English Grammar in 1 hour: advanced grammar lesson

Do you know which one is rude? "I have  to work with Sarah on this project." "I  

get to work with Sarah on this project."  One of these is rude. Which one is it? 

If you have been studying English grammar, you  might know that, "I have to work with Sarah on  

this project," is rude, but this one, "I get  to work with Sarah on this project," is polite. 

Why in the world is that? Well, if you are  someone who thinks that English grammar is boring,  

English grammar is not important, well be careful,  because you might be making this rude mistake in  

English if you don't study English grammar. I know, I know, grammar can sometimes feel  

boring or heavy, too many details. But  guess what? I have some good news. I am  

here to help make English grammar enjoyable,  useful, and practical. Today, you are going  

to level up your English grammar skills in  just one hour so that you don't make any rude  

mistakes the next time that you speak in English. Hi, I am Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  

And to help you with today's grammar lesson,  I have created a free PDF worksheet for you.  

Today, we're going to be going over five  important categories of English grammar,  

and you can download all of these in the free  PDF worksheet. You can review the concepts,  

review all of the sample sentences, and make  sure that it is downloaded into your brain. So  

the next time that you speak, no problem. You can  use these grammar concepts easily and naturally.  

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

Let's get started with the first grammar concept,  which we already hinted at. The difference between  

get to and have to so that you're not rude, and  you can speak politely in English. Let's watch. 

I'm in beautiful sunny Costa Rica. Usually I don't  film these videos outside, so I'm sorry if there's  

some wind. You're going to hear some birds,  some trees rustling. It's all part of nature,  

right? Hopefully it will help you  to relax and enjoy today's lesson. 

We're going to be talking about how to describe  your vacation in English. Usually vacations have  

positive parts and sometimes negative parts  as well. So I hope that the expressions we  

talk about today will help you to naturally  describe it. And also, I'm going to show you  

a little bit around the farm so you'll get  some real practice with these expressions. 

The two expressions that we're going to  talk about today are to get to do something,  

and to have to do something. Today, you are going  to get to guess some of the wonderful vegetation  

that's around me on this farm. I'm going to take  you on a little tour throughout this lesson,  

and I want you to guess what the different  plants are. Let's talk about that first  

expression, to get to do something. This expression has a sense of honor,  

of privilege. A sense of, "Wow, I get  to be in this beautiful nature. Wow,  

I'm so privileged. I feel honored to be here."  You could just use the simple past or the simple  

present. "I am in beautiful nature." But if  we want to give a sense of honor, privilege,  

"Wow, I'm so lucky to be here." We can use get  to. "I get to be in this beautiful nature." 

What about that second expression, to have to do  something? Well, in order to get to this farm,  

we had to drive on some difficult roads.  They weren't always paved. There were a lot  

of potholes. They were really windy.  We had to drive on difficult roads. 

When we use had to, which is the past version of  have to, this says a sense of something difficult,  

something undesirable. "I had to take out  the trash. I had to study for my exam." It's  

something that's a little bit of a burden. So  here we have a positive expression. "I get to  

see beautiful nature. We got to see amazing  iguanas on the trail." Or something negative.  

"We had to drive on some difficult roads to  get here. We had to pay $15 to get into the  

park." Before I tell you a little story  about my experience here in Costa Rica,  

let's go to our first question where you get  to guess some of the plants around the farm. 

All right, first quiz question. We have this  beautiful tree with these interesting things  

hanging down. Can you guess what this is? What  kind of plant is this? You've got three seconds.  

Three, two, one. It is cacao. This is the outside  seed, the outside pod where you'll find chocolate. 

I hope you enjoyed that first little  quiz question. There's going to be  

three different quiz questions throughout this  lesson. Let me tell you a little story about  

the first night that we arrived in this city. When we got to the farm, the farmer helped us  

to find the house that we were staying at. It's a  little bungalow, a little cabin on his property.  

And when he tried to open the gate, he couldn't  open it. He tried one key, then he tried another,  

and he ran back to his farm, and we had to wait  for about 15 minutes while he looked for the key. 

And then he came back with a key. He  was so excited. He tried to open the  

gate and it didn't work well. He said, "You're  probably going to have to wait for another hour  

while we work out this problem with the key." For a moment, I was just a little bit worried,  

because we have a toddler and we'd been driving  all day, so we wanted to just open the door and  

let him run free finally. But then he said  to us, "Well, we have a dinner available  

at our eating area. Would you like to be our  guest for dinner?" "Yes, of course we would." 

So we got to have an amazing dinner at the farm.  We had some rice, and beans, and plantains,  

and chicken, and some guava juice, all produced  on the farm. It was our luck really that we got  

to eat that dinner with them because we had no  plans for dinner. We were kind of worried what  

we were going to eat, because we just arrived  here after a long day of traveling. So because  

of this problem with the key, he had to find  the key somehow, somewhere, we got to have  

a great experience. Before we talk about the  grammatical structure of get to and have to,  

let's go on to the second quiz. Question  

quiz question number two. We've got these  interesting plants here with these little flowers.  

What do you think these flowers will  do someday when they're not flowers?  

What will they become? What will this plant  produce? Something quite important that  

probably a lot of you enjoy every  day. Let's take a look at these.  

I'll give you three seconds. Three, two, one.  It's coffee. This is a coffee plant. The farm  

here has a lot of coffee. As you saw, also cacao.  And we'll see a third one in just a moment. 

Did you enjoy that second quiz question? I hope  so. Let's talk about the grammatical structure  

of using get and have in the sense of something  positive or something negative happening. "We got  

to eat dinner on the farm. He had to look for the  key." Here, we're conjugating that special word,  

get and have into the past tense. And do  you see what's happening after that? "We  

got to eat." Make sure that you add to  and then an unconjugated verb. "We got  

to eat. He had to look for the key." Beautiful. Now that you know how to correctly grammatically  

construct a sentence using get to and have  to, let's go on to our third quiz question,  

and then I'll tell you a final story about  our trip using these beautiful expressions. 

For our third quiz question, it's  quite obvious. So I want to show you  

the base of the tree first. And as we  go up the tree, start thinking about,  

what is it? What is this going to  produce? Here we can see a little  

flower hanging down. What is it? What is  it? Are you ready to guess? Three, two, one.  

It's bananas. So beautiful. I didn't know that so  many grew in a bunch like that. It's wonderful. 

I hope you enjoyed that third quiz question in  this little mini tour of the farm. It's really  

nice to see nature in other areas around the  world. Now that you know what get to and have  

to mean, and you know the correct grammatical  structure, let me tell you another quick story  

about something that we did today and something  that we plan to do in the future, so that you can  

see the different verb tenses for get and have. This morning, we got to see an amazing waterfall.  

It's one of the famous attractions of this area  in Costa Rica. But to get to the waterfall,  

you have to walk down 500 steps.  And then to go back to your car,  

you have to walk up 500 steps. But it was  really cool because we got to see the waterfall,  

and then we walked a little bit down the path  and we got to really relax, and feel refreshed,  

and wade into the water. It was quite cold.  There were a lot of fish. It was tons of fun. 

And the great part was we didn't have to drive too  far from the farm. It was just about 15 minutes,  

so not too bad. Over the next couple days, we  hope that we'll get to see some more animals,  

maybe some sloths, maybe some more monkeys,  and more iguanas, maybe an anteater or two,  

some parrots, maybe some macaws. That would  be amazing if we get to see those. So we're  

going to go to a national park and then we're  going to maybe get to go to Hanging Bridges Park.  

Maybe we'll get to go to the lake. We'll see.  But you have to drive a little bit of a distance,  

maybe 30 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half to  get to those locations. But I think it'll be worth  

it. We've already gotten to do a lot of cool  stuff in Costa Rica, and I hope that we'll get  

to do other cool things in the next couple days. Great work. I hope you enjoyed my little vacation  

to Costa Rica during that lesson. The next  grammar lesson is going to be focusing on  

an advanced grammar sentence construction that  I rarely see English learners use, but native  

speakers use this all the time. I want to help  you level up your speaking skills. Let's watch. 

Do you remember learning comparisons in  your English classroom? Like this sentence.  

"His bike is faster than my bike." The word  faster is a comparison word. Or, "Her English  

is better than it was last year." Better is our  comparison word. "That picture is more beautiful  

than mine." More beautiful are comparison words. When we have a short word like fast, hot, easy,  

green, we're just going to add E-R. Faster,  easier, hotter, greener. But when you have a  

longer word like that last sentence, beautiful, or  intelligent, or annoying, instead of adding E-R,  

we're just going to add more or less. "More  beautiful, more intelligent, more annoying,  

less beautiful, less intelligent, less annoying." So these are our two ways that we can make  

comparisons, just as a quick review because that's  going to be essential for taking it to the next  

level in our advanced sentence structure. Let's take a look at this sentence. "The  

warmer it is, the happier I feel." Can you  pick out the two comparison words here?  

Warmer, happier. We can see that E-R at the end  is kind of a key to this. "The warmer it is,  

the happier I feel." Right now, it's the middle of  winter where I live. But occasionally every couple  

weeks, there will be one day that feels like  spring. And everyone in my city goes outside  

and jumps for joy, and all of that sadness from  winter just washes away. Because when it feels  

warm outside, you feel great. You feel so happy. So we could use this sentence. "The warmer it is,  

the happier I feel." We're comparing two things,  but let's take a look at actually what's happening  

here. We have those two comparison words, but  what's happening right before that? It's the  

word the. "The warmer it is, the happier I feel." So that's going to be our key here for structuring  

these sentences. At the beginning, we have some  kind of cause. The cause is warm weather. And  

what's the effect? I feel happy. So we  have a cause and effect happening here.  

"The warmer it is, the happier I feel."  Let's take a look at some other examples. 

"The richer the person, the more annoying he is."  This is just personal opinion. So here we have two  

comparison words, richer and more annoying.  Because the word annoying is a longer word,  

we're going to use more in front of it instead of  saying annoyinger. We're not going to add E-R at  

the end. And then we have that keyword, the. "The  richer the person is or the richer the person,  

the more annoying he is." What about this one? "The sweeter the dessert,  

the more delicious it is. The sweeter," that's our  comparison word. "The more delicious." That's our  

other comparison word. "It is," and we have the  in front of both of those. So we have a cause  

and an effect. The dessert is sweet, and what's  the effect? It's more delicious. We have a cause,  

someone is rich. And in effect, he is more  annoying. So we have a cause and effect happening  

here, with this wonderful advanced comparison. Are you ready to take this to the next level? You  

probably already know how to make comparison  words. But what if we make this advanced  

concept more advanced? Often when we use the-the  sentence structure like we've been talking about,  

we don't use that comparison word. We just  use the word more or less, plus a noun  

afterwards. Let's take a look at this example. "The more you eat, the more you gain weight.  

The more," that's our comparison. So we're not  actually using a word like the warmer, or the more  

beautiful, or the more annoying. We're not using  those words. Instead, we're just saying the more,  

plus a noun, you. "The more you eat, the more  you gain weight." Let's look at a couple others. 

"The less I sleep, the less I can focus on  my work." We can use more or less in these  

situations. "The less I," that's our noun here, "I  sleep. The less I can focus on my work. The more I  

speak English, the more I feel comfortable."  Do you see in all of these sentences, we're  

just expanding on what you already know. You know  about comparisons. Now you know that we need the  

in front of each of them, and then we're  adding more or less. "The more I speak  

English, the more I feel comfortable." We could switch that around and say,  

"The more comfortable I feel." There's a couple  different ways you can use this, but this is  

going to be beautifully advanced to talk about  cause and effect, and we use this all the time. 

In fact, there are a couple fixed phrases.  They're not exactly proverbs or idioms,  

but they're just fixed phrases that native  speakers use a lot that include this the-the  

sentence structure. Let's take a look at a couple. Someone might ask you, "How do you like your  

coffee?" Well, you could say the stronger, the  better. This means you don't like cream in it,  

you don't like sugar in it. You just want a lot of  caffeine. Black coffee that's really strong with  

a lot of caffeine. The stronger, the better. This is often used to talk about drinks. You  

could even use it to talk about an alcoholic  drink. Do you want rum or vodka? You might say,  

"I want both. The stronger the better." So  you're talking about the strength of the drink. 

The other day I was having a bonfire in my  backyard and I invited a family. And they said,  

"Hey, can I invite my other friends?" And I  said, "The more, the merrier." This is a really  

common the-the type of fixed sentence. The more  people who come, the merrier. This is kind of an  

old-fashioned word to mean happy. The happier we  will be. But in that fixed sentence structure,  

we do use the word merrier in daily conversation.  "The more, the merrier. Sure, come on." Or if  

you're having a problem at work and you're talking  with your coworker saying, "Should we tell our  

boss about this problem?" Well, your coworker  might say, "The less said, the better. The less  

said to our boss," the better the outcome, or  maybe the better for your boss, or the better for  

this situation. "The less said, the better." The final common fixed phrase is one that  

procrastinators probably hear a lot, and let's  imagine that you need to study English or you want  

to study English. But you've looked at your phone,  you went for a walk, you called your friends. And  

then your husband says, "Are you going to study  your English lesson today?" He might also say,  

"The sooner you start, the sooner you finish."  That phrase, the sooner the sooner is used a lot.  

"The sooner you begin exercising, the sooner  you'll feel better." The sooner you do something,  

if you do something now, you'll see the results  quicker. You'll see them sooner. So we often  

use this, "The sooner you start, the sooner you  finish," or, "The sooner you'll see the result." 

And now I'd like to share a quick  conversation dialogue with you that  

uses this advanced sentence structure a  lot. I challenge you after this lesson,  

go back and try to say those sentences with us.  That's going to train your speaking muscles,  

help with your pronunciation, and also remind you  how to use this, because you're using it yourself. 

I've been feeling kind of down  lately, but I'm not sure why. 

Dan: Have you been working too much again? 

Vanessa: Well, I go to work at 6:00 AM and  

finish at 8:00 PM, but that's fine with me. Dan: 

Whoa, that's a long time. Maybe the more  you work, the more stressed you feel. 

Vanessa: I don't know. I guess I have neglected  

to see my friends lately. Dan: 

Yeah. The more you see your friends,  the more positive you'll feel. 

Vanessa: Yeah. I do feel kind of lonely. The  

less I do outside of work, the less connected I  feel to them. Maybe I have been working too much. 

Dan: I'd say so. 

Vanessa: In fact, the more I tell you about my work life,  

the more I realize I need balance. Dan: 

Yeah. The more work, the more stress. Vanessa: 

Yeah. The more down I feel. Dan: 

But the more time with friends,  the happier, the more connected. 

Vanessa: The more encouraged, but also the poorer. 

Dan: What, the poorer? 

Vanessa: Yeah, because I would be spending  

money instead of making money. Dan: 

Don't worry about that. The more money you  make, the more you can spend. Let's go have fun. 

Vanessa: Okay. You convinced me. Let's go. 

Great work leveling up your speaking skills. The  next grammar lesson focuses on two tricky words,  

do versus make. You will join me in  the woods again in nature. Sometimes,  

this helps make grammar a little more fun, where  you're going to learn some important expressions  

that can help you learn the difference between do  and make in your daily conversations. Let's watch. 

We use do for specific tasks, some  obligations, or repetitive activities.  

"I need to do some housework." This is an  obligation, a duty, to do some housework. 

We use make for creating or producing something.  "I need to make some soup. I'm creating the  

soup." Today we're going to be in two different  locations, one in the woods and one by the stream,  

so that you can visually remember the difference  between these two words. I hope that it will just  

add to this experience so that you can enjoy  the lesson, and also remember these words. 

But this can be tricky because cooking meals  is kind of an obligation or a duty, right?  

I hope that by talking about some specific  expressions with both of these words,  

it'll help you to remember them, but also it'll  help you to keep those words together. If you  

hear make soup, make soup, make soup a lot,  your brain will keep these two words together. 

It's kind of like when you were first starting to  learn English, you never heard, "I were happy."  

You always heard, "I was happy." Because you  never heard, "I were happy," you probably didn't  

create that wrong sentence structure. So I  hope that by hearing this correct sentence  

structure again and again, you're going to be  able to remember if it's do, or if it's make. 

Let's start by talking about seven expressions  using do. "Everyone loves doing chores. I dream  

about doing the laundry. Doing the dishes is my  favorite activity." Okay, maybe that's not true  

for you. But here, we're using do to talk about  this duty, this obligation, this repetitive task.  

We use do to talk about almost every household  chore. "Do the laundry, do the dishes." Except  

make the bed. This is an exception, but we often  use do to talk about those household repetitive  

chores. For more household chores, check out my  video 70 Cleaning Expressions in English up here. 

Number two, "I can't go play a game because  I have to do some work," or maybe because,  

"I have to do some homework." To do  work is a common expression. Actually,  

I said this to Dan when I was writing this  lesson. He wanted me to play a game and I said,  

"I'm sorry. I can't play the game because I have  to do some work," which was writing this lesson. 

Number three, Dan, my husband plays hockey. And  after his game he often says, "The goalie did a  

good job, but we still lost." Or maybe he said,  "The goalie did a bad job. The goalie did a poor  

job." Here we're talking about doing a good job,  doing a bad job, doing a poor job. We're using the  

word do in the past to say did. "He did a good  job?" What do you think about this lesson? Am  

I doing a good job explaining these expressions? Number four, have you done any exercises recently?  

Maybe you might say, "I did some yoga yesterday  and I'm going to do some Pilates today." This  

question uses do in another verb tense. "Have you  done any exercises recently?" This can be a little  

bit tricky to talk about do plus exercise, because  we often just take out do completely and say,  

"Have you exercised recently?" This is using  exercise as the verb. "Have you exercised?"  

Notice the E-D. That tells us that this  is a verb. "Have you exercised recently?" 

But in my original sentence, "Have you done any  exercises?" This is using exercise as a noun,  

and then do is our verb. So make sure  that you use this correctly. We don't  

want to have do plus exercise as a verb.  We need to only have one verb here. "Have  

you done any exercises? Have you exercised?" Number five, "How are you doing? I'm doing  

pretty well. I'm not doing that hot." This is  a common greeting. You might hear this all the  

time. Maybe you say this a lot. To learn  some other common greetings and other ways  

to start sentences, you can check out this  link up here. "How are you doing? I'm doing  

great. I'm not doing that hot." Wonderful. Number six, "I always try to do my best."  

To do my best is a beautiful expression. It  means you're not perfect, but you try to do  

your best. If you said this in a job interview, "I  always try to do my best every day at work," wow,  

great. You're hired. This is a wonderful way  to express that you are a diligent worker,  

you're a hard worker. And even though you're not  perfect, you're going to always do your best. 

Number seven, "Please, do something. Do  anything." Maybe if you have a friend who  

is single and is always complaining about  not going on a date, you might say, "Well,  

maybe it'd be a good idea if you got out of your  house one day. Maybe you should go to a yoga  

class. Maybe you should go for a walk in the park  and talk to someone while you're walking your dog.  

Just do something. Do anything." We often use do  with these words something, anything. And it's not  

specific. Something and anything is not telling  a specific activity, but we often use those  

together. You can also use this in a less intense  situation. Maybe if your friend's inviting you to  

go to a yoga class, you might say, "I can't go to  yoga class because I have to do something else." 

You're not saying what you have to do.  It's kind of mysterious. You're not  

saying that other activity that you need  to do, but you're just saying, "I need  

to do something else." To do something else. Now let's go on to make. These are the top 10  

expressions using make, at least according to me. Number one, "Dan makes oatmeal for us every  

morning. I like to make green tea in the  afternoon." We often use make with food or drinks,  

and it's a good way to use this naturally. Number two, "If you watch the ad at the  

beginning of this video, I make some money."  Thanks. Here I'm not creating or producing,  

I'm not printing the money myself. But here,  I'm still acquiring the money. So I want to  

know when you were in high school, what did you do  to make money? Did you babysit? Did you walk your  

neighbor's dog? Did you do your neighbor's  homework? What did you do to make money? 

Sentence number three, "It can be tough  to make new friends when you move to a  

new city." Here we're using the expression  make friends. You're not actually creating  

your friends like Frankenstein, at least I  hope not. But you are acquiring new friends. 

When I think about the friends that I have now,  I made one friend at the grocery store, I made  

another friend at yoga class, and I made another  friend 10 years ago in college. So as an adult,  

we make friends in a lot of different ways. Have you ever made a phone call in English?  

This can be a little bit scary when you  do it, but with practice it gets easier.  

We have a couple expressions we use when we  talk about using the phone. But when you are  

the one dialing the numbers, you are the one  who's making a phone call. If you want to use  

some common expressions for phone conversations,  then make sure to check out this video up here. 

Number five, make a suggestion about what  kind of lesson you'd like me to make here  

on YouTube in the future. I'm asking you  to make a suggestion. Give me some ideas. 

Number six, when you make a mistake, don't make  an excuse. Just tell the truth. Here are two  

for the price of one. Make a mistake and make  an excuse. I often hear English learners say,  

"I did a mistake," and to them I would say, yep.  Yep, you did. You made a mistake. If you want to  

use did, you could say, "I did something  wrong." But here, this is a beautiful  

expression that you can use instead with make.  "I made a mistake." And if you make a mistake,  

don't make an excuse. No one likes someone who  makes excuses. "I was tired, I was hungry. There  

was a lot of traffic." Don't make an excuse. Just  tell the truth, and say you're sorry, and move on. 

Number seven, "I often read reviews to help  me make a decision before I buy something."  

Do you do that? Do you read reviews before  you buy something? What helps you to make  

a decision? Have you ever made a decision  that you regretted? I hope you don't regret  

making the decision to watch this lesson. Study these words so that you can make sure  

that you use them correctly. We often say, make  sure to mean make certain, be certain. But we  

don't use that one as much, so forget about that  one and just remember make sure. We often use  

this as kind of a reminder. Make sure that you  finish your homework. Make sure that you clean  

your room. Make sure, make sure, make sure. So if  you use, make sure as a reminder to someone else,  

make sure you say it with a smile because it can  be kind of annoying if someone says, "Make sure  

you do this, make sure you do this, make sure you  do this," so make sure you say it with a smile. 

Number nine, it really makes me happy that you're  still watching this video and didn't click away.  

Your actions have an effect on me. It makes me  happy. Or we could use this in a negative way.  

"Talking with her about her problems makes me  feel drained." Or maybe watching these lessons  

makes you feel excited about English. It makes  you react in a certain way. Makes me feel happy,  

makes me feel drained, makes me feel excited.  I hope that this lesson makes you feel excited,  

because I'm sitting on a log suspended over  the creek, and it's not very comfortable. So  

it makes me happy that you're still watching  this and that this experience is worth it. 

Number 10, try to use English every day. This  advice just makes sense. If someone told you,  

"Study English for six hours every Saturday, and  you can forget about English the other six days of  

the week." This advice doesn't really make sense.  It feels really stressful to me. So when you use  

this expression, "It makes sense. It doesn't make  sense." We're using this in the sense of sensible.  

This is the root word here. It is sensible advice  to study English a little bit every day. It is not  

sensible advice to study English just one day  for a long period of time. You feel stressed,  

you don't remember things easily. So it makes  sense to study English little by little every day. 

I think it makes sense to have a review now,  don't you think? Let's go back and review all of  

the expressions that we talked about with do, and  all of the expressions we talked about with make. 

Let's review the seven expressions with do.  Number one, "Everyone loves doing chores.  

I have to do some work. The goalie did a  good job. I did some exercises yesterday.  

How are you doing? I'm doing pretty  well. I always try to do my best.  

I have to do something else." And now the, 10 expressions with make.  

Number one, "Dan makes us oatmeal." Number two, "I  make some money. It can be tough to make friends.  

I need to make a phone call. Make a suggestion in  the comments. When you make a mistake, don't make  

an excuse. The reviews often help me to make a  decision. Make sure you clean your room before you  

go to bed. It makes me happy that you watched  this lesson. This advice just makes sense." 

Great work learning the difference between do and  make so that you can use this accurately as you  

speak. The next grammar lesson is going to focus  on storytelling. We are constantly telling stories  

When we speak. Oftentimes, we're talking about  something that happened in the past. It might be,  

"What did you do over the weekend? How was your  last vacation?" Well, you're probably going to  

tell a little quick story about your weekend  plans, or what you did on your last vacation.  

So I would like to help you use the correct verbs  to talk about stories in the past. Let's watch. 

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 E-D. 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 E-D. 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.  

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, we have the past  continuous. Can you guess when you might use  

this? 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, "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 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 a 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. 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." 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." Okay, this  is past simple. It finished before work.  

"I drank my tea before work." But what if  we change this to past continuous? "I was  

drinking my tea while I worked." Okay. Here  we have an activity that continued during  

the workday. "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.  

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, "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.  

So 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, "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, 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 on to 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.  

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 I, 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 carrots and  I a loud knock at the door. 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. 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 cut a snake. Come look. Oh my." 

In just a moment, I will tell you if this is a  true story 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.'" 

Great work leveling up your storytelling skills.  Our final grammar lesson today is a big one. It  

is the difference between three small, but  tricky words in English. In, on, and at.  

I get asked this all the time by English learners,  so here's the lesson to help you finally master  

these three tricky words. Let's watch. Each of the prepositions in, on, and at,  

can be used to talk about space and time.  Let's take a look at some examples so that  

we can study before the test. In. "I put the  medicine in the cabinet in the afternoon."  

Here we have space, "In the cabinet," and time,  "In the afternoon." We use in for an enclosed  

space. "In the cabinet." And for a general time,  usually a time of day. "In the morning, in the  

afternoon, in the evening." This general time. On. "I put my phone on the shelf on Monday."  

Here we have space, "On the shelf," and time, "On  Monday." Usually on is with a surface. Sometimes  

it's a flat surface, sometimes it's not, but we  talk about on with a surface. On the shelf. And  

for time, we're talking about a specific  day on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday. 

This video is coming out on Friday. And at.  "Please be at the entrance of the park at 4:00  

PM." We have space, "At the entrance," and time,  "At 4:00 PM. At the entrance of the park," is a  

specific place, a specific point at the entrance  of the park. And for time, "At 4:00 PM," we are  

talking about a specific time, "At 4:00 PM.  At 9:00 PM. At 3:00 AM." The specific time. 

So we've had a little review here. Don't  stress too much about the rules. I want  

you to look into your heart. As  I give you these test sentences,  

I want you to choose which word is the best  to fill in each of these sentences. Maybe you  

remember the rules, maybe you don't.  That's okay. Remember those patterns  

we talked about. Your brain has created some  patterns already using these three words. So,  

let's get started with sentence number one. Did you find your coat the closet?  

Did you find your coat in, on, at the closet?  I'll give you three seconds to decide. 

"Did you find your coat in the closet." In is  an enclosed space. The closet is an enclosed  

space. Did you find your coat in the closet? Number two, my favorite cafe is the end of this  

street. My favorite cafe is in, on, at the end of  this street. What do you think? Three, two, one. 

"My favorite cafe is at the end of this street."  Here we're talking about a specific place,  

A specific point at the end of  this street is my favorite cafe. 

How are you doing so far? Take a deep breath. You  got this. All right, let's go to number three. 

Oh no I spilled my coffee, my homework. Oh no,  I spilled my coffee in, on, at my homework.  

Three, two, one. "Oh no, I spilled my  

coffee on my homework." Here we're talking about  the surface of my homework. It also happens to be  

a flat surface. Like I mentioned, we sometimes  use this for flat surfaces. On my homework. Oh  

man. Now I'm going to have to explain this to my  teacher. "I spilled my coffee on my homework." 

Number four, I enjoy taking walks early the  morning. I enjoy taking walks early in, on,  

at the morning. Three, two, one. "I enjoy taking walks early in  

the morning. Here we are talking about a  general time of day. We're not talking about  

9:00 AM. We are talking about a general time in  the morning, in the afternoon. And this is one  

of the keys to remembering prepositions is when  you can remember a full phrase in the morning,  

you're not going to need to think about  the rules. General time, specific time. No,  

you don't need to think about that because you  know the full phrase. So sentences like this  

are great ways to remember these tricky words.  "In the morning." Let's go to the next question. 

Number five, my date will be here  5:15. My date will be here in, on,  

at 5:15. We're talking about time  here. I'll give you three seconds.  

"My date will be here at 5:15." Hopefully not  5:14. Hopefully not 5:16. 5:15. Maybe not exactly,  

but you know what I mean. Here, we're talking  about a specific time. 5:15, 6:15, 7:45,  

at 5:15. All right, let's get to the next one. Number six, I love to spend summer vacation the  

mountains. I love to spend summer  vacation in, on, at the mountains.  

Give you three seconds. Three, two, one. The best answer for this sentence is,  

"I love to spend summer vacations in the  mountains." We're not talking about digging  

a hole in the mountains and going inside the  dirt and the rocks. No, this would really be an  

enclosed space. In the closet, in the cabinet. But sometimes we use the idea of an enclosed  

space a little bit more loosely. So here, we're  talking about being surrounded by the mountains.  

It's the idea that you're somewhat enclosed in  the warm embrace of the mountains. So sometimes,  

we do use this a little bit more  loosely, but you can get the idea here. 

Number seven, we are having dinner. My  favorite restaurant. We're having dinner in,  

on, at my favorite restaurant. I'll give  you three seconds. Three, two, one. "We  

are having dinner at my favorite restaurant."  This is a specific place. A specific point, at  

my favorite restaurant. Well, that's where we're  going to be having dinner. We're having dinner at  

my favorite restaurant. A specific place. Number eight. I jumped when he tapped me  

the shoulder. I jumped when he tapped me  in, on, at the shoulder. Three, two, one.  

"I jumped when he tapped me on the shoulder."  This is also a little more loose, but we're  

talking about the surface of my shoulder,  the surface of my skin. "When he tapped me  

on the shoulder." This is the surface of it. It's  not inside my skin. This is just the surface. He  

tapped me on the shoulder. How are you doing? We  have two more sentences. Let's go to number nine. 

Do you have a date Saturday night? Do you have a  date in, on, at Saturday night? Do you remember  

which one we should use with days like Saturday?  I'll give you three seconds. Three, two, one. 

"Do you have a date on Saturday  night?" We use on for a specific day,  

on Saturday, on Friday, on Tuesday.  "Do you have a date on Saturday night?" 

And our final test question before we  get to five fixed phrases using in,  

on, and at is this. You can email me  [email protected]. This is  

a common phrase we use in business or whenever you  need to tell someone your email address. So it's  

a good expression to remember. You can email me  in, on, or at my email address. Three, two, one. 

"You can email me at  [email protected]." This  

is also a more figurative way to use a specific  place. So we said at my favorite restaurant,  

at the entrance of the park. But this is not a  place you can go. You can't go physically to my  

email address. So we're going to use this a little  bit more loosely, and we can say, you can email me  

at. This is my specific email address. "You can  email me at [email protected]." 

Great. Are you ready for five bonus  fixed phrases that include in, on,  

or at? These are kind of outside the rules of what  we just talked about, but I want you to look into  

your heart and to guess which proposition do you  think would be the best fit. Let's look at this  

sentence. The building is fire. The building  is in, on, at fire. What is the fixed phrase  

we're looking for here? Three, two, one. "The building is on fire." Run. So here,  

we're using the fixed phrase to be on fire.  We can use this in a real way, that there are  

flames coming up from the building, so get out of  the building. It's on fire. But we can also use  

this for more figurative ways. For example, you  might say, "My motivation for learning English is  

on fire from watching Vanessa's video," or talking  about your motivation is on fire. Or we might say,  

"I'm on fire for English." This is talking about  a more figurative way of talking about fire. Of  

course there is not fire on you, but we're talking  about in your heart. There is an excitement,  

there's determination, there's motivation. "I'm  on fire for English." My motivation is on fire,  

and that is another way to use this expression.  All right, let's go to the next sentence. 

Do you believe love at first sight? Do  you believe in, on, at love at first  

sight? Give you three seconds. Three, two, one. "Do you believe in love at first sight?" Here,  

our fixed expression is to believe in  something. You can believe in love,  

you can believe in peace. You can believe in  your ability to learn English. You can believe  

in something, and this means you have hope that  it will happen. You have high hopes that this  

will come true. "I believe in love." Wonderful. Question number 13, he is really good juggling.  

Juggling is when you throw balls in the  air. He is really good in, on, at juggling.  

I'll tell you in three, two, one. "He is really good at juggling." Here  

we're going to use the fixed expression to  be good at something. This is used all the  

time. You might say, "I thought that I wasn't  good at English. And then I found Vanessa's  

lessons and realized it's not too hard. I  can do this." You can be good at English. 

Number 14, do you have this a smaller  size? This is a common expression when  

you're shopping. Do you have this in on,  or, at a smaller size? Three, two, one. 

"Do you have this in a smaller size?" This  expression to be in a size or color is commonly  

used when we're shopping and we're trying to  find the best thing that we are looking for.  

So you might say, "Do you have this in a large?  Do you have this in a medium?" Or we can use it  

for color. "Do you have this in red? Do  you have this in stripes?" Great. This is  

a great expression to use when you're shopping. And our final test question. Are you ready? Drum  

roll, is my date was his phone all night.  It was so rude. My date was in, on, at his  

phone all night. Such a shame. Three, two, one. "My date was on his phone all night. It was so  

rude." He's not actually standing on his phone.  But instead, that means he's using his phone. And  

this is a common expression, to be on your phone.  Sometimes, you could say this maybe to teenagers.  

"Hey, get off your phone. You are on your phone  all day. Why are you always on your phone? I wish  

I wasn't on my phone so much." It doesn't mean  that you're standing on your phone. it just means  

you are using your phone. So this is a great  fixed expression to note, to be on your phone. 

So let's do a little review. I'm going to  read all of these sentences one more time,  

and I would like you to try to say them out loud  with me. Do you think you can do this? Of course  

you can, because you are good at English.  Let's say all of these sentences together. 

Did you find your coat in the closet? I  enjoy taking walks early in the morning.  

I love to spend summer vacation in the mountains.  Do you have this in a smaller size? Do you believe  

in love at first sight? Oh no. I spilled coffee on  my homework. Do you have a date on Saturday night?  

I jumped when he tapped me on the shoulder.  The building is on fire. My date was on his  

phone the whole night. It was so rude. My  favorite cafe is at the end of this street.  

My date will be here at 5:15. We are having dinner  at my favorite restaurant. You can email me at  

[email protected].  He is really good at juggling. 

Great work leveling up your English grammar  skills so that you can feel confident The  

next time that you speak in English. Don't  forget to download the free PDF worksheet,  

which includes all five of today's grammar  lessons that you learned in just one hour.  

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

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

lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. But wait, do you want more? I recommend  

watching this video next where you will learn  to think and speak in English. Specifically,  

you will learn how to talk about your vacation in  English. If you enjoyed the storytelling lesson  

today, this is the chance to level up those  skills even more. I'll see you there. Bye.