10 Past Time Expressions You Should Know | English Vocabulary

What's going on guys, welcome back to another lesson with me Tom.

Today we're looking at ten past time expressions that you should be using in your every day

English.

This is going to be super useful guys and hang around for the final phrase because that

is one of my favourite English expressions of all time.

Don't go anywhere!

If you want to tell a story that happened in the past you are going to need past time

expressions.

Now we probably all know about things like 'yesterday' or 'last night' or 'last week'.

Here are ten more that perhaps you don't know that you should be using to help you tell

your stories.

Guys before we get started, make sure you hit that subscribe button and that notification

bell so that you don't miss any of my English lessons.

Alright!

Because these are all past time expressions we're going to be using a past tense.

So it could be past simple, it could be the past continuous.

Possible you might be using the past perfect with a past simple tense so any past tense

will work perfectly with these past time expressions.

Do not use the present perfect with any of these past time expressions because these

are points in the past that are now finished, they are complete.

So we can't sue the present perfect to link it to now.

So only past tenses.

Let's start off with a very British English phrase 'a fortnight ago'.

A fortnight is two weeks or fourteen days.

It's a very British expression, I don't think they use this in American English.

The 'ago' tells us that it's in the past so a fortnight ago.

That's telling us that it was two weeks in the past.

The pronunciation fortnight.

A fortnight ago.

Let's put that into an example sentence 'They moved house a fortnight ago.'

This phrase I use all the time 'ages ago'.

If we use the word 'ages' it means a long time, we don't know exactly how long but a

very long time so if I say 'ages ago' it was a long time in the past.

An example sentence 'My last holiday was ages ago'.

So my last holiday was a long time ago in the past, ages ago.

Here's a super useful one.

Ok, so today is Friday, let's say today is Friday.

Yesterday was Thursday, how do I describe Wednesday?

It's kind of tricky.

Yesterday was Thursday, what's Wednesday?

Alright, the phrase we use 'the day before yesterday'.

That makes sense.

Ok, the day before yesterday.

So 'I went swimming the day before yesterday.'

Now we can play with this structure, so it doesn't have to be the day before yesterday

we could use week or month or year.

Now let's use it with week, ok.

So 'the week before last'.

Now what we are really saying is the week before last week.

So not last week, the week before last week.

Now we are not saying that final week just because we understand, we know what it means.

So the week before last is two weeks ago.

Not last week, the week before that, two weeks ago.

The week before last.

You could say the year before last.

So this year is 2017 so the year before last is 2015, that's right 2015.

So the year before last.

So we use this kind of structure to help us to talk about not last year or last week but

the one before that one.

Quite useful.

So an example 'I went to Canada the year before last.'

If we want to look at a certain period in our lives we can use the structure 'when I

was...' so 'when I was a child'.

So now I'm focusing on that period of time.

The time when I was a child.

'When I was a child we lived in France', it's not true but it's an an example sentence.

You can change that so 'when I was a teenager'.

'When I was teenager I loved playing football.'

Now with this phrase you can also use used to or would to talk about past habits.

'So when I was a child we used to go and see my Grandma every week.'

So you can use used to or would to talk about past habits as well.

Now if you are not sure how to use used to or would I've done a video, you can check

it out right now.

I'll put the link right above.

So when I was and then a thing so when I was a child, when I was a teenager, when I was

a uni student, whatever you want.

This is a fantastic informal expression to describe a time in the past that's quite recent

but not specific so not definitely yesterday or the day before yesterday but another time.

We say 'the other day'.

So I use this all the time, if I'm telling a friend about you know I saw a TV programme

I'll say 'I saw this great programme the other day.'

And it just means in the past maybe two days ago, three days ago, doesn't really matter.

That's not the important thing, the most important thing is the TV programme that I want to tell

you about.

Not really when I saw it.

So, the other day is a really nice way to say, a couple of days in the past, it's not

important when, 'the other day'.

Another really nice expression to talk about an undefined period of time in the past is

'a while ago'.

Now again it's a long time in the past, kind of similar to ages, I feel like ages ago seems

like it's a much longer time ago.

A while ago is yeah, is quite a long time in the past but we don't know exactly when

and that's not important we don't really care when it was but it was long enough in the

past to be a while ago.

An example sentence 'The last time I saw John was a while ago.'

Often when we are talking about past time we'll just use the day or the month or the

year.

Now let's get our prepositions perfect for these.

So when we are talking about days we use on.

So 'on Sunday I went to the cinema.'

For months we'll use in.

So 'in February I went to Japan.'

And of course with years again we are using in 'I moved to Hong Kong in 2012.'

Obviously these time phrases could be used not just in the past but also in the future.

But specifically we are talking about the past today so remember it's on with the day

of the week, in with the month and in with the year.

If we want to talk about a moment that literally just happened.

It was not very long ago, very recently in the past we could say 'a second ago'.

Now it's not literally one second but we are using it to talk about a very recent time

in the past.

A second ago 'John was here a second ago.'

John was here very recently, he's not here now but maybe a minute ago, two minutes ago

he was here.

So John was here a second ago.

Again ago tells us that it's in the past and a second a very short period of time.

A second ago.

And finally, probably in my top three favourite English expressions.

Yeah I think so, top three definitely.

This is so good!

So this phrase 'back in the day.'

We are using it to describe a past time not specific, we don't know when and we use it

often to talk about memories and quite often happy memories.

'Back in the day I used to listen to a lot of hip hop.'

Right, so we are using used to, ok?

So it's a past habit, so this one we can use with a past tense or yeah a past habit like

used to or would.

So 'Back in the day I used to listen to a lot of hip hop.'

So in a past time, not specific, probably when I was young, I listened to a lot of hip

hop, ok?

So hip hop music.

So 'Back in the day I used to listen to a lot of hip hop.'

Another example 'Back in the day my dad had a moustache.'

And it was an amazing moustache as well.

So in the past, some time in the past, when I was young, my dad had a moustache, ok.

'I remember back in the day people used to smoke in pubs.'

Alright so there, I remember back in the day, so a long time ago in the past, people used

to smoke, smoke cigarettes in the pub.

So that's a great example of an informal phrase, very natural phrase that you are not going

to find in your English course books but it's a phrase that you are going to hear in conversations

on TV things like that.

So back in the day is easily in my top three favourite phrases of all time.

And I hope it becomes yours as well.

Eat Sleep Dreamers which of those phrases were brand new for you?

Which ones didn't you know before you watched this video?

Let me know in the comment below and also if you want to put them into a practice sentence

for me then please do and I will come down and I will have a look at it.

I'll correct it if it needs correcting.

I love to see you guys practising your English because that's how we improve right?

We learn something, we practise it and then it becomes a part of us.

So yes, put your practice sentence into the comments below.

If you haven't already guys remember to hit that subscribe button, hit that notification

bell and remember I've got new videos every Tuesday and every Friday helping you take

your English to the next level.

Thank you so much for hanging out with me guys, I can't wait to see you again.

This is Tom, the Chief Dreamer, saying goodbye.