Express Yourself Completely in English: Tell a story in English

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa  

from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. What  happened this morning? Let's talk about it. 

So what happened this morning? Well, when I  woke up my husband Dan cooked breakfast. Cool.  

Or when I woke up, my husband Dan was cooking  breakfast. Oh, why is this last sentence a little  

bit surprising? I imagine that you want to be able  to express yourself completely in English. Well,  

using the right verb tense is key to expressing  yourself accurately and clearly. So today I'm  

going to help you understand the difference and  be able to use two similar and yet different verb  

tenses: Dan cooked, and Dan was cooking.  Hmm. What's the difference? I'll help you. 

And like always for today's lesson, I have created  a free PDF worksheet that you can download with  

the link in the description. You'll find all of  today's sample sentences, ideas, verb tenses,  

and you can study it whenever you would like.  You can print it out, put it under your pillow,  

sleep on it at night so that it soaks into  your brain. This is my gift to you. So make  

sure that you click the link in the description  so that you can download the free PDF today. 

Today's lesson has three levels. We'll start with  easy, then intermediate, and then advanced. And  

finally, at the end, there is a quiz to see if you  have accomplished the goal of understanding and  

being able to use clear, natural English. All  right, let's get started with the easy level. 

For our easy level, we have the past simple. These  are simply actions that happened in the past. Most  

of these end in ed. Let's take a look at a couple  just to review. We have study becomes studied.  

"I studied English yesterday." Practice becomes  practiced. "I practiced the piano for three  

hours." I wish. Or learn becomes learned. "I  learned a lot with Vanessa's lessons." Hooray. 

Now not every past simple verb ends in ed.  There are some irregulars, and usually that  

means that the vowel changes. Let's take a look  at a couple. Wake becomes woke. "I woke up before  

my alarm clock." It's a small miracle. Break and  eat become broke and ate. "I broke my cookies  

before I ate them." Drink becomes  drank. "I drank some tea this morning." 

Before we go to the intermediate  level, I have a quick question for you.  

"I can't believe that yesterday I...  English for 30 minutes." Great work.  

I can't believe that yesterday I speak,  spoke, or speaked English for 30 minutes.  

Which one do you think is correct? I'll  give you three seconds. Three, two one.  

"I can't believe that yesterday I spoke  English for 30 minutes." Congratulations.  

All right, let's go on to the intermediate  level. Are you ready to level up? Let's do it. 

In the intermediate level, have the past  continuous. Can you guess when you might use this?  

Oh, when there is a continual action in the  past. Let's take a look at a quick example.  

Let's imagine that you call me and I don't pick  up the phone. Well, eventually when you see me,  

you might say, "Why didn't you pick up the phone  when I called? I could say, "Oh, I was preparing  

to film a lesson and I didn't have time to talk."  This verb I was preparing is the past continuous.  

If you can imagine with me a timeline and we  have an action that happened when you called.  

Well, what's happening before, during, and after  this? Well, I was preparing to film the lesson. 

A lot happens to prepare to film these lessons.  I need to write the lesson. I need to get ready.  

I need to make sure my house is quiet. My kids  need to be out outside somewhere. They need to be  

safely with someone outside. I need to be  feeling energized and ready a lot goes into  

preparing these lessons. So we could say that  you called and I was preparing the lesson before  

you called. I was preparing the lesson during  your call. And I was preparing for the lesson  

after your call. So this is a continual action  that is interrupted by one singular past action. 

Let's take a look at a couple other examples. "At  9:00 PM, I studied for the test." This is the past  

simple. Why? Because it is an action that happened  at specific time. "At 9:00 PM, I started to study  

for the test." But what happens if we change  this. "At 9:00 PM, I was studying for the test."  

Oh, this means something slightly different.  It means that before 9:00 PM I was studying,  

at 9:00 PM I was studying, and after 9:00 PM I  was studying. This was a continual action that  

happened, including that 9:00 PM moment. Let's take a look at another example.  

"I woke up early today." Woke is the past  simple. I woke up early today, it is finished.  

But let's change it to the past continuous. "I was  waking up early every day during the summer." Hmm.  

Do you understand this slight difference here?  I was waking up every day during the summer,  

this implies that this happened continually  throughout the entire summer. It was  

a continual action that happened in the past. Let's take a look at another example. "I drank my  

tea before work." This is past simple. It finished  before work. "I drank my tea before work."  

But what if we changed this to pass continuous.  "I was drinking my tea while I worked." Oh, okay.  

Here we have an activity that continued during the  work day. I was drinking my tea while I worked.  

This is something that's continuing. Before we go on to the advanced level,  

let's have a quick quiz question to test  your intermediate skills. Can you fill in the  

blank in this sentence? "Sorry that I didn't  call you back. I... English with Vanessa."  

I were studying English with Vanessa.  I was studying English with Vanessa,  

or I studied English with Vanessa. Hmm. Which one  is the best? I'll give you three seconds. Three,  

two, one. "Sorry that I didn't call you  back. I was studying English with Vanessa."  

This is an action that was happening  before the call, during the call,  

and after the call. I was studying English with  Vanessa when you called. Okay, congratulations.  

Let's go on to the advanced level. Now that you know, each of these  

verb tenses individually, the past simple and  the past continuous, let's put them together  

and see what happens. Do you remember the  original sentence that I said in this lesson?  

"Dan was cooking breakfast when I woke up." And  this made me say, "Oh, it surprised me." Why  

did this surprise me? Let's see. Here we have a  continual action. Dan was cooking breakfast. Boom,  

interrupted by when I woke up. That means Dan woke  up before me, he prepared breakfast before I woke  

up, and he was preparing it while I was waking  up. And when I woke up, he was still preparing  

breakfast. This is very kind, very thoughtful,  and maybe something that happens on my birthday.  

So this is something we can say, "Oh," to when  this happens. I'm not sure if this happens often  

in your household, that when you wake up, someone  else is preparing breakfast. But if this happened  

in my house, it would be an amazing thing. Let's take a look at this image. I think  

this gives a good visual to the ideas that we're  talking about. We have a long winding road. This  

is the past continuous event. Dan was cooking  breakfast, but what is in the middle of this  

road? It's a dotted line. So it's interrupted  by events, but the road is still continuing.  

So Dan was cooking breakfast, boom, when I  woke up. When I said, "What are you doing?"  

When I said, "Oh, what an amazing breakfast?"  It is interrupted by these past simple events. 

Let's take a look at a couple other examples where  this past continuous event is interrupted by some  

past simple events. Let's take a look. "I haven't  really studied English much lately, but when I was  

studying English, I practiced every day." Here we  have an interrupted action. I practiced every day,  

during the time that I was studying. Let's take a look at another sentence.  

"When I was drinking my tea," boom, "you  called me." "When I was drinking my tea,  

my cat knocked over my cup." Naughty cat. "When  I was drinking my tea, my kid screamed, 'Mommy!'" 

Do you think you can pass the advanced  quiz before we go onto our final exam?  

I hope so. And I hope that this sentence is not  true for you. "When I... Vanessa's lesson, I...  

asleep." Oh no. Well, let's see which  one of these do you think is correct?  

When I were watching Vanessa's lesson, I fall  asleep. When I watch Vanessa's lesson, I fell  

asleep. When I was watching Vanessa's lesson, I  fell asleep. I hope that none of these are true.  

I'll give you three seconds to think of the  best grammatical answer. Are you ready? Three,  

two, one. "When I was watching Vanessa's  lesson, I fell asleep." Oh no, wake up,  

because it is time for your drum roll. Final exam. What I'm going to do is I'm going to  

read a little story with some blanks, and I want  you to guess the best answer. And at the very end,  

I'm going to read the final story. And I hope  that you can pat yourself on the back because you  

correctly told this story in English. Let's see. Last night night... when suddenly I... some  

carrots on the floor. Let me read it one more  time. Last night I... when suddenly I... some  

carrots on the floor. I'll give you three  seconds to think of the best answer. 

Last night I was cooking when suddenly I dropped  some carrots on the floor. Why did I do that?  

Let me tell you. I... the carrot and I... a loud  knock at the door. Hmm. I... the carrots and I...  

a loud knock at the door. I'll give you three  seconds. Three, two, one. I was cutting the  

carrots and I heard a loud knock at the door. I... it was my neighbor, so I... just a minute.  

I... it was my neighbor, so I...  Just a minute. Three, two, one.  

I thought it was my neighbor,  so I yelled, "Just a minute!" 

Then a little voice said, "Mommy! I... with  my friends and I... a snake. Come look!"  

Then I heard a little voice that said,  "Mommy! I... with my friends and I...  

a snake. Come look!" Three, two, one.  Then I heard a little voice that said,  

"Mommy! I was playing with my friends  and I caught a snake. Come look!" Oh my. 

In just a moment, I will tell  you if this is a true or not,  

let me read the entire story and we can see  how it sounds with the correct verb tenses. 

Last night I was cooking when suddenly I dropped  some carrots on the floor. Why did I do that?  

Let me tell you. I was cutting the carrots, and I  heard a loud knock at the door. I thought it was  

my neighbor, so I yelled, "Just a minute!" Then  a little voice said, "Mommy! I was playing with  

my friends and I caught a snake! Come look!" First of all, let me know how did you do? What  

was your score? Let me know in the comments, which  of these sentences were the most tricky for you. 

And now I want to tell you if this was a true  story or not. Yes, this was a true story,  

but it did not happen to my children. This  happened when my husband Dan was a child.  

I want to tell you this quick story and listen  for the past simple and past continuous verb  

tenses in my story because these verb tenses are  perfect for telling a story. Listen carefully. 

Dan was playing with his friends when he caught  a snake. He carried it over his head while his  

friends were running behind him. And he knocked on  the door and said, "Mom, can we keep it?" Can you  

imagine the look on her face? I can only imagine. So how did you do? Did today's lesson help you to  

more smoothly and clearly express yourself  and talk about what happened in the past.  

I'd like to ask you a question. What happened  this morning? Can you use both the past simple and  

the past continuous to tell me what happened this  morning in your house? For me, I would say when I  

woke up, my children were screaming, "Mommy!" They  were already awake and they were waiting for me. 

So I want to know in the comments, can you let me  know what happened this morning? And don't forget  

to download today's free PDF worksheet so that  you can review all of these sample sentences,  

the quiz questions, the verb tenses, so  that you can express yourself completely.  

That is goal. That you can express  yourself and be yourself in English.  

You can click on the link in the description  to download the free PDF worksheet today. 

Well, thank you so much for learning English with  me, and I will see you again next Friday for a new  

lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download the free  

PDF worksheet for this lesson. With this  free PDF, you will master today's lesson  

and never forget what you have learned. You  can be a confident English speaker. Don't  

forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel  for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.