#Ep. 13 Past Tense Practice Part 2

Unlock the secrets of the past tense with Learn English with Natalie! Ever wondered how to confidently express past actions without stumbling over grammar rules? 

This episode promises to equip you with the tools to form negative sentences and questions in the past tense effortlessly. Through engaging examples and interactive practice rounds, you'll learn to use "did not" and "didn't" correctly, maintaining the base verb form and removing any guesswork from negative sentence construction. Whether it's about missing calls or skipping gym sessions, our my turn, your turn format ensures you can practice and perfect your skills in a supportive environment.

The adventure continues as we delve into crafting questions about past events, using "did" to lead the way. Curious if someone completed their assignment or attended that concert? We've got you covered with straightforward guidance and practical examples that make mastering past tense questions a breeze. This episode is a must-listen for anyone keen to articulate their experiences with precision and confidence, forming part of our insightful mini-series on English tenses. Join us and elevate your past tense communication, transforming your language skills from hesitant to assured.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Are you struggling to understand how to use the past tense correctly? If that sounds like you, then you're in the right place. Welcome to Learn English with Natalie. This is part of my mini-series focusing on the use of correct tenses in the English language. Today, we are going to be learning about the past tense Now. Last episode, we discussed regular and irregular learning about the past tense. Now. Last episode, we discussed regular and irregular verbs in the past tense. If you haven't watched that yet, then you may want to check it out, because this is a great place to start your past tense learning In English.

Speaker 1: 0:38

Discussing the past tense is essential for sharing personal experiences, stories and events that have already happened. Today we've got some new learning, and today we're going to be forming negative sentences in the past tense and forming questions in the past tense. Now, to make a negative sentence in the past tense, we use the words did not, followed by the base form of the verb Now you could say did not or didn't and then the base form of the word, so we don't need to add any suffixes to the words in this scenario. I'll give you an example. I visited my friend yesterday. I'll give you an example. I visited my friend yesterday. That's a positive example of using the past tense with the regular verb visited. Now I'm going to give you a negative sentence. I didn't visit my friend yesterday. Did you notice that on the second example I didn't need to add ed on the verb visit? I'll read them both again. Positive sentence I visited my friend yesterday. Negative sentence I didn't visit my friend yesterday. So a top tip for learning English here Do not change the main verb. In the negative form Didn't already indicates that you're talking about the past, so you don't need to add the ed or change the verb in any way to its past tense form.

Speaker 1: 2:22

We're going to have a look at some examples now. We're going to have a practice round. Some examples now. We're going to have a practice round and we're going to do this in a my turn, your turn format, so you have a chance to practice your English vocabulary. Here we go. My turn I didn't go to the gym yesterday. Your turn, your turn Wonderful. She didn't finish her project on time. Your turn Brilliant. They didn't eat breakfast this morning. Your turn, wonderful. We didn't watch the movie last night. Your turn, wonderful. We didn't watch the movie last night. Your turn Fantastic. He didn't call me back. Your turn, lovely. And finally, I didn't see her at the party. Your turn, excellent.

Speaker 1: 3:31

And you will notice let me reiterate that point we do not need to change our base verb. We don't need to turn it into a past tense form of the verb because we have already used the word didn't tense form of the verb, because we have already used the word didn't. Now we're going to go on to forming some questions in the past tense. To ask a question in the past tense, we start with the word did. Can you say that Did Lovely. So we use did, then the subject of the sentence, which I'll come to in a second, and then the base form of the verb. So the subject of the sentence is the person or thing you're relating to, like she, he, you, they. I'll give you an example Did you watch?

Speaker 1: 4:26

That's my verb. Watch. Did you watch the movie last night? So did you? That's my subject. Watch is my verb the movie last night. Another example night. Another example Did she enjoy her trip?

Speaker 1: 4:49

Let's move on to a practice round. So again, I'm going to give you some sentences. We're going to do this in a my turn, your turn format, my turn. Did you go to the party on Saturday? Your turn, wonderful, my turn. Did she finish her assignment? Your turn, excellent. Did they enjoy the concert last night? Your turn, brilliant, my turn. Did you meet him at the cafe? Your turn, wonderful. And finally, did he call you yesterday? Your turn, fantastic.

Speaker 1: 5:49

Now I'm just going to go over the verbs we spoke about in those sentences. We used go, finish, enjoy, meet and call, and notice that we did not have to change them into their past tense form, because the word did already did that for us. Finally, here's your activity for this week. I want you to write a list of five past tense questions that you could ask your friend about their week and, if you're feeling confident to, you could send me an example of your work on TikTok or YouTube at Learn English with Natalie, so you can tag me there.

Speaker 1: 6:32

I'm also available on Patreon and for those of you who are looking to extend your learning even further and absolutely love reading, I have got my book club available, but it's for the book nerds only, only for those who are really interested in furthering their English through stories. Okay, so I release four extra episodes every single month where I dive into a classic or modern English novel. We go into new vocabulary and it's a great way for you to improve your English by learning English through stories and learning English through books. Thank you so much for joining me again and make sure that you pop by next week where we cover more learning about the different tenses. I hope you enjoyed.