Lesson 104 👩‍🏫 Basic English with Jennifer - Talking about Favorites & the Past

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with Jennifer. Let's study basic English.

You can practice with my students, Flavia and Andreia. Often we start our lessons

with a little chitchat. Chitchat is small talk. It's light conversation, nothing

serious. We talk about simple things like the

weather. Other times, we start our lessons with a

fun short game. Let's play a quick game a game of favorites. All right?

Like what's your favorite...? Who's your favorite...? I'll start. I have a question.

What's your favorite color? Blue. And what's your favorite color? Black. I think my favorite color is

blue. I like black cars. I like blue and red clothes, and I like

brown walls. Yeah. It's hard, but I think my favorite color is blue. So, my question

is what's your favorite color? Can you ask us a question? What's your favorite...?

Who's your favorite...? Anything: color, food, weather. What's your favorite food? My favorite

food? Um, Japanese food and chocolate cake. Me too. What's the question? What's your favorite food?

Ah, my favorite food is pizza. Ah! And yours? Ah, lasagna.

Lasagna. Yum. You ask us a question. What's your favorite animal? Oh, that's hard. Penguins. My favorite animal is...penguins.

Again. What's your favorite animal? Dogs.

And yours? It's very hard for me. Yeah, I know. I like...my favorite is dogs and cats. I have two favorites.

I have two favorites. Dogs and cats. Um, who's your favorite actress? Brazilian or American.

Do you have one?

Brad Pitt. Oh. Actor. So, who's your favorite actor? Brad Pitt. Yes. Okay. Who's your favorite actor?

I forgot I forgot the name. I forgot her name. I forgot his name. I forgot his name. Adam Sandler. Oh, he's funny!

Yeah, yeah. Um, I have a lot of favorites, but maybe my favorite actor

might be Tom Hanks. Oh, Tom Hanks. In English, we can say "actor," and it could be a man or a woman.

Um, but we do have "actor/actress." Some women like to call themselves actors. I am an actor.

So, it depends. We have "actor" and "actress." "Actor" could be a man or a woman.

"Actress" - only a woman. Yeah. My favorite actress is, I think, Kate Winslet. Kate

Winslet from Titanic. Oh. She did other movies. Yeah. What's your favorite...?

Who's your favorite...? Do you have one more question?

What's your favorite place? Oh. My favorite place. Hawaii.

What's your favorite place?

Now...it's Brazil because I miss. I miss Brazil. I miss home. And your favorite place? I like so much Florida.

Florida! I like Florida so much. Nice. Okay. One more question. What's your favorite...? Who's your favorite...?

What's your favorite drink? What's my favorite drink? Oh, um, I like fruit juice. Fruit juice.

Yes, like a cocktail, like a fruit blend. A blend of juices. I like fruit

juice. Fruit juice is my favorite. Fruit? Fruit. Fruit juice. Juice.

Yes, just juice, but like a mixture. Like peach, mango...you know, like a cocktail.

What favorite... What is your favorite or what's your favorite?

What's your favorite drink? Orange juice. Mm. Fresh? Yes. Yeah. Fresh orange juice. And yours?

My favorite juice...ah, drink is fruit juice.

Fruit juice. Like a blend? Blend or separate. Mm-hmm. Any fruit juice. Yeah. Very good.

Do you have a blender in your kitchen? We...blender broke. Oh! Say, "Our blender." We had two blenders,

yes, both broke. Oh, you need to buy a new blender. Yes. Sorry.

In American English, we can say "favorite" with two or three syllables. Favorite. (repeats)

I think I almost always say this word with two syllables: favorite. Repeat after me.

What's your favorite sport? What's your favorite month? Who's your favorite

director? Who's your favorite author? Feel free to answer these questions in the

comments. Right now, let's practice the rhythm of these questions with Flavia

and Andreia. So, remember there are things that we write and things that we say.

Yeah. Right. So, if you speak slowly or you write carefully, you will say, "What is

your favorite...actor?" What is = what's. So, just let's make questions and you can

repeat after me. What's. What's your favorite car? (repeats)

What's your favorite car? What's your your favorite drink? (repeats)

What's your favorite sport? (repeats)

What's your favorite number? What's your favorite animal?

What's your favorite day of the week? It's probably on the weekend. Right?

Weekdays are usually very busy. Listen as Flavia, Andreia and I tell you how busy we

were the day before our lesson. We're going to practice talking about the past.

I think we're busy ladies. I work. You study. Let's talk about what we did

yesterday. Our busy days. I think I had a busy day. Did you have a busy day? Kind of? Okay.

I...what did I do? I got up, I made breakfast for the kids, I

drove the kids to school, I took the dog for a walk. Then I worked, I taught a

lesson, I made a video, I did some laundry, I cooked dinner, fed the dog again...I was

busy all day. Yeah. What did you do yesterday? I went to school. I did

my homework. I walked with my dog. Mm-hmm. I walked my dog. I cooked dinner. Nice. What did you make?

Sausages with potatoes. Nice. And beans. And for her? No sausages. Beans? Rice...beans. Rice and beans.

And peppers. Nice. Like green peppers? Red peppers? Orange. Oh yeah. Orange or yellow. They're orange or yellow.

Peppers are many different colors. Yes. Nice. Busy!

And what did you do? I went to school. I went a doctor's appointment.Oh, you had a doctor's

appointment. I had a doctor's appointment. I did my homework.

Yeah. That's a lot because studying is a few hours. Homework takes time.

So, you studied a lot. A doctor's appointment? You can

say "have" and past tense "had": I had a doctor's appointment or I went to see a doctor.

Right. These are all the things that we did, and they're done. You're done with

your homework. You ate your dinner. You saw the doctor. It's done, and that's the

difference between "I went to the doctor" and "I was going to the doctor." Right? I

cooked dinner. I was cooking dinner. When you're finished,

we say cooked, went, had, saw. When it's this process and it's not finished,

that's when we use the past progressive. Right? Imagine I had a different day, and

I went outside, and I took pictures. Let's just pretend, and I saw lots of people.

And let's pretend this is my picture. That's you? No, we're going to pretend. I was walking

around yesterday, and I took pictures. Oh. Okay. So, let's say, "Yesterday I was

walking, and I saw a man, and he was jumping into the water, and I took a

picture. He was jumping, and I took a picture." Yeah, so just pretend. Okay? So, you'll

say, "Yesterday I was walking, and I saw..." Yesterday I was walking, and I saw a girl.

And what was she doing? What is that? Same thing when you...

what do you do when your hair is wet? Blow? Blow. She was blowing bubbles.

Bubbles. One bubble.

Yeah, she was blowing bubbles. She's blowing bubbles. So, not "she is," but yesterday

she was...she was blowing bubbles. Yes. Okay, so you were walking.

You saw a girl, and she was blowing bubbles. Okay, so yesterday I was

walking yesterday. Yesterday, I was walking. I saw a man. And what was he doing?

Paint. Paint. He was painting. He was painting. Mm-hmm. He

was making pictures and stuff. He was painting. Good. Yesterday...yesterday I was

walking and I saw two boys....playing...baseball. Baseball.

Very nice! You could actually say that two ways! You could say,

"I saw two boys playing baseball." That's very good!

Or you could say, "I saw two boys, and they were playing baseball. So, two ways: I saw

two boys playing baseball. I saw two boys, and they were playing baseball. They were playing.

So, you could do it either way. Very nice. That's good. Okay. Your turn. What were

these people doing? Use the past progressive. Yesterday I took a walk. I

saw a lot of people.

Some people were exercising. A father and his son were feeding the birds. A band

was playing music. A businessman was sleeping on a park bench. Some young

people were dancing in the street. A man was selling hot dogs.

I had my tea, and I was coming to see you, and I spilled my tea, but it's okay now.

It was an accident. I was rushing. So, we're going to look at photos of little accidents

or accidents that aren't very serious. "Spill" in the past? Spilled. Spilled. In American

English, spilled. Yeah. Okay. So, we're going to talk about accidents and how they

happened, like my tea. I was rushing, and I spilled tea on my jeans. It's okay now.

Flavia, this is your accident. What happened? The coffee spilled. Why? What were you doing?

I wasn't paying attention. I wasn't paying attention, and I spilled the coffee.

You can do "spill." Here's another good verb.

Knock something over. Right? If I have something standing or sitting, and I

pushed it. I knocked it over. Knocked it over. And it fell. Right? This happens with

glasses and mugs, and you're like...you hit it and the mug falls. Right? I knocked it

over. So, Flavia wasn't being careful. She wasn't paying attention and

she spilled the coffee. Let's try this one. Do you see what that is?

Oh! What is that? Ice cream. Ice cream. Yeah. And what did she do? I was walking,

and I dropped it. You dropped it. Uh-huh. I dropped my ice cream. Sometimes with your feet you

can trip like..."Oh!" Yes. Tripped. Tripped. And I tripped.

I was walking...I was walking, and I tipped and dropped my ice cream. So sorry.

Okay. That's your accident. The laundry? Yes. That's the washing machine or maybe it's a dryer. I don't know.

What happened? I...

Use "fall." Past tense of "fall." Fell. Fell in the dryer. I fell in the dryer. How did this happen?

What were you doing? I was...looking...I was looking for my clothes? You were

looking for your clothes? I don't know. It's a funny accident.

I was reaching my clothes...I was reaching for my clothes.

Reaching for my clothes, and I fell in the dryer. In the dryer.

You have a washing machine. Yes. And a dryer. I don't know the pronunciation.

Washing machine. Washing machine. Dryer. Dryer. Right? Because we have wet and dry. Dry - dryer.

Dryer. She fell in the dryer because she was looking for her clothes.

She was reaching in, and she fell in. Are you okay? She reaching? She was reaching in.

She was reaching in, and she fell. Okay. Last one. This isn't too serious. A little serious. Whoa!

A little serious. I think it's okay. Now it's your problem. Maybe it's not your fault. I don't know.

I was driving. Good. Well, that's not good, but correct. Okay.

I was driving and I talking...I was talking my phone...on my phone when I went

off went...went off the road. The road. Okay.

So, luckily everything is okay. Just a little accident. Your turn! What happened? Why? Why did that happen?

Try to use the simple past and the past progressive.

I dropped the eggs because I wasn't paying attention.

Some kids were playing baseball, and their ball broke the window.

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As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!

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