a story without making sure you have people's attention because that's embarrassing you
start telling a story and then you look around and no one's looking at you and you just kind of you
know curl up and feel embarrassed does that ever happen to you it doesn't it sounds like you're a
good Storyteller Aubry it's still that still does happen sometimes because I'm a little bit of a
TMI but person which means too much information so sometimes I'll be telling a story and then
realize like I'm probably sharing personal details I shouldn't be and should I be embarrassed should
I be humiliated that for sure has happened to me so that but for you does that happen in the middle
of the story like as you're about to share the details yeah okay yeah I'll like start and I'm
like okay maybe this is TMI but it's funny so I'm gonna share it I'm sure our listeners can relate
to that so make sure you have the stage set and what you're about to share is appropriate right
that makes sense um all right so we set the stage and we use usually a simple past form keep it
simple right yeah and then we're still using simple past here my neighbor sent me a photo
of her plant and then this is interesting we move into passive voice she is worried it won't survive
so so much complicated grammar to think about and we're using all of them within a couple sentences
right okay and we could also say she was worried I I would tend to say she was worried it wouldn't
serve survive oh we got a few different things going on here Aubrey it's interesting to think
about how there are options right yeah I'm telling the story and I think I even if you go back and
listen to being I think I said she she um was worried it wouldn't survive that's what I would
say there's there's options for sure right because if I'm describing something she told me there are
options for how I can say that she's worried it wouldn't survive she's worried it won't survive
there yeah right it's we're flexible sometimes a little bit right and why would you so we're
not going to go into the nitty-gritty about each of these but why would you use she is worried it
won't survive versus she was worried it wouldn't survive a bit of the like how current it is like
it's almost like is worried it won't survive as you're coming out of the conversation yeah okay
so this is interesting right yeah because I wrote this right after it happened actually yes she is
worried it won't survive because she had just said this to me when I went to tell this story
today because it happened a few few days ago yes then it feels more natural to me just to be like
oh she was worried it wouldn't survive because I think that telling about something that happened a
few days ago right so it's almost like when you use that present tense she's worried it won't
survive you're coming out of the telling of the story you're saying this is the current condition
of my neighbor and we're in this right now guys exactly okay that's really interesting for our
listeners here yeah so then to continue here um I I quoted myself which is interesting you know I'm
like oh I said it does look a little droopy good luck and so past tense I said but then because I'm
quoting myself I'm saying what I actually said and that's present time it does look a little
droopy good luck yes okay good so the important thing is here you're you're now telling the story
where you're quoting yourself right so I said it does look a little droopy good luck and you do
want to change your voice there your tone of voice when you put yourself your intonation changes to
almost to imitate yourself that's interesting yeah and here's the big oh the big mistake right the
um the moment when you were embarrassed does it look droopy right she texted back does it look
droopy oh no I just bought it that was a droopy plant so I was accidentally criticizing her plant
droopy means like the leaves look kind of sad like it needs watered and I did not mean to criticize
a plant she had just bought but I thought that's what she was saying oh my goodness just got our
wires crossed a bit okay good and then you you use the past perfect here at the end right so
here we have past perfect tense which is a little less common in English we don't hear it quite as
often yeah when it's appropriate you want to know how to use it right I said I had misunderstood
and thought she had owned it for some time and it was struggling oh goodness so we have that
past perfect I had misunderstood yeah and then past perfect she had owned it yes and then we
have a continuous here it was struggling because that's something that would happen over a period
of time goodness you guys we definitely will need to do past perfect soon because that's yeah that's
a lot to get into why we use past perfect right it's a little complicated it's something that had
already happened before something else happened in the past so so native and natural to be able
to use it correctly or to know when you need it we will definitely go into that in an episode
very soon yeah and the key takeaway for today guys is just to know that you need all of these at the
same time right we're not staying in a one-track mindset where we're just telling this story in
past tense because you end up sounding boring and not appropriate right it's not appropriate
for the time stamps of these things when did these things happen what happened first we need to know
okay exactly right and we actually had future there it won't survive right she's worried it
won't survive will not survive in the future then we ended with the past I felt bad for criticizing
oh goodness there's so many tenses when we tell a story so I think it is interesting to think
about when you tell a story don't stop and think I need to be using the past tense yes no you have to
be flexible use all these different tenses yeah I mean and and again as you said earlier Aubrey the
key here is listening listen to especially back and forth dialogue between two people
or storytelling podcasts True Crime what's your favorite True Crime podcasts Aubry give us mine
there's a really good one called someone knows something which um some true crime podcasts are
especially notable because through the reporting they've solved the crime and this is one of those
yeah because the podcaster does this because of the dive investigation cool they've solved the
crime and that's one of those which very cool that is so cool at the podcast conference I
learned about another one which I want to listen to It's called scam goddess and the podcaster
investigates different scams uh worldwide scams and scams within the U.S with an air of humor
right because scams are ridiculous like the Tinder swindler should you watch that I don't know that
one it's on Netflix there's someone who would go on Tinder and scam women and get and steal other
money oh God yeah I mean and there's an element of Ridiculousness right two scams and the way they're
put together and the fact that people get away with it and so she just picks this apart she's
really funny she did a keynote talk on the stage and she had me laughing and made me want to so
check it out guys it's called scam goddess but I know people who have been scammed do you yeah
I do I know people yeah and it's very sad when it happened it's always people that just don't
deserve it you know it's people like they never deserve it maybe they're a little less um you
know condescending about the world so they're a little trusting no judgment but oh it's always so
sad a little naive we yeah we talked about this in I think yesterday's episode about you know a
can-do attitude anything's possible but the flip side of that of course is that we're maybe more
vulnerable to people that want to take advantage of us in the world right so yeah it's true but the
point is guys here listen to different kinds of podcasts crime would be a great one because you
spend a lot of time going back into recounting the crime hearing stories from family members
right yes yes for sure right and just as a really interesting takeaway guys this clarifies meaning
and adds interest when you can be flexible with the verb tenses you're using to share a story but
like you said Lindsay when you take in a lot of English when you're listening to podcasts it just
starts sounding right one or the other because you're hearing it correct so often yeah completely
I love it so good so any final words of wisdom for our listeners as they are you know trying to learn
this grammar I think pick it a part one at a time when you learn it guys but then don't ever keep
it apart Beyond just learning the tense you know we're gonna do more episodes like we said on each
of these tenses but then expect to or to integrate that them as soon as you can not just when you get
to that super advanced level integrate them early in your learning totally just memorizing what
they're called and it was is not going to help you that much communicate the average native speaker
who hasn't studied grammar a lot will be able to tell you what sounds correct but they probably
won't be able to explain why or name the verb tenses because that's not as helpful when you're
trying to communicate yeah don't get stuck in the names and you know understanding why why listen
to the language take it in and try to understand the context right listen to that what happened
with that crime and understand the context of when things happened that'll put the pieces into place
for you guys so good for sure all right Aubry this has been a great one guys hit follow on all
ears English so you don't miss a single episode of these grammar ones coming up soon and so much more
right here Aubrey thanks for hanging out today you have a good day you too thanks Lindsay bye