In our Real English video series we start dealing with the past simple.
In the first video a group of passers-by answer the question Were you good at school?
Remember the status of special verb of 'to be' in English. It doesn't need an auxiliry verb for questions or negatives. To make questions, we simple put 'was/were' before the subject.
Were you good at school?
Yes, I was [good at school].
No, I wasn't [good at school].
Was your sister good at school?
Yes, she was.
No, she wasn't.
Some of the speakers use the expressions 'so-so', which means 'not particularly good or bad'.
The adjective 'good' is always followed by the preposition 'at'.
You can watch the clip with subtitles on the Real English site here.
In the second video, the interviewer draws our attention to the contrast between present and past, and between the auxiliary verbs for the present and the past. He only asks two questions:
What do you usually do on Saturday night?
Auxiliary 'do' ('does' for the 3rd person singular -he, she, it) to refer to activities we do regularly. In the question, the use of the frequency adverb 'usually' emphasizes the idea that we are talking about a routine.
The second question refers to the past simple:
What did you do last Saturday night?
We use the auxiliary 'did' with all the persons, without exception, to talk about past situations and activities.
You can watch the video clip with English subtitles on the Real English site here.
