Hi everyone it's Agnieszka Murdoch from 5-Minute Language today we're going to talk
about english past tenses i'm going to talk to you about each past tense in english but first
i want to ask you to leave me a comment and tell me: what do you think is the most difficult English
past tense to learn? make sure you comment below so today we're going to talk about all the different
past tenses so the past simple the past continuous the past perfect the past perfect continuous
and also two different phrases to talk about the past used to and would
we are also going to talk about the differences between the different tenses okay are you ready
let's get started okay so i'm going to tell you a story about last weekend so something that i did
last weekend to illustrate the different past tenses in english so last weekend
i went to Whitstable. Whitstable is a small town in england it's by the seaside and i really like
going there it's lovely it's quite a touristy place but it's really nice and quiet sometimes
so i went to whitstable last weekend when i say i went that's the past simple i'm talking to you
about something that happened at a particular point in the past and it's a finished action
it happened last week last weekend so i went to whitstable because i wanted to have some fish
and chips i wanted to have some fish and chips last week i'm talking again about a particular
moment in the past and that's what the past simple is for usually we use it to talk about something
that happened in the past and is finished and we often talk about when exactly that action happened
so i wanted to have fish and chips because fish and chips in whitstable is really really
good the fish is fresh and the chips are really well made so i went there last weekend to have
some fish and chips but first when i got to whitstable i sat down on a bench to read my book
i sat down on a bench again that's the past simple it was an action that was a one-off thing
in the past it happened when i got there it's finished it's in the past so i used the past
simple tense when i was sitting on the bench i saw lots of seagulls so i was sitting on the bench
is the past continuous it was a continuous action that was happening for a longer period of time so
for example when i got to whitstable between the hours of 8 am and 9 am i was sitting on a bench
it was a continuous action and while i was sitting on the bench i saw a seagull so this
is an example of a sentence when you're talking about a continuous action that was interrupted
by another thing so sitting was the continuous action and i saw a seagull was the thing that
interrupted it it was just a quick action that happened whilst i was sitting on the bench
so i had actually been to whitstable before when i went
that wasn't the first time i had been there before many times and so i had been is the past perfect
tense and it's something that we use to talk about something that happened before something else
in the past so i had been there so me going to whitstable happened in the past
and my previous trip happened before that in the past so it's like the past before the past i had
been to whitstable many times before it's the past perfect tense so i was sitting on the bench
and i was reading my book past continuous and suddenly i noticed a stain on my top so i noticed
is in the past simple because it's a one-off action in the past it's completed and it was just
a quick event i noticed something i noticed there was a stain on my top and i thought to myself
i had been drinking coffee that's probably why the stain is there i had been drinking coffee
10 minutes before so this is the past perfect continuous tense and again it's something that
happened before something else in the past so my story is in the past i was sitting on the bench in
the past before that i was drinking coffee so to make it clear that the coffee was happening before
sitting on the bench i need the past perfect continuous and also i can see the result of
the coffee drinking there is a stain i spilt my coffee so it's the past perfect continuous
it's to talk about an action that started in the past and it had consequences for something
else that happened in the past okay when i was a child i used to go to margate not whitstable
so margate is another small town in england and it's by the seaside i used to go there as a child
used to is a phrase for talking about something that was a recurring action a habit maybe that
happened in the past frequently but it doesn't happen anymore so now i go to whitstable because i
live close to whitstable i don't go to margate because it's too far so i used to go to margate
i can also say i would go to margate in the past wood means pretty much the same so you
can say i used to go to margate or i would go to margate i used to get fish and chips in margate
i would get fish and chips in margate but now i get fish and chips in witstable
so both phrases used to and would are used to talk about something that used to happen that
happened in the past but it doesn't happen anymore so it's just another way to talk about the past
in english so what's the difference between i have read a book in whitstable and i was
reading a book in whitstable so i read is the past simple i was reading is the past continuous so
i read is a completed action i went to whitstable i sat on the bench and i read my book i finished
it it's actually something that happened and it's completed i was reading is a continuous
action it happened over a period of time and i want to emphasize the fact that it was continuous
so for example in the morning between the hours of 8 a.m and 10 p.m i was reading my book what's the
difference between i ate fish and chips and i had eaten fish and chips so i ate is the past simple
i just use it to talk about the different events on that day when i'm telling you my
story from witstable so i arrived i sat on the bench and i ate my fish and chips i had
eaten is the past perfect so i need to use it to talk about something that happened
before something else in the past so i sat on the bench and i had already eaten my fish and chips
so i am talking about the past the moment when i sat down and to make it clear that the fish
and chips happened before i need to use the past perfect so i sat down but i had already eaten at
that point in the past and what is the difference between i had drunk and i had been drinking
so the first one is the past perfect i had drunk my coffee and the second one is the past perfect
continuous so i had been drinking the past perfect and the past perfect continuous
is used to talk about something that happened before something else but also
to talk about something that started in the past and was still true at the time
of another event in the past so for example last year i had had my car for a year so that was true
one year ago i got my car one year before that point i had been drinking coffee for 20 minutes
when i sat down means that i started drinking coffee 20 minutes before i sat down which was in
the past so that's the past perfect continuous and that is the difference so just to recap
we've been talking about the different past tenses in english the past simple
say for example i went to whitstable it's to you it's to talk about events in the past
that are completed and we usually talk about when exactly that happened i went to whitstable
last weekend the past continuous which is to talk about continuous events that were happening
over a period of time so for example this morning in whitstable i was drinking my coffee between
eight and nine the past perfect is to talk about something that happened before something else
in the past so when i sat down on the bench i had already eaten my fish and chips so that happened
before the action of sitting down which is also in the past and the past perfect continuous which is
about something that was a continuous action that happened before something else in the past so
i noticed a stain and then i remembered that i had been drinking coffee for the past 10 minutes
before that and then we've got used to and wood so these are things for talking about something that
was true in the past but it's not true anymore so i hope you found this video useful make sure you
leave me a comment and tell me what do you think is the most difficult english past tense to learn
and make sure you subscribe to my channel as well and i will see you in the next video bye