Hi.
My name's Connie, and welcome to New York in Slow English.
This week we're going to talk about the past tense.
I've noticed with my students that they have
3 problems when it comes to using the past tense.
The first problem is, how do you pronounce it?
The second problem is, how do you spell it?
And the third problem is, what about all of those irregular verbs?
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Last week my husband and I went on spring break together, and we went to Mexico.
We went to a little beach town called La Playa Saladita.
It was a really, really beautiful place.
And it's a great place to go if you want to go surfing.
Believe it or not, while we were there, we ran into quite a few people who we know.
It was a little bit strange to go all the way to Mexico and run into people who we knew,
but it was really, really fun.
So, while I was there, I took the opportunity
to make a couple of videos of them speaking
in the past tense.
Let's watch them together and analyze
pronunciation,
spelling,
and irregular verbs.
Did you have a good time last night?
Yes, we arrived early, and we stayed late.
There was a band that played, and we danced.
So, how was the food?
It was really good.
I ordered a steak, an I also ordered some French fries with it.
I also tried my friend's shrimp.
It was very good.
We really had a good time.
We really enjoyed ourselves.
The first group of verbs that I want to talk to you about
are verbs that end with a voiced sound.
This means that you can put your hand right here
on your throat, and you can feel it vibrating.
Here are some of the sounds that go with this.
When we have a voiced sound at the end of the verb, then the final sound when we make
it a past tense is "d".
Let's practice these verbs together.
Say them with me.
Now let's quickly notice the spelling on these verbs.
You'll notice that "arrive" ends with an "e".
So, when we make it the past tense, we simply add a "d".
"Play" and "order" both end with a consonant.
In these cases we simply add "ed".
Now "try" is spelled t-r-y.
When we make it the past tense, we drop
the "y" and add an "i", and then "ed".
So when dinner ended,
we added up all the people who were there.
We calculated the total.
We added the tip to it.
We counted how many people and then divided it up.
So that each person would pay their portion of the dinner.
I had the job of collecting all the money.
I collected the money.
And we put it together in a pile
so that we could make sure that it was divided up
equally amongst everyone.
And we paid it to the waiter.
Alright.
In this second group of verbs,
they all end in either "t" or "d".
When this happens, then when we add "ed" to the end to make it a past tense verb,
the sound is "id".
Let's practice saying these together.
Notice the spelling here.
This is a verb that ends in "e",
so we simply add the "d".
Ah . . . we had such a great time.
We dropped by your house.
We were looking for you guys.
We asked them.
They had said you weren't around.
But it was great.
We dressed up.
And after we paid the bill, collected the money, handled all of that,
we relaxed.
We relaxed for a little bit.
We listened to the band,
and we just had a wonderful evening.
OK.
So here are our third group of verbs.
These are verbs that end with a voiceless sound.
In other words, when you put your hand here on your throat,
you don't feel any vibration at all.
When we make these kinds of verbs into the past tense
the final sound is like a "t".
Say these verbs along with me.
Now notice the spelling here.
When you have a short vowel followed by a consonant,
we double the consonant before we add "ed".
Let's do this one again.
Now for those of you who are really paying attention,
you'll notice in this spelling here
that it's a short vowel followed by a consonant,
but we don't double the "x".
I don't know why.
We flew into Mexico City, and then we left for Ixtapa.
And then we rented a car and we drove for about an hour.
There were 4 of us following one another.
But it was a little scary driving.
Why?
Everyone was passing each other very, very fast on the road.
And there was a huge bus that came out from behind
and went in front of all 4 of us.
Did you have a hard time finding the place?
Or did you find it right away?
We found it right away.
We cooked here at the house, and everyone ate on the patio.
What did you have?
We had tuna.
Oh!
Wow!
Where did you buy it?
We bought it at the supermarket.
I woke up very early, but I laid in bed for a little while,
and then I went surfing.
John got up super early and he crept out.
He didn't want to wake me up.
So, where did you go surfing.
At first, I began near the reef.
And I waited and watched all the other surfers.
I'm unfamiliar with this surf break,
so I wanted to understand how the waves broke.
Then I swam closer to the surfers.
But one of the waves broke on my head.
I clung to my board, and then I dove underneath.
It kind of flung me around.
When the wave crashed on me,
it pushed me underneath the water.
I fought my way back through the white water to get back out.
So, did you actually catch any waves?
Yeah!
I caught 2 really big ones.
I chose the waves really carefully, and then I rode them all the way to shore.
It felt great.
It's such a gliding feeling.
Now we have Group 4.
These are the irregular verbs.
And these are the most problematic because, really, you just have to memorize them.
You have to study, and you have to use them so they come naturally to you.
Sometimes the spelling in these verbs also doesn't make any sense.
And you just have to memorize it.
Just for fun, why don't you take a piece of paper and a pencil and write down the past
tense of these verbs, and see if you can spell them correctly.
I'd like to point out that she makes a common error here,
where the past tense of "lie" is "lay".
But you will hear more often, in real life,
you will hear people say "laid".
I know a lot of my students feel like they don't
really have to use the past tense in English.
But, you really do have to use the past tense in English.
So, I hope this video has been helpful to you.
If there's something that you'd like to study more about,
please put it in the comments below.
I'll see you next time,
on New York in Slow English.