Slang in English: 'What the hell' and other HELL expressions

Hi. My name is Emma, and today we have an excellent lesson for you on the difference

between "past" versus "passed." So "p-a-s-t" versus "p-a-s-s-e-d." Now, you might be wondering,

these words, they sound the same. You're right. They are what are known as homonyms, meaning

they sound the same, but they have two completely different meanings. Now, this lesson is actually

quite important. Native speakers often make mistakes with the difference between "past"

and "passed," and so do ESL speakers. So if you're doing a test like the TOEFL, IELTS,

it's very handy to know the difference in spelling and meaning because there is a good

chance that you will lose marks if you make a mistake on these. Okay. So to begin with,

I will explain "past." Now, when I talk about "past," I want you to think "time." Think

"time." That's a key word. Think "time." When I talk about "p-a-s-s-e-d," I want you to

think "movement." So think "time" for "past" and think "movement" for "past." Okay. So

I'll start by explaining the word "past." P-a-s-t. Now, on this board, I have -- it

shows that it's a noun, an adjective, as well as a preposition. What "past" is not is a

verb. So verb, no. Pretty much, as a noun, "past" means "before the present moment."

So for example, it's a period before now. So think about this. What was popular in the

past? In the past, tamagotchis were popular. In the past, big hair was popular. In the

past, pocket watches were popular. They're not popular anymore. So when we think about

the past, we're thinking "before now." If you think about it, when we're talking about

tense in English, we have the past tense, the present tense, and the future tense. The

past tense refers to before the present, before now. Okay. Next, we have "past" as an adjective.

The good thing is it means essentially the same thing as "past" as a noun. Again, it

means "before." Currently, as an example, right now in Germany, the leader of Germany

is a woman. Okay, so the leader of Germany is a woman. Past leaders have all been men.

So right now, leader is a woman. Past leaders have all been men.

Now what is an adjective, in case you're wondering? What an adjective does is it describes a noun.

In the sentence I just said, "leader" is the noun, and we're describing the noun "leader"

using "past." What type of leader? Leaders from before. Past leaders. Okay. Lastly, this

is when it gets a little bit confusing. "Past" as a preposition. "Past" as a preposition,

"past" as a preposition, I told you to think time. I still want you to think time, but

whereas for the noun and the adjective I was talking about before, when I use "past" as

a preposition, I'm talking about after. So what is an example of this? Well, right now,

it's 5.20. This is the time. 5.20. Now if I want to use "past," I can say when somebody

asks me, "What time is it?" I can say, "It's 5.20." I can say, "It's 20 minutes after 5."

Or I can also say, "It's 20 minutes past 5." So we're still talking about time here, but

in the case of a preposition, when you're talking about the actual time on your watch,

you're talking about after, the time after something.

Another preposition using "past," this one does not have to do with time. So the one-time

"past" does not have to do with time. I will give you an example. "The house past the church."

"The house past the church." "The house past the church." This also means after. What house

am I talking about? The house after the church. So when we use "past" as a preposition, we're

talking about after, whereas when we use "past" as a noun and an adjective, we're talking

about before.

So now let's talk about "past." Again, pronounce the exact same, but spelled differently. Now

what do you notice when you look at this word? P-A-S-S-E-D. That right there gives us a clue.

E-D, we're looking actually at a verb. We're looking at the past participle of the verb

to pass. As I said before, I want you to think "movement." Verbs are actions. They're movement.

So "past" is a verb. It has multiple meanings. We'll go through some of them, but I really

want you to think "movement."

So the first meaning of the verb "pass" means to go by. I'll give you an example. Did you

see what I just did? I passed the board. The board is on my side. I moved past the board.

I passed the board. Today, on my way to work, I passed the mall. So the mall was on my side.

I didn't go into the mall. When I was walking, I passed the mall.

We often use this too when we're talking about driving. I'm a very, very slow driver. Cars

in the other lane, they often pass me, meaning they're driving faster than me. So when I'm

here, they move past me. They pass me.

A second meaning of the verb "passed" is to go away. Earlier today, I had a really bad

headache. My headache passed. My headache went by. It's gone. Maybe you're feeling dizzy,

and then you stop feeling dizzy. Your dizziness has passed. We use it in the sense a lot with

illness, with sickness, and it just means, again, to go away.

Now finally, my favourite, "to succeed in school". We use "passed" talking about success

and succeeding when we're talking about school. I think a lot of you probably are students,

and maybe you have to take a test, an English test, at some point. I hope you pass your

test, meaning I hope you succeed at your test. Passing your test, I passed the test.

Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you some examples that we can do together

to show the difference between "passed" and "passed". Here are some examples to show you

the difference between "passed" and "passed". We're going to do these together. I want you

to read each one. We'll read it together, and then I want you to try to answer it. Not

only do I want you to try to answer it, but I really want you to think, "Are we talking

about an adjective, a noun, a verb, or a preposition?" Because remember, "passed" is movement. It's

a verb, while "passed" is not a verb. It's either a noun, an adjective, or a preposition.

Let's get started. Number one, "I _______ the supermarket on my way to school." "I _______

the supermarket on my way to school." What do you think it is? If you said, "I passed

the supermarket on my way to school," you are correct. "I" is the subject, "passed"

is the verb, and the rest is the object. All right, you ready for number two?

Number two, "In the _______ dinosaurs walked the earth." "In the _______ dinosaurs walked

the earth." What do you think it is? "Passed" or "passed"? If you said, "passed," you are

correct. This is not a verb. In this case, it's a noun. "In the _______ dinosaurs walked

the earth." Before today, before now, a long time ago, dinosaurs walked the earth.

Number three, now this example I really like because I used to be an archaeologist. What

is an archaeologist, some of you might be asking? It's somebody who studies old things,

old objects, pottery, pyramids. Indiana Jones is a very famous fictional archaeologist.

Maybe you've learned a new word today. Number three, "Archaeologists study _______ cultures."

"Archaeologists study _______ cultures." Do you think it's "passed" or "passed"?

Now look at this. Do you see a verb already here? Yes, we have the verb, "study". Therefore,

we know it won't be this one. "Archaeologists study _______ cultures."

Now my next question to you is, do you think this is a noun or an adjective? If you said

noun, you're actually incorrect. It's an adjective because our noun is "culture". What type of

culture is it? It's a past culture, meaning a culture from before, from a long time ago.

Last one, "I _______ my test by studying _______ tests." In this one, we have two blanks. "I

_______ my test by studying _______ tests." What do you think it is? The first blank, do

you see a verb in this first section? We have a subject, an object. We don't have a verb.

Therefore, we know it's going to be "passed". Which meaning of "passed" is it? It's to succeed

at a test. The opposite of "failed". "I passed my test" -- that's very good -- "by studying

_______ tests." What do you think this is? If you said "passed", you're correct. "I passed

my test by studying _______ tests." Here we have the noun "test". What type of test is

it? It's a test from before, an earlier test. This is actually a really good thing to do

if you're doing the TOEFL, the IELTS, any type of English test. It's always very good

to actually go back and look at past tests. I hope this has been an informative lesson

for you. I'm very glad you came to visit our website today. Please visit us at www.engvid.com.

Again, that's www.engvid.com. Until next time.

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