How to Tell a Story in English? Explaining the Very Recent Past

we're on great ty everybody welcome back to our weekly live stream my name is Alisha and today we are going to talk about the very recent past the very recent past so today's lesson is going to be very grammar focused I'm going to review the simple past tense first to begin then we're going to talk about using just a lot I'm going to explain using just just about to and just with progressive tense verbs so I'm also going to explain this sort of diagram I created this timeline so I hope that you can find kind of some more specific ways to explain your recent actions your recent behaviors I'm also going to talk quickly about making questions especially simple past tense questions and questions with just so we've just started so we're going to give a couple minutes to our learners to join the live stream we'll begin the lesson in about two minutes so when you arrive please make sure to send a message in the chat I see lots of you are there already make sure to LIKE the video too so other students can find it hi everybody I see you on YouTube Mohammed and Rhea and another Muhammad and Henry K Rafael Danielson Daria Nicolas Raimundo someone whose name in Thai I can't read sorry or non Wan hi and yes we are broadcasting on Instagram at the same time we have a behind-the-scenes view so you can watch both I guess if you like I'm on Facebook yah and Saul and snappy I'm sorry I don't know hi everybody welcome welcome we're going to start soon quickly one I guess one announcement point for today I was so excited to see to see this video on the channel so I wanted to mention it this this was I tweeted about this but we had a channel sort of challenge a viewer participation challenge for the first time ever where you guys everybody out there you could send us a video or an audio recording of yourself using English and introducing yourself and some of you guys thank you so much you sent in videos and I saw that this week and I was so moved that was really really cool to see you and to hear from you so if you sent that in thank you so so much there's going to be another chance to do that soon so please you can find this video on the channel now so check that out if you're interested and you want to send us a video so thank you so so much to the people who participated in that that was awesome that was really really cool okay so with that said there's other stuff to check out on the channel too but we're about three minutes into the lesson so I think I want to begin yes okay so as I said before today we're talking about the very recent past no the very recent past means I'm going to review a simple past tense I'm going to talk about the word just a lot today too so we're going to focus a lot on grammar paste and share okay so let's get started I'm going to start today with simple past tense points just to review so simple past I've kind of put this on a diagram here a reminder about the simple past tense is that we use the simple past tense for fart I'm crazy here in there oh so we use simple past tense for an action that started and finished in the past so on this timeline on this timeline I have past so past is down here I'll move to this side sorry past is down here then there's simple past this is kind of my simple past point here is present so present means now where we are at this point in time this direction is the future so a simple past statement is something that started and finished in the past so you can imagine maybe this is the start point of my action the blue dot is like the finish point of the action this is what we use simple past tense communicate so it's a complete the action is finished it's done so when we make simple past tense statements we have two patterns that we follow that's two patterns that we follow it depends on the type of verb that you use though so if you're using a regular verb you'll use the verb plus an IDI ending basically so for example I walked she left he worked these are all examples of regular verbs in the simple past tense so again we use just a plain verb form and we add edy to the end to make a simple past tense statement so for example I wrote on the board is an example of an irregular verb that's the second part here so an irregular irregular means not regular this prefix ear ear means not so that's a little boy ear regular not regular verbs so that means that there's no rule for these verbs to make the simple past tense so you have to memorize the past tense forms of these verbs for example we ate or they slept or I just said I wrote so that's a recent action that happens so this is how we make simple past tense so if you want to talk about your actions very simply you can use simple past tense to do that when you make questions with simple past tense you'll change the structure of your sentence you'll change the way you make the sentence a little bit I have two kind of basic question patterns here the first one is a I have a wh question by wh I mean who what where when why how so these information questions yeah so this kind of question this is a very basic question like what did you do for example or like where did you go so we're asking for information from the listener who did you meet you'll notice when you make a question though you don't need to change the verb if you're making a past tense question so here it says present verb this means present tense form of your verb don't use the simple past form of the verb yes it's a past tense question but the verb does not change so what did you do where did you eat and you can change this part so I'm using you a lot that's a very common pattern where did you go who did you see but you can change this like what did he say or where did she go for example so this is a very simple question pattern that you can use for simple past tense okay another one that you can use is this did this one starts with did for example did he eat dinner already for example so these kinds of questions are yes/no questions the answer to this is like a yes simple yes or a No so like I said did he eat dinner or like did she see that report for example so again when you're making the question we use the present tense form of the verb we don't use the past tense form of the verb okay so this is the quick review to the basic simple past tense that I want to talk about so again an important thing to remember is that this is something that just happened in the past like it's it's like the most basic way to explain that something is finished it happened so this is often accompanied meaning we use it together with something like yesterday or last week or this morning so there's like a specific time that we know about okay so with that I want to in the next part of the lesson talk a bit about some more specific words and some more specific grammar points that you can use to explain more specific actions but for now let's take a quick break because that was a lot of talking about grammar so a quick break I chose a few things I want to share with you guys during the break we have free stuff as always but I was thinking about what might be useful for you in talking about your past actions so I know many of you like to travel I know many of you like eating as well not so many of you like shopping but I chose a couple of things I thought would be helpful to go along with today's lesson that I will show over here hello so I chose these PDFs that I thought might be nice to practice these grammar points with um this is the this is the hotel cheat sheet so I know many of you travel or you study in other countries so this is vocabulary and questions you can use at your hotel but you can change some of these to past tense like if you are talking it's a little blurry sorry if you're talking to someone in your organization you can change these questions - past tense questions so for example on this sheet I'm sorry on this sheet it says like I'd like to check in so we can use that same expression check in and make it past tense like I just checked in at my hotel when you're sharing with someone else so I think these are some nice examples of vocabulary and expressions that you can use with today's grammar point to explain something you've completed very recently so I'll show you a couple more later but I thought these might be good to use with today's information so check these out these are free there's others too you can find these from the link below the video on YouTube and above the video on Facebook please check the description for the video not at the chat box okay I'll show you a couple of other things later but for now let's continue to the next the next part of today's lesson if you're just joining today's lesson is about the very recent past this is kind of a key the very recent past so I started by explaining simple past tense if you missed that no problem you can watch this video later I want to go on to talking about just and just about to now so these two points right here I've also placed these on this timeline so I want to start with this part this just plus your simple past tense verb so we use just in a simple past tense verb to talk about a very recent action that's that's like it's finished so for example I just explained simple past tense if you are watching you saw that I just explained simple past tense this is a very recent action it's finished it's done I just explained here's my past tense verb that explained becomes explained in simple past tense I just explained simple past tense very recent in your case you just saw a free PDF for example so I showed you the PDF that was a very recent action I can say you just saw a free PDF here I'm using just plus my simple past tense verb so what's the difference why is this important if I remove just here it doesn't have the same feeling of something that's very recent yes these sentences are okay like for example I explained simple past tense or you saw a free PDF there's no communication problem there that's a great sentence but we don't have the feeling of something that happened really recently there so to give that like in a visual representation to see that visually we can imagine if this star is the present so this start is our point now when we use simple past tense it's just something that happened before like yesterday this morning this week when we use just as I just did with a simple past tense verb we understand it happened very recently so if it's star is now this is something that occurred it happened so I used a check mark here this means it's finished it's done very recently so you can use just to give that feeling so it communicates a lot actually in a very very short period of time so I just explained this to you okay nice you guys are sending some good sentences I just watched your live video ah though that's a good point a mere soit is motive on YouTube sorry when you when you use this when you use this grammar point an important thing is that the action is finished the action is finished so right now if you're watching live we can't use I just watched your live video because it's continuing now right now you are watching progressive tense so we can't use it for something that has not finished because this video is continuing right now yeah so we have to use it for an action that's done it's finished it's complete so I just saw a PDF is great or I just liked the video for example so these are things that are finished you need to choose an action that is done it's complete so any other ones I just ate a banana thanks for sharing Raphael that's good I just got home great example on Facebook I just finished my breakfast don't forget simple past tense past tense verb there I just finished my breakfast uh I just got up from my bed nice okay you just expressed your satisfaction I did indeed okay I just finished my homework nice Marcelo great I just examined my patient Oh interesting good okay I just noticed excellent you guys got it you guys have got it great good good good I just started watching this live lesson nice one who is that miss doll yeah I just started watching this live lesson perfect you guys have got it nice nice I just joined your class so remember you guys have the right idea don't forget to make your verb simple past tense I talked about it here if it's a regular verb at d if it's an irregular verb you need to remember the simple past tense form nice one okay so you guys have that really nicely let's move on to the second point for this part then the second point very similar sounding but there's a key difference here so I have here was or were plus just about two plus a present tense verb so here I use simple past for this point we're going to talk about present the present tense verb here so just about to do something means this was a planned action this was a planned action we intended to do that thing but it did not happen this is something that did not happen this one it did happen this one did not happen so for example she was just about to call you she was just about to call to to call you but it did not happen so to imagine this visually I showed you this this check mark here for just plus a simple past tense verb this is for something that did happen with this grammar point just about to with your present tense verb this is something that did not happen in the very recent past you had a plan to do it but you did not maybe there was a problem you were interrupted but you want to communicate that you had a plan this is very useful for like phone calls and emails and things like that like I was just about to email you I was just about to call you he was just about to leave we were just about to eat dinner for example just about to but it did not happen this is a key difference here so any thoughts this one's a little bit more difficult something you had a plan to do but did not do so like I was just about to what to drink some water or something like that my coworker interrupted me nice one I was just about to call a friend of mine for dinner great that sounds good I was just about to fall down that's a little bit weird because if you fall down it's probably an accident yeah so I was just about to do a planned action I was just about to do something Marco on Facebook she was just about to call you good yeah that's perfect that's perfect he was just about he was about to go to the market but was interrupted by rain okay nice idea I was just about to call my boss yeah good I was just about to eat some apples okay nice one I was just about to go to the gym nice I was just about to text you perfect yeah great sentences you guys I was just about to go to bed nice nice she was just about to punish her son oh my gosh such drama in the YouTube chat I was just about to take a bath just about ah I was at one point a couple of you in the chat don't forget this right here sorry I didn't talk a lot about this this was or worth it so if your subject is I I was just about to use was if your subject is like Wii or you use worth you were just about to go to bed you were just about to eat dinner weren't you so make sure this part agrees with your subject I was he was she was you were we were they were another point to think about nice that sounds great I was just about to hang out with my friends nicely done really great these are nice I was just about to drink a beer whoo that sounds good a little early for us perhaps okay I was just about to do my homework when I saw that the video started streaming whoo this can be sort of like homework right it's like studying surely okay um you were just about to show your new cheat sheets perhaps perhaps maybe you don't know my plan okay I'm just teasing I was just about to go to sleep but this lesson started great great nice one it's really nice job okay sounds good I think you have it so don't forget yeah again don't forget this this verb point I was or you were don't forget you're was or were you're linking verb there yeah okay great that sounds good so let's take one more break and then we'll go to the last point for today's lesson so again I wanted to focus on some things that I thought were useful to use with this grammar point I talked a little bit about like hotel related vocabulary that you can use but I thought another one that would be really good with this grammar is just travel related vocabulary so there are kind of like some I'll show you some big sightseeing spots this is just an example like for example if you want to talk about sightseeing spots these are some ones in the US you can talk about those with just like if you're visiting the US and you want to describe going to like Times Square in New York you can say I just went to Times Square for example or I just went to Disneyland for example so you can pair this grammar with like with locations and with verbs that you know to kind of communicate a little more specifically so travel is another nice one I was thinking um food is also a good one I'll just I won't show it on that one but food is another good one like I just ate this really good lunch for example so these are a couple of good ones to use with today's grammar but there are a lot of these so please check the link in the description below the video on YouTube and above the video on Facebook to get this stuff for free so please check this out it's an English class 101.com okay fantastic Wow look at all these people watching that's fantastic hi everybody so make sure to hit the like button too so learners can find the video we really appreciate it yeah okay awesome awesome so with that let's continue to the final grammar point for today we've talked about the simple past tense and making some questions with simple past tense we also talked about just with a simple past tense verb and just about - with the present tense verb if you missed it don't worry this video is being recorded you can check it later I want to finish today with this point this last point is using a different form of the verb so we're using just again and as we talked about in the last point I'm going to use was and word here was just plus a progressive verb so progressive a reminder progressive is the I n G something something ing form of the verb or maybe you know the continuous form of the verb so when we use this we're talking about continuing actions in the very recent past so an example we were just watching that movie we were just watching that movie or for example I was just explaining a PDF or I was just explaining just about - for example so I can talk about an action that was continuing in the very recent past so again to kind of give a visual of this again if this is our point present the present is now our conversation now if I want to talk about something that was continuing in the past so here these two are like single actions they started or they finished they're done but when we use this grammar point just plus the progressive verb we're talking about something that was like continuing it was happening over a period of time so this is one that we can use to talk about like the very recent past like a moment ago I just talking about simple past tense but depending on the conversation you might hear people use it to talk about something that happened yesterday but it's maybe if you haven't seen that person for a while it might seem like a very recent event so some it doesn't always mean just a moment ago but you can kind of understand from the conversation that it's just in general about a very recent time period so let's think of some more examples so my examples again where we were just watching that movie so we were just watching that movie could mean last night it's a very recent time period within the context of the conversation so we were just watching that movie I was just talking about a PDF you were just watching TV we were just eating breakfast for example so very recent activities okay we were just calling you Sayid okay that could be that could be it like if you were trying to call someone and you wanted to explain that cool that could work that could work nice okay um can I use verb to be plus about without just I was ah like I was I was watching a movie yes I think that's your question Josh Josh on YouTube can you use verb to be with without just yes you can but the feeling of something very recent will disappear so if you want to communicate something very recently happened just it's very useful for them so the sentence is grammatically correct yes nice ones I was just watching your video also though just just keep in mind just keep in mind this is for something again that is finished it's like it's done so again you're watching the video now so it's not a complete it's not finish yeah so if for example if you're watching this video and someone interrupts you like a family member comes into the room you can explain oh I was just watching a video because for that moment you stop watching this video and you talked to the family member so we use this again it's an action that stopped so you'll notice I'm not continuing this past the present this is something that finishes it can be a pause yeah but you've finished that thing so I was just watching that so Josh your question I was about to go to bed yes yes you can use that that's grammatically correct I was just talking with G nice awesome I was just talking about your online English class really yeah okay I was just studying an English text nice one not ton each a nice one I was just thinking about you perfect good I was just cleaning my room nice ones okay I was just I was just going to sleep and then I heard your notification fantastic fantastic thank you for joining us great nice example sentences everyone I was just eating my dinner great fantastic I was reading a book okay um I was just going to sleep fantastic okay lots of great example sentences I think you've got it so I think I make this to make the differences between these four points pretty clear so I hope that this helps you but yes to answer that question that I saw you don't have to use just in these cases if you remove just you remove like that feeling of something very recent happening so the sentence is still grammatically correct okay but that's all that I have for today I'm not going to talk too much today I was just cooking my breakfast great examples everybody thank you okay so if you have any other questions please send them in the chat and I will check them later and I'll try to answer them in a video or in some form at some in some case okay um so I'll finish up there for today's topic about just in the very recent past thank you so much for all the great sentences and for your questions that was awesome really awesome we will be back as always at the same time next week next week October 17th Wednesday October 17th 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time that is New York City time if you don't know your local time you can google it or as many of you said just get the notification so sign up for the notification on Facebook or on YouTube and you'll get a little announcement when we begin so please join us next week we are going to talk about how to talk about food so I've talked about this in live streams a couple of times before but I'm gonna I'm gonna review a little bit and then talk a little bit more about some new points too so please join us to practice talking about food and food-related expressions next Wednesday Wednesday evening perhaps or Thursday morning depending on where you are in the world but I'll finish there for today so thank you again for liking the video and for sharing the video for sending all of your awesome those are really awesome example sentences don't forget as I said there is free stuff for you to check out in the description below the video on YouTube and above the video on Facebook so there's this some vocabulary points you can practice with today's grammar so definitely check this out this is all in English class 101.com will finish there for today so thank you so so much enjoy the rest of your day enjoy the rest of your night to enjoy your weekend and I will see you again next week bye bye you

Channel: Learn English with EnglishClass101.com

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Keywords: englishclass101.com, englishclass101, learn english, easy, fast, longplay, compilation, fun, simple, learn while you sleep, english exposure, english immersion, get better at english, live, livestream, tv, english tv, american english, british english, tell a story, story in english, how to tell a story, very recent past, past tense, past tense in english, english past, english stories

Id: h32BTumAQdE

Length: 30min 8sec (1808 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 10 2018