mmmEnglish Lesson: Telling Stories in English with the Past Perfect

Introduction

• Speaker: Emma from mmmEnglish
• Focus: Language needed to tell stories in English using the past perfect tense.
• Includes pronunciation practice and a mini quiz.

Importance of the Past Perfect Tense

• Used to talk about the past, specifically when describing two past events where one happened before the other.
• Helps order actions chronologically in a story.
• Example: "I had just stepped outside when it started to rain."
  • Two actions: stepped outside, started to rain.
  • Past perfect indicates the first action (stepped outside).

Examples and Practice

• "She had just finished her exam when the timer went off."
  • Exam finished before the timer.
• "I couldn't go out for dinner because I had left my wallet at home."
  • Wallet left at home before the dinner invite.
• "He had mentioned feeling sick, but then they were surprised when he suddenly fainted."
  • Mentioned sickness before fainting.

Creating Past Perfect Sentences

• Structure: Auxiliary verb 'had' + main verb in past participle form.
• Examples revisited:
  • "She had just finished her exam."
  • "I had left my wallet at home."

Pronunciation Tips

• Contractions make speech sound natural and relaxed.
• Common contractions:
  • I'd (I had)
  • You'd (You had)
  • She'd (She had)
  • It'd (It had)
  • Not in negative sentences, e.g., I hadn't (I had not).
• Contractions like 'I'd' are shared with 'I would,' context matters.

Usage in Stories

• Involves more than one event or action.
• First event: Past perfect; Second event: Past simple.
• Order of events in a sentence can vary, tenses indicate sequence.
• Example: "I had just smelled smoke when the fire alarm went off."

Role of Adverbs

• Adverbs like 'just', 'really', 'already' often used in past perfect.
• Structure: Had + adverb + past participle.
• Examples:
  • "Had just finished"
  • "Had really tried"
  • "Had already eaten"

Common Mistakes

• Incorrect use of present perfect with 'when' and past simple.
• Always use 'had' with past participle in past perfect, even with plural subjects.

Practice and Quiz

• Emma provides a quiz to practice past perfect sentence construction.
• Example events:
  • First: "We heard a strange noise." Second: "The lights went out."
  • Model sentence: "We had just heard a strange noise when the lights went out."

Additional Challenge

• Write a short story about a past misadventure using past perfect.
• Aim: Use three examples of the past perfect.
• Misadventure: a story where something went wrong (e.g., missing a bus, getting rained on).

Conclusion

• Encouragement to practice and subscribe for more lessons.
• Invitation to share the lesson with others who need grammar practice.
• Thanks for participation and engagement.