Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Hello.

  • Welcome to Living English.

  • In today's program we look at how to ask about the Past.

  • Remember Anne went to see John the private investigator.

  • And asked him to help her to find her brother.

  • In today's episode Anne tells John more about her brother.

  • Let's see what she says.

  • My brother, David, worked in the family business too.

  • But he didn't like it.

  • He wanted to try something different.

  • So what happened?

  • My parents agreed.

  • [...] come to [...] to study.

  • Where did he go?

  • He came here, to Adelaide.

  • He studied computer science.

  • We thought he was happy.

  • And [...].

  • I don't know.

  • He wrote every week and then the letters stopped.

  • And do you know where he lived?

  • He stayed with an Australian family.

  • Here's the address.

  • Did you find them?

  • Yes, of course.

  • He left over a year ago.

  • But I don't know where he went.

  • Does he have a mobile phone?

  • I don't know. He did but he doesn't answer it now.

  • Don't worry Ms Lee.

  • I'll find your brother.

  • I wonder what has happened to Anne's brother.

  • You have to keep watching our program to find out.

  • Anne had to tell the private investigator about things in the past.

  • We change the way we say certain words if we're talking about the past.

  • Listen to how Anne does this.

  • My brother, David, worked in the family business too.

  • Which word tells us that Anne is talking about the past?

  • Listen again.

  • My brother, David, worked in the family business too.

  • The word that tells us that Anne is talking about the past is 'worked'.

  • It's a verb.

  • Verbs are words of action.

  • Or doing words.

  • Such as 'run' and 'work'.

  • They're setting different ways to show when the action is.

  • There are four ways to say most verbs.

  • Let's look at the ways of saying the verb 'work'.

  • The basic form is 'work'.

  • I work hard.

  • After 'he', 'she', or 'it' we say 'works'.

  • She works hard.

  • John works hard.

  • These are called the simple present tense.

  • They describe things people do all the time or every day.

  • To talk about right now we say 'working'.

  • I'm working hard now.

  • This is called present continuous tense.

  • And to talk about the past we say 'worked'.

  • I worked hard yesterday.

  • This is called past tense.

  • The most common sound we use on the end of words to form the past tense is 'd'.

  • Work.

  • Worked.

  • See how we spell the sound 'd'.

  • Now try saying 'worked' with Anne.

  • My brother, David, worked in the family business too.

  • Let's listen for some more verbs with this d past tense form.

  • He studied computer science.

  • He studied.

  • 'Studied' is the past tense of 'study'.

  • Repeat this with the clip.

  • He studied computer science.

  • Now listen for another past tense with the 'd' sound on the end.

  • He stayed with an Australian family.

  • He stayed.

  • 'Stayed' is the past tense of 'stay'.

  • Most verbs have this sort of past tense.

  • We call them regular verbs.

  • It would be easy if all verbs were regular.

  • But some are different.

  • Listen.

  • He wrote every week and then the letters stopped.

  • 'Wrote' is the past tense of 'write'.

  • Not 'writed'.

  • We call this sort of verbs irregular.

  • Try saying 'he wrote every week' with the clip.

  • He wrote every week.

  • In the next clip see if you can hear the past tense of 'think'.

  • We thought he was happy.

  • The past tense of 'think' is 'thought'.

  • It's spelled in a strange way but it's easy to say 'thoght'.

  • Try saying 'We thought he was happy'.

  • We thought he was happy.

  • Did you notice the other verb used all the time in Englich in its past tense form?

  • Listen again.

  • We thought he was happy.

  • 'Was' is the other verb in its past tense form.

  • 'Was' is one of the forms of the verb 'to be'.

  • It's so important.

  • And you need to know how to use it.

  • When we are talking about the present, about now...

  • ... we use 'is'.

  • He is happy now.

  • To talk about the past we say...

  • ... 'He was happy yesterday'.

  • And you can say 'I was happy' or 'She was happy'.

  • But you must say 'You were happy',

  • ... 'They were happy',

  • ... and 'We were happy'.

  • Both 'was' and 'were' are past tense.

  • Have a try using the right one the talking about the past.

  • I ... happy.

  • I was happy.

  • They ... happy.

  • They were happy.

  • You ... happy.

  • You were happy.

  • He ... happy.

  • He was happy.

  • It's time to say 'hello' to Michelle.

  • Hello Michelle.

  • Hello Brenton.

  • Hello everyone.

  • What are we going to do today?

  • We are going to talk about the past.

  • How to ask about the past.

  • And how to say things so that people know what time you are talking about.

  • You can start by asking me about my past.

  • Okay.

  • You are very smart.

  • Did you go to university?

  • Yes, I did.

  • I enjoyed university.

  • I studied drama.

  • It was fun.

  • Now pretend that we travel back to the time I was at university.

  • And ask me about it.

  • Alright.

  • Do you go to university?

  • Yes, I do.

  • I enjoy university.

  • I study drama.

  • It's fun.

  • Now you're in the present.

  • Yes.

  • Ask me about the past again.

  • Did you go to university?

  • Yes, I did.

  • I enjoyed university.

  • I studied drama.

  • It was fun.

  • Now what word changed?

  • Well 'enjoy' became 'enjoyed'.

  • What else?

  • You said 'It's fun' for the present...

  • ... and 'It was fun' for the past.

  • And?

  • We both said 'did' instead of 'do' for the past.

  • Yes.

  • Michelle, did you get our coffee?

  • Yes, I did.

  • It's just over there.

  • I'll come to get it.

  • Now listen to John use the word 'did' to ask about the past.

  • Where did he go?

  • He came here, to Adelaide.

  • Sit down Michelle.

  • What did you just do?

  • I sat down like you sit.

  • Ah, so 'sat' is the past tense of 'sit'.

  • Let's look at some more past tense verbs.

  • First, stand - stood.

  • Stand up Brenton.

  • What did he do?

  • He stood up.

  • Smile.

  • Smiled.

  • Smile Michelle.

  • What did she do?

  • She smiled.

  • Go - went.

  • Go away Brenton.

  • What did he do?

  • He went away.

  • Come - came.

  • Come back Brenton!

  • What did he do?

  • He came back.

  • Catch - caught.

  • Michelle catch this.

  • What did she do?

  • She caught the ball.

  • Let's see a few things listening carefully.

  • It's your turn to talk about the past.

  • Try saying what happened using the past tense.

  • Michelle ... down.

  • Michelle sat down.

  • Brenton ... up.

  • Brenton stood up.

  • Michelle ...

  • Michelle smiled.

  • Brenton ... away.

  • Brenton went away.

  • Yes, but I came back.

  • We hope you enjoyed our trip into the past.

  • We learned how to use 'was' and 'were'.

  • And some of the ways that verbs are said in the past tense.

  • In our next episode we're going to go into the future.

  • And find out how to talk about things we want to have.

  • And as usual we leave you with another look at today's episode of 'Sisters and Brothers'.

  • See if you can hear how many past tense verbs there are.

  • How many are there?

  • Well.

  • There're more than twenty.

  • Good luck and see you next time.

  • Bye.

  • My brother, David, worked in the family business too.

  • But he didn't like it.

  • He wanted to try something different.

  • So what happened?

  • My parents agreed.

  • [...] come to [...] to study.

  • Where did he go?

  • He came here, to Adelaide.

  • He studied computer science.

  • We thought he was happy.

  • And [...].

  • I don't know.

  • He wrote every week and then the letters stopped.

  • And do you know where he lived?

  • He stayed with an Australian family.

  • Here's the address.

  • Did you find them?

  • Yes, of course.

  • He left over a year ago.

  • But I don't know where he went.

  • Does he have a mobile phone?

  • I don't know. He did but he doesn't answer it now.

  • Don't worry Ms Lee.

  • I'll find your brother.

Hello.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it