martes, 19 de marzo de 2013

Real English series: Past simple and 'used to'

Básico 2 and Intermediate 1 students are going to find this week's Real English videos more than interesting.

In the first video, passers-by answer the question What did you do yesterday? As you can imagine, the answers are varied and will help us develop our listening skills and vocabulary alike.

Remember that we use the auxiliary verb did with all the persons to make questions and negative in the past simple.

Did you enjoy the film?
Did she enjoy the film?



You can watch the same video with subtitles on the Real English site here.
And you can do an interactive exercise on the Real English site here.

In the second video, passers-by answer a number of questions, which are all in the present:

What does your dad do?
What’s your best dish?
Do you often eat out?
Do you think you’re a quiet or talkative person?
Can you play any musical instruments?

The interviewees use the verb used to in their anwsers, which is used in English to talk about habits in the past.

Be careful, used to is only used in the past. To talk about habits in the present we simply use the present simple or we use the present simple with a frequency adverb like 'always', 'usually'.

As a child I used to go to my school cinema on Sundays.

For negatives and questions, used to functions as any other verb:
I didn't use to go to the cinema as a child.
Did you use to go to the cinema as a child?



You can watch the same video with subtitles on the Real English site here.
You can do an interactive exercise on the Real English site here.