Tips for using PAST Tenses in IELTS Speaking | Keith's Grammar Guides

- Hurray, I did it or I was doing it.

Which one?

Past simple or past continuous?

Well, in this video, I'm gonna show you

how to you use both the past simple

and the past continuous in IELTS speaking.

Are you ready?

Let's do it.

(upbeat music)

Hi guys, it's Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy.

Now listen, recently I did a video

about the four present tenses.

We looked at present simple, present continuous,

present perfect tenses.

And if you haven't seen it

go up here and watch those videos.

Today though, we're going all the way back.

Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, into the past.

Past simple or simple past and past continuous.

What's the difference?

How do we use them in IELTS speaking?

Well, stick with me and I'm gonna show you how we do it.

Just to remind you,

if you haven't joined the Facebook group yet,

Keith's IELTS Mastermind Community for IELTS speaking,

follow the link below, come and join us.

Lots of activity happening.

Interesting, sharing loads of ideas and motivation to boot.

So, let's go back to the past.

So, when it comes to the past, there are,

with the past simple, right,

there are four things we can look at.

We're going to look at states in the past,

completed actions, past habits

and also imaginary things in the present or the future.

So, first of all, let's look at the first one here.

States in the past.

And this is also kind of continuous activities

or actions in the past.

So we're talking about live, living.

I live in Spain, but I lived in England, is a state.

It was a state in the past or a continuous action,

for example, I went to university at Sheffield.

I went to university for three years.

So that went is not, I went to the university once

and then came home.

No, I went there every day for three years.

It was a continuous action, similar to a state.

I went to university

I worked in Malaysia for three years.

Same idea.

It was a continuous action going to work

over a period of time.

So we use the past for these typical states, right.

So let's have a quick look at the form here

of the past simple.

We have the subject plus the verb with ED, if it's regular.

Okay.

So for example, I lived in Manchester when I was young.

I lived, ED, I lived in Manchester.

If it's irregular, of course we have the subject

plus the irregular verb.

And there is a list you can get of all the irregular verbs.

So for example, to go, went.

I went to school in Oldham.

It's true.

So that's the positive, looking at the negative,

we just take the subject plus did not plus the verb, right,

if it's regular.

The did not, we often contract, especially when speaking,

so it becomes didn't, didn't, didn't, didn't.

I didn't live in London when I was a child.

I didn't live.

Often when we have the verb after didn't,

the t is softer.

I didn't live, rather than saying I didn't live,

which is a bit difficult, we kind of soften the t.

We almost drop the t.

I didn't live, I didn't live.

Okay, so it's not plosive.

I didn't live in London when I was a child,

I lived in Manchester.

And of course it's the same, even for the irregular verbs.

So for example, go, went.

I didn't go to school in London.

Same idea, the t is not, it's dropped

but it's kind of not plosive.

So it's not t, it's I didn't go, I didn't go.

So you can't hear the /t/ right.

I didn't go to school in London.

I went to school in Manchester.

Okay.

What about you?

Where did you go to school?

Right, and where did you live as a child?

Excellent, good.

Now let's have a look at the question.

So the basic questions, the yes, no questions,

it's 'did' plus the subject. I, you, me, we, he, she, they

plus the verb, whether it's regular or irregular.

So did you live, not did you lived,

no, did you live in London when you were a child?

Did you go to school in England?

Okay.

Did plus the subject plus the verb in the infinitive.

Did you go, did you live?

If we're looking at the 'W' questions though, which, way,

which, way, no.

Which, why, where, when, who, how, although it's a h,

it's still known as a 'W' question.

Then it's the question word like where did plus the subject

plus the verb.

Where did you go?

What did you do?

Okay.

Be careful, it's not, what did you did?

No, not where did you went?

No, no, no, no.

Where did you plus the verb.

Where did you go?

What did you do?

Okay, great.

So that's the format.

Let's get into, very briefly pronunciation, right.

Now, this is important because when you're writing,

it's easy, right.

The simple past verb, regular verbs, you add ED right or D.

However, pronunciation of that ED has three different ways.

It can be d, t or id.

So for example, lived, I lived in Manchester.

I lived in Manchester, okay.

So when the end of the verb, the consonant is voiced,

then the d is used.

And it's very, very soft.

I lived in Manchester.

However, when the last consonant of the verb

is unvoiced, like work, work, you can touch your throat,

it's not voiced, work.

Then it's a t sound.

I worked, I worked in Malaysia.

I worked in Malaysia.

Can you say that?

I worked.

I worked in pa, pa, pa, pa.

I worked in Malaysia.

And you?

I lived in Manchester.

And you?

As a child, right.

We're talking in the past.

And the last one is, if the verb ends in the d sound

or a t sound, then for example, study, I studied,

I studied hard.

Attend, attended.

Okay, I studied in England.

Did I study hard?

Yeah, I studied quite hard.

So remember three different sounds

for the simple past regular verbs.

Let's look more at the use.

Right, so as we mentioned, we can use the past

when talking about states, about living, working, studying.

So for example, if you're talking about childhood, right,

or talking about study at university or past jobs,

all of these, we can use the simple best.

Talking about childhood.

Tell me about your childhood.

Come and lie down on the couch.

Tell me about your childhood, okay.

I lived, well, I might say,

I lived in Manchester as a kid.

I went to a nice school, actually.

So I'd say, all in all, I had quite a happy childhood.

Lived, went, had, just using the simple past.

What about university?

Tell me about your university years.

I went to uni in Sheffield where I studied French.

I lived in student digs for the first year

and then after that, I rented a flat.

Went, studied, lived, rented.

So we're using simple past.

Tell me about your university studies.

What about jobs?

Tell me about a past job you had.

Hmm, well, I worked as a waiter when I left uni.

Believe it or not.

And then I went on to get a job in a bank.

Ooh, it was ever so boring.

Worked, went, was, simple past, talking about past jobs.

Okay.

So these are all states, let's move on.

So the second use of the simple past

is for completed actions in finished time.

So finish time is a time that's finished in the past.

For example, yesterday, last night,

two days ago, at five o'clock, yesterday.

All of these are finished time periods.

And the action you did there, would be the simple best.

For example, I watched television after dinner last night.

It's true actually.

After dinner, I sat down and I watched television.

It was really good.

There was a great program about aah,

so I won't go on, but simple past, right.

Now we can use this really effectively

in two different areas.

The first one is something called the pattern of three.

And the pattern of three is very, very common in English,

in natural spoken conversation.

We give three actions in the past one after the other.

And often we drop the subject,

we, at like in the second and the third.

So for example, I got up, went to the bar

and ordered a drink.

So the I disappears after the first one,

it's an ellipsis, right.

I got up, went to the bar and ordered a drink.

And it just has a very natural rhythm.

And it's hugely common.

And it's a really good way of telling stories,

especially IELTS speaking part two

to have this idea of, I did this, I did that and did that.

I woke up, got dressed and went to work.

It's really effective pattern of three.

Here's an example, right.

Let's say there's a part two question about,

talk about a photo you took.

Okay so, I was on Mount Blanc,

the view was out of this world.

So I took out my camera, took a selfie of me on the mountain

and shared it with my friends on Instagram.

You get it?

Here, I took out my camera, took a selfie and shared it.

Pattern of three.

Really nice.

Now the second bit is about adding details, right.

And we use this after the present perfect.

Again, a very, very common pattern, very effective,

present perfect, to describe a life experience

and then adding details.

We use the simple past, right.

I've been to Paris twice.

I first went there when I was 20.

I have been to Paris, present perfect.

I first went there giving extra detail

and the time, simple past.

I went there when I was 20, very common structure.

Let's see how we can use that in IELTS speaking.

For example, you may get a part two question

to talk about a book.

A book you like or a book you've found interesting.

You might say, "I've read,

I've read many personal development books

but last week I read one that really blew my mind.

It was 'The One Thing'".

Gary Keller, brilliant book, go and check it out.

But I have read many books, last week I read

one that blew my mind, blew my mind,

just means, really impressed me.

Had a really good impression on me.

Great.

So you can see how with this talking about your experiences,

adding detail, simple past, brilliant.

The third way of using the simple past,

is to talk about past habits.

When I was a child, what were my past habits?

Well, I played football every week.

I went to painting class.

I went to tennis class quite often.

I did this and I did that.

So simple past, I played football every week as a child.

It's a past habit.

You'll remember, in other videos we've talked about

use to and would, but also the simple past for past habits.

Now, this is really good for the part, one questions about,

did you do something, something as a child?

And you're talking in the past

but you can be looking at past habits, right.

For example questions like,

did you go on picnics as a child?

Did you take art classes as a child?

Well, you might say,

"Yes, we went on picnics most weekends in the summer.

We went on picnics, most weekends in the summer,"

that repeated habit.

Or the art classes.

I studied art class at school.

We had class every Friday.

Repeated habit, we had class every Friday.

Great, very simple, very effective.

The last and fourth one is about imaginary things.

Why do I do that?

I don't know.

So I'm talking about wishes here, right.

When you wish something were different,

you're imagining now or in the future.

With wish, we use the simple past.

I wish I had a lot of money.

I wish I had a new car.

I wish I had, I don't know.

I wish I had a beautiful house in the countryside.

I wish I had, really important, but this is really nice.

For example, I wish you were here.

I wish my family could come and stay with me.

Can, could, I wish my family could come and stay with me.

But they can't because of the pandemic, okay.

So it's very nice I think sometimes

at the end of part two stories,

or when you're doing part two,

you can often finish with a wish.

Maybe you're talking about this and that and that,

a beautiful house that you,

an ideal house you would like to have.

And I wish I had a house in the countryside.

Simple past, but it's a really good structure.

I wish I had.

I wish I could, dah, dah, dah, dah.

I wish about the present or the future.

That's it.

Holy moly.

That's the end of the past simple.

Let's move on now to look at the past continuous.

So there are probably three main ways

we can use this right, story setting, like telling a story.

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, many years ago,

there was a princess and she was sitting in the tower

waiting for the prince to come.

(object clacking)

Of course, you're not gonna tell that kind of story

in IELTS speaking, but that said, in part two,

there is a chance to tell anecdotes and stories,

this will be useful.

Number two is the, (bell rings)

Guys, sorry, can you get the door?

Number two is here, the past continuous for interrupting

(bell rings)

Guys, come on, I'm trying to make a video.

Yeah, all right.

So it's the past continuous

for something that we call the...

I know it's the postman.

Can you just answer the door?

I'm trying to work here.

Number two is interrupted activity.

I was trying to teach you and they interrupted me, mm right.

Number three (laughing)

is past habits.

Now you got to say, "Hang on Keith,

you said past habits was the past simple."

Well, yes it was.

But also, and this is the beauty of English, right.

The past continuous can be used.

You have different tenses,

different tools you can use to create your meaning.

Great.

So those are the three.

So let's look now at the format

of how we make the past continuous.

By the way, do you like how I magically turned on the light?

So the past continuous we've got right,

I, he or she, plus was, plus the verb in the gerund the ING.

So for example, I was waiting for the bus.

He was waiting for the train.

She was waiting for the plane.

Notice the was is normally a weak form

'cause we don't normally stress it.

I, not was, but was, I was waiting.

Try that, I was waiting.

She was waiting for the bus.

Nice, so there's that big stress on the waiting.

She was waiting.

Excellent, good.

That's I, he, she, but if it's we, you or they, were,

W-E-R-E, were plus the verb in the gerund, the ING, right.

They were waiting for me.

They were waiting for me.

Notice again, the were is weak, usually

because we stress the next word, waiting.

They were, they were waiting.

They were waiting.

They were waiting for me.

Try.

We were waiting for them.

Nice, great.

That's the form.

Of course, in the negative, we just put the subject

I, he, she or he plus the, plus was not, plus the gerund.

I was not waiting.

However speaking, we normally contract was not to wasn't.

I wasn't waiting.

Try that.

I wasn't waiting.

I wasn't waiting for the train.

Honest, I wasn't waiting for the train.

Or, we have we, you or they plus were not.

Plus the gerund, were not becomes weren't, weren't.

They weren't waiting.

They weren't waiting.

So you'll notice again, the t at the end

often is not plosive.

So instead of they weren't waiting,

it's they weren't waiting.

They weren't waiting.

Can you hear the t is almost dropped.

It's imploded, imploded.

I mean, it's not plosive, it's not t,

it's just, they were, they weren't waiting.

They weren't waiting for the bus.

We weren't waiting for them.

Can you hear that?

I hope you can hear that.

Okay, let's have a look at the first one, story time.

Story setting.

Setting of a story, we're talking about giving the setting

or the background to a story, anecdote, an activity, right.

It doesn't have to be once upon a time,

a whole story like Shrek.

It can be just even a sentence, right.

It was raining outside.

It was raining outside.

So I decided to stay at home.

As simple as that, it was raining outside

is giving the background, what's happening.

And then, I decided to stay at home.

Or the sun was shining, I decided to go out, right.

Or the pandemic was still going on

and dah, dah, dah, dah.

And it's giving you the background to the story, right.

And very often, as I mentioned, it's followed then,

by the simple past, it was raining outside,

so I decided to stay at home.

The pandemic was still going on

but I needed to travel back home.

Or the pandemic was still going on,

but I needed to travel a broad.

Was going on, here with still, right,

was still going on, needed.

I needed to travel abroad.

So, that is a common structure.

You've got the background in the past continuous.

And then next, the simple past.

Even in one sentence, right.

Doesn't have to be a big, fancy story.

Okay.

Now, how can we use this

particularly with some IELTS questions?

Well, let's take a couple of examples.

And I'm thinking particularly in part two here.

Imagine there's a question,

describe a conversation that you heard, right.

As part of your answer

you may want to give a setting and then say what happened.

So you might say, "I was attending a conference on education

and I was really looking forward to it,

but it turned out that the main speaker was really boring."

Can you see, I was attending, that's the background.

I was looking forward to it, is also part of the background.

And then boom, what happened?

The main speaker turned out or it turned out that

or the main speaker turned out to be boring.

So the turned out, is the past.

Turn out just means, in the end the result was,

the main speaker was boring.

So that's very simple part.

That's not your whole answer, for part two,

but getting the background,

maybe at the beginning of your answer,

this could be a nice way to use it.

What about this question?

Describe a time you won something,

maybe a race or a competition, maybe, right.

Again, you could say, well,

"I was taking part in the school's sports day

when I was a kid.

And I ran in two races and I won both of them."

I was taking part, it's the background.

And then what happened?

Bum, I ran into races and I won both of them, okay.

So again, you've got the past continuous

followed by the simple past, very typical,

nice ways to maybe begin these answers.

Okay, okie dokie.

Let's move on to the next one.

Now this one is the interrupted activity.

So basically we use the past continuous

to describe an activity in process.

And at some point, boom, there's a cut or an interruption.

And the second activity happens.

But of course it's in the past.

So imagine if you will, it was raining outside.

Imagine you were waiting for the bus, right.

Five minutes, 10 minutes.

And you're standing there, waiting for the bus

and you see Tom and you say, "Oh, hello, Tom."

So, "I was waiting for the bus when I saw Tom."

Simple as that

I was waiting for the bus,

and then the second activity interrupts or cuts in,

"Oh, I saw Tom."

Whilst I was waiting for the bus, I saw my friend Tom.

Continuous past simple.

Another common structure, right.

How to use them together.

So, let me show you how you can use this again.

The interrupted activity in the same questions, right.

Imagine a part two, describe a conversation you heard.

Remember I gave you the background,

talking about the conference and in the end

the speaker was really boring.

But here we could say, "As I was taking my seat

the main speaker got up on the stage and began."

As I was taking my seat,

I'm in the process of sitting down,

at that time, boom, the main speaker got up

and began speaking.

Past continuous, simple past, very simple.

And I'm developing my answer here.

Let me show you the similar thing, right,

for the other question.

So remember, describe a time when you won something.

I've told you a bit about the story, the background

and then I can come in and say,

"When they were giving me the medals,

my mum took several photos."

When they were giving me the medals, in the process

at the same time, boom, my mum pow, pow, pow,

took several photos, because she was ever so proud

of me winning the races.

So a similar thing, right.

The same structure, were giving, mum took several photos.

Great, let's move on to the third and final situation.

Now the third point is past habit

and you are quite right.

We also use the simple past for past habit.

I played football every weekend when I was a kid.

And that's quite specific.

But when we're being more general,

we use the past continuous with the adverb always.

I was always playing with computers as a kid.

I was always playing football as a kid.

So it's not specific time when you did it

but just generally.

And the use of always, I was always doing that.

I was always arguing with my brother.

When we were growing up together,

we were always arguing with each other.

Typical brotherly fighting.

So it's a habit and it's always.

So the past continuous with always.

So this is something you could use

talking about your childhood, about past jobs,

about university studies in the past.

For example, "At university I was always studying

late into the night.

I was always burning the midnight oil."

That's burning the midnight oil, working late

or studying late at night.

I was always studying late at night.

It's neither good, nor bad.

It's neutral, but it's great to describe a past habit.

Going back to one of the part two questions,

describe a time you won something.

So we've given the background in the setting.

We gave an interrupted activity example.

Also here, you could say something like,

"As a kid I was always racing everywhere here and there.

So it's no surprise, I won the race on sports day."

You're giving a further background, talking in the past.

As a kid, I was always racing or running everywhere.

Nice past habit.

So there you've got it.

The past continuous for setting or giving the background,

talking about interrupted activities

and also past habits with always.

Fantastic, so that's it,

we've seen today how you can use the past simple

and the past continuous in different contexts

and often together, right.

It's not one or the other, we often use them together.

And I hope you can see how you can do that

for different questions for the IELTS speaking test.

Excellent, great.

If you want to know more about grammar mistakes,

then do watch this video up here

which tells you the top five grammar mistakes

that students are making in IELTS speaking.

Keep your eyes open, keep your eyes peeled.

I'll be doing a few more grammar videos

to help you with IELTS speaking, in the near future.

In the meantime, if you've enjoyed this, please do like it.

Turn on the notifications as you subscribe for the video.

And go ahead and watch some more to improve your grammar

for IELTS speaking.

Take care of my friends.

As always, it's a pleasure.

Bye-bye.

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