Talking About a Past Event

Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name isMarco.

And I’m Erica.

And today we have a very special lesson, because we’re gonna be focusing a little bit more on grammar.

That’s right! Uh, we’re going to look today at the difference between past simple and past progressive or sometimes called past continuous.

Exactly, so, we are going to take a look at these two structures, which are a little bit confusing at times and we’re gonna be practicing today, but before we get started, why don’t we take a look at “vocabulary preview”? Voice: Vocabulary preview.

Well, this dialogue is all about telling a story in the past and we’re gonna hear two words in the dialogue that we need to understand the meaning of. So, the first one – ages.

Ages.

I haven’t seen you in ages.

Okay, so, if I tell you I haven’t seen you in ages…

Basically, you haven’t seen me in a really long time.

Okay, so, it’s a way of exaggerating a little bit.

Yes, um, and this word ages we can use, um, in many different ways like “Oh, I’ve been studying English for ages”.

Or, for example, I can say “I haven’t been to the dentist’s in ages”.

Oh, well, I guess you’d better go, ha?

Hehe. Right, so, ages – a very long time.

Yes! Now, another phrase – to run into somebody.

So, to run into somebody.

I ran into Matt.

Okay, so, if you ran into Matt the other day…

You met him unexpectedly.

Okay, so, you didn’t plan to meet, you didn’t have a date.

Right.

You just casually, on the street, met.

Exactly.

Okay, so, I ran into your friend the other day.

Okay, so, two good words; we’re gonna hear both of these in the dialogue. So, why don’t we get started with “dialogue, first time”?

Alright, very good, so, a funny story and as we saw a lot of stuff in the past, right?

That’s right and we’re gonna look at that in a moment, but first we’ve got lots of exciting language to describe, um, when somebody gets really emotional.

Okay, so, why don’t we start now with “language takeaway”? Voice: Language takeaway.

We have four words here. Now, in the dialogue, um, the guy in the story lost it.

So, he saw a mouse and he completely lost it.

To lose it.

Okay, so, when you lose some… you lose it, what are you losing?

You’re losing control of yourself and your emotion.

Okay, so, you lose your temper maybe.

Yep.

So, when I lose it, do I just get angry?

Angry or upset or even sad…

Your…

But it’s usually a negative feeling.

Okay, so, it’s not a good thing to lose it.

No, so, for example, when I showed my boss the sales figures he completely lost it.

Okay, very good. So, that’s what lose it means. And now our second word is very similar, but has a little bit of a difference.

That’s right! He started freaking out.

Okay, so, to freak out.

To freak out.

Now, freak out is very similar to lose it, right?

Yeah, but why don’t we hear an example now of somebody freaking out. Example 1: Is just… ah, no! No! Okay, forget it! Forget it! Alright, just, forget it! I don’t even wanna… just… I just wanna forget it! I just wanna forget it! I… uh! I don’t know! I don’t know! Example 2: Okay, calm down, huh! God! Hehe, what? I got a calm down! I’m so happy again! I can’t even express it! I’m like… I haven’t… have… I even finished one sentence! I’m like… Hehe! Huh! Gimme a hi-five, baby!

Alright, so, we heard this person freaking out and basically it could be losing control or losing your temper, but also in a positive way.

Right, so, maybe, um, you’re really excited about something that’s going to happen, so you’re freaking out.

Okay, maybe you’re very nervous or you’re very excited.

Uhu.

Alright! And now moving on to our third word – stare.

To stare.

People started to stare.

Staring.

Okay, now, when you stare at someone or at something…

You look at and focus at something for a really long time.

Okay, so, you’re looking at it.

Yeah.

Or focusing on it

Yeah, longer than usual.

Alright, maybe when we were small, our parents taught us that it’s not nice to stare…

Yeah.

At other people.

Exactly.

Alright, so, to stare.

And our final word – when Matt saw the mouse he startedshrieking.

Alright, so, to shriek.

Shriek.

Shriek. Very similar to that movie Shrek.

Oh, yeah, it sounds quite similar.

Alright, but it’s different. What does shriek mean?

Well, why don’t we listen to an example? Example of shrieking.

Okay, so, I think shrieking is to shout in a very high pitched voice.

Exactly, that’s to shriek. Okay, so, we saw four really great words in language takeaway and why don’t we listen now to the dialogue for a second time a little bit slower? And then we’ll come back and look at the differences between simple past and past progressive. DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)

Okay, so, there’s a lot of different uses of past tense here in this dialogue, wasn’t there?

Yeah, since he was telling a story that happened, he used thepast a lot.

Well, let’s now as promised look at past simple and past progressive in “grammar breakdown”. Voice: Grammar breakdown.

Okay, Marco, before we start our discussion, why don’t we hear one example of past simple and one example of past progressive? Example of past simple: You know, just last week I ran into Matt as well. Example of past progressive: Well, we were talking, catching up on we’ve been doing.

Okay, so, we heard that “just last week I ran into Matt”, so, we discussed what ran into means.

Yep, to meet someone by surprise.

Alright, and now this structure is the simple past, right?

Yep.

Now, the second example that we heard was “we were talking and catching up”.

Okay, so, let’s look at the difference in meaning here. “I ran into Matt” – happened in the past, right?

Right, simple past.

But one moment in the past.

So, the action finished, concluded.

Started and finished all around the same time, so, it’s one simple moment.

Okay. Now, the other example is in the past progressive, so, the action was happening for a longer period of time.

Yeah, okay, so, let… let’s… let’s attach some times to this. Um, maybe you ran into Matt at 8:04, okay? And so the action started at 8:04, but you were talking and caching up from 8:05 until 9:05.

Okay, so, you were talking for an hour.

Right, so, it’s a l… the past progressive you use, um, when you’re… when an action is happening for a longer period of time.

Okay, so, to better understand this, let’s have another example. Example of past simple: Matt saw a mouse run under his chair and he completely lost it. Example of past progressive: Everyone was staring and laughing.

So, as we heard in the example, he “saw a mouse run under his chair”.

So, a quick action that started and finished quickly.

Okay, he saw the mouse and it ran under the chair.

Yep.

Now, the second example we heard was “everyone was staring and laughing”.

So, maybe this happened over four or five minutes.

Okay, so, people were looking at him and laughing and talking about how he was screaming like a girl.

Yes.

Okay, so, that’s the main difference between the simple past and the past progressive – th… amount of time that the action happened.

Yep. Alright, well, now that we understand a little bit more about the past tense, why don’t we hear again in context by listening to the dialogue for a third time?

Okay, perfect, so, now that we understand the words and the grammar behind it, there’re some interesting phrases here that you can use casually with your friends.

Here there’s actually a lot of great sort of meeting and greeting and saying hello language.

Uhu. So, for example, when they met up, since they were old friends, he said “Hey, Pat!”

Hey!

Okay, so, this word hey.

It’s kind of like “hi”.

It’s “hi”, right?

Yeah.

Ju… and normally you would use it to get somebody’s attention, right?

Yeah.

Like hey, “I’m over here”, some…

Hey, waiter!

Okay.

Yeah.

But in this case like “hey, how’s it going” or “hi”.

Yeah, so, it’s a really friendly and informal way of saying “hi”.

Okay, and then he asked “how’s it going?

How’s it going?

So, again, this is a way of saying “how are you?

Yeah, Marco, what’s the correct answer to this greeting?

Well… well, for example, he said “things are going great”, right?

Uhu.

You can say “yeah, things are great” or “I’m doing well”.

Yeah.

Or…

Even “great”, you know…

Great!

Yeah, so, how’s it going?

Oh, it’s great!

Yeah.

Right? Now, another one that we didn’t see in the dialogue, but it’s very popular is when somebody asks “hey, what’s up?”

Yeah, what’s up? So, again, what is the right way to answer this question?

Alright, so, when somebody says “what’s up”, you can say “well, not much” of if maybe you have news or something that you wanna share, you would say “well, I just got back from the doctor’s office”.

Yep.

Right? But you wouldn’t say “fine, thank you” or you wouldn’t say “very good” or any of these other common answers to “what’s up”.

That’s right!

It can be a little bit tricky.

Yeah, then… so, the rule is the normal thing to say when someone says “hey, what’s up? is “nothing much”.

Not much.

Yeah.

Alright… so, interning ways of greeting casually with people, right? You wouldn’t use this for, ah… with your boss maybe or in an office setting.

Yeah, more… more useful with your friends.

Okay, so, if you have any other questions or have any other informal greetings that you would like to share with us, come toenglishpod.com.

Yeah, Marco and I are always around to answer your questions and we look forward to hearing from you, so, until next time…

Bye!

Bye! ***