When Should You Use Past Simple? Basic English Grammar | Ask Alisha

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Hi, everybody.

Welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them,

maybe.

First question comes from Myfta.

Hi, again, Myfta.

“What is the difference between ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’ and when can I use them?”

Yeah, good question.

So, both “fate” and “destiny” refer to an outcome in the future.

It's kind of like a big outcome.

We use “fate” and “destiny” when talking about like epic stories, really big stories

or like really kind of big life moments, for example.

The difference in meaning, though, is that “fate” often has a kind of a negative

feeling about it.

Like there's a negative outcome, something bad is going to be the outcome.

“Destiny,” however, sounds like something really positive, something good or maybe like

you're going to have a leadership role or there's something happy that's going to happen

as an outcome.

“It's your destiny to save the world.”

“He accepted his fate and sat in the dark dungeon.”

“We're going to be the leaders in our community.

It's our destiny.”

“Her fate was decided the moment she stole from the company.”

So, you can hear in these sentences, even just the feeling of the sentence, it's kind

of a negative situation or a negative idea with “fate” and something kind of positive

or happy or optimistic with the word “destiny.”

So, that's the difference between them.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the question.

Next question comes from Shokruk.

I'm very sorry, Shokruk.

“Hi.

Can you explain passive voice?”

Yes, I can.

Actually, I would recommend checking this video where I talked about the difference

between active and passive voice.

I hope that this helps you.

This could be a nice introduction to this grammar point.

So, please check this out.

It's on the channel.

I'll try to make sure a link goes in the description of this video.

Thanks for the question.

Next question comes from Jitu.

Hi.

“How do you use words like ‘sit,’ ‘wear,’ ‘stand,’ ‘live,’ ‘work,’ in simple

past and past continuous tense?

If they're used in these tenses, what is the difference in meaning?

Please explain.”

Okay, sure.

So, a quick grammar review.

We use simple past tense for actions that started and finished in the past.

“I sat at my desk and worked today.”

“She stood next to me and watched me work.”

“I lived in that place for three years.”

Then we use the past continuous or the past progressive tense to talk about actions that

were continuing in the past.

So, we use this when we want to talk about, one, actions that were interrupted.

So, we're doing something, doing something, doing something, and then another action happens

and interrupts it.

Or, when we want to talk about what we were doing at a specific point in time, a continuing

action we were doing at a specific point in time.

So, we don't want to explain it had finished, we only want to explain that it was continuing

at that time.

“I was sitting at my desk working when the phone rang.”

“She was standing next to me, watching me work, when the manager came in.”

“I was living in that place in 2012.”

So, maybe you can see, we use simple past tense for actions that started and finish,

just a simple action like a simple report of that action.

We’ll use the past progressive or the past continuous tense to talk about actions that

continue and then were stopped by another action or to refer to something that was happening

at a specific point in time in the past, something that was continuing like, “I was living

there,” or, “I was working at that company that year,” for example.

So, I hope that that helps a little bit.

Thanks for the question.

Next question!

Next question comes from Pullum Abadi Nusantara.

Pullum, maybe?

Sorry.

“Hi, Alisha.

What is the difference between ‘goes wrong,’ ‘went wrong,’ and ‘gone wrong?’”

Oh, the difference is the point in time.

These are just different points in time where a mistake happens.

So, let's make example sentences to see exactly what the difference is.

“I hope nothing goes wrong with this project.”

“Uh-oh.

Something went wrong with the project.”

“Everything has gone wrong with the project.”

So, here, we see a future tense statement, “I hope nothing goes wrong,” that's a

future, a future request, a future wish, a future hope.

“I hope nothing goes wrong.”

We see a past tense, “Uh-oh.

Something went wrong.”

So, a mistake happened and is finished.

And, “Everything has gone wrong,” it means everything from the beginning of the project

until the present time, everything has been mistaken, there's been some problem with everything

that has continued until the present point in time.

So, these are just different grammar points, different points in time where a mistake happens.

I hope that helps answer your question.

Next question from Dulce Coromoto Putana Vandervelt.

Oh, wow.

I will say, Dulce.

“Hi, Alisha.

What's the difference between ‘on the beach’ and ‘at the beach?’

Also, between ‘to lay’ and ‘to lie.’”

Thank you.

Okay, you have two big questions.

First, the difference between “on the beach” and “at the beach.”

Sure.

So, “on the beach” is used to talk about activities that happen on the surface of the

beach, things that are like about the surface, like the sand itself, physically on the beach.

“I want to enjoy the Sun on the beach.”

“He found a shell on the beach.”

“At the beach,” however, is for activities that happen there.

They aren’t on physically, like the surface of the beach.

It's just four things that happen in that location.

“Let's go swimming at the beach.”

“She said to meet at the beach.”

So, I hope that helps answer that question.

Let's go on to your next question which is more difficult.

“Lay” and “lie,” the difference between these two.

Actually, native speakers confuse these all the time.

So, if you make a mistake, don't worry too much about it.

The difference is “lay,” the verb, “lay,” in present tense uses a direct object.

“Lie” does not use a direct object.

“Lay down your bag here.”

“Lie down on the sofa.”

But, this gets more complicated because the past tense form of the verb, “lie” is

“lay.”

“He lay down on the sofa.”

“We lay down and went to sleep.”

The past tense of “lay,” however, is “laid.”

“We laid our bags on the table.”

“She laid her keys on the desk.”

So, the difference between these two is just that one verb takes a direct object and one

verb does not.

In most cases, you're not going to cause any communication problems by making a mistake

with one of these.

Native speakers do it all the time.

But if you want to know the difference, that's what the difference is.

Hope that helps.

Next question comes from Imon.

Hi, again, Imon.

“What does ‘there's still a lot of room for improvement’ mean?”

Yeah, nice question.

It means improvement is still possible.

This is an expression that's used to give like criticism and encouragement.

So, the speaker is communicating to the listener.

Like, “I think you can do better,” something better is possible.

“There's room for improvement” means something better than this is still possible.

So, “I think you can do better than this.”

Alright.

Those are all the questions that I want to answer for this week.

Thank you, as always, for sending me your great questions.

Remember, you can send them to me at EnglishClass101.com/ask-alisha.

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and check us out at EnglishClass101.com for some other good study tools.

Thanks very much for watching this episode of Ask Alisha and I will see you again next week.

Bye-bye.

Such air traffic. Many plane.