um hi everybody welcome back to our
weekly live stream my name is alicia and
today we're going to practice talking
about the past in english in this lesson
i'm going to focus on using used to and
would and we'll practice a little bit of
simple past tense as well so as you join
please make sure to like and share the
video so other learners can find it also
please send a message in the chat so
that we can say hi
uh and as today's lesson goes on please
feel free to send your example sentences
in the chat even if you're not watching
live we'll start in a couple minutes
while we wait for everyone to join a
couple of announcements announcement
number one free stuff as always i've
been trying to show you some of the new
there are new pdfs from the link below
the video on youtube or above the video
on facebook there are new ones there
i'll show you up close a little bit
later but please check these out you can
find this for free from that link so
take a look at the new pdfs and new
vocabulary resources
that is announcement number one and as
of number two is please send your
questions to the ask alicia series just
a quick another quick reminder this week
this is a screenshot from a recent
episode of our weekly uh question and
answer series english question and
answer series called ask alicia where
you send me questions and i try to
answer them as best as i can so if you
have not sent a question you can send
them for free uh to englishclass101.com
ask hyphen alicia you can check out uh
some past videos on the english class
101 youtube channel as well if you are
interested in that so please send me
your questions advanced questions are
okay lots of advanced questions okay if
you have more beginner level questions
okay too i highly recommend searching
our channel to see if your question has
been answered before as well okay those
are my two announcements uh i see lots
of people in both chats now hello
everybody on youtube i see mary in
vietnam hello jose oni salvador ramat
axel oscar hello on facebook i see
sophie afghan marianne sorry maria nico
meow hello abori fernando hello
everybody great great lots of people are
here fantastic
so as i said today's lesson is about
talking about the past uh we're going to
focus today on like the distant past so
distant past means a long long long long
time ago so for most of us probably
childhood
or maybe like your school days as well
so that will be the focus for today's
lesson
okay i'm going to share the video and
then i'm going to start today's lesson
too
we're going to begin today
by looking at using used to and then i'm
going to talk about wood and finally i'm
going to talk about how to use these
together so please send your example
sentences throughout the lesson i will
try to check live i will try to check
live if i can't check live very sorry
but let's get it started okay let's
begin by talking about used to used to a
common question first uh the
pronunciation you will hear use to this
d sound is very very short and soft so
you we generally do not say used
to it sounds like used to it sounds like
used to
in writing
some people say it's okay to use
this spelling
but others say no you should use this
spelling i'll talk more about this later
when you're talking about your own
activities you should say used to with
this spelling
anyway i'll talk more about this point
later the spelling point later for now
let's take a look at how we use used to
so
this is used to describe something that
was true in the past something that was
true in the past but is not true
now so i've made a visual here
if you imagine
this point this star on the timeline is
now this is the present time
this is something it's not true now but
a long time ago here in the past it was
true this is a check mark here so i've i
mean that's like yes that's true so this
is something that was true a long time
ago but is not true now
so your childhood or your school days
when you were little
so we often use this as i said for those
uh those points in time your distant
past your childhood
and we can use used to
without a specific time period so we
don't have to say like when i was a kid
or when i was in school because when we
use used to uh it's often in a situation
where we can understand from context so
we can kind of begin a conversation with
a used to statement i'll show some
examples in a moment
finally
this is a key point a key difference
between used to and would is this point
right here
we can use used to to talk about
statuses so statuses or conditions that
means we can use to be like i used to be
something something we can use used to
with a condition or a status this is a
key difference because we can't do that
with would i'll show some examples
so
let's look now at how we use used to to
make statements so just making a basic
sentence with used to
to do that we use our subject
so that means i he she we and so on plus
used to
plus just the infinitive form of the
verb so no two just the plain verb form
infinitive verb so some examples i
subject used to
plus verb play soccer i used to play
soccer
so one problem i see from learners
sometimes is they change the verb to
past tense that's not correct do not use
the past tense verb yes i know it's a
past action it's a past thing
but for this grammar we do not change
the verb
just by adding used to
we can make a correct statement so
please don't change your verb i used to
play soccer that means i played soccer a
long long time ago now i do not play
soccer so used to communicates all of
this in just those two words i used to
play soccer next example
he used to hate bananas he used to hate
bananas so
this is an example of like not
necessarily an action but a feeling so
you can talk about your preferences what
did you like what did you dislike when
you were a kid or far in the past so in
this case my verb is hate
he used to hate bananas so again my verb
does not change he used to hate he used
to hate and send your example sentences
too describe something you used to do as
well i'll try to check live in the chat
okay uh next example sentence is we we
this might be common for many people
we
uh it's hard to see maybe i know many of
you are watching on mobile sorry i'll
try to read clearly we
used to
take
a family vacation
every summer
we used to take a family vacation every
summer so again this means
in the past a long long time ago
this was true
now it is not true so now we don't take
family vacations every summer that's
what this
communicates the final example here
this is a status so i mentioned we can
use used to to talk about a condition to
talk about a status
so i used to be a teacher for example i
used to be a teacher so here
we've used b yeah so b is in the same
place as just the regular verb yeah so
this follows the same pattern as the
other example sentences we looked at i
used to be a teacher so we cannot use
would in this way this sentence means a
long time ago
i was a teacher but now i am not a
teacher
that's what these all communicate with
used to many examples are coming i will
check youtube examples leah says i used
to hate avocados now i just don't like
them that's funny okay uh rahmat says i
used to hate vegetables good okay waleed
says i used to read story books good
tikka says i used to fight with my
brother great john says i used to sing
country music good ed says i used to
drink rain water really interesting
arocha says i used to be skinny is it
correct yes that is a grammatically
correct sentence great
uh shiv deep says i used to go to school
okay
uh on facebook then let's see
uh ramzi has a question used to is like
a habit
uh habit or
uh some kind of common action so maybe
you did it uh in your school days your
your hobby for example or yes a habit as
well so you it's something that was
regular for you a long time ago so not
just something that happened one time we
do not use used to for a one-time action
something that happened regularly like a
habit okay uh other examples from
facebook i used to play video games
great very nice okay
uh i used to play games i used to play
video games yeah me too i used to play
video games i used to play hide and seek
okay
uh
okay there's some interesting examples
on both sides now let's go to the last
part for this this part of the lesson
about questions
sometimes you want to make a question
with used to it's not super common to
make a question like an information
question with used to but here is how we
do it
we use a wh question so who
what
when where for example
so for example what
did
plus your subject so you he she
used to
and the infinitive verb
for example
where
did you used to play
where did you used to play
so this might be a follow-up question to
this i used to play soccer says person a
person b might follow up with oh
where did you use to play so this is
probably something
i would probably ask a simple past tense
question uh but you might hear someone
use this pattern like to recognize that
the other person no longer they don't do
that anymore you might hear this
personally i would probably use a simple
past tense where did you play
so
it's kind of up to you but right here
this is the spelling point that i
mentioned earlier
in questions like this where did you
used to play the d sound pretty like
it's so so soft when i ask the question
and you'll sometimes see people drop it
drop the d
in spelling
like uh in writing if you write this
question to someone
so i've researched this like what's is
it correct is it incorrect and the
general guide right now is you can
choose but always make the same choice
so keep in mind this is questions
questions only so where did you used to
play if you're making a question
i've read some people say it's okay to
remove the d personally i would prefer
to keep it i prefer to keep it to make
it clear
okay last last last point here is this
so this uh there are two here actually
these are confirmation questions so a
confirmation question is a question you
can use to check something
so we use did or didn't we can use a
positive or a negative to do this plus
our subject
he she you plus
used to
and the infinitive verb for example
didn't you used to have a card this is a
very common way we use used to in a
question so we're checking didn't you
used to have a car at native speed that
sounds like didn't you used to have a
car
so this means
i thought
you had a car
is that correct that's what this means
we use this negative didn't you
to it shows like it's a question so
we're thinking
we use the negative
instead of the positive did you used to
have a car
using the negative shows i thought this
was correct isn't it correct is that
right so didn't you used to have a car
use a pattern like this to confirm
something with someone else
finally
you might hear a question like this too
where did or didn't is just gone there's
nothing here oh sorry it's hard to see
i'm covering it my bad
you used to play basketball and i have a
question mark here
but you might hear this question after
like you used to play basketball like
when you feel really shocked or
surprised you learn something new about
someone
you can use used to in that question so
you might say you used to play
basketball i used to play basketball too
so that's a situation you might hear
used to in this confirmation style
question
okay good
we are going to take a break now all
right i see lots of good examples uh i
used to stumble over words good
uh uh
okay some good conversation questions or
confirmation questions arocha says
didn't they used to be our neighbors
nice good good good
uh
i'll look for more in a minute i think
people are thinking for now a quick
break i said that there's new stuff for
you to download i mentioned that there
is new uh there are new pdfs i will show
you some up close over here
i thought for today's lesson because
we're talking a lot about like hobbies
and things that were true in the past
i wanted to choose
these two which we'll see up close ta-da
this one first this is the leisure this
is hobby a hobby vocabulary sheet this
guy
and on the back
right here
near the bottom
down here there are vocabulary words
expressions so these are verbs that you
can use with today's grammar points for
example i used to go to concerts or
i used to go to the theater and so on so
these are some verbs you can use to talk
about
your uh previous hobbies this
is another one
if you are like me and you like food and
cooking this could be a good one for you
again vocabulary words and on the back
these are verbs that you can use maybe
with today's grammar point uh
they're
less common but there are some cooking
related verbs that you can use here too
so these are two new pdfs you can find
from the link below the video on youtube
above the video on facebook if you're
watching on instagram please check
youtube or facebook to get these these
are free from english class 101.com
okay good so let's get back to today's
lesson uh if you're just joining today's
lesson is about how to talk about the
past with used to and would and a little
bit of simple past tense if you have not
already please make sure to like and
share the video so other people can find
it
uh okay let's go to part two then part
two is about using wood how to use wood
to talk about the past and what's the
difference there so
so
i have this arrow here this arrow means
this part applies so
at the beginning of this lesson i said
we used to describe something that was
true in the past but is not true now
this is the same for wood the same point
is true for wood so we use wood to talk
about something that was true before
but is not true now so this is the same
we tend to use wood with repeated
actions so repeated actions for example
something we every year or every day or
every month or every winter we tend to
use wood to talk about something we did
with like some kind of slick schedule a
regular schedule
so we can use used to to talk about this
too but we'll often kind of give more a
little more detail when we use wood
we use wood when like the general time
period
or the general situation is known so
this is a bit different from used to i
mentioned with used to
we can like begin a conversation with a
used to statement like i used to play
soccer and so on but we can't really do
that and sound natural with wood we
don't really begin a conversation with i
would play soccer every day
it sounds a little bit unnatural we
understand but usually we use would when
we know some information about the time
period or we know some information about
the situation
first
okay then this oops this part right here
this part right here is a key point so i
said over here for used to we can use
used to to talk about a status to
describe a condition like i used to be a
teacher
however we cannot use would to do this
we cannot talk about statuses and
conditions we can only talk about
actions
uh with would so we cannot use it if you
want to say like make a b
statement please use used to to do that
okay oh wow hey there manuel thanks very
much for super chatting us awesome we
appreciate it okay so let's compare now
on a timeline
using
wood so this is the same idea as with
the used to timeline yeah so this point
here marks now this is the present time
there's an x here so something that is
not true now yeah
but in the past like in the distant
distant past we did this it was true and
i've put a few check marks here to show
that this was a repeating action so we
did it every week we did it every month
or maybe every day
some kind of repeating action it was
part of our schedule we did this thing a
lot we want to emphasize that we can
show that a little more clearly with
wood
so let's look at
how we make statements how do we make
just a simple statement with would
just like with used to we use our
subject
and we use would
and we use the infinitive form of the
verb so again you do not need to change
your verb for this grammar path
as i said though
when you make a sentence with would
uh or rather when we make sentences with
would we typically combine we put it
together
with some information about the time
period for example
when i was a kid when i was a kid this
is a very common one when i was a kid
i would
collect
stamps and put them in a box in my room
i would collect so i would collect
stamps and put them in a box in my room
this is the regular action so
yes i'm not saying like every week or
every month but because i'm using wood
it feels like a repeated action when i
was a kid i would collect stamps so i
know the time period i know about
when the action happened
and i know the action that i did a lot i
would collect stamps and put them in a
box in my room
okay
uh let's go to the next example then the
next example
we change the subject so when he was in
college when he was in college so this
is not about me maybe it's about my
family member or my friend when he was
in college
he would he would
go out
to crazy parties every weekend he would
go out to crazy parties every weekend so
again past tense situation yes the verb
does not change so this verb go this
does not become went this is something
that was true in the past
and in this case i shared every weekend
so we know the frequency this was
something every weekend happened every
weekend he would go out to crazy parties
every weekend
okay
and last example sentence when she was
little when she was little this is
another very common pattern you can use
too like when i was little so that means
when you were a little kid so physically
when you were small when i was little in
american english we usually use little
not small
so
when she was little she would leave
leave her clothes all over the house she
would leave her clothes all over the
house
so yes the verb here is leave but it
doesn't mean like leave a house it means
like to forget things so like you place
something somewhere and then you go away
so we use the verb leave to describe
that she would leave her clothes all
over the house
so
this is a repeated action again here we
don't know exactly how often it happened
but wood shows us that it was a
repeating action
okay
i will check some
examples now uh i'm on on facebook says
when he was in school he would play
piano so again infinitive form of the
verb do not change your verb when he was
in school he would play piano and then
it's perfect
uh
we would hang out every week and night
good good good so include some time
period like when we were kids we would
hang out every night would be great
uh
yes in the examples what is the meaning
of wood would i've just explained that
right here if you missed the explanation
you can check the video back so we use
it to talk about repeating actions from
the past from the distant past
uh arocha says when i was a kid i would
travel around the world i would travel
so yes infinitive verb yes by that i
mean just the verb not the two do not
include the two there the infinitive
form of the verb if this helps
infinitive form
of the verb not literally two plus verb
uh someone says i want to repeat this
lesson again great you can you can watch
it because it's being recorded check the
channel later okay uh i want to finish
this point and then the last point is
done eric i saw your message i will
check it later uh
this point here i talked about questions
with wood i'm sorry i talked about
questions with used to
um
this though this wood we do not use
generally it's very rarely used for
questions because we use wood to make
questions in a different way
so generally if you want to ask a
question about someone's past
um we'll generally use just simple past
tense to do that and then you might
reply by using would so uh generally we
do not use would to make
questions actually so don't worry about
that focus on using wood to make
responses
okay so more examples are coming in i
saw something about vegetables i missed
it ah sopele says my parents would
always make me eat vegetables very nice
very nice
uh
okay
okay good so let's see we have a few
minutes left i'll go to the last point
because it's a lot of text but it's
quick actually
let's go to the last point then how do
we use these together how do we use
these together with simple past tense so
a lot of you say like how do i write a
paragraph how do i tell a story here's a
really quick example that uses these
grammar points plus simple past tense so
your steps there are three steps to
doing this that i could recommend for
you to practice this
first
introduce your concept introduce your
topic with used to so used to remember
we don't have to include a specific time
period with you stew but introduce your
topic with used to
with maybe no specific time period
step two
give details share a repeated action
using wood using wood as i talked about
so give some details and then step three
end so that means finish
end with a past tense statement so if
you're talking about a memory you can
end with a past tense statement
something that has finished or
you can also finish with a present tense
statement if you want to describe the
situation now so we'll finish today by
looking at two examples of this first
first example
i used to live with a really messy
roommate i used to live with a really
messy roommate so i used to live this
tells us already this is not true this
was true before it is not true now i
used to live with a messy so messy means
dirty they're not clean a messy roommate
a really messy roommate
second sentence
every week
the guy would leave his dirty dishes in
the sink and wait for me
to clean them up so every week this
shows the repetition with wood yeah
every week the guy so that means the guy
is this messy roommate
every week the guy would leave so this
is the same leave we talked about before
would leave his dirty dishes in the sink
and wait for me to clean them up so this
is the repeated action
right every week this happened
so i show that with wood
and then my last sentence i eventually
moved out i eventually moved out
eventually means in the end after a
period of time
i
moved out moved out means i leave sorry
i left that house i moved out
so this is a quick very short example of
using used to then would and then in
this case simple past tense because i
want to talk about just that memory so
after that i moved out i moved out
okay let's finish then with this last
example
again i'll start with a used to
statement a used to statement so my
parents used to
live around here my parents used to live
around here again used to
shows this is not true anymore my
parents lived around here a long time
ago now they do not my parents used to
live around here
when i worked in this neighborhood when
i worked in this neighborhood so i do
not work in the neighborhood now when i
worked in this neighborhood
i would go to their house
every week for dinner i would go to
their house every week for dinner so
again i'm showing repetition
with wood
and i'm talking about the frequency with
every week
here i would go to their house every
week for dinner
finally
here my mom makes
amazing food and my dad is
pretty good
with a barbecue so here i'm ending with
a present tense statement the reason is
i want to express
my parents skill
now i want to make a statement about
oops sorry i want to make a statement
about
the situation now so yes the first two
lines are a memory
but the last statement
is just a fact i want to end with a fact
so that's totally fine to do so these
are examples first is sharing a memory
maybe a bad memory and second is sharing
some memories and the situation now so
these are three short simple ways steps
rather you can use to practice these
points together
and i want to end today by saying uh
if you are not sure should i use used to
should i use wood should i use simple
past tense uh one
you can follow these guides for use to
and for wood and then for simple past
tense
if you did the action just one time use
simple past tense just use simple past
tense i did that action we use these to
talk about habits things we did a lot
things that were common
all right a couple minutes to check a
couple points i don't see any i haven't
seen many questions lots of example
sentences though
uh someone said danielson hey said i
used to think that the day would never
come that my life would depend on the
morning sun is that from something that
sounds like a poem okay interesting uh
sam sam on facebook says i used to read
books now i don't now i don't so if you
want to say like if you want to
emphasize that action is not true you
can say now i don't or now he doesn't
now she doesn't and so on
okay i'm going to finish there for today
but we will be back next week so i hope
that this was helpful for you
again this lesson has been recorded so
please check the lesson after we're
finished so you can watch everything and
you can look at all of the points on the
board too next week we'll be back next
week's lesson is about
aha english vocabulary for social media
yeah that's right and it will be
september 4th wow it's already september
oh my gosh wednesday september 4th at 10
p.m eastern standard time i'll talk
about uh vocabulary for social media so
that means expressions you see on social
media and expressions to use to talk
about social media so please join us
live next wednesday 10 p.m eastern
standard time for that that will be a
good one i think uh also please don't
forget to get the new the new new new
exciting very exciting uh pdfs from the
link below the video on youtube or above
the video on facebook i showed a couple
i thought were good for this week um
this one there's a lot of other ones so
check the link i don't have time to
share all of them i think there's like
eight maybe eight or ten new ones so
check them out see what you like and
download those for free
uh i will
finish up there for today then so thank
you very much to everybody for sending
your awesome example sentences and for
liking and sharing the video uh please
join us again next week and enjoy the
rest of your week have a nice weekend
we'll see you again soon bye bye
you