LEARN ENGLISH: How to talk about people & events in the past

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Hi there, it's Ronnie, going to teach you a lesson about using the past tense.

A lot of people struggle with the past tense

because there's so many verbs, there's irregular

verbs, there's regular verbs, "ed" verbs, and a lot of the times when we're focused

too much on the conjugation of verbs, we kind

of forget to use other ways to actually use

the past in regular conversations, which is

my goal with you, to help you speak naturally

so you don't sound like a person that doesn't speak English very well.

I want you to sound as natural as you can, and this is a really interesting thing that

I've been thinking about for a while is how we use the past tense in kind of a strange

So, this is a grammar-based lesson on using the past, but there's some cool connections

Let's look at our sentences, first of all.

The blue sentences are written in present tense.

I would say, "He is such an asshole."

Because our verb is "is", we know this is present tense.

And "such an asshole" means they're not

really cool, not a really good person, okay?

But if we wanted to make it past, we would say, "He was such an asshole."

So, again, simple past, we're changing "is" to "was".

And, hopefully, through this, when I'm giving

you these examples, you're thinking, "Wow,

why would I say 'He was such an asshole'?"

Let's look at number two.

We always go to the park and make fun of rollerbladers.

Do you know what this means to make fun of someone?

If you make fun of someone, it means that

you take delight or joy in weird things about

So...

Let's say that someone's wearing some weird

clothes, or someone falls someplace, or they're

doing something that you think is weird, you

would make fun of them, like, "Oh, that's

That's weird you do that."

This is how bullying starts.

So, you can make fun of rollerbladers, that's fine.

We always go to the park and make fun of rollerbladers.

This sentence is in simple present, because we have "always" and we have the verb "go".

If I wanted to make that past, I would say,

"We would always go to the park and make fun

of rollerbladers."

This past tense of the verb "will", "would",

the auxiliary verb, is indicating to me that

it's something that we did in the past as kind of a hobby.

It's my hobby to do that.

We can talk about people's jobs.

I can say, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know, Kelly.

She is an undertaker."

So, when we talk about people's occupations or their jobs, we use the verb "to be", and

again in the past, "Oh, yeah, yeah, she was an undertaker."

So, why would we use the past tense to speak about people like this?

What's happening?

There are two reasons.

One of them is maybe the person has died, or the person's dead to you.

Maybe the person you're speaking to is talking

about an ex-boyfriend or an ex-girlfriend

or an ex-friend.

So, if I'm having a conversation with someone

and they said, "Oh my god, Kevin was such

an asshole", hmm, this has two things that are going to happen in my brain.

Either Kevin's dead, or we no longer talk to Kevin, and he's still an asshole, maybe,

but the relationship with the speaker has changed.

Let's look at this example.

"Oh, we would always go to the park and make fun of rollerbladers."

We're reminiscing or thinking about things in

the past that we would do with this person.

Maybe this is a good thing about a past relationship.

"Oh, my ex and I, you know, we broke up, we would always go to the park, it was great."

So, when people are using the past tense to

speak about someone, those are the two reasons.

"She was an undertaker."

Now, she could be retired, or she could be

dead, or, you know, your ex-girlfriend could

have been into that stuff and been an undertaker.

Another thing that we use in English to talk

about habits, like "would", is we use "used to".

"Oh, you know what?

You know, we used to go to the cemetery."

So, I'm talking about things that we did habitually,

things that we did together on a regular basis.

And in English, again, I use the simple present.

We go to the graveyard.

This tells me...

And by the way, "graveyard" and "cemetery", not very different.

Oh, hey, Trevor.

What are you doing there, buddy?

He's the keeper of the graveyard and the cemetery.

We go to the graveyard, something you do on a regular basis.

Every Tuesday, we go to the cemetery and we run.

Or every Friday, we go to the graveyard and we check out the birds.

We go birdwatching in the cemetery, see some crows.

But if people are using the past tense, you're

going to have to be careful, especially if

the person's dead.

It's very important to read your audience.

If someone's like, "Oh, okay, um, tell me about your family.

Okay, tell me about your dad.

Uh, yeah, he was really cool."

Uh-oh, he was cool.

What happened to him?

Is he not cool anymore?

He's probably dead.

So be very careful with this.

You don't want to trigger someone or make them

feel depressed or sad about what's happened.

We also have some very interesting vocabulary

that could be confusing if you didn't know

how to talk about dead people, not exes.

"Exes", by the way, means past boyfriends or girlfriends.

We just say "exes".

You could say "someone passed away" or "someone passed", and you think...

Did they pass a test?

Did they pass you on the street?

This means that they're dead.

So these are some different phrases that people use.

It's kind of rude to say, "Oh yeah, he's dead."

So, people try and use more polite phrases.

You might hear someone say, "Oh yeah, we lost him last year."

Well, did you find him?

Where did he go?

If someone says, "We lost someone", again, that means that the person's dead.

More formally, "She's no longer with us."

And then you think, well, where is she?

Is she with someone else?

If someone's no longer with us, again, it means they're dead.

We have some slang.

It's okay to joke with your friends, but make

sure your friends aren't going through a death

when you're doing this.

First word is "croaked", like a frog.

I don't know why.

It's the sound that frogs make, by the way.

So, "Oh yeah, the old man croaked yesterday."

Just means he died.

Here's a really common one.

"He kicked the bucket."

Well, I don't know why that represents death.

I've got some homework, or you've got some homework.

In the comments, look these expressions up

and tell me why in English we say "he kicked

the bucket", because he's dead.

So, if he's dead, you can't kick a bucket, figure this out.

And there's one, "He dropped dead."

This has the suggestion that the person died

suddenly, like, oh yeah, he was just jogging

and he dropped dead.

It's really strange the amount of people who

are really fit, really healthy, and they're

jogging and they die.

Yeah, don't jog.

Run fast or walk, but just don't jog, because you might pass out.

And that's another thing.

"Pass out", be careful, and "pass away".

You don't say, "Oh yeah, my grandmother passed out last night."

"Pass out" means you lose consciousness,

but "passed away" means that you died, so...

I know English is difficult, I know we've

got these phrasal verbs, but one thing that's

really important when you're speaking to people,

pay attention and try and use the past tense

naturally using expressions like "he was", "we would always do this", "we used to" to

talk about habits, and make sure that when

you're listening to people, if they're using

the person in the past tense, that you focus

on why they're doing this, like, oh, okay,

I remember Ronnie's lesson, it's either an

ex or a dead person, so be careful, but have

And for your homework, check out these expressions,

and don't forget to visit your local graveyard.

I'll be there, too, with Trevor, yeah, we'll

be hanging out, you know, taking autographs

and stuff, and maybe you can give me some popsicles when you're there, but...

Or money, you know.

I'm Ronnie, and I hope that all your days are wonderful.