Do you know which one is rude? "I have
to work with Sarah on this project." "I get to work with Sarah on this project."
One of these is rude. Which one is it? If you have been studying English grammar, you
might know that, "I have to work with Sarah on this project," is rude, but this one, "I get
to work with Sarah on this project," is polite. Why in the world is that? Well, if you are
someone who thinks that English grammar is boring, English grammar is not important, well be careful,
because you might be making this rude mistake in English if you don't study English grammar.
I know, I know, grammar can sometimes feel boring or heavy, too many details. But
guess what? I have some good news. I am here to help make English grammar enjoyable,
useful, and practical. Today, you are going to level up your English grammar skills in
just one hour so that you don't make any rude mistakes the next time that you speak in English.
Hi, I am Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. And to help you with today's grammar lesson,
I have created a free PDF worksheet for you. Today, we're going to be going over five
important categories of English grammar, and you can download all of these in the free
PDF worksheet. You can review the concepts, review all of the sample sentences, and make
sure that it is downloaded into your brain. So the next time that you speak, no problem. You can
use these grammar concepts easily and naturally. You can click on the link in the description
to download the free PDF worksheet today. Let's get started with the first grammar concept,
which we already hinted at. The difference between get to and have to so that you're not rude, and
you can speak politely in English. Let's watch. I'm in beautiful sunny Costa Rica. Usually I don't
film these videos outside, so I'm sorry if there's some wind. You're going to hear some birds,
some trees rustling. It's all part of nature, right? Hopefully it will help you
to relax and enjoy today's lesson. We're going to be talking about how to describe
your vacation in English. Usually vacations have positive parts and sometimes negative parts
as well. So I hope that the expressions we talk about today will help you to naturally
describe it. And also, I'm going to show you a little bit around the farm so you'll get
some real practice with these expressions. The two expressions that we're going to
talk about today are to get to do something, and to have to do something. Today, you are going
to get to guess some of the wonderful vegetation that's around me on this farm. I'm going to take
you on a little tour throughout this lesson, and I want you to guess what the different
plants are. Let's talk about that first expression, to get to do something.
This expression has a sense of honor, of privilege. A sense of, "Wow, I get
to be in this beautiful nature. Wow, I'm so privileged. I feel honored to be here."
You could just use the simple past or the simple present. "I am in beautiful nature." But if
we want to give a sense of honor, privilege, "Wow, I'm so lucky to be here." We can use get
to. "I get to be in this beautiful nature." What about that second expression, to have to do
something? Well, in order to get to this farm, we had to drive on some difficult roads.
They weren't always paved. There were a lot of potholes. They were really windy.
We had to drive on difficult roads. When we use had to, which is the past version of
have to, this says a sense of something difficult, something undesirable. "I had to take out
the trash. I had to study for my exam." It's something that's a little bit of a burden. So
here we have a positive expression. "I get to see beautiful nature. We got to see amazing
iguanas on the trail." Or something negative. "We had to drive on some difficult roads to
get here. We had to pay $15 to get into the park." Before I tell you a little story
about my experience here in Costa Rica, let's go to our first question where you get
to guess some of the plants around the farm. All right, first quiz question. We have this
beautiful tree with these interesting things hanging down. Can you guess what this is? What
kind of plant is this? You've got three seconds. Three, two, one. It is cacao. This is the outside
seed, the outside pod where you'll find chocolate. I hope you enjoyed that first little
quiz question. There's going to be three different quiz questions throughout this
lesson. Let me tell you a little story about the first night that we arrived in this city.
When we got to the farm, the farmer helped us to find the house that we were staying at. It's a
little bungalow, a little cabin on his property. And when he tried to open the gate, he couldn't
open it. He tried one key, then he tried another, and he ran back to his farm, and we had to wait
for about 15 minutes while he looked for the key. And then he came back with a key. He
was so excited. He tried to open the gate and it didn't work well. He said, "You're
probably going to have to wait for another hour while we work out this problem with the key."
For a moment, I was just a little bit worried, because we have a toddler and we'd been driving
all day, so we wanted to just open the door and let him run free finally. But then he said
to us, "Well, we have a dinner available at our eating area. Would you like to be our
guest for dinner?" "Yes, of course we would." So we got to have an amazing dinner at the farm.
We had some rice, and beans, and plantains, and chicken, and some guava juice, all produced
on the farm. It was our luck really that we got to eat that dinner with them because we had no
plans for dinner. We were kind of worried what we were going to eat, because we just arrived
here after a long day of traveling. So because of this problem with the key, he had to find
the key somehow, somewhere, we got to have a great experience. Before we talk about the
grammatical structure of get to and have to, let's go on to the second quiz.
Question quiz question number two. We've got these
interesting plants here with these little flowers. What do you think these flowers will
do someday when they're not flowers? What will they become? What will this plant
produce? Something quite important that probably a lot of you enjoy every
day. Let's take a look at these. I'll give you three seconds. Three, two, one.
It's coffee. This is a coffee plant. The farm here has a lot of coffee. As you saw, also cacao.
And we'll see a third one in just a moment. Did you enjoy that second quiz question? I hope
so. Let's talk about the grammatical structure of using get and have in the sense of something
positive or something negative happening. "We got to eat dinner on the farm. He had to look for the
key." Here, we're conjugating that special word, get and have into the past tense. And do
you see what's happening after that? "We got to eat." Make sure that you add to
and then an unconjugated verb. "We got to eat. He had to look for the key." Beautiful.
Now that you know how to correctly grammatically construct a sentence using get to and have
to, let's go on to our third quiz question, and then I'll tell you a final story about
our trip using these beautiful expressions. For our third quiz question, it's
quite obvious. So I want to show you the base of the tree first. And as we
go up the tree, start thinking about, what is it? What is this going to
produce? Here we can see a little flower hanging down. What is it? What is
it? Are you ready to guess? Three, two, one. It's bananas. So beautiful. I didn't know that so
many grew in a bunch like that. It's wonderful. I hope you enjoyed that third quiz question in
this little mini tour of the farm. It's really nice to see nature in other areas around the
world. Now that you know what get to and have to mean, and you know the correct grammatical
structure, let me tell you another quick story about something that we did today and something
that we plan to do in the future, so that you can see the different verb tenses for get and have.
This morning, we got to see an amazing waterfall. It's one of the famous attractions of this area
in Costa Rica. But to get to the waterfall, you have to walk down 500 steps.
And then to go back to your car, you have to walk up 500 steps. But it was
really cool because we got to see the waterfall, and then we walked a little bit down the path
and we got to really relax, and feel refreshed, and wade into the water. It was quite cold.
There were a lot of fish. It was tons of fun. And the great part was we didn't have to drive too
far from the farm. It was just about 15 minutes, so not too bad. Over the next couple days, we
hope that we'll get to see some more animals, maybe some sloths, maybe some more monkeys,
and more iguanas, maybe an anteater or two, some parrots, maybe some macaws. That would
be amazing if we get to see those. So we're going to go to a national park and then we're
going to maybe get to go to Hanging Bridges Park. Maybe we'll get to go to the lake. We'll see.
But you have to drive a little bit of a distance, maybe 30 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half to
get to those locations. But I think it'll be worth it. We've already gotten to do a lot of cool
stuff in Costa Rica, and I hope that we'll get to do other cool things in the next couple days.
Great work. I hope you enjoyed my little vacation to Costa Rica during that lesson. The next
grammar lesson is going to be focusing on an advanced grammar sentence construction that
I rarely see English learners use, but native speakers use this all the time. I want to help
you level up your speaking skills. Let's watch. Do you remember learning comparisons in
your English classroom? Like this sentence. "His bike is faster than my bike." The word
faster is a comparison word. Or, "Her English is better than it was last year." Better is our
comparison word. "That picture is more beautiful than mine." More beautiful are comparison words.
When we have a short word like fast, hot, easy, green, we're just going to add E-R. Faster,
easier, hotter, greener. But when you have a longer word like that last sentence, beautiful, or
intelligent, or annoying, instead of adding E-R, we're just going to add more or less. "More
beautiful, more intelligent, more annoying, less beautiful, less intelligent, less annoying."
So these are our two ways that we can make comparisons, just as a quick review because that's
going to be essential for taking it to the next level in our advanced sentence structure.
Let's take a look at this sentence. "The warmer it is, the happier I feel." Can you
pick out the two comparison words here? Warmer, happier. We can see that E-R at the end
is kind of a key to this. "The warmer it is, the happier I feel." Right now, it's the middle of
winter where I live. But occasionally every couple weeks, there will be one day that feels like
spring. And everyone in my city goes outside and jumps for joy, and all of that sadness from
winter just washes away. Because when it feels warm outside, you feel great. You feel so happy.
So we could use this sentence. "The warmer it is, the happier I feel." We're comparing two things,
but let's take a look at actually what's happening here. We have those two comparison words, but
what's happening right before that? It's the word the. "The warmer it is, the happier I feel."
So that's going to be our key here for structuring these sentences. At the beginning, we have some
kind of cause. The cause is warm weather. And what's the effect? I feel happy. So we
have a cause and effect happening here. "The warmer it is, the happier I feel."
Let's take a look at some other examples. "The richer the person, the more annoying he is."
This is just personal opinion. So here we have two comparison words, richer and more annoying.
Because the word annoying is a longer word, we're going to use more in front of it instead of
saying annoyinger. We're not going to add E-R at the end. And then we have that keyword, the. "The
richer the person is or the richer the person, the more annoying he is."
What about this one? "The sweeter the dessert, the more delicious it is. The sweeter," that's our
comparison word. "The more delicious." That's our other comparison word. "It is," and we have the
in front of both of those. So we have a cause and an effect. The dessert is sweet, and what's
the effect? It's more delicious. We have a cause, someone is rich. And in effect, he is more
annoying. So we have a cause and effect happening here, with this wonderful advanced comparison.
Are you ready to take this to the next level? You probably already know how to make comparison
words. But what if we make this advanced concept more advanced? Often when we use the-the
sentence structure like we've been talking about, we don't use that comparison word. We just
use the word more or less, plus a noun afterwards. Let's take a look at this example.
"The more you eat, the more you gain weight. The more," that's our comparison. So we're not
actually using a word like the warmer, or the more beautiful, or the more annoying. We're not using
those words. Instead, we're just saying the more, plus a noun, you. "The more you eat, the more
you gain weight." Let's look at a couple others. "The less I sleep, the less I can focus on
my work." We can use more or less in these situations. "The less I," that's our noun here, "I
sleep. The less I can focus on my work. The more I speak English, the more I feel comfortable."
Do you see in all of these sentences, we're just expanding on what you already know. You know
about comparisons. Now you know that we need the in front of each of them, and then we're
adding more or less. "The more I speak English, the more I feel comfortable."
We could switch that around and say, "The more comfortable I feel." There's a couple
different ways you can use this, but this is going to be beautifully advanced to talk about
cause and effect, and we use this all the time. In fact, there are a couple fixed phrases.
They're not exactly proverbs or idioms, but they're just fixed phrases that native
speakers use a lot that include this the-the sentence structure. Let's take a look at a couple.
Someone might ask you, "How do you like your coffee?" Well, you could say the stronger, the
better. This means you don't like cream in it, you don't like sugar in it. You just want a lot of
caffeine. Black coffee that's really strong with a lot of caffeine. The stronger, the better.
This is often used to talk about drinks. You could even use it to talk about an alcoholic
drink. Do you want rum or vodka? You might say, "I want both. The stronger the better." So
you're talking about the strength of the drink. The other day I was having a bonfire in my
backyard and I invited a family. And they said, "Hey, can I invite my other friends?" And I
said, "The more, the merrier." This is a really common the-the type of fixed sentence. The more
people who come, the merrier. This is kind of an old-fashioned word to mean happy. The happier we
will be. But in that fixed sentence structure, we do use the word merrier in daily conversation.
"The more, the merrier. Sure, come on." Or if you're having a problem at work and you're talking
with your coworker saying, "Should we tell our boss about this problem?" Well, your coworker
might say, "The less said, the better. The less said to our boss," the better the outcome, or
maybe the better for your boss, or the better for this situation. "The less said, the better."
The final common fixed phrase is one that procrastinators probably hear a lot, and let's
imagine that you need to study English or you want to study English. But you've looked at your phone,
you went for a walk, you called your friends. And then your husband says, "Are you going to study
your English lesson today?" He might also say, "The sooner you start, the sooner you finish."
That phrase, the sooner the sooner is used a lot. "The sooner you begin exercising, the sooner
you'll feel better." The sooner you do something, if you do something now, you'll see the results
quicker. You'll see them sooner. So we often use this, "The sooner you start, the sooner you
finish," or, "The sooner you'll see the result." And now I'd like to share a quick
conversation dialogue with you that uses this advanced sentence structure a
lot. I challenge you after this lesson, go back and try to say those sentences with us.
That's going to train your speaking muscles, help with your pronunciation, and also remind you
how to use this, because you're using it yourself. I've been feeling kind of down
lately, but I'm not sure why. Dan:
Have you been working too much again? Vanessa:
Well, I go to work at 6:00 AM and finish at 8:00 PM, but that's fine with me.
Dan: Whoa, that's a long time. Maybe the more
you work, the more stressed you feel. Vanessa:
I don't know. I guess I have neglected to see my friends lately.
Dan: Yeah. The more you see your friends,
the more positive you'll feel. Vanessa:
Yeah. I do feel kind of lonely. The less I do outside of work, the less connected I
feel to them. Maybe I have been working too much. Dan:
I'd say so. Vanessa:
In fact, the more I tell you about my work life, the more I realize I need balance.
Dan: Yeah. The more work, the more stress.
Vanessa: Yeah. The more down I feel.
Dan: But the more time with friends,
the happier, the more connected. Vanessa:
The more encouraged, but also the poorer. Dan:
What, the poorer? Vanessa:
Yeah, because I would be spending money instead of making money.
Dan: Don't worry about that. The more money you
make, the more you can spend. Let's go have fun. Vanessa:
Okay. You convinced me. Let's go. Great work leveling up your speaking skills. The
next grammar lesson focuses on two tricky words, do versus make. You will join me in
the woods again in nature. Sometimes, this helps make grammar a little more fun, where
you're going to learn some important expressions that can help you learn the difference between do
and make in your daily conversations. Let's watch. We use do for specific tasks, some
obligations, or repetitive activities. "I need to do some housework." This is an
obligation, a duty, to do some housework. We use make for creating or producing something.
"I need to make some soup. I'm creating the soup." Today we're going to be in two different
locations, one in the woods and one by the stream, so that you can visually remember the difference
between these two words. I hope that it will just add to this experience so that you can enjoy
the lesson, and also remember these words. But this can be tricky because cooking meals
is kind of an obligation or a duty, right? I hope that by talking about some specific
expressions with both of these words, it'll help you to remember them, but also it'll
help you to keep those words together. If you hear make soup, make soup, make soup a lot,
your brain will keep these two words together. It's kind of like when you were first starting to
learn English, you never heard, "I were happy." You always heard, "I was happy." Because you
never heard, "I were happy," you probably didn't create that wrong sentence structure. So I
hope that by hearing this correct sentence structure again and again, you're going to be
able to remember if it's do, or if it's make. Let's start by talking about seven expressions
using do. "Everyone loves doing chores. I dream about doing the laundry. Doing the dishes is my
favorite activity." Okay, maybe that's not true for you. But here, we're using do to talk about
this duty, this obligation, this repetitive task. We use do to talk about almost every household
chore. "Do the laundry, do the dishes." Except make the bed. This is an exception, but we often
use do to talk about those household repetitive chores. For more household chores, check out my
video 70 Cleaning Expressions in English up here. Number two, "I can't go play a game because
I have to do some work," or maybe because, "I have to do some homework." To do
work is a common expression. Actually, I said this to Dan when I was writing this
lesson. He wanted me to play a game and I said, "I'm sorry. I can't play the game because I have
to do some work," which was writing this lesson. Number three, Dan, my husband plays hockey. And
after his game he often says, "The goalie did a good job, but we still lost." Or maybe he said,
"The goalie did a bad job. The goalie did a poor job." Here we're talking about doing a good job,
doing a bad job, doing a poor job. We're using the word do in the past to say did. "He did a good
job?" What do you think about this lesson? Am I doing a good job explaining these expressions?
Number four, have you done any exercises recently? Maybe you might say, "I did some yoga yesterday
and I'm going to do some Pilates today." This question uses do in another verb tense. "Have you
done any exercises recently?" This can be a little bit tricky to talk about do plus exercise, because
we often just take out do completely and say, "Have you exercised recently?" This is using
exercise as the verb. "Have you exercised?" Notice the E-D. That tells us that this
is a verb. "Have you exercised recently?" But in my original sentence, "Have you done any
exercises?" This is using exercise as a noun, and then do is our verb. So make sure
that you use this correctly. We don't want to have do plus exercise as a verb.
We need to only have one verb here. "Have you done any exercises? Have you exercised?"
Number five, "How are you doing? I'm doing pretty well. I'm not doing that hot." This is
a common greeting. You might hear this all the time. Maybe you say this a lot. To learn
some other common greetings and other ways to start sentences, you can check out this
link up here. "How are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm not doing that hot." Wonderful.
Number six, "I always try to do my best." To do my best is a beautiful expression. It
means you're not perfect, but you try to do your best. If you said this in a job interview, "I
always try to do my best every day at work," wow, great. You're hired. This is a wonderful way
to express that you are a diligent worker, you're a hard worker. And even though you're not
perfect, you're going to always do your best. Number seven, "Please, do something. Do
anything." Maybe if you have a friend who is single and is always complaining about
not going on a date, you might say, "Well, maybe it'd be a good idea if you got out of your
house one day. Maybe you should go to a yoga class. Maybe you should go for a walk in the park
and talk to someone while you're walking your dog. Just do something. Do anything." We often use do
with these words something, anything. And it's not specific. Something and anything is not telling
a specific activity, but we often use those together. You can also use this in a less intense
situation. Maybe if your friend's inviting you to go to a yoga class, you might say, "I can't go to
yoga class because I have to do something else." You're not saying what you have to do.
It's kind of mysterious. You're not saying that other activity that you need
to do, but you're just saying, "I need to do something else." To do something else.
Now let's go on to make. These are the top 10 expressions using make, at least according to me.
Number one, "Dan makes oatmeal for us every morning. I like to make green tea in the
afternoon." We often use make with food or drinks, and it's a good way to use this naturally.
Number two, "If you watch the ad at the beginning of this video, I make some money."
Thanks. Here I'm not creating or producing, I'm not printing the money myself. But here,
I'm still acquiring the money. So I want to know when you were in high school, what did you do
to make money? Did you babysit? Did you walk your neighbor's dog? Did you do your neighbor's
homework? What did you do to make money? Sentence number three, "It can be tough
to make new friends when you move to a new city." Here we're using the expression
make friends. You're not actually creating your friends like Frankenstein, at least I
hope not. But you are acquiring new friends. When I think about the friends that I have now,
I made one friend at the grocery store, I made another friend at yoga class, and I made another
friend 10 years ago in college. So as an adult, we make friends in a lot of different ways.
Have you ever made a phone call in English? This can be a little bit scary when you
do it, but with practice it gets easier. We have a couple expressions we use when we
talk about using the phone. But when you are the one dialing the numbers, you are the one
who's making a phone call. If you want to use some common expressions for phone conversations,
then make sure to check out this video up here. Number five, make a suggestion about what
kind of lesson you'd like me to make here on YouTube in the future. I'm asking you
to make a suggestion. Give me some ideas. Number six, when you make a mistake, don't make
an excuse. Just tell the truth. Here are two for the price of one. Make a mistake and make
an excuse. I often hear English learners say, "I did a mistake," and to them I would say, yep.
Yep, you did. You made a mistake. If you want to use did, you could say, "I did something
wrong." But here, this is a beautiful expression that you can use instead with make.
"I made a mistake." And if you make a mistake, don't make an excuse. No one likes someone who
makes excuses. "I was tired, I was hungry. There was a lot of traffic." Don't make an excuse. Just
tell the truth, and say you're sorry, and move on. Number seven, "I often read reviews to help
me make a decision before I buy something." Do you do that? Do you read reviews before
you buy something? What helps you to make a decision? Have you ever made a decision
that you regretted? I hope you don't regret making the decision to watch this lesson.
Study these words so that you can make sure that you use them correctly. We often say, make
sure to mean make certain, be certain. But we don't use that one as much, so forget about that
one and just remember make sure. We often use this as kind of a reminder. Make sure that you
finish your homework. Make sure that you clean your room. Make sure, make sure, make sure. So if
you use, make sure as a reminder to someone else, make sure you say it with a smile because it can
be kind of annoying if someone says, "Make sure you do this, make sure you do this, make sure you
do this," so make sure you say it with a smile. Number nine, it really makes me happy that you're
still watching this video and didn't click away. Your actions have an effect on me. It makes me
happy. Or we could use this in a negative way. "Talking with her about her problems makes me
feel drained." Or maybe watching these lessons makes you feel excited about English. It makes
you react in a certain way. Makes me feel happy, makes me feel drained, makes me feel excited.
I hope that this lesson makes you feel excited, because I'm sitting on a log suspended over
the creek, and it's not very comfortable. So it makes me happy that you're still watching
this and that this experience is worth it. Number 10, try to use English every day. This
advice just makes sense. If someone told you, "Study English for six hours every Saturday, and
you can forget about English the other six days of the week." This advice doesn't really make sense.
It feels really stressful to me. So when you use this expression, "It makes sense. It doesn't make
sense." We're using this in the sense of sensible. This is the root word here. It is sensible advice
to study English a little bit every day. It is not sensible advice to study English just one day
for a long period of time. You feel stressed, you don't remember things easily. So it makes
sense to study English little by little every day. I think it makes sense to have a review now,
don't you think? Let's go back and review all of the expressions that we talked about with do, and
all of the expressions we talked about with make. Let's review the seven expressions with do.
Number one, "Everyone loves doing chores. I have to do some work. The goalie did a
good job. I did some exercises yesterday. How are you doing? I'm doing pretty
well. I always try to do my best. I have to do something else."
And now the, 10 expressions with make. Number one, "Dan makes us oatmeal." Number two, "I
make some money. It can be tough to make friends. I need to make a phone call. Make a suggestion in
the comments. When you make a mistake, don't make an excuse. The reviews often help me to make a
decision. Make sure you clean your room before you go to bed. It makes me happy that you watched
this lesson. This advice just makes sense." Great work learning the difference between do and
make so that you can use this accurately as you speak. The next grammar lesson is going to focus
on storytelling. We are constantly telling stories When we speak. Oftentimes, we're talking about
something that happened in the past. It might be, "What did you do over the weekend? How was your
last vacation?" Well, you're probably going to tell a little quick story about your weekend
plans, or what you did on your last vacation. So I would like to help you use the correct verbs
to talk about stories in the past. Let's watch. 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 E-D. 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 E-D. 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. 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, we have the past
continuous. Can you guess when you might use this? 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, "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 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 a 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. 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." 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." Okay, this
is past simple. It finished before work. "I drank my tea before work." But what if
we change this to past continuous? "I was drinking my tea while I worked." Okay. Here
we have an activity that continued during the workday. "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. 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, "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. So 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, "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, 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 on to 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. 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 I, 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 carrots and
I a loud knock at the door. 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. 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 cut a snake. Come look. Oh my." In just a moment, I will tell you if this is a
true story 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.'" Great work leveling up your storytelling skills.
Our final grammar lesson today is a big one. It is the difference between three small, but
tricky words in English. In, on, and at. I get asked this all the time by English learners,
so here's the lesson to help you finally master these three tricky words. Let's watch.
Each of the prepositions in, on, and at, can be used to talk about space and time.
Let's take a look at some examples so that we can study before the test. In. "I put the
medicine in the cabinet in the afternoon." Here we have space, "In the cabinet," and time,
"In the afternoon." We use in for an enclosed space. "In the cabinet." And for a general time,
usually a time of day. "In the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening." This general time.
On. "I put my phone on the shelf on Monday." Here we have space, "On the shelf," and time, "On
Monday." Usually on is with a surface. Sometimes it's a flat surface, sometimes it's not, but we
talk about on with a surface. On the shelf. And for time, we're talking about a specific
day on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday. This video is coming out on Friday. And at.
"Please be at the entrance of the park at 4:00 PM." We have space, "At the entrance," and time,
"At 4:00 PM. At the entrance of the park," is a specific place, a specific point at the entrance
of the park. And for time, "At 4:00 PM," we are talking about a specific time, "At 4:00 PM.
At 9:00 PM. At 3:00 AM." The specific time. So we've had a little review here. Don't
stress too much about the rules. I want you to look into your heart. As
I give you these test sentences, I want you to choose which word is the best
to fill in each of these sentences. Maybe you remember the rules, maybe you don't.
That's okay. Remember those patterns we talked about. Your brain has created some
patterns already using these three words. So, let's get started with sentence number one.
Did you find your coat the closet? Did you find your coat in, on, at the closet?
I'll give you three seconds to decide. "Did you find your coat in the closet." In is
an enclosed space. The closet is an enclosed space. Did you find your coat in the closet?
Number two, my favorite cafe is the end of this street. My favorite cafe is in, on, at the end of
this street. What do you think? Three, two, one. "My favorite cafe is at the end of this street."
Here we're talking about a specific place, A specific point at the end of
this street is my favorite cafe. How are you doing so far? Take a deep breath. You
got this. All right, let's go to number three. Oh no I spilled my coffee, my homework. Oh no,
I spilled my coffee in, on, at my homework. Three, two, one.
"Oh no, I spilled my coffee on my homework." Here we're talking about
the surface of my homework. It also happens to be a flat surface. Like I mentioned, we sometimes
use this for flat surfaces. On my homework. Oh man. Now I'm going to have to explain this to my
teacher. "I spilled my coffee on my homework." Number four, I enjoy taking walks early the
morning. I enjoy taking walks early in, on, at the morning. Three, two, one.
"I enjoy taking walks early in the morning. Here we are talking about a
general time of day. We're not talking about 9:00 AM. We are talking about a general time in
the morning, in the afternoon. And this is one of the keys to remembering prepositions is when
you can remember a full phrase in the morning, you're not going to need to think about
the rules. General time, specific time. No, you don't need to think about that because you
know the full phrase. So sentences like this are great ways to remember these tricky words.
"In the morning." Let's go to the next question. Number five, my date will be here
5:15. My date will be here in, on, at 5:15. We're talking about time
here. I'll give you three seconds. "My date will be here at 5:15." Hopefully not
5:14. Hopefully not 5:16. 5:15. Maybe not exactly, but you know what I mean. Here, we're talking
about a specific time. 5:15, 6:15, 7:45, at 5:15. All right, let's get to the next one.
Number six, I love to spend summer vacation the mountains. I love to spend summer
vacation in, on, at the mountains. Give you three seconds. Three, two, one.
The best answer for this sentence is, "I love to spend summer vacations in the
mountains." We're not talking about digging a hole in the mountains and going inside the
dirt and the rocks. No, this would really be an enclosed space. In the closet, in the cabinet.
But sometimes we use the idea of an enclosed space a little bit more loosely. So here, we're
talking about being surrounded by the mountains. It's the idea that you're somewhat enclosed in
the warm embrace of the mountains. So sometimes, we do use this a little bit more
loosely, but you can get the idea here. Number seven, we are having dinner. My
favorite restaurant. We're having dinner in, on, at my favorite restaurant. I'll give
you three seconds. Three, two, one. "We are having dinner at my favorite restaurant."
This is a specific place. A specific point, at my favorite restaurant. Well, that's where we're
going to be having dinner. We're having dinner at my favorite restaurant. A specific place.
Number eight. I jumped when he tapped me the shoulder. I jumped when he tapped me
in, on, at the shoulder. Three, two, one. "I jumped when he tapped me on the shoulder."
This is also a little more loose, but we're talking about the surface of my shoulder,
the surface of my skin. "When he tapped me on the shoulder." This is the surface of it. It's
not inside my skin. This is just the surface. He tapped me on the shoulder. How are you doing? We
have two more sentences. Let's go to number nine. Do you have a date Saturday night? Do you have a
date in, on, at Saturday night? Do you remember which one we should use with days like Saturday?
I'll give you three seconds. Three, two, one. "Do you have a date on Saturday
night?" We use on for a specific day, on Saturday, on Friday, on Tuesday.
"Do you have a date on Saturday night?" And our final test question before we
get to five fixed phrases using in, on, and at is this. You can email me
contact@speakenglishwithvanessa.com. This is a common phrase we use in business or whenever you
need to tell someone your email address. So it's a good expression to remember. You can email me
in, on, or at my email address. Three, two, one. "You can email me at
contact@speakenglishwithvanessa.com." This is also a more figurative way to use a specific
place. So we said at my favorite restaurant, at the entrance of the park. But this is not a
place you can go. You can't go physically to my email address. So we're going to use this a little
bit more loosely, and we can say, you can email me at. This is my specific email address. "You can
email me at contact@speakenglishwithvanessa.com." Great. Are you ready for five bonus
fixed phrases that include in, on, or at? These are kind of outside the rules of what
we just talked about, but I want you to look into your heart and to guess which proposition do you
think would be the best fit. Let's look at this sentence. The building is fire. The building
is in, on, at fire. What is the fixed phrase we're looking for here? Three, two, one.
"The building is on fire." Run. So here, we're using the fixed phrase to be on fire.
We can use this in a real way, that there are flames coming up from the building, so get out of
the building. It's on fire. But we can also use this for more figurative ways. For example, you
might say, "My motivation for learning English is on fire from watching Vanessa's video," or talking
about your motivation is on fire. Or we might say, "I'm on fire for English." This is talking about
a more figurative way of talking about fire. Of course there is not fire on you, but we're talking
about in your heart. There is an excitement, there's determination, there's motivation. "I'm
on fire for English." My motivation is on fire, and that is another way to use this expression.
All right, let's go to the next sentence. Do you believe love at first sight? Do
you believe in, on, at love at first sight? Give you three seconds. Three, two, one.
"Do you believe in love at first sight?" Here, our fixed expression is to believe in
something. You can believe in love, you can believe in peace. You can believe in
your ability to learn English. You can believe in something, and this means you have hope that
it will happen. You have high hopes that this will come true. "I believe in love." Wonderful.
Question number 13, he is really good juggling. Juggling is when you throw balls in the
air. He is really good in, on, at juggling. I'll tell you in three, two, one.
"He is really good at juggling." Here we're going to use the fixed expression to
be good at something. This is used all the time. You might say, "I thought that I wasn't
good at English. And then I found Vanessa's lessons and realized it's not too hard. I
can do this." You can be good at English. Number 14, do you have this a smaller
size? This is a common expression when you're shopping. Do you have this in on,
or, at a smaller size? Three, two, one. "Do you have this in a smaller size?" This
expression to be in a size or color is commonly used when we're shopping and we're trying to
find the best thing that we are looking for. So you might say, "Do you have this in a large?
Do you have this in a medium?" Or we can use it for color. "Do you have this in red? Do
you have this in stripes?" Great. This is a great expression to use when you're shopping.
And our final test question. Are you ready? Drum roll, is my date was his phone all night.
It was so rude. My date was in, on, at his phone all night. Such a shame. Three, two, one.
"My date was on his phone all night. It was so rude." He's not actually standing on his phone.
But instead, that means he's using his phone. And this is a common expression, to be on your phone.
Sometimes, you could say this maybe to teenagers. "Hey, get off your phone. You are on your phone
all day. Why are you always on your phone? I wish I wasn't on my phone so much." It doesn't mean
that you're standing on your phone. it just means you are using your phone. So this is a great
fixed expression to note, to be on your phone. So let's do a little review. I'm going to
read all of these sentences one more time, and I would like you to try to say them out loud
with me. Do you think you can do this? Of course you can, because you are good at English.
Let's say all of these sentences together. Did you find your coat in the closet? I
enjoy taking walks early in the morning. I love to spend summer vacation in the mountains.
Do you have this in a smaller size? Do you believe in love at first sight? Oh no. I spilled coffee on
my homework. Do you have a date on Saturday night? I jumped when he tapped me on the shoulder.
The building is on fire. My date was on his phone the whole night. It was so rude. My
favorite cafe is at the end of this street. My date will be here at 5:15. We are having dinner
at my favorite restaurant. You can email me at contact@speakenglishwithvanessa.com.
He is really good at juggling. Great work leveling up your English grammar
skills so that you can feel confident The next time that you speak in English. Don't
forget to download the free PDF worksheet, which includes all five of today's grammar
lessons that you learned in just one hour. You can click on the link in the description to
download that free PDF worksheet today. Well, thank you so much for learning English with me,
and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye.
But wait, do you want more? I recommend watching this video next where you will learn
to think and speak in English. Specifically, you will learn how to talk about your vacation in
English. If you enjoyed the storytelling lesson today, this is the chance to level up those
skills even more. I'll see you there. Bye.
