Madrid Teacher: Anecdotes -walking home at night

In our Madrid Teacher series this week two teachers tell us about a scary situation when they were walking home late at night.

This gives us the opportunity to see the way they talk about past situations and the way they combine the use of the past continuous (for longer, background situations) and the past simple (shorter actions that interrupt the action in the past continuous).

Self-study activity:
Listen to the two teachers telling their anecdotes. Try to take some (telegraphic) notes of the main ideas in their anecdotes.

Listen as often as necessary until you feel you've got the grasp of what really happened to them.

Then retell the teachers' anecdotes in their own words. Make a point of using the past simple and past continuous all the time, and don't jump to the present.

Finally, can you think about a scary situation in your life? Retell the anecdote using the past continuous and past simple.

The activity is suitable for Intermediate 1 students.



So, something really strange happened to me yesterday.
OK.
I was walking home, and it was quite late, and it was a bit dark, it was like eight o’clock and it gets dark now. And I was walking through from the train station to my house and there is like this forest, a mini forest, that I had to walk through and it was a bit scary. Ah, sometimes, you know, you see shadows and you think you see people.
OK.
And I was walking through and suddenly saw the figure of this woman between the trees. And…
Scary.
Yeah, a little bit. It was like a woman in ah, she was wearing like white, white clothes it was a bit strange. I wasn’t expecting to see anyone at that time. And then she started coming towards me and but it was like she was walking, it was like she was floating or something.
OK.
And I got a bit scared. And I… anyway started running, and I was running and I fell down and then when I looked up she was standing above me. She had a really strange white face, it was like she was a ghost or something. And she just said… “Don’t come in here again.” And I just jumped up and ran home. I was just like really scared. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. And I’ve been in that forest again, and I‘ve never seen her again.
OK.
Don’t know who she was or what she was doing… She might have been just a drunk who lived in the forest, but I don’t want to have to go through there again.
Is there any other way you can get home or?
Yeah, but it would have to be a bit longer, and I was thinking of leaving my bicycle in the train station, but I heard that if you leave your bike there people might steal it, or a friend of mine did leave his bike there and they slashed his tyres, so…
OK.
So, anything strange has happen to you before or any interesting stories?
Well, one day… similar. I was walking home. I was walking home, but… er… not through a forest. No, no. I was just walking on the sidewalk, and I was just walking and it was getting dark. It was bit earlier than in your case. It was getting dark, and suddenly yes  I saw a group of teenagers, you know, a group of teenagers.
They can be very dangerous.
Well, let’s just say it was uncomfortable to pass next to them.
Did they say anything to you?
Well, it wasn’t so much what they said… it was just you know it was a group. It was group of five or six so it was the way they looked. So, it wasn’t… yeah… they didn’t really say but they looked very strangely. So, well I had nowhere to go let’s say so, I had to go straight and they were on the right. I had just to keep walking, but you got the sensation.
Yeah, but nothing happened.
No, no again, this was just one time. I guess they were coming back from a late class or something but it was uncomfortable.
Yeah, you have to be careful walking home at night.

Madrid Teacher series: Victoria's last weekend

This week's lesson in our Madrid Teacher series is devoted to Básico 2 and Intermediate 1 students. Victoria tells us about her last weekend.

The three-minute video clip is a good opportunity to revise the past simple in English.

First of all, watch the video through to get the general idea of Victoria's last weekend.
Now let's watch the video again but this time let's pay attention to the different verbs Victoria uses to refer to her routine at the weekend. We are just going to focus on the verbs in the past simple, both regular and irregular ones.
To make the activity a bit easier, we are going to divide Victoria's weekend in five different parts:
Friday evening
Saturday morning
Saturday after lunch
Saturday evening
Sunday

Watch the segment corresponding to each of the parts above and note down the verbs in the past simple Victoria uses. Yes this is a kind of dictation. Careful! Victoria is a fast talker. You may have to stop the video to be able to note down the verbs.

You can check your answers by reading the transcript below, where the the verbs in the past simple are highlighted.

What about you? What did you do at the weekend? Was it a typical weekend for you?



Hi, I’m Victoria Fontana from MadridTeacher.com and this is a video to help you learn English. Today we’re going to be talking about the past tense and studying a little bit about how to pronounce the past tense and I’m going to tell you about what I did last weekend to do this. Please pay careful attention to the pronunciation of the past tense and especially to the irregulars.
So, last weekend was a typical weekend for me. Friday evenings I have three classes, beginner, intermediate and advanced, and we had a fun class this past weekend, my students are fantastic so, no problem. And, after class a friend of me called me to go to have a drink near my house and I met with two friends, with Cristina and Guada. Cristina had gone to Berlin the weekend before so she came with some souvenirs for us and usually when I get together with my friends we talk about typical things, girl things and talk about boys basically. And Friday evening I came home pretty early because I was tired and on Saturday I had more classes.
So, Saturday morning I woke up. The first thing I always do when I wake up is eat breakfast and also feed my cats because they need to eat too and then I got ready, took my shower and prepared my class for… at ten o’clock I have class, and my first student came, we had a wonderful class, my second student came and after that was about lunch time so I decided to meet up with some other friends for lunch.
And after lunch on Saturday I had to run some errands, and, I did… I went to the Corte Inglés, I went to get some things for my cats, I have two new kittens and on Saturday afternoon I kind of just rested for a while.
Saturday evening I was invited to dinner at a friend of mine named Mark and Pepas, they had just had a new baby and they bought a new house so they decided they wanted us to come and see their new house. They live outside of Madrid so I had to take a train to Pozuelo and it was a nice evening, we had a normal, typical dinner, fantastic food because both of them are excellent cooks. I came home pretty early on Saturday because two nights out is pretty rough for someone my age.
On Sunday morning I woke up and very late, at around 12 o’clock which is my only day to sleep in. So, I woke up and had breakfast of course, typical and fed the cats and I decided that I would just relax on Sunday, and watch a movie, take it easy, make myself a nice lunch and basically that was pretty much my whole weekend and Sunday evening I just prepared for the next day and back to work on Monday. Thanks. Hope to see you again soon at Madridteacher.com

Real English series: Contrast between present perfect and past simple

In our Real English series we feature three video clips to constrast the difference between the present perfect and the past simple.

In the first video, a very pleasant couple answers several personal information questions. The questions mainly deal with the past simple and present perfect tenses. However, it's funny to notice the way the interviewer combines the two uses of the present perfect in his questions:
(1) Present perfect to talk about experiences, news or changes (similar to the use of present perfect in Spanish).
(2) Present perfect to talk about a situation which started in the past and continues up to the present (here we usually use a present form in Spanish)

Where were you born?
Was that a long time ago?
Were you good at school?
What did you do yesterday?
What other towns have you lived in apart from New York? (1)
When did you live in Paris?
Has anything ever happened to you? (1)
How did you meet?
How long have you known each other? (2) ('¿Cuánto hace que os conocéis?')
What do you hope to achieve before you die?

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

In the second video the interviewer asks the question: What have you done this morning? to ask passers-by about activities they have been involved in during the morning (use 1 of the present perfect above to talk about experiences and give news). As the interviewer is asking the question in the present perfect, we must infer that the interviews are taking place at some time during the morning, ie, before 12am.
The second question is what did you do yesterday?, where we can see the use of the past simple to talk about activities done in a finished period of time.

It's funny to notice the way a lot of the interviewees answer the question What have you done this morning? in the past simple. That is due to the fact that Americans (I think the video was recorded in New York) generally prefer the past simple to give news, whereas in Britain the present perfect is generally used to give news, the same as in Spanish.

You can read the transcript of the video clip on the Real English site here.

In the third video, we keep emphasizing the difference between past simple and present perfect. Again, it's funny to check the way the girl answers in the past simple a question she was asked in the present perfect. Remember the differences between American and British English in this respect.

What did you do yesterday?
Where did you get married?
What have you done this morning?

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

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.

Real English series: Past tense- 'was/were' and 'did'

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.

The use of the present perfect in English

In early July Tanya Trusler published an entry on the ESL Library blog about the use of the present perfect in English.

She talks about the two main uses of the present perfect, the difference between present perfect and past simple, and the difference between present perfect simple and continuous.

It is a simple, straightforward explanation, but one of the best I have read about a difficult grammar point for many English learners.

Present perfect vs past simple glogster

A few days ago Daniela Tomatis from The Machine Goes on blog published a glogster (interactive poster) to explain the differences of usage between present perfect and past simple, while providing some activitities for students to practise this grammar point.

On Daniela's glogster you will find two video explanations (one in Italian, the other one in English), two interactive activities, two games, and two 'post-its' on irregular verbs, which include pronunciation work.

All in all, this glogster is an entertaining and useful tool for students to come to grips with the differences between the present perfect and past simple.

Thank you, Daniela.

The use of the Present Perfect

I have been meaning to write an entry about the use of the present perfect in English for a long time. Finally I came across the video below which summarizes both the main uses and problems learners may find in using this tense.

The teacher on the video refers to two general uses of the present perfect:

1) When we talk about a finished action in a general way and we do not give a specific time, we don’t say when the action happened, although the action is connected to the present somehow. In this use the present perfect is used to talk about changes, to give news, to talk about experiences, to refer to things we have completed. This use of the present perfect in English is similar to the present perfect in Spanish.

2) When we refer to actions or situations which started in the past and continue up to now (3’ 52” on the video). This use is completely different in Spanish, as we tend to use a present simple + gerund structure.

The teacher also draws our attention to the use of adverbials, which may help us to know when to use the present perfect or the past simple and, consequently, avoid mistakes.

Typical expressions with present perfect are recently, lately, many times, several times, often, sometimes, just, ever? never, already, yet, for and since.

With present perfect you cannot use specific time expressions that say when something happened: last month/week/year, ago, when (I was a child), during my childhood, yesterday, at 10, on Monday, in 2001. With specific time expressions we use the past simple.

These interactive activities from English Grammar Secrets may help us to discriminate between present perfect and past simple, and pay careful attention to the adverbials when using one tense or another.

30 years since Lennon's death

John Lennon was shot to death by Mark David Chapman when he was on his way home after 10.30 pm on 8 December 1980.

The New York Times has created a thread where readers express their views on this event and remember what they were doing when they found out that Lennon had been killed.

Discussing what someone was doing at momentous historical times is a classic conversation topic. In the English speaking world people used to talk about John F. Kennedy's death in Dallas on 22nd November 1963, or about Apollo 11's first landing on the moon on 20th July 1969.

More recently, these events have also had great relevance:

- Franco's death on 20th November 1975.
- Tejero coup on 23rd February 1981.
- The fall of the Berlin Wall on 3rd October 1990.
- The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on 11th September 2001.
- The announcement of Prince Philip's engagement to Leticia on 1 November 2003.
- The terrorist attack in Madrid on 11th March 2004.

Self-study activity:
Get together with an English speaking friend or relative and discuss what you were doing when you were told about any of the above-mentioned events or other momentous events you can think of.

As well as conversation practise, the activity will be good revision to practise the past simple, past continuous and past perfect. Example:

When I found out about the 11 March attack in Madrid I was driving on my way to work. I had dropped my daughter at school and was heading for work. I decided to tune in the radio to keep me company and there was this talk show on the station that came on. In the beginning I could make no sense of what they were talking about...

Simple past glogster

We are greatly indebted to The Machine goes on for the great number of poster presentations (glogsters) they come up with, and for the quality of their material. Here it is one of the latest lessons by these two Italian teachers, this time about the past.

As usual, the presentation comes complete with everything -videos, explanations and activities. It is a good way of studying or revising the past for students in the Básico levels.

The past

From Kalinago English comes this presentation about how to use the past in English (past simple, past continuous, past perfect simple, past perfect continuous).

Click on the title (The Dark Past) if the slideshow doesn't load.

The Dark Past

           

Pronunciation of regular past (-ed)

Another activity to practise the pronunciation of regular verbs in English. It comes from A clil to climb . It has no sound, though, but we can make it up by doing the activity slowly the first time and paying careful attention to the pronunciation of the past forms of the verbs.

Past continuous

Self-study activity:
Watch the first part of this Mr Bean video (up to minute 4'00) and answer these questions:

What was Mr Bean doing at eight o'clock yesterday?
What was Mr Bean doing at quarter past eight yesterday?
What was Mr Bean doing at half past eight yesterday?
What was Mr Bean doing at ten to nine yesterday?



In English we use the past continuous to show that an action was in progress at a specific moment in the past. Examples:

At eight o'clock yesterday Mr Bean was sleeping.
At ten to nine yesterday Mr Bean was shaving / getting ready to go to the dentist.

Sometimes, we combine the past continuous with the past simple to express an interrupted past activity:
Mr Bean was sleeping when the alarm went off.
Mr Bean was getting ready when his shaver got stuck with his nose hair.
When the phone rang, I was having a shower.
While we were playing tennis, it started to rain.

You can read a more detailed explanation of the past continuous in Englishpage.com. You can also do some online activities there.

Self-study activity: Get together with an English-speaking friend and ask each other what you were doing at specific times yesterday xample:
What were you doing at quarter past eleven yesterday?

Regular verbs

Self-study activity: Watch this presentation about the pronunciation of the regular verbs in English and do the exercises that come up in the second part.

It might be helpful for you to download the presentation on your PC so that you can work more comfortably and view all the exercises without a problem.

What did you do yesterday?

Watch the video where a number of people answer the question "What did you do yesterday?".

Self-study activity: Watch the video through (without stopping) for the first time, so that you can have an idea what the people talk about.

Watch the video for a second time (or as often as necessary) and pause after each speaker, so that you can note down the different activities the people did yesterday or in the morning. You only have to write the verbs the speakers use (example: cooked, slept, worked).

When you have compiled a list of the speakers' actions, read the verbs aloud so that you can contrast your pronunciation of the verbs with that of the speakers on the video.

Finally answer these questions:
What do you do yesterday?
What did you do in the morning?



You can check your answers here.