Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa
from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. What happened this morning? Let's talk about it.
So what happened this morning? Well, when I woke up my husband Dan cooked breakfast. Cool.
Or when I woke up, my husband Dan was cooking breakfast. Oh, why is this last sentence a little
bit surprising? I imagine that you want to be able to express yourself completely in English. Well,
using the right verb tense is key to expressing yourself accurately and clearly. So today I'm
going to help you understand the difference and be able to use two similar and yet different verb
tenses: Dan cooked, and Dan was cooking. Hmm. What's the difference? I'll help you.
And like always for today's lesson, I have created a free PDF worksheet that you can download with
the link in the description. You'll find all of today's sample sentences, ideas, verb tenses,
and you can study it whenever you would like. You can print it out, put it under your pillow,
sleep on it at night so that it soaks into your brain. This is my gift to you. So make
sure that you click the link in the description so that you can download the free PDF today.
Today's lesson has three levels. We'll start with easy, then intermediate, and then advanced. And
finally, at the end, there is a quiz to see if you have accomplished the goal of understanding and
being able to use clear, natural English. All right, let's get started with the easy level.
For our easy level, we have the past simple. These are simply actions that happened in the past. Most
of these end in ed. Let's take a look at a couple just to review. We have study becomes studied.
"I studied English yesterday." Practice becomes practiced. "I practiced the piano for three
hours." I wish. Or learn becomes learned. "I learned a lot with Vanessa's lessons." Hooray.
Now not every past simple verb ends in ed. There are some irregulars, and usually that
means that the vowel changes. Let's take a look at a couple. Wake becomes woke. "I woke up before
my alarm clock." It's a small miracle. Break and eat become broke and ate. "I broke my cookies
before I ate them." Drink becomes drank. "I drank some tea this morning."
Before we go to the intermediate level, I have a quick question for you.
"I can't believe that yesterday I... English for 30 minutes." Great work.
I can't believe that yesterday I speak, spoke, or speaked English for 30 minutes.
Which one do you think is correct? I'll give you three seconds. Three, two one.
"I can't believe that yesterday I spoke English for 30 minutes." Congratulations.
All right, let's go on to the intermediate level. Are you ready to level up? Let's do it.
In the intermediate level, have the past continuous. Can you guess when you might use this?
Oh, when there is a continual action in the past. Let's take a look at a quick example.
Let's imagine that you call me and I don't pick up the phone. Well, eventually when you see me,
you might say, "Why didn't you pick up the phone when I called? I could say, "Oh, I was preparing
to film a lesson and I didn't have time to talk." This verb I was preparing is the past continuous.
If you can imagine with me a timeline and we have an action that happened when you called.
Well, what's happening before, during, and after this? Well, I was preparing to film the lesson.
A lot happens to prepare to film these lessons. I need to write the lesson. I need to get ready.
I need to make sure my house is quiet. My kids need to be out outside somewhere. They need to be
safely with someone outside. I need to be feeling energized and ready a lot goes into
preparing these lessons. So we could say that you called and I was preparing the lesson before
you called. I was preparing the lesson during your call. And I was preparing for the lesson
after your call. So this is a continual action that is interrupted by one singular past action.
Let's take a look at a couple other examples. "At 9:00 PM, I studied for the test." This is the past
simple. Why? Because it is an action that happened at specific time. "At 9:00 PM, I started to study
for the test." But what happens if we change this. "At 9:00 PM, I was studying for the test."
Oh, this means something slightly different. It means that before 9:00 PM I was studying,
at 9:00 PM I was studying, and after 9:00 PM I was studying. This was a continual action that
happened, including that 9:00 PM moment. Let's take a look at another example.
"I woke up early today." Woke is the past simple. I woke up early today, it is finished.
But let's change it to the past continuous. "I was waking up early every day during the summer." Hmm.
Do you understand this slight difference here? I was waking up every day during the summer,
this implies that this happened continually throughout the entire summer. It was
a continual action that happened in the past. Let's take a look at another example. "I drank my
tea before work." This is past simple. It finished before work. "I drank my tea before work."
But what if we changed this to pass continuous. "I was drinking my tea while I worked." Oh, okay.
Here we have an activity that continued during the work day. I was drinking my tea while I worked.
This is something that's continuing. Before we go on to the advanced level,
let's have a quick quiz question to test your intermediate skills. Can you fill in the
blank in this sentence? "Sorry that I didn't call you back. I... English with Vanessa."
I were studying English with Vanessa. I was studying English with Vanessa,
or I studied English with Vanessa. Hmm. Which one is the best? I'll give you three seconds. Three,
two, one. "Sorry that I didn't call you back. I was studying English with Vanessa."
This is an action that was happening before the call, during the call,
and after the call. I was studying English with Vanessa when you called. Okay, congratulations.
Let's go on to the advanced level. Now that you know, each of these
verb tenses individually, the past simple and the past continuous, let's put them together
and see what happens. Do you remember the original sentence that I said in this lesson?
"Dan was cooking breakfast when I woke up." And this made me say, "Oh, it surprised me." Why
did this surprise me? Let's see. Here we have a continual action. Dan was cooking breakfast. Boom,
interrupted by when I woke up. That means Dan woke up before me, he prepared breakfast before I woke
up, and he was preparing it while I was waking up. And when I woke up, he was still preparing
breakfast. This is very kind, very thoughtful, and maybe something that happens on my birthday.
So this is something we can say, "Oh," to when this happens. I'm not sure if this happens often
in your household, that when you wake up, someone else is preparing breakfast. But if this happened
in my house, it would be an amazing thing. Let's take a look at this image. I think
this gives a good visual to the ideas that we're talking about. We have a long winding road. This
is the past continuous event. Dan was cooking breakfast, but what is in the middle of this
road? It's a dotted line. So it's interrupted by events, but the road is still continuing.
So Dan was cooking breakfast, boom, when I woke up. When I said, "What are you doing?"
When I said, "Oh, what an amazing breakfast?" It is interrupted by these past simple events.
Let's take a look at a couple other examples where this past continuous event is interrupted by some
past simple events. Let's take a look. "I haven't really studied English much lately, but when I was
studying English, I practiced every day." Here we have an interrupted action. I practiced every day,
during the time that I was studying. Let's take a look at another sentence.
"When I was drinking my tea," boom, "you called me." "When I was drinking my tea,
my cat knocked over my cup." Naughty cat. "When I was drinking my tea, my kid screamed, 'Mommy!'"
Do you think you can pass the advanced quiz before we go onto our final exam?
I hope so. And I hope that this sentence is not true for you. "When I... Vanessa's lesson, I...
asleep." Oh no. Well, let's see which one of these do you think is correct?
When I were watching Vanessa's lesson, I fall asleep. When I watch Vanessa's lesson, I fell
asleep. When I was watching Vanessa's lesson, I fell asleep. I hope that none of these are true.
I'll give you three seconds to think of the best grammatical answer. Are you ready? Three,
two, one. "When I was watching Vanessa's lesson, I fell asleep." Oh no, wake up,
because it is time for your drum roll. Final exam. What I'm going to do is I'm going to
read a little story with some blanks, and I want you to guess the best answer. And at the very end,
I'm going to read the final story. And I hope that you can pat yourself on the back because you
correctly told this story in English. Let's see. Last night night... when suddenly I... some
carrots on the floor. Let me read it one more time. Last night I... when suddenly I... some
carrots on the floor. I'll give you three seconds to think of the best answer.
Last night I was cooking when suddenly I dropped some carrots on the floor. Why did I do that?
Let me tell you. I... the carrot and I... a loud knock at the door. Hmm. I... the carrots and I...
a loud knock at the door. I'll give you three seconds. Three, two, one. I was cutting the
carrots and I heard a loud knock at the door. I... it was my neighbor, so I... just a minute.
I... it was my neighbor, so I... Just a minute. Three, two, one.
I thought it was my neighbor, so I yelled, "Just a minute!"
Then a little voice said, "Mommy! I... with my friends and I... a snake. Come look!"
Then I heard a little voice that said, "Mommy! I... with my friends and I...
a snake. Come look!" Three, two, one. Then I heard a little voice that said,
"Mommy! I was playing with my friends and I caught a snake. Come look!" Oh my.
In just a moment, I will tell you if this is a true or not,
let me read the entire story and we can see how it sounds with the correct verb tenses.
Last night I was cooking when suddenly I dropped some carrots on the floor. Why did I do that?
Let me tell you. I was cutting the carrots, and I heard a loud knock at the door. I thought it was
my neighbor, so I yelled, "Just a minute!" Then a little voice said, "Mommy! I was playing with
my friends and I caught a snake! Come look!" First of all, let me know how did you do? What
was your score? Let me know in the comments, which of these sentences were the most tricky for you.
And now I want to tell you if this was a true story or not. Yes, this was a true story,
but it did not happen to my children. This happened when my husband Dan was a child.
I want to tell you this quick story and listen for the past simple and past continuous verb
tenses in my story because these verb tenses are perfect for telling a story. Listen carefully.
Dan was playing with his friends when he caught a snake. He carried it over his head while his
friends were running behind him. And he knocked on the door and said, "Mom, can we keep it?" Can you
imagine the look on her face? I can only imagine. So how did you do? Did today's lesson help you to
more smoothly and clearly express yourself and talk about what happened in the past.
I'd like to ask you a question. What happened this morning? Can you use both the past simple and
the past continuous to tell me what happened this morning in your house? For me, I would say when I
woke up, my children were screaming, "Mommy!" They were already awake and they were waiting for me.
So I want to know in the comments, can you let me know what happened this morning? And don't forget
to download today's free PDF worksheet so that you can review all of these sample sentences,
the quiz questions, the verb tenses, so that you can express yourself completely.
That is goal. That you can express yourself and be yourself in English.
You can click on the link in the description to download the free PDF worksheet today.
Well, thank you so much for learning English with me, and I will see you again next Friday for a new
lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download the free
PDF worksheet for this lesson. With this free PDF, you will master today's lesson
and never forget what you have learned. You can be a confident English speaker. Don't
forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.