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When Should You Use Past Simple? Basic English Grammar | Ask Alisha

सुनें/Video/EnglishClass101.com/When Should You Use Past Simple? Basic English Grammar | Ask Alisha

When Should You Use Past Simple? Basic English Grammar | Ask Alisha

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0:00Wanna speak real English from your first lesson?
0:02Sign up for your free lifetime account at EnglishClass101.com.
0:08Hi, everybody.
0:08Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them,
0:14maybe.
0:14First question comes from Myfta.
0:16Hi, again, Myfta.
0:17“What is the difference between ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’ and when can I use them?”
0:23Yeah, good question.
0:24So, both “fate” and “destiny” refer to an outcome in the future.
0:29It's kind of like a big outcome.
0:31We use “fate” and “destiny” when talking about like epic stories, really big stories
0:36or like really kind of big life moments, for example.
0:40The difference in meaning, though, is that “fate” often has a kind of a negative
0:46feeling about it.
0:47Like there's a negative outcome, something bad is going to be the outcome.
0:51“Destiny,” however, sounds like something really positive, something good or maybe like
0:57you're going to have a leadership role or there's something happy that's going to happen
1:01as an outcome.
1:02“It's your destiny to save the world.”
1:04“He accepted his fate and sat in the dark dungeon.”
1:07“We're going to be the leaders in our community.
1:10It's our destiny.”
1:11“Her fate was decided the moment she stole from the company.”
1:15So, you can hear in these sentences, even just the feeling of the sentence, it's kind
1:20of a negative situation or a negative idea with “fate” and something kind of positive
1:26or happy or optimistic with the word “destiny.”
1:28So, that's the difference between them.
1:30Hope that helps.
1:31Thanks for the question.
1:33Next question comes from Shokruk.
1:36I'm very sorry, Shokruk.
1:37“Hi.
1:38Can you explain passive voice?”
1:39Yes, I can.
1:41Actually, I would recommend checking this video where I talked about the difference
1:45between active and passive voice.
1:48I hope that this helps you.
1:50This could be a nice introduction to this grammar point.
1:53So, please check this out.
1:54It's on the channel.
1:55I'll try to make sure a link goes in the description of this video.
1:59Thanks for the question.
2:00Next question comes from Jitu.
2:03Hi.
2:04“How do you use words like ‘sit,’ ‘wear,’ ‘stand,’ ‘live,’ ‘work,’ in simple
2:10past and past continuous tense?
2:13If they're used in these tenses, what is the difference in meaning?
2:17Please explain.”
2:18Okay, sure.
2:19So, a quick grammar review.
2:20We use simple past tense for actions that started and finished in the past.
2:25“I sat at my desk and worked today.”
2:28“She stood next to me and watched me work.”
2:31“I lived in that place for three years.”
2:34Then we use the past continuous or the past progressive tense to talk about actions that
2:39were continuing in the past.
2:41So, we use this when we want to talk about, one, actions that were interrupted.
2:46So, we're doing something, doing something, doing something, and then another action happens
2:50and interrupts it.
2:52Or, when we want to talk about what we were doing at a specific point in time, a continuing
2:58action we were doing at a specific point in time.
3:01So, we don't want to explain it had finished, we only want to explain that it was continuing
3:07at that time.
3:08“I was sitting at my desk working when the phone rang.”
3:11“She was standing next to me, watching me work, when the manager came in.”
3:16“I was living in that place in 2012.”
3:18So, maybe you can see, we use simple past tense for actions that started and finish,
3:24just a simple action like a simple report of that action.
3:27We’ll use the past progressive or the past continuous tense to talk about actions that
3:33continue and then were stopped by another action or to refer to something that was happening
3:39at a specific point in time in the past, something that was continuing like, “I was living
3:44there,” or, “I was working at that company that year,” for example.
3:47So, I hope that that helps a little bit.
3:50Thanks for the question.
3:51Next question!
3:52Next question comes from Pullum Abadi Nusantara.
3:55Pullum, maybe?
3:56Sorry.
3:57“Hi, Alisha.
3:58What is the difference between ‘goes wrong,’ ‘went wrong,’ and ‘gone wrong?’”
4:02Oh, the difference is the point in time.
4:04These are just different points in time where a mistake happens.
4:07So, let's make example sentences to see exactly what the difference is.
4:13“I hope nothing goes wrong with this project.”
4:15“Uh-oh.
4:16Something went wrong with the project.”
4:18“Everything has gone wrong with the project.”
4:20So, here, we see a future tense statement, “I hope nothing goes wrong,” that's a
4:25future, a future request, a future wish, a future hope.
4:29“I hope nothing goes wrong.”
4:31We see a past tense, “Uh-oh.
4:33Something went wrong.”
4:34So, a mistake happened and is finished.
4:36And, “Everything has gone wrong,” it means everything from the beginning of the project
4:43until the present time, everything has been mistaken, there's been some problem with everything
4:49that has continued until the present point in time.
4:53So, these are just different grammar points, different points in time where a mistake happens.
4:58I hope that helps answer your question.
5:00Next question from Dulce Coromoto Putana Vandervelt.
5:05Oh, wow.
5:06I will say, Dulce.
5:07“Hi, Alisha.
5:08What's the difference between ‘on the beach’ and ‘at the beach?’
5:11Also, between ‘to lay’ and ‘to lie.’”
5:14Thank you.
5:15Okay, you have two big questions.
5:16First, the difference between “on the beach” and “at the beach.”
5:20Sure.
5:21So, “on the beach” is used to talk about activities that happen on the surface of the
5:26beach, things that are like about the surface, like the sand itself, physically on the beach.
5:32“I want to enjoy the Sun on the beach.”
5:34“He found a shell on the beach.”
5:36“At the beach,” however, is for activities that happen there.
5:40They aren’t on physically, like the surface of the beach.
5:44It's just four things that happen in that location.
5:47“Let's go swimming at the beach.”
5:48“She said to meet at the beach.”
5:50So, I hope that helps answer that question.
5:53Let's go on to your next question which is more difficult.
5:56“Lay” and “lie,” the difference between these two.
5:59Actually, native speakers confuse these all the time.
6:02So, if you make a mistake, don't worry too much about it.
6:05The difference is “lay,” the verb, “lay,” in present tense uses a direct object.
6:11“Lie” does not use a direct object.
6:13“Lay down your bag here.”
6:15“Lie down on the sofa.”
6:16But, this gets more complicated because the past tense form of the verb, “lie” is
6:23“lay.”
6:24“He lay down on the sofa.”
6:25“We lay down and went to sleep.”
6:27The past tense of “lay,” however, is “laid.”
6:30“We laid our bags on the table.”
6:33“She laid her keys on the desk.”
6:35So, the difference between these two is just that one verb takes a direct object and one
6:40verb does not.
6:42In most cases, you're not going to cause any communication problems by making a mistake
6:47with one of these.
6:48Native speakers do it all the time.
6:50But if you want to know the difference, that's what the difference is.
6:53Hope that helps.
6:54Next question comes from Imon.
6:55Hi, again, Imon.
6:57“What does ‘there's still a lot of room for improvement’ mean?”
7:01Yeah, nice question.
7:02It means improvement is still possible.
7:05This is an expression that's used to give like criticism and encouragement.
7:10So, the speaker is communicating to the listener.
7:13Like, “I think you can do better,” something better is possible.
7:18“There's room for improvement” means something better than this is still possible.
7:23So, “I think you can do better than this.”
7:26Alright.
7:27Those are all the questions that I want to answer for this week.
7:30Thank you, as always, for sending me your great questions.
7:33Remember, you can send them to me at EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha.
7:38If you liked the video, please make sure to give us a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel
7:42and check us out at EnglishClass101.com for some other good study tools.
7:47Thanks very much for watching this episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next week.
7:51Bye-bye.
7:52Such air traffic. Many plane.