hi i'm rebecca from engvid and this
lesson is going to save you years of
English mistakes why because it's a
diagnostic lesson in just a few minutes
you'll find out what you know and don't
know regarding the past tenses in
English and why is that important for
two reasons first you can focus on what
you don't know and improve those areas
and improve quickly and second because
the past tenses are among the most
important tenses that we use any okay
and at the end of the lesson after
you've done the exercise and you find
out what you might get wrong or right
I'll show you exactly how to improve
what you can do some simple steps okay
let's get started so number one it rains
all day yesterday okay so these are all
sentences in the past tense okay there
are fourth tenses we're covering past
simple past continuous present perfect
and past perfect okay so all of these
sentences have some mistakes you try to
find out what's the mistake if you know
then you know that part if you don't
we'll see what to do so it rains all day
yesterday what's wrong with that
sentence
okay so we're talking about yesterday so
we know it's in the past so what's wrong
is here this verb is right now in the
present simple it should be it should be
in the past so then this sentence should
be in the past simple so if you didn't
know that then then you need to review
the past simple okay number two have you
seen Maria last week
have you seen Maria last week
what's wrong with essent or that
question
can you find the mistake okay
so the mistake is this when we say have
you seen that which can present perfect
but then we go on to say have you seen
Maria last week that's the problem
because when we use the present perfect
tense we cannot use a finished time with
it if you use a finished time like last
week then you have to change this
question and make it into past simple
for example did you see Maria last week
that's one way to fix that question and
the other way if we wanted to keep it
present perfect right we would say have
you seen Maria this week for example
okay that but of course that has a
different meaning but if you're going to
use this tense then if you have a time
frame you can only talk about time which
is either still going on like this week
today this month this year and so on
okay so if you made a mistake here
remember to review present perfect okay
just make a note of that
next gary studied when i arrived
gary studied when i arrived
what's wrong there there is a little
mistake there and it's here okay this
should be gary was studying right when i
arrived
now what study is fast continuous so why
do we need past continuous there because
the action of studying takes some time
right it doesn't happen in one second so
he was studying and studying and
studying and then in the middle of this
study i arrived arrived doesn't take
time so our
can be in the past simple tense that's
fine
I arrived it's finished it's over but
Gary was studying and studying instead
he can study and I came in the middle of
death okay so these are the kinds of
things you have to know about these
tenses in order to use them correctly so
if you made a mistake here remember to
review past continuous remember at the
end of the lesson I'll tell you exactly
how you can review these okay next
number four when have you sent the email
okay
when have you sent the email okay so the
problem here again is that the tense
that's used is present perfect but with
present perfect we cannot use the word
when if you use the question word when
then you need to change this entire
question to past simple when did you
send the email okay when did you send
the email because when I ask you that
question
you're going to tell me sometime in the
past that's finished and over so that's
past simple and not present perfect so
if you made a mistake here
you should really review past simple but
more importantly also again present
perfect okay a little bit of both if you
just said here have you sent the email
then it's fine and it's present perfect
okay but if you need to use the question
word when remember to change it to past
simple good number five did you ever see
this movie did you ever see this movie
now this one is almost correct because
most of times we use another tense but
you could use it okay did you ever see
this movie it's possible that you will
hear people saying that
but as a grammar teacher and as an
English teacher I'm telling you that
actually what you should say here is
have you ever seen this movie okay
because ever is one of those words that
we in fact do use a lot with the present
perfect tense so when you see the word
ever have you ever seen this movie have
you ever read this book have you ever
visited Japan right questions like that
really you should be using present
perfect and not past simple so this one
is also present perfect remember to
review that if you got that wrong number
six when the guests arrived I already
cooked dinner when the guests arrived I
already cooked dinner so what's wrong
there the clue is actually from this
word already okay so here we are talking
about what we're talking about two
actions that happen in the past but one
happened before the other what happened
first I already cooked dinner right I
cook dinner first and then the guests
arrived so when the guests arrived i I
had already cooked dinner so that is an
example of when we can use the past
perfect past perfect is used when we're
talking about two actions and you want
to show that one of them happen first in
the past although both of them happen in
the past the past perfect part of it the
sentence shows you what happened first
in the past so if you didn't know that
then please review
the past perfect okay you're doing fine
don't worry you're doing great number
seven I wasn't understanding what you
said I wasn't understanding what you
said well that's not right it should be
I didn't understand what you said why
because there are certain verbs which we
cannot use in the continuous form they
are called stative verbs so you have to
know what they are and when you learn
the continuous tense you usually come
across this part of the lesson stated
root and you need to know that there are
certain verbs you cannot use with in
this continuous form so you can never
say I'm not understanding or I'm
understanding or I was understanding no
you can only use it in this simple form
so if you got that wrong then please
check your past continuous tense okay
you need to know when you learn that 10
that there are certain verbs stative
verbs which we cannot use in that kind
of continuous form okay and the last one
when I reach the airport the flight
already left okay we did one similar to
this back here when I reach the airport
the flight already left so again what's
going on here two actions in the past
and you want to show that one of those
actions happened first the action that
happens first we have to express using
the past perfect tense which means we
need to say the flight
had already left when I reached the
airport before that the flight had
already left so if you weren't sure
about that or you got it wrong then
please review the past perfect tense
okay now I know that's quite a lot to do
but you can master it but if you don't
understand why it was wrong that's what
I want you to be able to do because
you're not going to have a teacher with
you all the time you are your own
teacher so as you get better at
understanding what the reasons were why
these were wrong you will be able to
improve your English very very quickly
so what should you do now well you
should do this go to our website at
wwlp.com there you can do a quiz on this
subject right on these tenses that we
did that's the first thing second you
can watch hundreds of other videos about
these tenses and you may we'll find
lessons on past simple tough continuous
present perfect past perfect you can
watch those okay also I've written a
resource which you can look at and you
can download it for free and it's called
English verb tenses you can also refer
to that and besides that you can
subscribe to my channel if I have a lot
of lessons that are going to save you
lots and lots of time okay your time is
precious learn the important mistakes
that students make which I know because
I've been teaching English for more than
25 years and I know I can help you okay
thanks very much for watching and good
luck with your English bye for now